It's a huge risk to make a game with a hardly improved engine (in which is more or less rivaled by MGSV, a cross-gen title), predictable single-player gameplay, and a cookie-cutter multiplayer that has long been surpassed by its peers.
People get sick of it.
Those who played COD4 (like me) have outgrown this series, and maintaining the same product in an age where information moves across the world in an instant is a recipe for stagnation, if not a death sentence.
The amount of disconnect that these companies have with their fanbase is so ridiculously jarring that we can't help but wonder what kind of people they're surrounded by all day. This is only the consequence of having "yes" men tell you exactly what you want to hear, meeting sales quotas, and relying on a (mostly young) customer base that is prone to the coke hit of instant stimulation.
When this series dies, I hope these companies go with it. They're too large and have sustained far too much momentum to have innovative intelligence. It's hard for anyone to respect Activision or EA.
I think most who aren't comfortable with the changes didn't get their hands on Peace Walker, in which the "formula" for Metal Gear was altered.
One of the true hallmarks of the MGS series is the ever-evolving gameplay, expanding accordingly as hardware improves. And as such, MGSV is looking to completely ditch the relative linearity that the games are known for.
This is actually a good thing. As a series that has championed the stealth genre, Metal Gear might just show the industry how to do CORRECT stealth in an open-world environment. There are no more barriers, no more separated areas that will diminish the Alert phase, so new gameplay mechanics must be implemented to accompany these changes.
People might say that the "slow-motion" is tacky and not necessary (including myself to some extent) but when I saw the daytime gameplay, I was floored because the Alerts were BASE-WIDE, meaning that in order to escape, Big Boss would have to drive/run for miles and evade the entire military force in pursuit.
I think in that context, people will find this game to be FAR MORE difficult than previously before. I predict there will be much bawling over the difficulty of the missions in this game (once again, including myself). People are going to get spotted left and right and they'll be forced to find approaches that will work for them.
That sounds way better than what has come before. This is why I'm excited for this game. It'll surpass GTAV in the missions department because players will have greater control over the variables.
Although there's probably more to this story, the purpose for his firing might lie in the creative process itself.
As games get bigger, they demand to become more powerful in their creative scope. I would imagine that the rise of project leaders requiring more autonomy in their execution correlates with this.
Simply put: directors are becoming more powerful. Publishers are not.
The gaming industry is largely held back because publishers are unwilling to relinquish more creative power to their developers. While they take in more money for bigger franchises, they fail to take bigger risks, which in turn runs down those franchises (Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty). It's an archaic, fearful way of doing business, and inherently greedy.
This, of course, leads to instances of people like Patrice being fired. Because creators worth their salt will need more money, and they might take the series in fresh directions. It's evident in the trajectory of Assassin's Creed after his departure (AC2).
@R3NeGaDeAnGeL Hahaha, these old publishers desperately hoping to keep their stranglehold on the industry are going to DIE. The future is coming and they're too slow to catch on. They will melt from the inside out, and it starts with their franchises.
Haha I'm sure quality to Mallat is "take what has sold in the past and rehash it and put a different skin on it."
Making great creative work isn't just selling a tweaked product every year to generate a recurring revenue for the investors.
Big house publishers like Ubisoft are going to be relics of the past because they're literally killing their AAA franchises. They should look to Rockstar and Kojima Productions on how to really make games that will be worth the sell, because each of their franchises has a sense of PROGRESSION. Each new game in GTA or MGS usually has more than a few new ideas being implemented. That is the trajectory of creative work, and that is the future.
This is why INDIE GAMES have been so successful in the past year. The old, big business, short-term money type of model is going to wash out and die, and Ubisoft, EA, and Activision along with it.
So I take this article as good news. Ubisoft has started shoveling (not that they haven't already) their own grave.
@analogjunkie24 Dude, it seems like you're really bitter that Kojima has such diehard fans and you can't seem to contribute positively. I don't think it's really helpful for your mental health that you spread toxic, repulsive emotions in places like this; it's attention-seeking and generally makes your everyday life pretty crappy.
I understand you have opinions, and that you wish to have others respect your opinions, but it's inherently stupid and socially counterintuitive to have such a strong negative reaction to people's excitement. I understand that it may strengthen your individuality, but this behavior actually signifies how weak your reality really is.
If people's excitement about a game bothers you so much that you must negatively comment on it, then it says so much more about you, and the way you do things in your life, and how others perceive you. It defines your past and your future as someone who is routinely bothered by this stuff.
Didn't think you were trolling with your post, so I decided to give you a heads up. Hope you get it together man.
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