Comment on The Way Forward, an update from the team behind Cities: Skylines
nekusoul@lemmy.nekusoul.de 2 months ago
They’ve basically perfected keeping the community mostly happy by toeing the line between putting out solid base games and putting out greedy DLC.
What we’re now seeing is what happens when you don’t immediately change course after you skimp on making a good base game.
Ashtear@lemm.ee 2 months ago
It’s all sheer greed, too. Paradox has fully embraced the model of releasing sequels with less content than their DLC-enhanced previous games after 2K showed the market had tolerance for it with Civilization. Considering how that already puts them ahead of the curve, it’s amazing that Paradox let this game come out in this state.
SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
To be fair, I don’t expect the sequel’s base game to have more content than the previous game with all its DLCs, but I do expect the base game to have at least as much content as the previous game’s base game.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That doesn’t make it sheer greed; it’s what’s feasible to develop. A systems driven game like a city builder or a 4X game mean that you can’t just drag and drop old content in the new systems and expect it to work and look cohesive. Every fighting game launches with fewer characters than the previous version, and it’s not because it’s some conspiracy to delay dropping the SFV characters in SF6; it’s because swapping out the V system for the Drive system is a massive change, and the old characters take a lot of work to port over. Even the art style in Civ 6 is very different from Civ V. When you try to just copy and paste content between two different styles of art direction, you end up with nightmare fuel Chun-Li in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite.
Ashtear@lemm.ee 2 months ago
The base game having less content than its predecessor isn’t the greedy part. It’s the fact that taking advantage of that market inelasticity wasn’t enough for Paradox and judging it acceptable to release a product in this state on top of that.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It’s the kind of decision you make when you run out of cash to keep funding development.
TwanHE@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Save for Smash Ultimate
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Sure, but that was iterative, like Super Street Fighter II Turbo, as opposed to making Street Fighter III. Wherever they go with Smash from here, it will involve a systems rework and fewer characters.