https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2024/05/09/wb-blames-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league-for-quarterly-miss/?sh=4b5a1011ba87
WB Discovery CEO just said on an earnings call this morning that contributing to losses in the company’s financials was the “disappointing release of Suicide Squad,”
“Hmmm. People didn’t like this game. Quick. Let’s make another live service game.”
"Hogwarts Legacy did spectacularly... so obviously we should u-turn and do the exact opposite".
How do these people get into these positions? Fuck I bet I could lead their games division better than them.
Step 1? Fucking more DLC for Hogwarts Legacy, that game should be printing money for them.
Step 2? New Lord of the Rings MMO. Jesus how is this not being done, ESO is ageing, people would just give money to something like this.
There, two ideas that would literally make millions. Can I have a yacht now please?
Good old fashioned nepotism. People generally get into executive roles because of who they know, not anything they've done. Don't get me wrong, you need some minimum level of demonstrated competency, but these aren't rocket scientists we're talking about. They are people who managed to finish an MBA without shitting themselves and then did time at some excel jockey jobs before shaking hands with the right person.
The reality is that actual good ideas are often threatening to the people currently in charge because it makes them look bad. Thinking outside the box is thumbing your nose at "what we know works." It's "rocking the boat" but what that really means is "wait your turn pleb."
The thing with live services is, they take so much of the user's time that there can only be a handful of successful live service games at a time. So any company that thinks that they can just push out a live service game and make tons of money is mistaken. Of course, any CEO who doesn't want to make live service games will need to explain to their shareholders why not. Easy explanation when you're a small company, as they can just say that they don't have the manpower needed. But a big company doesn't have that excuse.
Critical Drinker just bitches about things being woke now. Dude probably has the most banal takes on YouTube.
This game sucks, but critical drinker sucks harder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y50b8yo9SHU
There you can compare takes an quality. Dude Suicide squad is not even compromising with "wokeness" in any fucking way IMO, WB never wanted to go woke they are compromising with stock and make it go up. WB said clearly they wanted a live service game to reap more money and that they'll gonna keep doing live service games.
Spoiler alert
::: spoiler spoiler
Harley shoots Batman in the fukken face with a death cold stare. How the shitting fuck that's woke?
:::
Honestly as a marvel fan I'm down to kill the justice league but not to put 10% my salary every month to do so.
No he's got several great points.
Sweet Baby Inc is trash, every game they've touched is a dumpster fire.
The things he points out makes it pretty clear that they use inclusivity and "wokeness" to mask how talentless they are, which is actually pretty common throughout the gaming industry these days. Not just the gaming industry either, the Harley Quinn show was a checklist of 'woke' talking points (and trash, another good example is Velma although Velma was pretty mask off in their biases).
Case in point, Hades 2. We go from male protagonist Zagreus in the first game, to female protagonist Melinoë in the second. Guess what? Not a single time am I found questioning the validity of the writing because it's actually good and doesn't hinge on echo chamber synchronization.
Idk, I think he probably hinges on 'the message' too hard but he isn't wrong.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=Y50b8yo9SHU
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
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But it is one of the reasons these games fail. The live service battle pass shit too, of course, but not all of them have it. And I think he's absolutely right in his video.
The game failed because it was a shitty live service skinnerbox that barely had actual gameplay.
'Woke' didn't factor into anyones decision to avoid this game. But if critical drinker didn't talk about things being woke, he wouldn't have a channel.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=oLYKSRUCMAM
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.