It's expensively polishing a game that few have demanded, just before the next version which should have all this polish drops, and charging them extensively for the privilege. It's not even like they're funnelling people into a sequel that needs to tell at least X amount of copies to turn a profit. But the solution is not to pilfer the pockets of your more loyal customers by snatching a game away from them then making them pay $40 to have it back. It's hard for these studios, and I sympathise. Games are incredibly expensive, made in woefully inefficient ways, and smaller studios feel the need to keep up with the advancements Naughty Dog and Rockstar are able to push forward with unlimited budgets and teams of thousands. Charing $40 is approximately $40 more than the original stated price, which mathematically, works out to be a giant fucking rip-off. To make matters worse, when this remastered version was announced, players were told it would be 'completely free'. You can't even ditch it and jump into the sequel - in which case charging $40 to keep playing a game you already own would still be terrible - because the sequel has been delayed. You are forced to get the remaster if you still want to play, and it's not free. Meanwhile, if you wanted to defend Overwatch (few did), you'd point out that Overwatch 2 was free (as was the original for a while before the sequel launched) and all of your progress, skins, et cetera carried over from the original game to the sequel, although new players were locked out. But if you wanted to defend The Last of Us (plenty did), you'd point out that no one was forcing you to buy the new version. Individually, the latter two were bad enough. Despite Overwatch 2 overhauling a lot of the game, including the major change to team sizes, you can no longer play the original Overwatch as the servers have been turned off. Then there's the server switch off - look no further than Overwatch. How about remastering a game that's still popular and readily available? That's been done too - The Last of Us Part 1 launched at full price, despite the game having already been remade as it jumped from PS3 to PS4, this remake being available for free on PS5 as part of the pack of games able to download on the console, and with few gameplay changes despite having originally alluded to them. A next-gen update is commonplace, but these are usually free, and don't usually require a new purchase. And, to make matters worse, the servers for Survival Evolved are going offline, so the only way to keep playing is to fork out for the remaster.Īrk isn't doing anything new individually, but is piecing a handful of anti-consumer practices together in a uniquely sinister way. Unfortunately, this is not your typical next-gen patch as we've seen previously, but is a completely new game that must be bought separately for the princely sum of $40. Such a strong core of players in fact that it's getting a remaster to bring it up to date, having been rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5 with various quality of life upgrades. The game has been out since 2015 so is showing its age a little, but it still has a decent core of players who regularly log in to ride on the backs of dinosaurs. Related: I Don’t Trust Live-Service Games AnymoreĬurrently, while you're waiting for Ark 2, you can play Ark: Survival Evolved. No, this particular brand of scummy tactics has taken things further than I've yet to see in gaming, and we cannot allow it to become the norm. I do fear that games are becoming too large and too obsessed with pushing technological limits, causing them to take longer to both make and play, making them more expensive to both make and buy, with little quality for the player themselves, but that's not unique to Ark 2 either. Games get delayed, it's just a thing they do. Said sequel was due out this year, but has been delayed to 2024. That's pretty common for live-service games these days, and since Ark has been around for a while and has a single-player campaign, I have no objections to a sequel in and of itself. Ark is getting a sequel, creatively named Ark 2.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |