The trade goes by a little bit of a tough spot in the meanwhile, with outstanding studios like Monolith Productions and Arkane Austin being shut over the previous 12 months and much more going through layoffs, like Bungie and Rocksteady. Even a recreation as monumentally profitable as Marvel Rivals ended up with layoffs to its US employees. Many are hoping that the discharge of GTA 6 will result in the gaming market rising once more and assist get individuals again into trade jobs. Whereas not concerned within the upcoming recreation, Rockstar veteran Leslie Benzies has his personal recommendation for the trade.
Benzies – who’s now engaged on the upcoming shooter MindsEye together with his studio Construct a Rocket Boy – spoke to Edge Journal in concern 409. In the course of the interview he talked about why he thinks the trade is in such a precarious place, saying, “There aren’t any extra hours within the day, there aren’t any extra people rising that play video video games, so there is a finite person base. There are such a lot of video games, and I believe we’re beginning to really feel the results of that over the previous 12 months or so, in closures and layoffs.” Whereas figures like Steam doubling in measurement since 2020 possibly refute the declare that there are “no extra people rising that play video video games,” Benzies is true that there are extra video games than ever attempting to take consideration away from gamers, with some like Fortnite having countless quantities for gamers to do.
Benzies supplied his recommendation on what studios ought to be doing within the wake of every little thing, saying, “Nowadays, it’s important to have a look at your analytics. You have to see what individuals wish to play… I believe we as an trade must get smarter, to know, ‘Will individuals really wish to play this?'” In fact, not everybody feels the identical means. Helldivers 2 boss Johan Pilestedt not too long ago mentioned, “”Plenty of publishers attempt to play it protected by taking protected bets, however one factor that is assured is these protected bets are a demise sentence,” and urged studios, “Do not copy others, as an alternative, take into consideration what you wish to make and take a raffle on it.”
Nonetheless, Benzies did say that experimentation is a pure factor: “we would go off on a tangent that individuals don’t need.” However added, “This is likely one of the advantages of Arcadia [Build a Rocket Boy’s user-generated content systems]. We will construct small, virtually take a look at ranges, spend one million quid constructing one thing, and if it will get good engagement, we’ll go construct a correct manufacturing of it.”
