Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "WHY ARE TRIPLE A GAMES NOWADAYS SO POORLY OPTIMIZED!?"

Episode Date: May 8, 2023

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/AnalyticIt's important to note that the perception of game development quality can vary from person to person, and not all AAA games are poorly developed. However, there are a few factors that might contribute to the perception that some AAA games are not as well developed compared to the past:Increased complexity: Modern AAA games are often more complex than their predecessors, featuring expansive open worlds, advanced graphics, intricate gameplay mechanics, and online multiplayer components. Developing such complex games can be challenging and time-consuming, which can lead to technical issues and bugs.Tight development schedules: The demand for AAA games is high, and publishers often set strict deadlines to ensure timely releases and maximize profits. This can put pressure on development teams to rush the process, leading to cut corners and potential quality issues.Size of development teams: AAA game development now typically involves large teams of developers, artists, designers, and other professionals. Coordinating and managing such large teams can be a complex task, and miscommunication or lack of coordination can impact the overall quality of the game.Increased focus on monetization: The gaming industry has seen a shift towards monetization models such as microtransactions and downloadable content (DLC). Some critics argue that this focus on generating additional revenue can lead to design choices that prioritize monetization over gameplay quality.Accessibility to development tools: With the rise of indie game development and accessible game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine, more games are being released across a wider range of budgets and development scales. This can create a perception that some AAA games are poorly developed compared to smaller, more focused indie titles.It's worth noting that not all AAA games suffer from these issues, and many still provide high-quality experiences. However, the increased complexity and scale of modern AAA game development can make it more challenging to deliver a polished product consistently.Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Time to answer the question that comes up time and time again from avid gamers. Why does AAA games nowadays take so long to come out but feel so poorly optimized slash incomplete? Now this is a fantastic question because nowadays when all of these games are coming out broken, unfinished with the price tag of $70 you can understand why gamers are starting to get upset going from $60 to $70

just to give us a worst product would not sit right with anybody imagine Disney Netflix raising the price of subscriptions but then they was like hey for our future titles they're going to be a little bit

laggy they may not work at times hey our host site may just crash all together. You probably wouldn't enjoy the Netflix or Disney subscription, or you'll probably end up canceling it, which is what Xbox is facing right now, because I've heard, and obviously I'm no insider, but you know, I do pay attention to the gaming industry. A lot of people are regretting buying an Xbox, especially with the release of Redfall. I think that's what the game was called, a Redfield, Redfall.

I think it's called Redfall. But basically, that game is a buggy mess, and it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, you. exclusively to Xbox users. So I bring up this question to basically break down why certain games run the way they do on console compared to PC. Now, in turn, to put it in layness terms, games are very, very complex to develop. Like, me just saying that doesn't do it justice. It's very, very hard to code a video game. Now, have I ever coded a video game?

No, but I've watched documentaries. I've watched a plethora of videos. The type of just going through my rolodex of just patterns that developers use to develop games. I mean, we're talking about thousands of thousands lines of code. It ends up bringing like 10 to 20 million lines of codes. and you have less than like a tenth of that to create error because the whole thing would just throw it away. And obviously, the way I'm talking about it is very much from a perspective

of somebody who's never coded before, but I do recognize the way, it's kind of like watching a basketball player. Like, he practices, he shoots, he makes it, he misses, but you do know they practice and put in a lot of work to even get to that stage. Game developers, even when they've released a buggy mess, probably took a lot of steps to build the game to what it is today, even if it's a mess.

So if it's poorly optimized, what you have to look at is it's easier to make games and develop games on console versus PC. And I say easier is probably the worst word to use. But just know that developing a game for a console is a set, consoles or a set piece of hardware. And if you develop games for a PC,

there's so many different interchangeable parts for a PC when you're building it and even after it's built. You can upgrade it by changing a certain part and you can upgrade your graphics card, there's different rigs for your PC. You want to water cooled or you want it a different type of There's so many different ways to build a PC. There's only one set for console.

So everybody has the same capabilities when it comes to console. You're working with a whole plethora of complex, different combinations and experiments when you come to PC. Now, does that excuse people for asking for a $70 price tag off the bat if the game is broken? Of course not. But basically, I'm just saying it because it's harder to develop games for PC than it is for console, which is why we're seeing a lot of people just stray away from even announcing a PC release date if they're not even close to making the concert release date stable. So anyways, it's rare to hear about a game five plus years away for that very reason.

You don't want to put too much pressure on the developers into thinking they have to come up with a masterpiece either five years or versus compared to less than two months. Like both of those depending on the size of the game, like if you're making the GTA, a Skyrim, a Witcher, it's going to take a while to develop. Obviously, if it's a sequel, you can use some previous assets that makes the process faster. But then your fan base is going to want different improvements, which is going to cause a whole new month, well, months of development to implement. So you can only put so many assets from the previous. game and to somebody's like, well, why are you asking for another $70 price tag? You know?

Anyways. What else? It was something else I wanted to get into. Wouldn't ever found it. I think it was something else I had. Okay. So basically, So,

So, it's probably the best example I can give of a game being completely broken at launch. I mean, can't even, like, so bad Sony came out themselves, the company, and took the game off of the online

a PS store because it was just completely unplayable and it was still up to purchase like if a game's broken you would think the publishers would take it down but Sony doing their due diligence because it was probably looking bad on their them because everybody was asking for refunds if you don't know if you buy a digital copy I'm pretty sure you can't get a refund after a certain amount of time so Sony was running into a lot of problems because the game was literally unplayable but basically there's different factors and variables. Devs push their games to certain benchmarks, but on other pieces of hardware,

they have to lower the graphics, they have to lower the frame rate. That's why everybody's like, oh, you're playing on console. We know you're playing at 30 frames per second versus PC, where you can probably push to the most intense graphics,

which is like 60 frames per second and even more. So it's a very different play style when it comes to console and PC. Usually PC is way more advanced, even nowadays, which goes back to the experimental part, whereas a lot of different interchangeable pieces where console is a set piece of hardware, and that's why games at this point comes out unfinished.

Because with the evolution and technology, it gets even harder and harder to develop a game. I wonder if I had another point. I think that was basically my last point. I'm trying to make sure, though, because I want everybody to, like, get a clear picture of why games are coming out broken. Because a lot of games are trying to go to open world route. And with that, comes a lot of what they, if you ever looked at crunch time explained by developers,

you would probably get a good indication of how hard these game developers work to get a game out by the deadline. And let's say, respawn is the developers. Well, you have a publisher, which is EA Entertainment. if they give you a deadline and let's say the game is 50% finish where they're going to tell you well no this is this probably this is how I've heard the conversation went so basically if a game's not finished and they want to put it out at a certain time you ask for more time and if they give you more time they're going to put some extra stipulations as far as the contract and you lose the money and then let's say you have to push you back even more well it's going to get to the point where

you're going to start, it's not going to look as good as your contract if you don't put it out on a certain deadline because they want it at this time. So if you're pushing it back, well, guess what, they're lowering your contract because we paid you for this. You can't do it at this time. Okay, well, now you can't. Well, it's like certain, it's kind of like an NBA. You make the first team all NBA, you get paid more. But let's say you don't even make the team no more. Guess what? You don't get paid at all. So obviously it's not that drastic, but, you know, they lower your pay if that makes sense. So at a certain point, they're like, hey, you want a product here, put this out. But it's, they can't say it's not ready because it's their job to make it ready.

So imagine going to your boss at the deadline be like, hey, man, you can put this out to the public, but hey, that's kind of trash. Like, who's going to say that? Right. So they give it to them at the deadline. Comes out broken. Everybody's mad. And now you get stories like Redfall.

So anyways, click my link to you in my bio. Let me know on one of my social medias. What do you think about the whole landscape of gaming and a lot of games coming out broken and unoptimized? And what do you think is the ultimate? fix