BREAKING: Warner Bros. Games is shutting down Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB San Diego, sources tell Bloomberg News.
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Games are doing fine overall. But I wouldn't want to be working for a mega corp these days. Well, I already didn't want that actually.
Going on a little tangent here, but it made me think: how could someone start studying now to become, say, a game dev when in some years everything could go belly up because of these mega corps shitty moves? How could they in good faith spend time and money to develop skills for such an uncertain future?
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I didn't like it because it seemed pointless if you don't really care about getting vengeance on specific thing. So the name of a mob that kills you fills in an empty space? Which is the same thing that happens any time you hit a story beat anyways? What's the point? It's all just randomly generated grunts that try and kill you.
It brought very little in the way of innovative gameplay and roleplaying, yet people seem to treat it as the greatest revolution of game design in the last several decades.
I love proc gen stuff for how it can make each playthrough feel different or even just make yours feel different from your friend's. I appreciated that the enemy would remember how you defeated them in particular, because it called out those unique events. I also don't know that there are a ton of settings where this mechanic makes sense outside of the two it appeared in already, so I won't miss it too badly.
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I really hope these teams are able to stay together. Monolith was absolutely getting wasted by Warner Bros. Games, they're way too good a studio to get stuck making brand tie-ins. Just more dogshit mismanagement from Zaslav though, Warner Bros keeps seeing flops but won't address the problem.
Are any of the old F.E.A.R. or Condemned developers still at Monolith?
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Games are doing fine for now, but how much longer will devs and artists continue being treated like disposable tissue before we see the talent pool implode? It doesn't seem to matter what game is built, how well it performs, if it's single player or live service - the layoffs and closures come for everyone.
All the best games of the last 10 years have been built and published by teams smaller than 20 people.
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Warner Bros. is also canceling the Wonder Woman game.
This is maybe the biggest bloodbath we've seen in this industry? What a damn shame.
29 years later, after working with Monolith on one of the worst projects in history... I can finally piss on their grave. Fuck you Matt, fuck Monolith. Yeah this is fucking personal.
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29 years later, after working with Monolith on one of the worst projects in history... I can finally piss on their grave. Fuck you Matt, fuck Monolith. Yeah this is fucking personal.
What happened?
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Going on a little tangent here, but it made me think: how could someone start studying now to become, say, a game dev when in some years everything could go belly up because of these mega corps shitty moves? How could they in good faith spend time and money to develop skills for such an uncertain future?
Indie. That's how.
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Games are doing fine for now, but how much longer will devs and artists continue being treated like disposable tissue before we see the talent pool implode? It doesn't seem to matter what game is built, how well it performs, if it's single player or live service - the layoffs and closures come for everyone.
There are plenty of countries with better worker rights in which to set up shop as well.
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Even if they can't get the rights, it's not like there's anything stopping them from making a new original "boomer shooter." I don't need it to be called Blood 2, I just want them to make something high-octane and kickass again.
There was a Blood 2 and it sucked, you have a good point
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What happened?
They were contracted to design the API for our new Internet-enabled touchscreen gaming network kiosks (world first at the time) and they were fucking useless. And then had the gall to present the piece of shit at the CGDG 1997, as a half-finished completely non-functional, but presented it like it was their own product and not a massive NDA violation. Presented like their own product which could be generically extended to other platforms. Fuck you Matt. Fuck you Monolith you fucking cunts.
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They were contracted to design the API for our new Internet-enabled touchscreen gaming network kiosks (world first at the time) and they were fucking useless. And then had the gall to present the piece of shit at the CGDG 1997, as a half-finished completely non-functional, but presented it like it was their own product and not a massive NDA violation. Presented like their own product which could be generically extended to other platforms. Fuck you Matt. Fuck you Monolith you fucking cunts.
I'm still not getting why the level of hate here?
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There are plenty of countries with better worker rights in which to set up shop as well.
Ubisoft is french and... ugh no
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I'm still not getting why the level of hate here?
You pay someone to do X with a contract; they
- take your money
- not do X
- instead show the idea of X, which is yours, as THEIR product, which doesn't even work
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- voliating non-disclosure agreements in your contract
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- doing untold damage to your business plans
Yeah, I don't know about anything else, but fuck Matt with a cactus.
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They were contracted to design the API for our new Internet-enabled touchscreen gaming network kiosks (world first at the time) and they were fucking useless. And then had the gall to present the piece of shit at the CGDG 1997, as a half-finished completely non-functional, but presented it like it was their own product and not a massive NDA violation. Presented like their own product which could be generically extended to other platforms. Fuck you Matt. Fuck you Monolith you fucking cunts.
It sounds like your company could have sued them into oblivion. It's a violated a non-disclosure agreement that should be the end of their company.
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Warner Bros. is also canceling the Wonder Woman game.
This is maybe the biggest bloodbath we've seen in this industry? What a damn shame.
Big money first bloated up the industry and is now scooping it out from the inside until it collapses. Well, AAA and AA gaming anyways. I‘ve noticed I‘ve been playing smaller indie games for the most part in the last decade and I know why. It‘s not so much a deliberate choice but simply where quality has been shifting.
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You pay someone to do X with a contract; they
- take your money
- not do X
- instead show the idea of X, which is yours, as THEIR product, which doesn't even work
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- voliating non-disclosure agreements in your contract
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- doing untold damage to your business plans
Yeah, I don't know about anything else, but fuck Matt with a cactus.
Stories like these sound wild to most people but sadly they happen all the time. It‘s literally how Google got this big. Still makes me mad how they robbed and trolled Terravision out of their code now known as Google Earth. Not like it‘s a flagship for Google or money maker but they still literally stole the code via hard drive like they stole from so many others. The tech world is full of absolute asshats leeching off of the most talented. It‘s very evident in today‘s tech culture full of crypto, AI and whatnot.
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It sounds like your company could have sued them into oblivion. It's a violated a non-disclosure agreement that should be the end of their company.
Such naïvety
Sorry bro -
Stories like these sound wild to most people but sadly they happen all the time. It‘s literally how Google got this big. Still makes me mad how they robbed and trolled Terravision out of their code now known as Google Earth. Not like it‘s a flagship for Google or money maker but they still literally stole the code via hard drive like they stole from so many others. The tech world is full of absolute asshats leeching off of the most talented. It‘s very evident in today‘s tech culture full of crypto, AI and whatnot.
I'll tell you a secret. And this is coming from somebody that was at the top-top Top of the gaming world for 2 decades... 95% of tech people are complete frauds and charlatans. Its a miracle anything ever gets made. Look at today's coders... they don't even know what a computer does, they just download other people's modules, cobble them together and pray. The vast majority of people who self-identify as being in "comp sci" don't even understand the very basics.
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All the best games of the last 10 years have been built and published by teams smaller than 20 people.
There were some AAA standouts, like Baulder Gate 3 and Hogworts Legacy, that did very well. It is possible if the company focuses on producing a fun user experience.
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I have the exact opposite opinion of procedurally generated continuity (because I play for the gameplay and that stuff keeps the game going well after the story ends), but share the same opinion of Warner Bros.
The Problem is... I Love The fucking Gameplay, this together with the Nemesis System was super addictive to me.
