this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
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Lies of P: Overture devs actually rewarded for making a solid DLC in rare industry W: Getting a bonus, 2 weeks vacation, and a free Switch 2 (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

What should be the norm then?

If we’re going to criticize the way things are done, one has to offer an alternative that is better.

Btw I’m not saying that the current way is necessarily the best way.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Believe it or not, but you can actually criticize a business practice without solving all the problems in the world.

That said? Less of a focus on widespread acquisitions and immediate profits and more on realizing how many games have long tails and how the profits from a game that company (so not even studio) released five years ago can still fund development. Also, much more transparency in game development and regular credits updates so that people don't have a giant five year blank spot on their CV that will never get filled in unless they crunch for six months to make sure they were employed a day before release.

And actual salaries and not "incentives".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I mean if you think a system doesn’t work well it’s because you are able to identify why it isn’t working well and can visualize somewhat of an alternative. If that isn’t the case then you cannot be fully sure that there is a better way to do things, and maybe the system is working as well as it can be given the environment the system needs to operate in.

I’m not a dev myself so I can’t speak too much about the pov of being a worker in the industry and the issues you describe with credits. But from a management perspective the problem is that it is simply not possible to accurately predict which games will have a long tail. So if you plan for a long tail and the game isn’t received as well as you expected, what happens then? The game makes a loss. The studio might need to close because they overcommitted resources to the project etc. it’s much safer to assume that all the sales will happen in the first 6 months and forecast for that, and if the game turns out to be more successful than expected then that’s free money basically from a planning POV.

The intention of live service games is pretty much that, creating games that will purposefully and predictably have long tails, but the problem is that even if a game is designed to have a long tail it doesn’t mean that it will find an audience that will give it the momentum needed in the first place.

As for bonuses being tied to reviews or sales, they both have pros and cons. Maybe it should be a little bit of both, because well received game might make lackluster sales while a badly received game might make crazy sales numbers (most AAA games).

As for getting review bombed or getting panned by influencers. That is always a risk in every industry. I find that most games get the reception they deserve, For example a lot of people want to frame the latest Dragon Age for flopping because of chuds, but that is not in fact the case, because those same chuds probably sunk hundreds of of hours into BG3 which is by all chud metrics also a “woke” game. So the problem, very often is the quality of the game. Chuds are more than willing to put up with politics they don’t like in games when the game is objectively (subjective to the expectations of the intended audience) good.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago (1 children)

But from a management perspective

Of course this model fucking benefits the managers. They aren't tied to those incentives. They get to keep their jobs when some assclown wears a "dark maga" hat to the keighelys and the game craters.

And.... fuck the managers. They are already doing great.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

I mean you could make a studio where there is no manager (how does that work I’m not sure) and you’d still need to make financial forecasting if you want the studio to be an entity that continues to exist. Like I don’t understand your logic here, the only other alternative is to make everyone’s salary contingent to sales and then the pie is divided evenly like in a coop model but that means a lot more of the financial risk is shouldered by the devs and you probably don’t get paid until the game releases.

Like what is a proper alternative that: a) pays you a salary while the game is being developed b) accounts for the risk inherent with not knowing the future?