248

Cities: Skylines 2 devs warn players of performance problems: 'we have not achieved the benchmark we targeted' (www.pcgamer.com)

submitted 1 year ago by Goronmon@kbin.social to c/games@lemmy.world

36 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Ahead of the city builder's release on October 24, the devs want to "manage expectations on performance."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Aielman15@lemmy.world 115 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm kind of used to devs releasing apologies for their games after a bad release and the following review bombing. It's almost guaranteed to happen for any modern AAA game, it's the sorry state of the industry. But now, we've reached a point where devs apologize for their games before they're even released. This shit is hilarious.

What's next? "We're going to release a game four years from now. You should temper your expectations, it's probably going to suck."

I mean, kudos to them for warning the potential customers, instead of lying to them or luring them in with nice trailers and trying to silence journalists by prohibiting them from showing game footage (I think I remember someone doing that...). Although I'm not sure how I should thank them. Should I buy the game because they were honest? Or should I not buy it, because, well, they were honest? I'm confused.

[-] jedibob5@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago

I mean, I think it just demonstrates that the problem is not on a development level, but rather on a project management and (particularly) an executive level.

Crunch and unreasonable deadlines in the gaming industry are the norm, and there's too much pressure from higher up to deliver a product as soon as possible, even if it isn't 100% ready.

Unfortunately, there's no real good answer for this as a consumer... If the game does well, the execs who set the deadlines pocket the profits. If it does poorly, the developers who worked on it bear the brunt of it by either getting insufficient raises, an even higher level of pressure on the next game, or at worst, get laid off.

The real answer would be widespread industry unionization. Efforts to do this are ever-so-slowly being made, but it's not even remotely close to being a reality. I'd say that if the game appeals to you and you don't mind performance issues at launch, buy it, but if not, then don't.

[-] Korkki@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

problem is not on a development level, but rather on a project management and (particularly) an executive level.

In any industry as time progresses the production becomes more and more capital intensive and that needs more and bigger investors and all that capital means that there is a bigger risk and that is mitigated by the investors by requiring "their guys" to staff the management and these people are unusually really bad for the technical and actual value side of the business on the long run, because they are usually people with financial or marketing backgrounds. They fundamentally work by the logic of profit maximization and there are always easier and more surefire ways toi achieve that than with supplying a good product. It's even worse when the end product is something that could be considered "art". In AAA it all eventually leads into pushing bland installments under rushed deadlines for the same once successful franchise out one after another, just because that is where the risks are lowest and money is still being made.

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] AProfessional@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

It’s possible some machines power through it. Just don’t preorder it and wait until you know it will work for you.

[-] llii@feddit.de 12 points 1 year ago

Should I buy the game because they were honest? Or should I not buy it, because, well, they were honest? I’m confused.

Wait for the release and reviews. Then decide if you want to buy the game or not.

[-] DancingIsForbidden@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

the game will be optimized eventually. if you want to wait until then, do so. me, I just want to play this. I don't care I've been waiting a long time for this game, and I have a very powerful desktop PC so I don't really care.

I am upset they do not have a native Linux build this time around, however. And I don't care that proton has gotten good, a game like this needs to run natively to get the full experience. The first one did and Unity makes it trivially simple to export builds to other operating systems.