I worked at 2k when they first started making this game back in 2017 - and I worked in VERY close proximity to the studio making this game.
So bullshit. Its taking so long because take two is run by indecisive, cheap, executives who have pretty much taken the studio that was making it, based in Novato, CA - KILLED IT - and moved almost the entirety of production over to Canada because its cheaper.
Its taking a long time because it takes a long time to kill a team, remake a team, and then restart production from the ground up. Pipelines take years, and in most cases, multiple titles to optimize/streamline. The executives running this show can’t decide what to do with the game and they have already basically killed an entire team in order to reform it in a cheaper country. These are executives that just do not know how to let a team run itself. They are far too hands on and they don’t know shit about actual production.
Take two also basically gutted the other studio they had in Novato, Hangar 13, which was working on a 3rd person action RPG code named VOLT. They worked on that game for around NINE YEARS. Before completely cancelling it. (Does anyone know what its like to work on something for nine years and have absolutely NOTHING to show for it?) But before they cancelled it they layed off the team that was working on it multiple times in order to move Hangar 13 from its primary location of Novato, CA over to, in large part, the czech republic, and UK. Both places substantially cheaper for making games.
The czech republic is actually the boom town of the game industry right now because its so fucking cheap. So many game studios have been made and reformed over there.
And people wonder why so many US game devs are being laid off. Its all executive greed. All of it. – And if you believe this is taking so long solely because of “Quality” - you are kidding yourself.
Fuck. My wife did work with Hanger 13 a while back. Really cool place and good people.
It‘s naive but I‘m not really mad that some of those jobs are in Europe now.
You’ll be happy to know that none of the exec jobs moved over to Europe. They’re still right over there in Novato.
That just means that we know their addresses
Ah, so 2k is like the ship of Theseus. Except they’ve blown up the original one and replaced it with a crude replica.
“we haven’t worked out where to shoehorn the micro-transactions in yet”
It does wound an aweful lot like the whole skate. Situation. We really want to make the best game possible and we really care for customer feedback. Hmm turns out they really didn’t and just try to sell micro transactions
Someone from Take-two leadership said that? Are they ill with something? That’s the most sensible statement i’ve heard from them in ages
statements mean nothing…prove it. I don’t listen to anything any company says, they only lie.
produce non trash, and make it affordable or else I’ll continue to just ignore they exist.
OK when have they produced trash? BioShock rules so wtf is your crusade (which i generally like) doing on this post rn?
Theyre literally talking to the people and they’re like - were taking the time to make the game good last one was good and we want to keep it that way."
So yeah let’s consider the obvious turning of that pendulum (quality and crap being more profitable and thus in a way easier to produce in the system we are stuck with being in)and be reasonably hopeful for a reasonable reason for a change
this probably u rn -> 😒 🤔🤔🤔🤔 😏 -------------> 😩😆
Much love haha 😎
OK when have they produced trash?
Borderlands 3 comes to mind as do both of the Tales from the Borderlands games. There’s been a few misses in the 2K sports line up as well.
Let’s see if they can do a new game without resorting to returning to Rapture like they did with Infinite and Burial at Sea.
Aah yeah BL3 was… Well in retrospect the dlc structure hurt it the most, glaring design there wtf were those executives freaking on?
Fair points 👍
Fingers crossed 🤞
I’m having a great time with Borderlands 3 right now. They did so much to improve the feel of those games with that one. Standards are incredibly high if that’s trash.
OK when have they produced trash?
Kerbal Space Program 2 was going fine until they put their hands on it
Oh great now that guys rage makes way more sense I’m seeing a legit pattern now… Sorry I just didn’t want to google a controversy… Thanks for the info 👍👍
Edit: Oh God its so clear to me now 💀
Hoping BioShock makes it out alive
That’s the ticket right there, right in the caring. That should be the way going forward. Please. There will be more videogames eventually so let’s make things WORTH our time, both theirs to spend creating them and ours to spend playing them. Let’s make sure its worth all that collective effort yes?
If it has the best entertainment, I will be expecting full visible penetration.
Aren‘t the original devs gone or am I misremembering?
I think the original devs left after the second one. The third was a new crew. I could be misremembering too, though.
Edit: I was mistaken as everyone has pointed out. It makes a lot more sense that way.
Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite were by Irrational Games (2K Boston). Bioshock 2 was by 2K Marin.
Ken Levine shut down the studio after Infinite as they disliked the stress and scale of development - missing the days of small development teams.
That was back in 2014. Levine’s new studio, set up immediately after the closure of Irrational, has yet to release a game but supposedly their first project, Judas, is not too far from completion (it was meant to be out this year in March but, so far, there’s no news).
Yeah Judas looks interesting.
If that‘s the case then I guess I shouldn‘t be as sceptic cause I liked Infinite quite a bit
Wasn’t it the first and infinite. And Bioshock 2 was someone else?
vice versa.
BS2 was 2K australia and a rehash. Infinite was the Og team with ken levine
yes because they got laid off. and by original devs, I mean the devs originally working on bioshock 4, not the previous titles - they are long long gone.
I really disliked bioshock 3. So I have little hope.
The story was over the top but without saying anything interesting or iconic.
Gunplay is a weird mix between call of duty and bioshock and it doesn’t work.
Upgrade system along with only two weapons felt weird. Topics are less useful and less common than in previous games.
“Choices” in story are not choices, completely useless.
Companion AI is bland, they promised a revolution with Elisabeth but it’s just a fly tied on a cord, there’s zero AI in it. It can’t die so there’s nothing to interact. It just moves around you, pretend to seek supplies and to hide from bullets but it’s all fake, it cannot be hurt and she just tosses you supplies on scripted events.
The bird is hyped and have zero impact in the gameplay.
And I could go on…
Bioshock 1 is a thousand times better game in every single aspect.
Making Elizabeth invincible is the only way that game is playable for me. There’s no chance in hell I’d play an entire game that’s one long escort quest where I’m constantly worried about the useless sidekick that I’d rather be without. She may not have added much, but a superficial narrative device is a thousand times better than a crippling gameplay decision.
“Choices” in story are not choices, completely useless.
That, at least, is a staple for the series, so I can’t be mad about it. Otherwise I mostly agree. I was enjoying the story and worldbuilding until about the time when the portals to other dimensions started appearing and the plot went sideways. From then on it was mostly bullshit they tried to explian by repeating “quantum mechanics” over and over.
Translation: 6 hour playthrough.
Third separate article about this game in a week? I see they’re in the hyping up phase.
I’m ok to wait for quality
Infinite was a pretty high bar, they may have intimidated themselves.
I mean, Jesus, even Zero Punctuation liked it and he hates everything!
Story of Infinite was fine but the gameplay was very repetitive and far too linear for my personal taste.
Had one play through, and baaarely made it to the end - glad I did but it was rough going there for the 1000000000th “Booker, catch!”
That’s interesting. I so appreciated having a useful, independent partner
The SkyHook action was pretty amazing, that’s the #1 thing I remember other than the design work.
