• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Are Modern Games Dev Cycles TOO Long?

Only a few games can justify a 4-6 year dev cycle. GTAV for example. There’s no excuse for some of the others. Especially considering the amount of copy paste content those games contain.
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
noboycott.jpg
my point exactly. it's why 'voting with your wallet' is such a stupid fucking thing to say, what good is a vote when everybody else is clearly lining up to pay and won't listen (or doesn't care) to what you have to say? The only option is to convince the general population to not buy in.... and that's a feat harder than carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.
 
Oh boy......

Anyone wanting faster dev cycles is about to get their wish in the form of Ai. But at what cost?

  • Ai generated voice acting
  • Ai generated 3D objects and game assets
  • Ai generated textures
  • Ai generated game world's and levels
  • Ai generated animations (look up RADiCAL and DeepMotion)
The above is here already. Imagine 5 years from now...

Would you be okay with half the game dev industry losing their jobs in order to shorten the dev cycles?

Ai, true creative, discerning Ai, has always been an idea. A seed planted in the ground waiting to spring forth. I believe strongly that the release of DALL•E will be looked at decades from now as the moment that true Ai emerged from that seed, the smallest of green shoots. Now the real question from here is, will the seed bear a beautiful plant, a boon for humanity, or will it bring forth strangling vines that destroy one of our greatest attributes, our ability to create?
Lol I dunno bout all that flower talk but Dall-e makes good boobies
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Game development cycles can go longer since gamers eat up mtx to keep the revenue coming in.

If you want to see shorter devs times when their sales coming from selling copies dries up, stop buying mtx.

No different then the companies I work at. When sales are great, the products stick around for a long time and no new innovation. At my company there's products that have been selling for 20+ years. The only difference is the packaging artwork changes every 5 years. Same product.

The second some brands start showing signs of weakening and the sales tank, suddenly the marketing department issues out shit loads of new product info to teams and that there's tons of new stuff releasing in the next 1-3 years to combat sluggish revenue.
 
Last edited:
Game development cycles are way too long and arduous. Makes me concerned about the future when technology most likely gets more advanced and complicated.
 
Last edited:

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Graphical and technological complexities are way different now than they were in the PS2 days.
This is true for any generation .
We're not gonna pretend that games of the past was less challenging and less complex at the time they was made.
If anything they was more challenging.
It took longer to achieve something which is just written in the engine these days.
And we know they have better tools at their disposal to what would take months to do in a week or less
And the teams are 4-5 times the size they used to be too
Do I think development is any easier because of this? Nope.
For everything that's a click away there is a challenge that will take weeks or months.
So do I think the development time these days are justified taking all of the above in consideration?
No, I believe the development environment is different now to what is was 10 years ago and that effects how they develop and that plays a bigger part in why it takes longer.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
This is true for any generation .
We're not gonna pretend that games of the past was less challenging and less complex at the time they was made.
If anything they was more challenging.
It took longer to achieve something which is just written in the engine these days.
And we know they have better tools at their disposal to what would take months to do in a week or less
And the teams are 4-5 times the size they used to be too
Do I think development is any easier because of this? Nope.
For everything that's a click away there is a challenge that will take weeks or months.
So do I think the development time these days are justified taking all of the above in consideration?
No, I believe the development environment is different now to what is was 10 years ago and that effects how they develop and that plays a bigger part in why it takes longer.
Back in the 80s and 90s, you could get RPGs that were practically annualized. Ok, the game engines were basically the same, but the devs still needed to tweak the game, new textures, new stories etc.... Eye of the Beholder, Might & Magic etc... Somehow the studios were able to churn them out.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
Yes and unlike many others I think this is mostly due to bloat. Not every bloody game needs to be a bloated OpenWorld mess. Playing Syphon Filter 2 at the moments and it‘s design and mission structure is soothing for my soul. Making a game like it would, even today, not take much longer than 2-3 years.
 

H . R . 2

Member
all those games were released at a time when both the hardware and software were extremely limited, yet
studios and devs were passionate and dedicated enough to create multiple new IPs or develop new entries in a span of a few years
I still enjoy playing all those games mentioned above...AND now with all the software/hardware advancements,
game dev cycles have oddly become even longer? so it's neither the technology nor the expectations that are to blame.
it's corporate greed that is scrimping and milking franchises along with players' decisions to support this model that is shaping the grim future of gaming.
why would R* distract players with a new GTA while they could milk GTA online for a decade?
MTX is the most lucrative business model for games going forward which actively discourages and precludes companies to invest in new entries let alone new IPs

3789985-screenshot2021-02-02at4.07.08pm.png
activision-blizzards-revenue-by-composition.jpg
 
Last edited:

fart town usa

Gold Member
Nah, people are just impatient.

That being said, it's still inexcusable when long cycles happen and then the game releases in a broken state. That's the true issue IMO.
 

KXVXII9X

Member
Yes. Yes they are.

Not only that but the decision making at so many of these studios is brain dead.

For years people begged ubisoft to make a game in Japan. Ghosts comes out and is a major success so that's what gets ubi to move their ass? Sand thing with setting a game in India. What took you so fucking long? (shitty mobile games don't count).

Another example is Konami. Silent hill is dormant for decades. PT comes out. Hassan does his thing on the industry for a year. Oh, now there's 3 silent hills coming.

Suikoden has been dead for years. What's this, eiyudan chronicles made a shit load of kickstarter money? Put down the pachinko and gyms! Lets rush out this palette swapped suikoden.

Fucking dead space too. What's a callisto? Better remaster it now instead of working on it the last 10 years.

Shits played out and I haven't even mentioned embracer group. I think they have 70 games in development. 70! How about you slow down and actually release some of them first before you buy another dozen IP.
Exactly this. Gone is actual passion and the ever-growing chase for trends and profit. Notice how all these Cyberpunk, Souls-like, Space, and horror games have sprung up recently? Now some emerging studios are making their own GoT-esque Swordfighting game. I guess Vikings are played out now. Maybe clowns will be next, and we will get a farming/circus management sim.
 

KXVXII9X

Member
I heard people do it with elden ring as well

The truth is people expect bigger, shinier, and prettier games every day now. Especially now that these current gen consoles are out and cross-gen is being extended. Now its, “man i bought a ps5/series x for NEXT GEN. Games. I WANT TO BE BLOWN AWAY BY GRAPHIXXXX’

Thats the main criticism i keep hearing on these forums everytime a new game is announced
I expect games not to go backwards on animations, physics, art direction, level design, sound design, and AI. Outside a few gems, I have been really disappointed in how games are presented. They are almost becoming mobile like in presentation with stiff, lifeless animations and repetitive tasks that you have to do over and over and over. It doesn't help that the market is now flooded with AA and Indie games that aren't much more creative than their AAA counterparts. A lot of games I see are even less impressive versions of the games that they were inspired by 15+ years ago.

I don't remember the entire design process of gaming being THIS stagnant in previous generations. It is a lot more than just pretty graphics. I wouldn't be wowed by mobile VR technology if that were the case.
 

Del_X

Member
Yes, that's why studios are moving to UE5 and doing more with procedural generation. 3-4 years should be the absolute max for a AAA game. 5-6 years is for something actually groundbreaking that sets up a 3 year dev cycle for sequels.
 
Top Bottom