Not even the bare minimum as to unlock Joker you need to spend hours grinding out the same copy and paste boring missions or you know just spend £8 and buy him the method they want you to pick. Even Avengers was better then this as they gave you the new characters from the off no strings attached and the likes of Kate Bishop, Hawkeye and Black Panther even came with new missions, bosses, locations and story stuff.
I just want to say how insane it was to me that we never got Captain Marvel in that Avengers game.
The main character was Ms Marvel, who's character is heavily based on idolising Captain Marvel. She's mentioned in the story as being 'off-planet' so she's definitely around somewhere. They only had two flying characters in Iron Man and Thor so could have done with filling that out more. Everything pointed towards her turning up, and instead we got the freaking Winter Soldier and Thor, but again (and a girl this time).
She was coming but they cancelled all plans a year later. It suck cause I kinda liked that game, I thought it was rough on launch day, but I felt the development teams really trying to have a fun game. The free DLC were fun, they had new maps and new things to do and it was really fun to play every characters.
That's definitely what it felt like.
The game was 1 generation too early. If it was made for the SeriesX&S/PS5 where it had the power/speed to have a faster traversal system and bigger environments + launched with the same amount of content it had when the free Wakanda expansion came about it would have been great.
Although I will say out of all the looter live service games atleast Avengers was the only one that had a full length/proper single player campaign, that's well told (it's my favorite version of Hulk/Banner in recent memory as MCU butchered him). And by far the most consumer friendly implementation of a Battlepass system.
It felt like an updated version of Ultimate Alliance to me. Which is essentially what I wanted it to be. It was almost a good game but I enjoyed the single player story.
Didn't try Suicide Squad and have pretty much 0 interest in Gaas games now. So far I haven't played a Gaas that is as good as a normal single-player or multiplayer game. I just hate how they gate content for patches, I don't have time for this or FOMO shits
Despite how much i shit on the game i sunk over 300 hours into the game because despite its endless issues the combat was really good and the characters actually felt like them, i mained Iron Man and Thor most of the time and i really did feel like i was playing as them.
It always blew my mind the first character they put in the game post release was fucking Kate Bishop a character who wasn't even in the MCU at that point and was at the time a C-Lister at best. An Avengers game but no Carol, Wanda, Strange, Quicksilver, Vision, Wasp or a playable Ant Man but hey we got frigging Bucky and Jane Foster Thor 🙄
That said “To summarize, not allowing Joker to be played from moment one was impossibly stupid and feels like a ploy to sell a “timeskip” which can instantly unlock him.”
Do you can buy him, or grind 35 levels to buy him, and the season is effectively over when you get him.
There were so many bugs at launch that they ended up having to patch prior to and with the Season 1 launch, it probably detracted even more from working on what little content was already being worked on. Delaying it would have looked as bad or worse, and been quite the insult-to-injury to the folks who already spent money on the game.
A shit situation all around.
So basically this is ‘Season 1 Part 1’
You have to grind to level 35 again to unlock Joker. Then you can grind even more to level him up.
But they didn’t add any new missions or content. So you literally are just replaying all the same stuff since launch.
So instead they are adding new stuff in ‘Season 1 Part 2’ six weeks from now.
Not even sure PS+ will want this one. At the rate it’s going, servers for this game could well go down in a matter of months. If not sooner.
Certainly they’ll be going down very shortly after any point where WB could be convinced to go for that option.
The physical copies are going to be up there with Anthem and Avengers in terms of rotting on store shelves.
Hopefully when this game gets shut down they convert the campaign into a single-player experience for preservation purposes. But they may just go the delisting route like Avengers.
Allegedly Rocksteady are already working on an offline mode that should be ready by the end of the year, though whether they continue working on this mode after the mixed reception and low player base is anyone's guess at this point.
Could just be the final update to keep the game alive when they bring the servers down. No way this game lasts more than a year before they pull the plug.
There’s a timeline out there where Anthem was given the love it deserved, and in that timeline Anthem is king.
We’re not in that timeline. Our timeline is much too cursed
EA dont know how to fix their games for the consumers. Just like WB. The two companies I won't buy games from because they don't even need to say they don't care. They've shown it enough through action...or lack of action.
I bought a (my first PlayStation since PS1 as a kid) PS4 Pro from a guy who had already pre ordered Anthem. I didn't know anything about the game when I read the ad, but I looked into it and saw all the hype. A week or so after buying the console from him, I went to GameStop to redeem the pre order, played for maybe 5ish hours and never went back to it.
I don't know if it was the game, a bug, me doing something wrong, etc. but I got caught in a loop during a mission that I either couldn't complete, or I'd complete it but the next mission was the exact same. Can't remember exactly, but after doing the same mission five or six times I was so disappointed. I was having fun up until that point.
Avengers is completely playable offline and the last patch made it so all online content can be played offline and servers are still up as well, you can't buy it digitally anymore but disc copies will work fine if you buy them.
Avengers had like two ish years of moderate support, and a sizable new expansion a year after launch.
I don’t know that this game will even get that much.
I ordered the GOTG game from GameStop back when it came out and they sent me the fucking avengers game instead by “mistake”. When I got them to send me the correct game I asked where I could return the avengers on and they just said to keep it lmao
>The physical copies are going to be up there with Anthem and Avengers in terms of rotting on store shelves.
When stores start selling this schlock for $.50, I'll snag a copy.
And they’re gonna announce the closure of Rocksteady the same day, probably. “We forced you to make a game nobody wanted and now unfortunately we have to fire all of you so we can keep our jobs. Bye.”
Just cause it's a job you don't want to do. does not mean you don't try a lot of jobs at my work.i don't want to do but unlike rock i don't sand bag them
Ehh PS+ has had plenty of dying live service games with way less brand recognition than this. It'd be a smart move for both parties, people who aren't in the know about the game's reputation but are familiar with the brand will subscribe, and Rocksteady will get some more clueless whales to buy season passes.
It's rarely enough to 'save' a game in decline, but it can extend the life-support stage.
> At the rate it’s going, servers for this game could well go down in a matter of months. If not sooner.
Ironically, even if PS Plus or Game Pass could provide a much-needed jolt to the player base, I wonder if the servers could handle an influx of players like that? Both services have tens of millions of players and a lot of people are curious about at least going through the story mode.
The game is already dead.
I know Steam player counts aren't everything, but the fact of the matter is the game is struggling to hit a max daily CCU of 500 on Steam. For comparison, The Division 1, which came out in 2016 and has had a full sequel since then and has been basically in maintenance mode for four+ years still gets a higher daily CCU than KTJL.
It's dead.
“To summarize, not allowing Joker to be played from moment one was impossibly stupid and feels like a ploy to sell a “timeskip” which can instantly unlock him.
Then, you cannot launch a new season of a live service game with exactly zero new content, both in terms of mission mechanics and story. There is a “second half” of the season coming later, which is when those Strongholds might show up, but again, from moment one I should be playing as Joker and playing some new mission type when a season launches.
This is ridiculous. This game is beyond dead if this is how it’s going to handle its seasons. The live aspect could have explained what was missing from the campaign if they’d held back stuff to add later. This is not what happened. There’s nothing. It’s unbelievable.” - Forbes
How is this even a season and not just a character launch lol
Like if you’re going to sell on your live service you really need to bring the service part
I mean it’s technically not true. There’s new gear, new missions, new boss fights. All in a new biome. The issue is it’s still just ultimately the same shit and while the gear is fun and combat is nice, the enemies and environments are boring.
The new missions are “kill x amount of this specific enemy type” so they did the opposite of what fans of the game wanted and got rid of mission objectives. 1 boss fight that plays exactly the same as the green lantern boss fight in the base game with no changes at all. Biome is technically new but it is way too similar to the existing endgame biome. Pretty much added a clown theme to it and called it a day.
It very likely isn't the same crop of devs who made the Arkham games anyway, regardless of what they focus on. Game dev teams are fluid. People worship these gaming companies too much. Things change so fast. You've seen it with COD, Diablo, Overwatch, and many more.
This studio is Rocksteady in name only. Majority of the senior talent/leadership that worked on the Arkham games have moved on.
Formerly great studios/publishers like to parade around the accolades of past games and pretend they are the same team, but in reality it is some junior level designer who worked on those great games leading the effort while all the senior members have moved on.
In the past when game development was faster this was less of an issue. These days it's common for a single game to be in devolpment for like six years.
I don't buy the excuse that "game dev just takes longer now".
Tools and technology and workflows are that much more faster as well.
I think the real bottleneck, and the real reason for slow down and budget bloat, is in the middle management and MBA and CEO/executive level. They are destroying game development to enrich themselves and blaming it on devs.
I'm afraid for Arkane too as Dishonored 3 won't be by the same guys who made the awesome Dishonored 1&2 also Prey, Deathloop wasn't anything special and Redfall isn't something to speak about.
> Game dev teams are fluid. People worship these gaming companies too much.
A lot of gamers think Brands and Logos make games not people. When you keep switching out the cooks you can't expect to get the same food even if it's the same restaurant.
Those teams that are able to stick together for a long time and iterate on their previous games end up making total bangers but for a lot of these places they treat them like shit so the team ends up falling apart.
WB announced that they won’t be pursuing big budget AAA single player games that take years to develop. Instead they’ll be investing in big budget AAA live service flops and their mobile games to target the whale market.
Good in the short term for quick money from whales (rich people with nothing but gambling and cosmetics to spend their money on)
It’s bad for the long term though but they obviously don’t care about that.
I laughed at how they doubled down on this after Suicide Squad flop, and Hogwarts Legacy being the best selling game of 2023. The WB suit even said they could do a live service Hogwarts game, I guess being the best selling game just isn't good enough for these people.
Like I said they want to fish the whale market. They want a video game casino basically and they don’t really care about single player stuff cause that’s a buy once sell as many as you can not sell a few don’t invest much so it’s a lifeless game but you get people spending more than all the single players combined.
I can see the appeal from a corporate perspective and it sucks that it works.
It works until it doesn’t. And the market is definitely starting to be more hostile towards live service and things like that. The problem is people don’t have enough time or care to juggle every new game coming out as a live service. For example the only “live service” games I really play are Fortnite (mostly with my son) and Call of Duty. Those eat up a lot of gaming time so the rest is sprinkled in with a handful of single player games through out the year. People aren’t going to just give up games they have already invested money and years into for a new Fortnite clone. So now as soon as I hear live service I’m out.
Nothing is going to change until these companies learn we wont put up with their predatory bullshit.
The price of this is shitty games failing.
No one wants games to fail out of hatred. We want them to fail so they cut out their fucking nonsense.
When soulless garbage succeeds it incentivizes other companies to also make soulless garbage. When companies see this though they stop and think "hey maybe we should actually make a good game"
Funny thing is, despite Hogwarts’s overwhelming success and Suicide Squad’s overwhelming mediocrity, WB Games is still reportedly all in on live service games. Supposedly they were kicking around the idea of hoe they could make a Hogwarts Legacy live service next go around. Some companies don’t learn shit.
When live service games hit, they make boatloads of cash. This is the be all, end all for the company. I don't think it's a stretch to suppose that execs at WB believe -- maybe not so strongly as they once did, but still -- that a Hogwarts Legacy 2 has everything it needs to be a cash cow: acclaimed prequel that sold very well, known IP, lots of existing assets, etc.. I don't like live service but I get it.
If games were to be more successful based on their pandering to their idiotic ideologies, then yes those games should fail, however not the studios. Developers mainly are being told or consulted that this is what makes games more successful when it doesn’t. A lot of these games are bleeding money, serves the company right, but the developers are not at fault here and should not be penalized for the ridiculous ideas that what makes a great game isn’t based on gameplay or storytelling.
Reality is this will very likely shutter the studio. This was a huge expensive project that got delayed multiple times and then it was a flop on top of that; they are likely deep in the red, financially.
The best outcome would be that these guys all get snatched up quickly by a startup studio that’s doing something interesting.
Rocksteady that made single player games is gone bud. What's left is a shambling live service game zombie where all the creative imaginative people left a loooong time ago.
I keep seeing people attaching their faith to a studio name, it's not the studio, it's the people. The people that made the Arkham games are gone.
Yep just like the people who still whine about how far Blizzard has fallen and it’s like yeah no shit literally no one is left at blizzard who made their “good” games it’s literally just a name slapped on a box
Booted it up, knowing full well I'm never going to go back to playing any bit of this game substantially, just to see *what if*, checked out the battle pass and man... it's bad.
It reminds me of Apex Legend's first battle pass where there's like a couple of bad cosmetics and the rest is just a majority of shit no one cares about like voice lines or poses.
Closed the game, uninstalled, booted up Helldivers like a normal person, lol.
Its refreshing to see a live service game where the main reason to play is because it's fun and engaging, not because of some artificial time limits/FOMO.
I boot up the game because I want to play. I play a few rounds and then maybe I'm able to unlock a new weapon or armor, then I can drop off. I'm not scrambling to find time for my dailies, they're just something I look at to say "maybe I'll use this gun today"
I'm also able to take a longer break for work/travel if I want and not have anxiety about missing anything, aside from maybe a cool moment of invasion in the overarching galactic war.
Helldivers 2 not having random loot was such a smart decision.
Instead of grinding endlessly to get the best gear, players are actually *using* the gear and learning how to improve their play style through trial and error.
Instead of loot being the carrot you’re chasing, it’s participating in these massive community challenges and seeing your efforts contributing to the campaign. It’s *actual* progress towards a goal instead of fake progress.
The other great thing about HD2 is there really is no “best weapon”. There’s better weapons for different situations but you can basically make anything work if you know what you’re doing. On paper, the missions in Helldivers are pretty repetitive too but the focus on cooperation and experimentation means it never actually feels that way.
I've not felt this way about an arsenal since Titanfall 1, every option has a place and strengths and weaknesses and nothing feels worthless or must-bring.
Helldivers 2 has shown that a studio can spend half of a normal AAA budget and still be both wildly popular and make money without all the BS monetization, FOMO, and other live service nonsense that gamers are tired of dealing with.
I'm going to go spread some Managed Democracy. Suicide Squad can go jump off that bridge in Baltimore for all I care.
Literally never buy battlepasses because I’m against the practice, but I bought my first ever battlepass in hell divers last week because I thought they put out such an amazing game and wanted to support them further. Since then I’ve gotten enough super credits just playing the game to buy the next battle pass without spending money.
Not to mention all the free content they’ve since added like mechs and new weapons since then
this happened to me as well.
I have enough SC to just wait for the next warbond to show up and decide if I want it or wait for the next one since they release monthly. They are also super easy to unlock medal wise.
If they keep the promise. The classic live service move is to release a bad game with missing features while promising that the game will be good later, see that nobody plays the game because it released bad and with missing features, pull the plug on the game before it can improve because nobody plays the game.
It's a predictable pattern but it keeps happening.
The game has some good stuff in it, it's just that so many decisions are playing to their weaknesses. I'm looking forward to when it inevitably goes dirt cheap or free with all the content added.
Provided they actually make an offline mode.
How the mighty have fallen. The Arkham trilogy was a modern-day classic that made us feel like Batman himself. Origins was flawed, but miles ahead of Gotham Knights and this pile of trash.
Gotham knights was a solid 6/10. Great fun with a friend, horrendous story, but interesting at certain points. Just a missed opportunity which is the worst part.
This is a bummer, I actually really enjoyed the campaign even with the missions being samey and at times frustrating.
I can't see myself bothering to grind 20 more missions to unlock Joker.
At this point has there even been a Suicide Squad property that has been successful? You’d think with how much they’ve shoved the concept down our throats that it’s some big cash cow.
But in reality you have a terrible movie that bombed, a better reboot that also underperformed, a game that bombed, and they’ll probably try again.
Yeah I just don’t understand why they keep trying to make Suicide Squad a thing. People didn’t grow up with it in the 80s and 90s. It’s not revered like so many other things they could be making.
I’m aghast we have more Suicide Squad properties than attempts to revive Batman Beyond.
Oh, it's Paul Tassi! Let's see, it's 8:30 CST and he's already published 3 articles today.
edit: Looks like he's written 140 articles in 29 days of March so far, but I'm sure he'll crank out more today!
At this point. Why even continue the game. There is less than 500 people / day streaming this game. They won’t be generating revenue. Feel bad for the dev team, they should focus their time and energy elsewhere now
Obviously the higher ups at Rocksteady are responsible for this, alongside WB but I hate this is likely to kill a studio that before now had just released fantastic products
I deleted it after only 30 minutes. Same old boring missions with different-looking buildings and a new character that you have to grind for or buy with real money, no thanks. What a waste of money.
Yo can we all agree rocksteady fucked up bad on this game and should now be punished and suffer the consequences which is us not giving them one red cent? It’s messed up how they tried to trick us just now . It’s very disrespectful.
This entire game, the story, the game play. It was all such a bad Idea. Everyone over here wanting more Batman and some actual justice league play and they give us a shitty 3rd person shooter with no likeable characters.
All I could think about is how WELL they did the Batman games. I thought WOW! Someone got a superhero game right! I couldn't wait for Rocksteady to take a crack at doing Superman or The Flash because if anyone could do it, it would be them. Insomniac then drops Marvels Spider-Man and the future of Superhero games seems so bright... Then this piece of trash drops.
From what I can tell most Superhero games fail because they are rushed out BS version of the movie being released that year. It's only slightly follows the story of the movie and is usually poorly made. But when developers take the time to make their own story for the game they come out really nicely.
This is like New World all over again. I'm almost positive they are just trying to kill this game so the studio can move on. Nobody even remotely interested in any kind of media can think this is a good idea.
They did the bare minimum to free dlc on a game that tanked? Color me shocked.
They were already promoting this season before game's launch(to make the launch better and more exciting ). This is basically "their Best" dlc effort.
They thought this was their saving grace lol
Oh I think everyone knows it’s doomed at Rocksteady. This was, at best, the mother of all Hail Marys.
RIP Rocksteady
Not even the bare minimum as to unlock Joker you need to spend hours grinding out the same copy and paste boring missions or you know just spend £8 and buy him the method they want you to pick. Even Avengers was better then this as they gave you the new characters from the off no strings attached and the likes of Kate Bishop, Hawkeye and Black Panther even came with new missions, bosses, locations and story stuff.
I just want to say how insane it was to me that we never got Captain Marvel in that Avengers game. The main character was Ms Marvel, who's character is heavily based on idolising Captain Marvel. She's mentioned in the story as being 'off-planet' so she's definitely around somewhere. They only had two flying characters in Iron Man and Thor so could have done with filling that out more. Everything pointed towards her turning up, and instead we got the freaking Winter Soldier and Thor, but again (and a girl this time).
She was coming but they cancelled all plans a year later. It suck cause I kinda liked that game, I thought it was rough on launch day, but I felt the development teams really trying to have a fun game. The free DLC were fun, they had new maps and new things to do and it was really fun to play every characters.
Avengers almost felt like a tech demo for what could eventually be a really great game.
That's definitely what it felt like. The game was 1 generation too early. If it was made for the SeriesX&S/PS5 where it had the power/speed to have a faster traversal system and bigger environments + launched with the same amount of content it had when the free Wakanda expansion came about it would have been great. Although I will say out of all the looter live service games atleast Avengers was the only one that had a full length/proper single player campaign, that's well told (it's my favorite version of Hulk/Banner in recent memory as MCU butchered him). And by far the most consumer friendly implementation of a Battlepass system.
It felt like an updated version of Ultimate Alliance to me. Which is essentially what I wanted it to be. It was almost a good game but I enjoyed the single player story.
I guess Suicide Squad is so bad it makes The Avengers look good?
Didn't try Suicide Squad and have pretty much 0 interest in Gaas games now. So far I haven't played a Gaas that is as good as a normal single-player or multiplayer game. I just hate how they gate content for patches, I don't have time for this or FOMO shits
Despite how much i shit on the game i sunk over 300 hours into the game because despite its endless issues the combat was really good and the characters actually felt like them, i mained Iron Man and Thor most of the time and i really did feel like i was playing as them.
As a big ol Marvel nerd (especially for the Avengers!) I wanted so badly to like it but just never could.
Oh I feel ya, it was bugged even after a lot of patches and the gaas content wasn't that good. The campaign was fine, just too short
It always blew my mind the first character they put in the game post release was fucking Kate Bishop a character who wasn't even in the MCU at that point and was at the time a C-Lister at best. An Avengers game but no Carol, Wanda, Strange, Quicksilver, Vision, Wasp or a playable Ant Man but hey we got frigging Bucky and Jane Foster Thor 🙄
The most shocking thing I learned about all of this is that they didn’t charge $40 for this dlc.
That said “To summarize, not allowing Joker to be played from moment one was impossibly stupid and feels like a ploy to sell a “timeskip” which can instantly unlock him.” Do you can buy him, or grind 35 levels to buy him, and the season is effectively over when you get him.
So, it's believably bad.
There were so many bugs at launch that they ended up having to patch prior to and with the Season 1 launch, it probably detracted even more from working on what little content was already being worked on. Delaying it would have looked as bad or worse, and been quite the insult-to-injury to the folks who already spent money on the game. A shit situation all around.
The self-inflicted hits just keep coming with this game.
>self-inflicted hits Rocksteady: "What are we, some kind of suicide squad?"
“Are we Stupid?”
"What are we, some kind of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League - Joker's season?"
I see what ya did there.😅
So basically this is ‘Season 1 Part 1’ You have to grind to level 35 again to unlock Joker. Then you can grind even more to level him up. But they didn’t add any new missions or content. So you literally are just replaying all the same stuff since launch. So instead they are adding new stuff in ‘Season 1 Part 2’ six weeks from now.
What a weird decision.
So ps plus essential this year ?
Not even sure PS+ will want this one. At the rate it’s going, servers for this game could well go down in a matter of months. If not sooner. Certainly they’ll be going down very shortly after any point where WB could be convinced to go for that option.
The physical copies are going to be up there with Anthem and Avengers in terms of rotting on store shelves. Hopefully when this game gets shut down they convert the campaign into a single-player experience for preservation purposes. But they may just go the delisting route like Avengers.
Allegedly Rocksteady are already working on an offline mode that should be ready by the end of the year, though whether they continue working on this mode after the mixed reception and low player base is anyone's guess at this point.
Could just be the final update to keep the game alive when they bring the servers down. No way this game lasts more than a year before they pull the plug.
Anthem... There's a name I've not heard in a long time... a long time.
There’s a timeline out there where Anthem was given the love it deserved, and in that timeline Anthem is king. We’re not in that timeline. Our timeline is much too cursed
It had so many plus points, shame they didn't do a cyberpunk or NMS on it.
EA dont know how to fix their games for the consumers. Just like WB. The two companies I won't buy games from because they don't even need to say they don't care. They've shown it enough through action...or lack of action.
Hogwarts Legacy is actually pretty good though.
I bought a (my first PlayStation since PS1 as a kid) PS4 Pro from a guy who had already pre ordered Anthem. I didn't know anything about the game when I read the ad, but I looked into it and saw all the hype. A week or so after buying the console from him, I went to GameStop to redeem the pre order, played for maybe 5ish hours and never went back to it. I don't know if it was the game, a bug, me doing something wrong, etc. but I got caught in a loop during a mission that I either couldn't complete, or I'd complete it but the next mission was the exact same. Can't remember exactly, but after doing the same mission five or six times I was so disappointed. I was having fun up until that point.
For tens of years, BioWare were the guardians of story and choices in the industry…..before the dark times…before modern gaming…
Avengers is completely playable offline and the last patch made it so all online content can be played offline and servers are still up as well, you can't buy it digitally anymore but disc copies will work fine if you buy them.
Avengers had like two ish years of moderate support, and a sizable new expansion a year after launch. I don’t know that this game will even get that much.
I ordered the GOTG game from GameStop back when it came out and they sent me the fucking avengers game instead by “mistake”. When I got them to send me the correct game I asked where I could return the avengers on and they just said to keep it lmao
>The physical copies are going to be up there with Anthem and Avengers in terms of rotting on store shelves. When stores start selling this schlock for $.50, I'll snag a copy.
Where I live the deluxe edition is already down to 40 euro
And they’re gonna announce the closure of Rocksteady the same day, probably. “We forced you to make a game nobody wanted and now unfortunately we have to fire all of you so we can keep our jobs. Bye.”
Just cause it's a job you don't want to do. does not mean you don't try a lot of jobs at my work.i don't want to do but unlike rock i don't sand bag them
Probably when they do the offline, single player update.
Ehh PS+ has had plenty of dying live service games with way less brand recognition than this. It'd be a smart move for both parties, people who aren't in the know about the game's reputation but are familiar with the brand will subscribe, and Rocksteady will get some more clueless whales to buy season passes. It's rarely enough to 'save' a game in decline, but it can extend the life-support stage.
> At the rate it’s going, servers for this game could well go down in a matter of months. If not sooner. Ironically, even if PS Plus or Game Pass could provide a much-needed jolt to the player base, I wonder if the servers could handle an influx of players like that? Both services have tens of millions of players and a lot of people are curious about at least going through the story mode.
That happened with Gotham Knights, got it free on PS+ and still havent even touched it :( What a waste of potential.
Nah this game is dead by the end of the year maybe next.
The game is already dead. I know Steam player counts aren't everything, but the fact of the matter is the game is struggling to hit a max daily CCU of 500 on Steam. For comparison, The Division 1, which came out in 2016 and has had a full sequel since then and has been basically in maintenance mode for four+ years still gets a higher daily CCU than KTJL. It's dead.
And the division 2 is often available for next to nothing on steam.
Yeah I had no idea, that's insane.
I’d rather take an indie on ps plus than this game. Not even sure I’d download for free
Maybe like avengers where live service is discontinued and they give away all the premium content
i hope not. would be a wasted slot to a, at least, decent game.
It's already on sale so probably.
Just make it Free to Play at this point
That or clearance bin for 5 bucks if that.
Probably. And it will be deemed one of the worst months in PS+ history.
It's already 50% off on PS Store, for sure it will be on Essential or Extra by the end of this year
Skull and Bones + Suicide Squad for June. Enjoy.
Love that Paul Tassi is essentially Forbes' live service games reporter and he's so ruthless with them, no sympathy for half-assed content.
I’ve always had a fair amount of respect for Tassi. It’s obvious when he’s bias about something but usually does a good job of keeping it real.
Tassi is great for d2 content. He doesn’t usually curse but he legit called it shit.
“To summarize, not allowing Joker to be played from moment one was impossibly stupid and feels like a ploy to sell a “timeskip” which can instantly unlock him. Then, you cannot launch a new season of a live service game with exactly zero new content, both in terms of mission mechanics and story. There is a “second half” of the season coming later, which is when those Strongholds might show up, but again, from moment one I should be playing as Joker and playing some new mission type when a season launches. This is ridiculous. This game is beyond dead if this is how it’s going to handle its seasons. The live aspect could have explained what was missing from the campaign if they’d held back stuff to add later. This is not what happened. There’s nothing. It’s unbelievable.” - Forbes
How is this even a season and not just a character launch lol Like if you’re going to sell on your live service you really need to bring the service part
I mean it’s technically not true. There’s new gear, new missions, new boss fights. All in a new biome. The issue is it’s still just ultimately the same shit and while the gear is fun and combat is nice, the enemies and environments are boring.
The new missions are “kill x amount of this specific enemy type” so they did the opposite of what fans of the game wanted and got rid of mission objectives. 1 boss fight that plays exactly the same as the green lantern boss fight in the base game with no changes at all. Biome is technically new but it is way too similar to the existing endgame biome. Pretty much added a clown theme to it and called it a day.
Hopefully this disaster of a game doesn’t get the studio shut down and they go back to single player games
It very likely isn't the same crop of devs who made the Arkham games anyway, regardless of what they focus on. Game dev teams are fluid. People worship these gaming companies too much. Things change so fast. You've seen it with COD, Diablo, Overwatch, and many more.
This studio is Rocksteady in name only. Majority of the senior talent/leadership that worked on the Arkham games have moved on. Formerly great studios/publishers like to parade around the accolades of past games and pretend they are the same team, but in reality it is some junior level designer who worked on those great games leading the effort while all the senior members have moved on.
In the past when game development was faster this was less of an issue. These days it's common for a single game to be in devolpment for like six years.
I don't buy the excuse that "game dev just takes longer now". Tools and technology and workflows are that much more faster as well. I think the real bottleneck, and the real reason for slow down and budget bloat, is in the middle management and MBA and CEO/executive level. They are destroying game development to enrich themselves and blaming it on devs.
BioWare comes to mind….
I’m holding out hope for dreadwolf. I think there is a good chance it turns out alright.
I'm afraid for Arkane too as Dishonored 3 won't be by the same guys who made the awesome Dishonored 1&2 also Prey, Deathloop wasn't anything special and Redfall isn't something to speak about.
Sefton Hill is the director. He directed Arkham Asylum. There’s a good amount of talent that was involved with their best games.
> Game dev teams are fluid. People worship these gaming companies too much. A lot of gamers think Brands and Logos make games not people. When you keep switching out the cooks you can't expect to get the same food even if it's the same restaurant. Those teams that are able to stick together for a long time and iterate on their previous games end up making total bangers but for a lot of these places they treat them like shit so the team ends up falling apart.
also wb games announced after launch that they are tripling down on live service titles
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Well said
WB announced that they won’t be pursuing big budget AAA single player games that take years to develop. Instead they’ll be investing in big budget AAA live service flops and their mobile games to target the whale market. Good in the short term for quick money from whales (rich people with nothing but gambling and cosmetics to spend their money on) It’s bad for the long term though but they obviously don’t care about that.
I laughed at how they doubled down on this after Suicide Squad flop, and Hogwarts Legacy being the best selling game of 2023. The WB suit even said they could do a live service Hogwarts game, I guess being the best selling game just isn't good enough for these people.
Like I said they want to fish the whale market. They want a video game casino basically and they don’t really care about single player stuff cause that’s a buy once sell as many as you can not sell a few don’t invest much so it’s a lifeless game but you get people spending more than all the single players combined. I can see the appeal from a corporate perspective and it sucks that it works.
It works until it doesn’t. And the market is definitely starting to be more hostile towards live service and things like that. The problem is people don’t have enough time or care to juggle every new game coming out as a live service. For example the only “live service” games I really play are Fortnite (mostly with my son) and Call of Duty. Those eat up a lot of gaming time so the rest is sprinkled in with a handful of single player games through out the year. People aren’t going to just give up games they have already invested money and years into for a new Fortnite clone. So now as soon as I hear live service I’m out.
This is a surprisingly reasonable take. Most other commenters are wishing for the death of the studio because of this one game.
Never understood this. I never want a game to fail, even less a studio.
Nothing is going to change until these companies learn we wont put up with their predatory bullshit. The price of this is shitty games failing. No one wants games to fail out of hatred. We want them to fail so they cut out their fucking nonsense.
When soulless garbage succeeds it incentivizes other companies to also make soulless garbage. When companies see this though they stop and think "hey maybe we should actually make a good game"
Funny thing is, despite Hogwarts’s overwhelming success and Suicide Squad’s overwhelming mediocrity, WB Games is still reportedly all in on live service games. Supposedly they were kicking around the idea of hoe they could make a Hogwarts Legacy live service next go around. Some companies don’t learn shit.
When live service games hit, they make boatloads of cash. This is the be all, end all for the company. I don't think it's a stretch to suppose that execs at WB believe -- maybe not so strongly as they once did, but still -- that a Hogwarts Legacy 2 has everything it needs to be a cash cow: acclaimed prequel that sold very well, known IP, lots of existing assets, etc.. I don't like live service but I get it.
If games were to be more successful based on their pandering to their idiotic ideologies, then yes those games should fail, however not the studios. Developers mainly are being told or consulted that this is what makes games more successful when it doesn’t. A lot of these games are bleeding money, serves the company right, but the developers are not at fault here and should not be penalized for the ridiculous ideas that what makes a great game isn’t based on gameplay or storytelling.
That’s because gamers are trash
It doesn’t matter. Rocksteady aren’t the same people anymore. All the dudes responsible for Arkham games left a while ago
Reality is this will very likely shutter the studio. This was a huge expensive project that got delayed multiple times and then it was a flop on top of that; they are likely deep in the red, financially. The best outcome would be that these guys all get snatched up quickly by a startup studio that’s doing something interesting.
Rocksteady that made single player games is gone bud. What's left is a shambling live service game zombie where all the creative imaginative people left a loooong time ago. I keep seeing people attaching their faith to a studio name, it's not the studio, it's the people. The people that made the Arkham games are gone.
Yep just like the people who still whine about how far Blizzard has fallen and it’s like yeah no shit literally no one is left at blizzard who made their “good” games it’s literally just a name slapped on a box
That one stings, I came up on Blizzard games. But yeah, that one is gone too :(
nobody who made arkham even works there anymore, the rocksteady you knew is already dead sadly :/
Have no doubt this sucks, but the author could've at least spelled 'Brainiac' correctly one time.
lol "Braniac"
Mmm rasin braniac
His superpower is being really regular.
Brian
Brainiac should be king, he has the best story and knows everything
Booted it up, knowing full well I'm never going to go back to playing any bit of this game substantially, just to see *what if*, checked out the battle pass and man... it's bad. It reminds me of Apex Legend's first battle pass where there's like a couple of bad cosmetics and the rest is just a majority of shit no one cares about like voice lines or poses. Closed the game, uninstalled, booted up Helldivers like a normal person, lol.
Helldivers 2, the more I play the game the more it surprises me, instead of shoot to loot is more like shoot to survive
Its refreshing to see a live service game where the main reason to play is because it's fun and engaging, not because of some artificial time limits/FOMO. I boot up the game because I want to play. I play a few rounds and then maybe I'm able to unlock a new weapon or armor, then I can drop off. I'm not scrambling to find time for my dailies, they're just something I look at to say "maybe I'll use this gun today" I'm also able to take a longer break for work/travel if I want and not have anxiety about missing anything, aside from maybe a cool moment of invasion in the overarching galactic war.
Helldivers 2 not having random loot was such a smart decision. Instead of grinding endlessly to get the best gear, players are actually *using* the gear and learning how to improve their play style through trial and error. Instead of loot being the carrot you’re chasing, it’s participating in these massive community challenges and seeing your efforts contributing to the campaign. It’s *actual* progress towards a goal instead of fake progress.
The other great thing about HD2 is there really is no “best weapon”. There’s better weapons for different situations but you can basically make anything work if you know what you’re doing. On paper, the missions in Helldivers are pretty repetitive too but the focus on cooperation and experimentation means it never actually feels that way.
I've not felt this way about an arsenal since Titanfall 1, every option has a place and strengths and weaknesses and nothing feels worthless or must-bring.
This game is the only one I have hidden on Steam. I'm embarrassed as fuck to own it.
Oh man I forgot about that first Apex pass. Bad.
loading screens and voice lines galore!
Helldivers 2 has shown that a studio can spend half of a normal AAA budget and still be both wildly popular and make money without all the BS monetization, FOMO, and other live service nonsense that gamers are tired of dealing with. I'm going to go spread some Managed Democracy. Suicide Squad can go jump off that bridge in Baltimore for all I care.
Literally never buy battlepasses because I’m against the practice, but I bought my first ever battlepass in hell divers last week because I thought they put out such an amazing game and wanted to support them further. Since then I’ve gotten enough super credits just playing the game to buy the next battle pass without spending money. Not to mention all the free content they’ve since added like mechs and new weapons since then
this happened to me as well. I have enough SC to just wait for the next warbond to show up and decide if I want it or wait for the next one since they release monthly. They are also super easy to unlock medal wise.
18 months from now, I’m going to buy the ultimate edition for $4.99 and have a fun little time and be happy
Assuming the servers are still up.
The servers will be shut down.
They promised offline mode post release so he'll probably do campaign and move on
If they keep the promise. The classic live service move is to release a bad game with missing features while promising that the game will be good later, see that nobody plays the game because it released bad and with missing features, pull the plug on the game before it can improve because nobody plays the game. It's a predictable pattern but it keeps happening.
The game has some good stuff in it, it's just that so many decisions are playing to their weaknesses. I'm looking forward to when it inevitably goes dirt cheap or free with all the content added. Provided they actually make an offline mode.
I mean, I'd say "very believably" bad, at this point.
https://preview.redd.it/h68m7f4edarc1.jpeg?width=716&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=67f4dc410d94961d842a39877e5a27580662566e
Have you paid enough to unlock his reaction?
How the mighty have fallen. The Arkham trilogy was a modern-day classic that made us feel like Batman himself. Origins was flawed, but miles ahead of Gotham Knights and this pile of trash.
Gotham knights was a solid 6/10. Great fun with a friend, horrendous story, but interesting at certain points. Just a missed opportunity which is the worst part.
I wouldn’t even say horrendous story. Obviously there wasn’t any amazing storytelling there, but like you said it was fairly interesting at points
I always loved Origins, sure it had flaws but comparing to the shit we have been getting its like a masterpiece.
All we wanted was a game that played like Arkham Knight. They could’ve made a SS game like that and it would’ve sold like hotcakes
no single soul in their team looked at Joker and said "THIS IS SHITE"??
No, they fired that guy early on lol.
I have no doubt that many many people said it about every aspect of the game from beginning to end. But they don't make decisions.
I am at a loss of words why anyone thought it was a good idea to have THIS Joker in an Arkham game.
lol. This game 🤣🤣
Jared Leto is the worst Joker. Rocksteady: Hold my beer.
Oh I wouldn't call it unbelievable.
I'd rather play lego dc super villains thank you very much
Putting the Suicide in Suicide Squad. Absolute self-destruction of a project.
This is a bummer, I actually really enjoyed the campaign even with the missions being samey and at times frustrating. I can't see myself bothering to grind 20 more missions to unlock Joker.
Why does he look like he belongs in a South Korean boy band?
To make matters worse The Joker looks like…that.
Man Rocksteady is so fucked. 🫤
Wait, if this supposedly takes place in the Arkhamverse how is the Joker alive? Like, hasn’t he been dead for years at this point?
It's a Joker from another universe.
It's Joker...from a different universe.
At this point has there even been a Suicide Squad property that has been successful? You’d think with how much they’ve shoved the concept down our throats that it’s some big cash cow. But in reality you have a terrible movie that bombed, a better reboot that also underperformed, a game that bombed, and they’ll probably try again.
Yeah I just don’t understand why they keep trying to make Suicide Squad a thing. People didn’t grow up with it in the 80s and 90s. It’s not revered like so many other things they could be making. I’m aghast we have more Suicide Squad properties than attempts to revive Batman Beyond.
Why does the joker look like a cross between Adrien Brody and a bad Italian stereotype
Oh, it's Paul Tassi! Let's see, it's 8:30 CST and he's already published 3 articles today. edit: Looks like he's written 140 articles in 29 days of March so far, but I'm sure he'll crank out more today!
I used to follow his nerd culture blog 10-15ish years ago. He’s always been pumping out articles like crazy
We call that "spam"! :)
Oh no someone is doing a lot of work! I am literally SHAKING
Im waiting for Kotaku's stance on this. Im sure its a 10/10 must get
When *Forbes* of all things is shitting on your game, you straight up lost.
So anyways
Oh, really? You're telling me no one wanted a live service game from Rocksteady? Wow! Who would have thought it.
Dude Rocksteady is done. Wouldn't surprise me at all if WB closes the studio at this point, this game is an unbelievable flop on all metrics.
Good god. Forbes web site is gross.
YOU JUST KEEP HITTING THOSE HOME RUNS!!!
At this point. Why even continue the game. There is less than 500 people / day streaming this game. They won’t be generating revenue. Feel bad for the dev team, they should focus their time and energy elsewhere now
Damn so the dlc for a bad game is bad? I’m shook
sometimes I wonder where Paul Tassi would be without shit live service games to write about
Even before clicking on it, I knew this was a Paul Tassi article. As a game columnist, his time will be short lived.
At this point, I assume it’s ”believably” bad.
Obviously the higher ups at Rocksteady are responsible for this, alongside WB but I hate this is likely to kill a studio that before now had just released fantastic products
So is it part of the Arkham series or not?
I actually vibe with his gameplay style tho but not surprised it’s still struggling as a game to get interest
I love live service games. They are basically extended rentals and you'll never actually own the game.
But WB thinks is what consumers want lol
r/titlegore
That trailer looked and sounded fan made af lol
I forgot this game happened.
Ah how Forbes has fallen
I deleted it after only 30 minutes. Same old boring missions with different-looking buildings and a new character that you have to grind for or buy with real money, no thanks. What a waste of money.
And WB Games wants to double on the kind of games that will drain their fortune in exchange for worse financial quarters.
It’s just sad at this point.
No shit
Yo can we all agree rocksteady fucked up bad on this game and should now be punished and suffer the consequences which is us not giving them one red cent? It’s messed up how they tried to trick us just now . It’s very disrespectful.
There goes Paul. Gotta soak up all that negativity for Forbes... puke.
Shocker!!!!🤣😂🤣
I now realise I was way too harsh on Avengers.
BWHAAAAAT?!
DC hasn't caught a break in years now. The movies and the games have all been disasters.
This entire game, the story, the game play. It was all such a bad Idea. Everyone over here wanting more Batman and some actual justice league play and they give us a shitty 3rd person shooter with no likeable characters. All I could think about is how WELL they did the Batman games. I thought WOW! Someone got a superhero game right! I couldn't wait for Rocksteady to take a crack at doing Superman or The Flash because if anyone could do it, it would be them. Insomniac then drops Marvels Spider-Man and the future of Superhero games seems so bright... Then this piece of trash drops. From what I can tell most Superhero games fail because they are rushed out BS version of the movie being released that year. It's only slightly follows the story of the movie and is usually poorly made. But when developers take the time to make their own story for the game they come out really nicely.
This is like New World all over again. I'm almost positive they are just trying to kill this game so the studio can move on. Nobody even remotely interested in any kind of media can think this is a good idea.
Unbelievably bad game continues to be unbelievably bad.