This is a pretty different take on Bungie's split compared to when the news happened. The story as I understood it wasn't Bungie escaping with Activision's cash cow due to a genius legal contract....
This is a pretty different take on Bungie's split compared to when the news happened. The story as I understood it wasn't Bungie escaping with Activision's cash cow due to a genius legal contract. It was of a mutual separation due to both parties being unsatisfied with each other. The book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier gives a lot of insight on Bungies culture, why they left Microsoft, and how they eventually got into bed with Activitision.
In short Bungie seemed to always be somewhat immature. They left Microsoft not because of any specific reason but because they wanted the abstract concept of freedom and independence. After getting that though they discovered they needed funding. Being the creators of Halo people were interested and a deal was struct with Ativision. From Activision's perspective, they signed a contract that promised them the next Halo, the next big thing. What they got was Destiny, which while it turned out ok did not meet their expectations.
Even if Destiny was profitable, Activision only got involved because it wanted the "big fish", it wasn't really interested in hosting a niche MMO. Likewise I imagine Bungie remained imature and despite limited interference from Activision they still idealized freedom and independence. So both were willing to let themselves go separate ways and move on.
As for Bungies latest moves being a flood of ideas that were suppressed by Activision It's hard to say. Destiny has always been an evolving franchise where Bungie eventually tries to incorporate feedback to make the game better. Now they are also dealing with the fact they need to maintain a userbase so they can maintain their revenue. How freedom from activision, pressure from fans, and a need for money weight against eachother in determining Destiny's current course in unclear. I doubt we'd be able to tell from the outside, we'd need another book or expose from someone inside to explain what happened and what is really motivating their actions now.
I've got some Audible credits to burn. Is "Blood, Sweat, and Pixels" worth a listen? I'm not generally a fan of managementy/business books as I feel like they spend 300 pages to make a point that...
I've got some Audible credits to burn. Is "Blood, Sweat, and Pixels" worth a listen? I'm not generally a fan of managementy/business books as I feel like they spend 300 pages to make a point that could be covered in a third of the space. But his Kotaku articles on the subject have all been good.
What you say is in line with most of my (non games industry) experience as a PM would suggest though. I feel like the loot boxy and live-services mandates are probably publisher driven, but a lot of other problems people complain about with big publishers seems more like they're bad at helping (formerly) smaller studios scale up/mature well into big studios. A lot of Bioware's issues, for example, strike me more as biting off way more than they can chew in the scoping phase rather than EA forcing them to make shitty facial animations or unreasonable time-frames. The poor scoping leads to firefighting and crisis management all the time instead of refining and fixing.
It's a different story with Bungie though. Destiny struck me as being pretty well defined for what it is, but kind of boring in the big picture which suggests to me just a lack of imagination on the conceptual level.
If you play games and are somewhat interested in what it takes to get them made I think you'd enjoy it. It's well written and focuses on the games. If there are buisness aspects considered it...
If you play games and are somewhat interested in what it takes to get them made I think you'd enjoy it. It's well written and focuses on the games. If there are buisness aspects considered it talks about them in terms of how they affected the game being made. If you've played the games that are talked it will also be more rewarding but it's not essential. It goes over...
Pillars of Eternity
Uncharted 4
Stardew Valley
Diablo III
Halo Wars
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Shovel Knight
Destiny
The Witcher 3
Star Wars 1313
Also due to the nature of the subjects there's not much information that carries over from chapter to chapter which I think would make it fit well as an audiobook.
Downloaded. The first chapter has been pretty interesting. Nothing life-changing, but definitely something to do while walking the dog. I’m looking forward to the Stardew Valley chapter.
Downloaded. The first chapter has been pretty interesting. Nothing life-changing, but definitely something to do while walking the dog.
I’m looking forward to the Stardew Valley chapter.
I'm inclined to agree with the author's thesis, but I'm really not sold by his argument and the evidence seems weak. Partly, I think he jumped the gun and wrote the article too early. We'll have a...
I'm inclined to agree with the author's thesis, but I'm really not sold by his argument and the evidence seems weak. Partly, I think he jumped the gun and wrote the article too early. We'll have a clearer picture when the game actually comes out and we can compare/contrast.
This is a pretty different take on Bungie's split compared to when the news happened. The story as I understood it wasn't Bungie escaping with Activision's cash cow due to a genius legal contract. It was of a mutual separation due to both parties being unsatisfied with each other. The book Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier gives a lot of insight on Bungies culture, why they left Microsoft, and how they eventually got into bed with Activitision.
In short Bungie seemed to always be somewhat immature. They left Microsoft not because of any specific reason but because they wanted the abstract concept of freedom and independence. After getting that though they discovered they needed funding. Being the creators of Halo people were interested and a deal was struct with Ativision. From Activision's perspective, they signed a contract that promised them the next Halo, the next big thing. What they got was Destiny, which while it turned out ok did not meet their expectations.
Even if Destiny was profitable, Activision only got involved because it wanted the "big fish", it wasn't really interested in hosting a niche MMO. Likewise I imagine Bungie remained imature and despite limited interference from Activision they still idealized freedom and independence. So both were willing to let themselves go separate ways and move on.
As for Bungies latest moves being a flood of ideas that were suppressed by Activision It's hard to say. Destiny has always been an evolving franchise where Bungie eventually tries to incorporate feedback to make the game better. Now they are also dealing with the fact they need to maintain a userbase so they can maintain their revenue. How freedom from activision, pressure from fans, and a need for money weight against eachother in determining Destiny's current course in unclear. I doubt we'd be able to tell from the outside, we'd need another book or expose from someone inside to explain what happened and what is really motivating their actions now.
I've got some Audible credits to burn. Is "Blood, Sweat, and Pixels" worth a listen? I'm not generally a fan of managementy/business books as I feel like they spend 300 pages to make a point that could be covered in a third of the space. But his Kotaku articles on the subject have all been good.
What you say is in line with most of my (non games industry) experience as a PM would suggest though. I feel like the loot boxy and live-services mandates are probably publisher driven, but a lot of other problems people complain about with big publishers seems more like they're bad at helping (formerly) smaller studios scale up/mature well into big studios. A lot of Bioware's issues, for example, strike me more as biting off way more than they can chew in the scoping phase rather than EA forcing them to make shitty facial animations or unreasonable time-frames. The poor scoping leads to firefighting and crisis management all the time instead of refining and fixing.
It's a different story with Bungie though. Destiny struck me as being pretty well defined for what it is, but kind of boring in the big picture which suggests to me just a lack of imagination on the conceptual level.
If you play games and are somewhat interested in what it takes to get them made I think you'd enjoy it. It's well written and focuses on the games. If there are buisness aspects considered it talks about them in terms of how they affected the game being made. If you've played the games that are talked it will also be more rewarding but it's not essential. It goes over...
Also due to the nature of the subjects there's not much information that carries over from chapter to chapter which I think would make it fit well as an audiobook.
Downloaded. The first chapter has been pretty interesting. Nothing life-changing, but definitely something to do while walking the dog.
I’m looking forward to the Stardew Valley chapter.
I'm inclined to agree with the author's thesis, but I'm really not sold by his argument and the evidence seems weak. Partly, I think he jumped the gun and wrote the article too early. We'll have a clearer picture when the game actually comes out and we can compare/contrast.