Menzo
2039
It will never happen, because the people who would purchase it, middle management, are the ones who would be first identified as useless.
abrandt
2040
That’s fair, it’s needing to present to the business types who only accept numbers and data because comprehending anything else is too complicated for them.
KevinC
2042
My wife reports to something like 5 or 6 different managers. She would very much Like this post.
We are the descendants of the Golgafrincham B ark, after all.
Our whole society seems devoted to useless metrics. In education, we’ve held to the idea that simply sitting someone’s butt in a seat for X hours at a time magically makes them learn stuff. The corollary to this is that if what you are doing doesn’t involve sitting them there for X hours at a time, it can’t be working. Neither premise is remotely true, of course.
Scrax
2045
When I was between accounting jobs I was looking into an “outsourced CFO” service. You basically were a project based consultant for whatever company they shopped you out to. The company would install tracking software on your computer and send you a camera, so that it could track both mouse movement and ensure that your eyes were on the screen and tracking appropriately. The reviews of this company were appropriately abysmal as people documented that you would be “dinged” if your eyes even left the screen to look out the window or stepped away from the computer for a moment. I don’t recall the specifics, but you were only allocated a certain amount of time to be “off screen” during your scheduled worktime. Also, some shenanigans with the mouse movement thing - like if you didn’t move it every 30 seconds you would get dinged - also it didn’t register the scroll wheel - so people would be analyzing data or reading something long and have to be drawing circles with their mouse at the same time. Anyways, didn’t seem like a good fit for me.
That, to be sure, is putting it mildly. More like, “this seemed like one of the circles of hell.”
Twitter thread that goes into the NPD sales number, for July 2021 and for year to date, and last 12 months, and by platform. I was amused to see the Sony baseball game as the 10th best selling title on Xbox platforms, despite being on Game Pass.
Also, that whole thing about making Mario 3D all stars a limited availability game seems to have paid off for Nintendo, judging by the sales chart for the last 12 months. I know I bought it, and I don’t even own a Nintendo Switch!
This is a shame, but interesting to read about. A Sony studio that was setup to make VR games, but closed after 5 years.
The cancelled game:
The game had players flying around, shooting at enemies and rescuing people from the cockpit of a helicopter. The player had a co-pilot and access to an aircraft carrier that acted as a central base. It was at this aircraft carrier where the player could select their next location and mission, before flying out into the world to complete objectives.
jpinard
2049
Mismanagement strikes again.
rei
2050
Bring back Sony Liverpool and Wipeout you cowards.
There are rumors around a new Wipeout, possibly for the next gen PSVR.
This was quite amusing, if you’re a bit technically minded and can follow the reasoning:
It was cool, yeah. I also found the tutorial stuff in the Creation Kit on Navmeshes linked from the Tweet to be fascinating. I have watched folks build these things but never really grokked what they were doing. Now I know…a little more!
RickH
2055
The dev specifically did not name the publisher in his tweets. But then PC Gamer adds a final paragraph:
Regardless, as companies like Epic Games and other publishers make moves in the publishing space, it’s always wise to have a lawyer on-hand (if you can afford one).
I can see how that might be an honest mistake, naming a single publisher in a story about abusive publishers as an example of a new publisher, but a lot of people are going to draw the obvious conclusion.
Yeah, I saw that too and found it odd that they would be singled out.
I don’t know what kind of agreements Epic makes with developers, but my understanding is that it comes with boat loads of cash, and no requirement to pay it back if the sales don’t come through.
I read it as Epic being an easy example name that wouldn’t cause any trouble.
Like an excited band quickly signing a record deal, indie devs often times need the money, or are simply thrilled at the possibilities offered by any deal floated their direction. It’s tough, because they’re usually cash poor, and far enough in to a project that they’re willing to make bad decisions in order to see the game through to fruition.
As with many things related to the industry, I’d say the first place to turn is to your friend network - reach out to people you know who’ve worked with publishers, and ask them for referrals, recommendations, and opinions if any publisher reaches out. Don’t wait for one - find out from friends who they trust, and reach out on your own! Even then, of course, you have a chance to run in to bad practices, but at least you’re starting with a company that you know has (in the past) been wrangled in to good deals.
The level above that would be - get a lawyer! Not just any lawyer, preferably, but one who has done work regarding IP and software dev. There are a lot of terms and gotchas that can come up if you have a lawyer involved who doesn’t understand the world of software and game development. You either have to instruct them on everything, or you’re gonna get bad results. If possible, have a lawyer ahead of time prepare a boilerplate for you and if you are approached by a publisher, or want to approach one, at least have a terms sheet that you’ve generated that has what you’re looking for. Even if the final agreement is their long form, it’ll be generated from your terms, provided you’ve agreed on it ahead of time.
