Frostpunk creators cancel "Project 8" and lay off staff amid concerns that "narrative-driven, story-rich games" don't sell

man who normally buys "narrative-driven, story-rich games" forced to put his money back into his wallet

thats a shitty excuse if i ever heard one

The title is a bit missleading considering that the actual article mentions a lot other problems that plagued the development.

Project 8 faced both progress and challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic made team stability difficult, but some quality improvements were achieved. However, critical issues persisted, causing delays and budget increases. The latest review revealed unresolved problems needing more time and money, along with revised sales forecasts, raising doubts about the project's profitability.
-- TLDR by Microsoft copilot

While there's still demand for "narrative-driven story-rich games" one should keep realistic expectations. For this genre I feel smaller scope and indie developers work much better.

Typical infantile C-suite logic “I didn't do X well, therefore X is impossible and no one can do X! It's not my fault, I swear!”

Obviously this is just me, but here is a list of the last 5 games I purchased that were not smaller indie titles:

Stalker 2, Elden ring, remnant 2, bg3, dragon's dogma 2

You could argue that remnant is intended for multiplayer and you could argue that maybe only bg3 and stalker and really narrative driven but the truth is, anymore I tend to buy single player and stream to my friends than I do actually play mp games. The only mp game i was tempted by was Helldivers and I was just too busy at the time.

Anything else are steam deck friendly indie games. I buy a lot of those, and bought a lot even before I had a deck.

In my anecdotal experience, when I see x game is multiplayer, or live service, or just not an experience I can enjoy on my own time I tune it out. For example, I always bought Diablo games but I don't own 4.

I also immediately think of some other big ones that I opted out of, like Wukong. People fucking love single player games when they are good games. I think the real issue is developing a good game is hard. Developing a game with dark practices and otherwise addicting (but not necessarily fun) gameplay is a much easier way to make uninspired games made by committee.

It's just easier to point the blame at the market than actually admit that upon self reflection you realized it is best to avoid the hard part of game development.

The Last of Us is still selling.

Ah, so managerial problems again who would have thought but that's OK we that make the things can suffer a little more

I liked Frostpunk and would have loved a story driven game in that universe.

Ok guys valid points from everyone here. But who here has bought the latest 11bit Studios games? And I'm not talking about Frostpunk 2. I'm taking about Indika, The alters (not out yet, my bad) , The Traumathurge, Creatures of Ava ,... all of these games seemed like really cool things to me, sadly I could not afford them.

jizzpunk

Did we already forget that BG3 existed like once year later...?

They sell fine. Look at BG3.

What they don't do is make money hand over fist without the need to design more product, as happens with subscription-based, game-as-a-service multiplayer titles. Some companies don't want to make good games. They just want to make good money.

Narrative-driven games made Valve into Valve. But ok, you do you.

Honestly I can't think of a recent game I enjoyed that wasn't a narrative-driven story rich game.

Really? It feels like every other AAA game is an interactive movie these days.

Larian rn:

Did these developers completely miss Baldurs Gate 3

If they actually believe something so patently ridiculous, then it’s probably best that they cancelled it. So I guess this is good news. Those are the only kinds of games I want to play. FFS.

Why does capitalist reasoning always sound like a prayer to an angry god?

We consulted the oracle and it seems that the dragon is tired of corn. So we've hedged our portfolio with wheat and virgins.

If Frostpunk is their idea of a "narrative-driven, story-rich game", I can see why they have concerns.

Bad ones, sure. Wait, no, even bad ones sell. They’re just wrong.

Sony has been screaming the exact opposite of this and it continues to garner them a fuck ton of cash. You don’t even need Sony money to do it, as per Baldurs gate that many are also referencing here in the comments.

There’s no way they actually believe that, the C-suite simply can’t stop salivating over the potential money a live service game can potentially provide

I'm going to guess they mean narrative-driven "games" like Hellblade or Indika, which were all narrative and almost no game.

Yeah, if you ignore like ALL of the nominations and winners at The Game Awards for the last 10 years and take a look at checks notes Fortnite

Narrative driven, story rich games don't sell?

How many video game franchises are making the leap to tv/movies these days? Hint, it's the ones with narrative driven, story rich games.

Go ahead and make pay to win mobile games, I don't play them and they rake in millions so it makes perfect business sense.

But the idea that gamers don't pay for good narrative driven, story rich games is laughable.

I think the biggest problem with a lot of game franchises have is they only sell the game. So much money is being left on the table with the best efforts being a screengrab lazily printed on a cheap shirt that sells maybe one or two.

If I could get some official, quality, Umbrella/Shinra/Arasaka/Faro corporation mugs, phone covers, meme tier shirts etc I'd be all over it.

Thats the studio head talking bullahit.
Not the actual creators

The Journalist writes "I'm predictably both intrigued and worried that 11 bit think there's less interest now in games with a pronounced narrative component." But then does not detail any attempt at getting a comment from the studio on that... What gives?

It's not the customers like stories or not; it's customers want good stories.

If that guy's aiming is that bad at reading the market, it might be just a good thing he is not going the story path.

It sucks for the people being layoff though.

Not agreeing, but if I look at my own purchases for the last few years, there aren't many story driven games there. God of War and Starfield. Didn't play much either one.

NGL the title always seemed like it wanted to be a mobile game so the studio saying this doesn't surprise me.

Sad but I can see their point, considering that most customer attention spans are limited to memes now.

Is that the actual creators talking tho, or the studio head

Just put some digital boobs in the game. It WILL sell