Why are all their games critically successful, but financially disappointing...

>Prey for example had some cut content which indicated a lot of more indepth game mechanics.
Are you referring to the survival mechanics which were patched back into the game post-release?

they had advanced versions of stuff they re-introduced in a patch, trauma, burns, radiation etc and durability
obviously there are a lot of cut or downsized areas and stuff like crafting items that is redundant

Something that appeals to a lot of people can't be thoroughly enjoyed by anyone, and something that is thoroughly enjoyed by few can't appeal to a large audience.

>All of the good devs left anyway and got replaced with divesity hires who care more about politics than mechanics
I've heard this several times but don't see any proof of it affecting their games. Dishonored 2 was a better game than Dishonored 1 (gameplay wise), and Prey (2017) is more similar to Arx Fatalis than Dishonored.

The only thing that's changed with their games from Arx Fatalis is that they're optimized for consoles with their weapon wheels (but even then Prey has a similar inventory to Dark Messiah and Arx). Also that the games are way less janky now.

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>Something that appeals to a lot of people can't be thoroughly enjoyed by anyone, and something that is thoroughly enjoyed by few can't appeal to a large audience.
Is the immersive sim genre such a small niche? Deus Ex was a fairly large success. In my opinion anyone who enjoyed Deus Ex, or Dishonored, or Bioshock would thoroughly enjoy Prey.

>Deus Ex was a fairly large success.
Only Human Revolution was, and that game was really, really, really, really watered down.

>Arkane
>Gameplay
Pick one.

*walking sim

Metal Gear is a stealth game in the same way Pacman is a stealth game.

I was thinking of the first Deus Ex, but I realize it would be a pretty hard sale nowadays.

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Prey 2 or new IP when. Don't really care for Dishonored 3.

Prey is also arguably a horror game, which many people might feel uncomfortable playing.
I think BotW showed devs that people like playing around with mechanics that let you be creative, rather than giving the player a few number of tools with specific uses, but all of the immersive sims being gritty, dark and quite often leaning towards horror (Thief games come to mind, and Arx Fatalis is quite eerie) might dissuade people from playing them.

I don't know if the first Deus Ex was more successful than Prey (2017), though. If that's true, I'd imagine a change of demographic in the gaming community could affect that.

don't be so retarded

>Prey is also arguably a horror game, which many people might feel uncomfortable playing.
There were a few jumpscares, but I never got this horror vibe so many people talk about. It was atmospheric and tense all the time, but I never felt truly scared like I did when I played levels like Shalebridge Cradle. I think a dedicated horror level could have worked wonderfully for Prey.

Dark Messiah is their best game.

That's sad.

Fuck nu arkane, they will cuck that game.

I think that "atmospheric and tense all the time" could constitute as horror. You never know what lurks behind the next corner, everything could be a mimic, every enemy is jittery and the floating ones are really ominous and supernatural. The other people on the space station were all scared for their lives, and all you hear from most of them are messages recorded in their last hours of living.

It's their most linear game, so I'd have to assume you think it's the best for that reason.

for them

Because they are ridiculously derivative, barring one single DMoMM (the recent spiritual successor to which has recently bombed in such a spectacular manner probably even Fortnite core audience became aware of its existence).

I guess you haven't played arx then
DM is good though it's more like medieval HL2 than anything else

this, when you go from DARK MESSIAH to dishonored 2 you can see obvious downgrade in talent, dedication and overall pandering to normalfag cucks who like mobile games

Arx is trivial and boring, been there, done that. The same relates to nuPrey as well.

>every enemy is jittery and the floating ones are really ominous and supernatural.
I think it's mostly down to enemy design and balance, the Typhon did not unnerve me, like the Puppets did. And by the mid game I was killing Nightmares in seconds using Psi.

I switched from Nightmare to Hard in the early game, maybe I should've switched back to Nightmare once I got a few powers.

Shut up zoomer, adults are speaking, go back to your fortnite or your fotm on your favourite twitch streamer.

Arx is derivative, while DM at least tries to innovate both in its gameplay (due to Paul Neurath's involvement) and its visuals (Antonov being and art consultant without being restricted with LETS MAKE IT _E_X_A_C_T_L_Y_ LIKE CITY 17 requirement).

you can't be serious with this post

I hope to god Arx 2 will never happen, because there is no fucking way it would be good in this fucking year. Imagine playing Arx with quest markers, collectibles and achievements.

>Arx is trivial and boring
What's trivial about it? If there is anything to criticize about Arx is how some of the mechanics are underdeveloped, like ranged combat for example. But the environment and sound design are stellar, also the magic system is top notch if you patch it to work perfectly, it's probably one of the best magic system for a 1st person RPG.

Even Battlespire is all around more noteworthy game, than Arx is.

they occupy strong, stable niche. they make return on investment and enough to make more.
that's all business must be. they are financially successful, being unsuccessful would mean going bankrupt.

Even if you disagree that it's a horror game, I'm sure you can understand why some people would get that impression, and why that would be off-putting for some people.

Trivial means "repeats after others". Arx is literally "Thief Underworld" with two inane gimmicks (drawing and cooking) that essentially change nothing whatsoever gameplay-wise (you don't need to draw in combat due to precasts).

>they occupy strong, stable niche. they make return on investment and enough to make more.
this is why they lost all original devs and are relegated to making multiplayer only games?

They are working on new Wolfenstein. You read that right. I think Bethseda is wasting Arkanes talent on IP like this

because marketing for that game was shit.

I am. Arx, at its time, was already "been there, done that", DM was not.

Harvey Smith was a mistake
Colantoniochads rise up

Niche games don't sell, AAA games can't be niche.
Also, one of the old devs, after Zenimax purchased Arkane, said working on games under the new leadership is boring, development is slow, and rather than just doing the thing, they prefer to hire the hollywood eyebrow 3D specialist, he left because of that.

>and are relegated to making multiplayer only games?
do you have any source on that? or are you mistaking arkane for respawn?

Prey was boring.

>do you have any source on that?
nerd4.life/2019/02/12/arkane-studios-is-looking-for-a-specialist-monetization/

I know Arkane's Prey has nothing to do with the 2006 prey, but I would've liked to see what their take on the Sphere would've been like.

>stopped playing Arx because one of the shop owners NEVER stayed in his shopped, therefore removing an important merchant from the game
>stopped playing DM because of a game-breaking bug that gave me an instant game over every time I reached the first escort mission

>Even if you disagree that it's a horror game
I agree with your point, I was just making the highly subjective claim that Prey was not scary for ME. But yes, I realize that enemies that 2-shot you and scarce ammo and consumables would be a hard sell for a massive audience.

>AAA games can't be niche.
sure they can be, publishers need to stop expecting 400% returns like they used to and be happy they get 30%, mass market is dead outside edge cases
the only way to survive is distribution if niches, you can't expect to sell games by tens of millions copies every single time

imagine playing arx with decent controls :O

The most boring and predictable take imaginable?

>They are working on new Wolfenstein
that's sad

no. what would machine games do? that's stupid assumption

Yeah, Arx and DM are both janky. Even when they work as they should, they're difficult to play. DM is really slippery and Arx is the opposite.

bethesda found out about monetization game, yes
they will tack it on every single game they release like ubisoft. doesn't meant it's going to be multiplayer.

>invited anita and bragged about it on twitter
more like cuck studios lmao fuck prey and fuck dishonored

I've never played it btw

Source? Aren't you confusing them with Bioware?

Except to AAA studios, they need to go beyond the 100% of profits, because is not just the studio who is on the line, the publisher is also expecting to be paid.

Co-developing with Machine games

It's not really a small niche because it's existed for two decades now and throughout this whole period a lot of entries in the genre have seen at least moderate success despite budgets never being particularly low.
I think they're just large investments which very rarely make a ton of money.

>they need to go beyond the 100% of profits
no they don't, that's not how publisher owned studio work, there is a direct corporate revenue line, studios get salaries that's all
getting twice the investment is retarded novariche idea, it worked when market was small enough for a select few companies get ton of money
videogames nearing movies on how dense market got.