In an industry that is facing wave after wave of layoffs, Greg Foertsch details how keeping the XCOM team together made for a better sequel.
Well yeah - game development, a creative endeavour, benefits from continuity within the team working on it. Once you lose a certain percentage of that team, or even just a handful of key figures, the original vision and the lessons learned during its realisation are lost forever.
You’d think this was obvious, but apparently not to the c-suites, who see everyone as replaceable cogs.
This is the first I’m hearing about Star Wars Zero Company. Looks like XCOM in the Star Wars universe. I think I’d prefer XCOM 3, but this looks interesting.
have you tried Phoenix Point?
Yeah, it’s not bad but I think XCOM is better.
One of the big lessons I want to slam in the face of shareholders is that even auteurs don’t matter the way they do in comics, film, or TV. People like Hideo Kojima can do great things, but even Death Stranding got a bit of a release backlash for not feeling like MGS. Games, especially compared to other fields, are really a product of a whole team generating ideas that mesh. Sometimes all it takes is for a little bit of group breakage or brain drain, even just the unknown Engine Programmer departing, for the next project to not feel the same.
Bit of a tough sell to shareholders when Death Stranding sold well north of 10 million copies.
Oh, it found its audience, I just mean not all of it was off the same crowd. It thankfully got a visibility boost off the initial “MGS6” expectations, but for other creators they either don’t get that chance or the game isn’t even worth the chance.
Coincidentally, I suddenly felt like playing XCOM 2 again.
