Game Development Giant

Jester was not sure about this either.

However, although he didn't know what Sony was thinking now, he still knew that Sony had established a new hardware research and development institution when he released the console. Although Sony itself was not popular, Jester still knew through his own channels. The research and development of PS3 has been put on Sony's agenda. The last time it reorganized the hardware development team was for the development of PS3.

After Kutaragi Ken's previous plan to rely on 3D effects to gain an advantage in this generation's console war fell through, he is ready to leave the opportunity to the next time.

As for Sega…

Jester actually heard news about Sega recently, but there is no development plan for their new console. However, Sega seems to have had secret talks with Yu Suzuki several times in a row. If he thinks well, he should think It is necessary to go back to the old path before, and it is completely impossible for Suzuki Yubi to refuse to develop a game like "The Hero".

Is the emergence of the world of "Shenmue" inevitable?

However, Jester feels that there is no point in developing "Shenmue" now, even if Yu Suzuki has absorbed enough experience from "The Hero" and added his development of "The Hero" to the development of "Shenmue" With some of these insights and experiences, "Shenmue" no longer has the shortcomings of its original history.

But so what?

The reason why the original "Shenmue" is still remembered by players more than ten years later is not because of how fun the game was - it was not a fun game, but because of Yu Suzuki at the time. and their team, proved to everyone that games can still be so awesome! It turns out that the game can still do this! It turns out that the game can still do this!

that is it.

However, there are already "heroes" in front of them, and the team Suzuki Yu can have and the power he can mobilize are absolutely impossible to compare with his previous team.

The most important point is. With the current configuration of the Sega Saturn, it is impossible to make a game comparable to "The Hero".

However, the information Jester recently obtained about Yu Suzuki and Sega is that they are recruiting a large number of developers. This time they recruited not only game developers, but also some script writers and some construction personnel. Judging from their most taboo moves, Sega really intends to let Suzuki Yu start "Shenmue" again. 》 was produced.

The original history. "Shenmue" became the last straw for Sega. What will be their fate in this world?

It's hard to say on this aspect, but one thing Jester is sure of is that even if Yu Suzuki really plans to make a full visual response entertainment game in his mind, the platform chosen will definitely be Sega's next one. platform instead of the current Sega Saturn.

The reason is very simple. The performance of the Sega Saturn console is very powerful, but its power lies in its 2D image processing. It should be among the three major consoles at present. The best, but in terms of 3D image processing, it goes without saying that it is on par with Dreambox 3, which is completely higher than the other two consoles. Even compared with PS2, it is still somewhat inferior.

Although Sony's previous statement was not official and somewhat timid, it did arouse a great response in the industry.

Sony has not come out to refute the rumors, but they have not announced their console sales, which can be regarded as confirming from one side that this statement is not groundless.

Judging from Sony's recent actions. They have intensified their efforts on the Zerg in the hardware development department. Not only did they send senior hardware development engineers from Sony, but they also recruited a large number of outsiders. Sega, which had never shown this before. It seems that they can't sit still anymore. Judging from some information revealed by various parties, the development of their new console seems to have been put on the agenda.

Even so.

However, it is undeniable that Dreambox 3 is simply what they dream of in the minds of many players. Flawless hosting.

Not only in terms of performance, it is better than the other two consoles. After all, the price of Dreambox 3 is $50 more than the other two consoles. Naturally, the performance must also be excellent, so that players will buy it.

More importantly, even in terms of peripherals, Dreambox 3 is not comparable to the other two game companies. Just say that this time, the two completely different controllers on Dreambox 3 make all kinds of players very excited. Satisfactory, two different controllers, matched with different game types, can give players different experiences.

Moreover, the dual joystick setting is simply specially prepared for 3D games.

Even after many people played their 3D games using the dual joystick controller of Dreambox 3, they immediately became very uncomfortable playing 3D games on PS2.

In this regard, Sony has also announced that they are preparing to launch a new dual-joystick controller to match the PS2, and they will ensure that the dual-joystick controller will also be used as a standard feature of games in subsequent PS2s.

Of course, there is also the auxiliary aiming setting that they creatively added to the console port version of "Quake", which finally solved the problem of being unable to play FPS with the controller, and successfully combined the previously extremely popular "Quake" on the PC. "Hammer" was introduced into the console. Although the sales volume of "Quake" this time can only be said to be half, after all, it is just a transplanted work. In addition, although the handle has auxiliary aiming, the operability is still not as good as Keyboard and mouse.

Of course, the most fundamental reason is still.

After years of development, the player community of FPS games on PC is much stronger than the player community of consoles.

But everyone can understand that as long as the aiming problem of the controller is solved, it is certain that there will be a big explosion of shooting games on the console. After all, shooting games are one of the most popular and highest-selling games in Europe and the United States, and before The reason it can only be used on PC is because the controller cannot solve the FPS aiming problem.

Although the operation method of using keyboard and mouse on PC is smoother, there is a problem that can never be circumvented in PC games, and that is the problem of piracy.

So, just get the chance. At least in this era, game manufacturers still put the limitations of console games above PC games. Even with the advent of STEAM in later generations, PC games that were about to die out were rescued from the quagmire. But the problem of low sales of PC games is also something that cannot be solved.

Is it because there are so few people using PC to play games?

No, after all, how much installed capacity does the host have?

At the peak of the PS3 and XBOX360 era, the combined installed base of the two consoles was only 160 million units.

And how many PCs are there in the world?

It’s not an exaggeration to say that everyone has one, right?

However, the sales of PC games are difficult to reach even one-tenth of the sales of console games.

This is why the Polish jackass said that. The reason why there would be no "The Witcher 3" without console users is because of the profitability of PC games, there is simply no way for them to complete a game with this level of investment.

This is actually why many people at that time said that PC could replace consoles, but Jester would always sneer at it.

It is true that the performance of the PC is indeed superior to that of the console. Everything the console can do, the PC can do, so the PC will replace the console, but when it comes to this reason. These people have forgotten one of the most critical issues, that is, from the perspective of game developers, the reason why they develop console games is not because the performance of the console is better than that of the PC - in fact, from the Polish Jackass and "The Witcher 3" From the above, we can easily know that PCs are much better than consoles in game development. They can easily complete some things that consoles cannot complete due to hardware limitations.

It's because, until the console is cracked, there will be no piracy of the game.

This is why developers are interested in consoles. It's because console sales can bring them profits that far exceed those of PCs.

You can imagine that if a game's maximum sales volume is only one or two million units, then modern players may never play a game like "GTA5".

The reason is very simple, as I said before. That means there is no way to recoup the investment.

Let’s skip these for now.

It can be said that in this Dreambox 3 console war, Mars Entertainment not only defeated the other two major manufacturers in terms of software games, but also in terms of hardware and peripherals, Mars Entertainment's performance this time. It is also beyond the reach of the other two companies.

One month after the release of Dreambox 3, Jester also began to prepare for the GDC at the end of this year. After all, it is the provincial capital of annual game developers. It will not only select this year's game of the year, but also this year's game industry. The Lifetime Achievement Award will basically fall on me. If I wanted it in the previous years, the Lifetime Achievement Award would also fall on me.

However, I never accepted it because I was busy with game development.

As of now, "The Heroes" is on sale, and with a sweep of all the major awards at this year's GDC already a given, Jester has not refused this year's Lifetime Achievement Award.

This year's GDC will be held at the end of January, and it's still more than half a month before GDC starts.

Jester also took the opportunity to perfect the hunting and co-fighting game that he was going to produce next, which he had modified beyond recognition. Although this was just a variant of the ACT game, this gameplay was still very innovative. sexual.

This is a game that you can play very happily and excitedly without caring about the plot. When this game was discussed within Mars Entertainment, it also received mixed reviews - many people saw Jie They felt that this was a game that perfectly blended the essence of dark games and the essence of ACT games.

Of course, there are also many designers who are not optimistic about this game.

That is, in terms of plot, this game named "Monster Hunter" by Jester is really too weak.

Even when players are playing, there is no need to pay attention to what the game is about - these things are irrelevant. They only need to know that if I want to forge XXX equipment, I need to hunt XXX, XXX, XXX, and then collect XXX materials, but I can't beat XXX. I need to find my friends to fight XXX together...

This is all you need to know to play the game.

And this writing is what Jester focused on when writing the game's development plan. This is the cooperative hunting game he wants to create.

However, this game production method that infinitely weakens the plot and content is not approved by everyone.

Jester has said it countless times in meetings within the company: "For a game, you must not just rely on your brain to think about it. It should be fun to do this. It should not be fun to do this. Instead, play it for real." Don’t look at the statistics and the feedback from various players. Before you do this, you have to play it first and whether it is fun to do it or not to do it - this is the purpose of a game. The key, in the final analysis, is to make the game fun for the players, so that every player who participates in the game can experience happiness in their own way."

This is the case for Blizzard in later generations. When designing games, they never consider whether doing so will bring happiness to all players who play the game. They only know how to make games based on their brains. The most typical one is "Heroes of the Storm". According to Jack Ste understands that this is a game that is good enough in every aspect, but just not fun.

Therefore, although the "Monster Hunter" project has received mixed reviews within Mars Entertainment.

However, this project is still officially established.

However, Jester's idea of ​​developing three versions at the same time did not pass the final review, but he did not deny it. After all, three such games require a huge investment in human and financial resources.

Therefore, those review members who have doubts about this game method still proposed to make a DEMO of the game first, and then after actually playing and experiencing the game, whether they should follow Jester's rules The above request is to develop three games at the same time.

This is also a very reasonable request, and Jester himself has no objection. (~^~)