Yesterday, SIE presented the PlayStation Showcase.
It was a decent show, primarily thanks to third party games. Sony’s first party titles were scarce, but we did see three newly announced titles from their studios.
Bungie revealed Marathon with a CGI trailer. Marathon is a sci-fi PvP extraction shooter, a “games as a service” title that will have seasons.
Haven Studios revealed Fairgame$ with a CGI trailer. Fairgame$ is competitive heist shooter. We can expect it to have seasons as well.
Firewalk Studios revealed Concord with a CGI trailer. Concord is a PvP first person shooter. It too will have seasons.
We know very little about these games other than they are PvP GAAS titles. And while it wasn’t shown or mentioned yesterday, we all know The Last of Us: Factions is an online, PvP GAAS title. So, there’s at least four of these coming from Sony, and those are just the shooters.
This is how Firewalk describes Concord:
Concord is a bringing together of peoples. It’s the power of games to build connection and inspire social play. The Firewalk team is driven by the type of exciting, unexpected moments and shared experiences that multiplayer games create. Every time you log on is the beginning of a new adventure and every match is an opportunity for a new story. It’s these ideals that define Concord, its unique universe of vibrant worlds, and its rich cast of colorful characters.
This is how Haven describes Fairgame$:
Our first new IP, Fairgame$, is a fresh, modern take on the heist genre. In a nutshell, this is a thrilling competitive heist game where you join an underground movement to rob the ultra-rich and rebalance the scales.
Fairgame$ will give you an opportunity to break the rules as a modern-day Robin Hood, a thrill seeker, or just someone who wants to collect cool loot. Trespass inside forbidden locations around the world, fill your pockets like a kid in a candy store and unravel the nefarious plans of untouchable billionaires.
Fairgame$ came from a desire to create a new type of PvP game with emergent sandbox gameplay. We want to deliver a fresh multiplayer experience that rewards creativity and mastery and delivers surprising stories each and every time you play.
Every member of our team shares our vision to create welcoming and inclusive multiplayer experiences that glue communities together.
Build connections. Inspire social play. Inclusive. Every game is a new adventure, a new story. Emergent sandbox.
But the kicker comes from Fairgame$, “fresh modern take.”
Get out of here. Modern take means trash. The movie industry is garbage and the gaming industry, at least in the West, is chasing them to join Hollywood in the dumps.
Who are the gamers that are going to sustain just these three GAAS titles?
There’s seemingly not an original idea to be created by big AAA Western teams. It’s all online only, PvP garbage where the gameplay is “emergent” and it’s a “different story everytime.”
Who is asking for this? Most folks I know are tired of it.
Make a game that’s a finished product. No seasons, no “constantly evolving” world, and no microtransactions. It’s not impossible to do. Square Enix has Final Fantasy XVI just under a month away.
That’s a single player title with no planned DLC and won’t even have a day one update. A finished product, right out of the box. Imagine that in 2023.
How many of these online only games have to be made, and fail miserably, before companies stop throwing money at trying to be one of the few that catches fire?
I’m not saying a game needs to be single player only. But remember when games had a single player campaign, and then some co-op and/or PvP modes as well? Just a game, not strung along with a new season with a battle pass every three months.
Uncharted 2 was phenomenal. Brilliant single player campaign, fantastic multiplayer (both co-op and PvP). Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood had great single player campaign, and a wonderful and unique PvP mode. The older Call of Duties and Battlefields. The first Last of Us. And so on and so forth.
On the online only front, even the original Destiny was leagues better than any of this garbage we have today and that too was a GAAS title. I miss the first year of Destiny. Base game and two small DLC’s. No microtransactions, no seasons. Everything available at release. Finish everything before the next DLC and go play something else.
Another online only game I miss that was entirely a PvP shooter, but wasn’t a GAAS and didn’t have seasons, was MAG. I’d say remake that, but hell it’s 2023 and we all know it’d have seasons every two months, a battle pass, and other microtransactions.
I have zero interest in Marathon. Zero interest in Concord. Zero interest in Fairgame$, which is probably the worst of the bunch just based off of the description and the terrible CGI trailer.
Sony, what the hell are you even doing?
Gary (Patriot) is the Owner and Editor-in-Chief of LootPlex.com. He enjoys watching wrestling, playing video games (mostly looters), gardening and SEC football (Roll Tide!).