*snip*
As developer World's Edge wrote, "We are proud to officially announce the partnership between World's Edge and Capture Age. Capture Age is a ground-breaking spectating tool that completely changed how you can watch, enjoy, and analyze Age of Empires: II. Today we can confirm that Capture Age will be coming to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition."
*snip*
Last month, in April, the games’ combined average player count was over 50,000 players. April 12 was the definitive edition’s all-time player peak, and the combined total of the games was 59,995 players. That’s well into the top 150 all-time peak player counts on Steam… for a 21-year-old game.
*snip*
To give you an idea of the scale at work here, Age of Empires 2 sold some 1.5 million copies in the three years surrounding its North American release. Last year, the studio behind the game said that a million people per month were still playing Age of Empires games… and that’s before the huge spike in players this year has seen.
Hitler Reacts to the End of Battlefield 5: Hitler has some choice words for Battlefield V's developer and publisher after hearing new content for the game stops in June. Unglaublich.
Fabian Siegismund uploaded a video yesterday giving some insights into BF5's development and confirming a few points most of us already suspected. But why should you believe him?
Firstly, he has worked for the biggest German games magazine "Gamestar." He has basically written every preview for every Battlefield installment there is while visiting Dice very frequently to do this. He is known to be a "friend of the family." Secondly, he has been an EA Game Changer and is thus in contact with developers and higher-ups at Dice and EA, who ask him about his opinion on the game from time to time.
You can find his video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Q6LK-s904. Unfortunately, it is in German (and as you can infer from my English, I am German as well). I try my best to provide you with a short summary:
BF5's early ending was to be expected.
He was quite enthusiastic when Dice provided him with a preview version, emphasizing that going back to Wake Island will be phenomenal. Unfortunately, Dice already told him back then that they are planning to drip feed the content and that there will be no famous map on launch.
He was telling them to be precise with their content plan, otherwise people will be disappointed. Dice underlined that they are aware of this and will stick to their roadmap(s) no matter the cost.
Compared to previous installments, developers were lacking excitement for their own game. He uses the words soulless and corporate to describe the employees' demeanor on the launch event.
Dice was indeed very sulky on receiving negative feedback for their initial trailer.
From the beginning, lacking tech was the common explanation for not impoving the assignment system.
Dice thought that the combination of a campaign, multiplayer AND battle royale was the selling point of the game.
He does not understand the TTK changes and the lack of a CTE. The Game Changers visited Dice for the Pacific Update, where they were told about the TTK changes. Dice allowed no argument regarding these changes.
Strategic decisions have been puzzling and overly hasty from the start; i.e. changing customization several times behind the scenes.
Marketing budgets were frequently decreased as EA lost faith in the product relatively early.
Dice had problems understanding what the community wants when it comes to cosmetics.
That's basically it. Nothing new, but confirming once again what most of us already suspected. I want to end my post by emphasizing that BF5 is not going anywhere for now. I am super happy for you if you enjoy the game and I am also sure that you will be able to find people to play with in the future.
The only thing that is a bit "worrying" so to say is how Relics productivity seemingly has gone down in the last years. They used to launch a new game/expansion almost every year with some projects being worked on in parallel, but ever since CoH2s release there was not much to show for. DoW3 that failed quite heavily, two cancelled games, and AoE4 in the making for years now without any information to the public. So either they go for a strategy of not showing much and keeping secrets to build hype on purpose or they really don't have much to show for.
I agree with this and new CoH2 expansions canceled in 2015/2016 (source Linkedin).
After DoW3 failure Relic said they wanted to become more transparent with community consultation and early play testing etc..
*snip*
Your points about betas and players as part of our process have been a huge point of discussion in the studio. I can't get into much detail here but even before the launch of DOW, the AOE team has been working very differently to make user research, early play-testing, and community consultation a much bigger part of how we make games.
*snip*
The root of the disconnect that we've focused on is iteration without player feedback. One of the biggest risks in making games is that you don’t fully see how a title will really play and feel until you’ve hit a point where it’s difficult to switch gears. From where we're sitting, bringing that early and ongoing player validation into our process is a big priority so well-intentioned decisions don't go long without feedback.
*snip*
We're pouring all of our lessons learned into our other projects knowing that making them great is our best way forward. We'd love to share more on how that change is coming to life in the studio when we're able to talk more openly about those projects.
*snip*
Hey guys, I'm trying to be as transparent as I can here but I can't reveal new info on upcoming projects. What I can tell you is that both are being developed very differently for Relic and there is a lot of positive change afoot specifically around community consultation, user research, and early playtesting.
*snip*
there's a lot of pressure on our next releases and we're changing up how we do things to make sure we deliver. You'll have to wait and see but we're looking forward to sharing more about those changes as the projects progress.
*snip*
The role of user research, early play-testing, and community consultation in our process has been a big focus. Even before the launch of DOW, our other projects have been introducing new ways of bringing this into the fold. We're looking forward to giving you more insight into that process later down the line but for now we're staying focused on the work itself.
*snip*
The focus now is on the work ahead of us and making our next projects great. Once we cover more ground on that front, we can think more openly about sharing more. We don't want to skip steps, you know?
*snip*
There were lots of people across the development and community teams working to bring your voices into the studio and challenging us to be more transparent from the start. The conversations they started then are the reason you're seeing this now, and why you'll be seeing a different approach moving forward. Credit where credit's due.
*snip*
Work continues, conversations continue. We know we have something to prove and the teams are determined to prove it.
*snip*
We've also been working really hard with the game teams to determine how we can create more space for player feedback, early testing, and open dialogue in our process moving forward. Like I've said in some other comments, we're seeing promising results but we can't share much more than that until the projects are further along.
Sega closing Relic won't happen as long Microsoft money keeps them afloat.
Unfortunately, this could create a conflict of interest as Microsoft/Phil Spencer is happy with CoH development failing so they can buy the studio for a much lower price.
But throwing money into a black hole is not a winning strategy to improve productivity and Relic's return of investment that will keep Sega happy.
Elon Musk productivity quote;
- 0:59
"Let me just break it to the fools out there: if you don't make stuff, there is no stuff." (games)
It’s perfectly natural to want to be with people who agree, support and praise you all the time. Let’s face it -- it’s comforting to have people who are always in our corner, no matter what the issue or circumstance.
Suck-ups make us feel like we’re curled up with a warm blanket. Everything is okay, even cozy. We feel safe with them. We trust them.
These are the people we often consider to be our most loyal friends because they help us feel like we’re right. Validated. Vindicated. Smart.
Well, we may be all these things at one time or another, but we are not all these things all the time. And if you find that your trusted advisors are indiscriminate in their praise, it may be time for a gut-check.
These people may make us feel good, but they’re not always good for us. In fact, we could be a pawn in their game; an unwitting accomplice in helping them achieve an unhealthy degree of power and influence over our decisions and actions.
Or, maybe they’re a pawn in ours.
Are you the kind of leader who punishes people – overtly or oh-so-subtly – for speaking up and telling you things you don’t want to hear? Do you seek out people who affirm your decisions and actions?
No one wants to admit that they do this, but a quick glance at organizational life indicates that it’s the norm, not the exception. We’ve all seen it: the leader is isolated from reality, surrounded by a small group of people who deliver the good news and hide the bad. His entire worldview is distorted, controlled by those who are feeding his perceptions. He thinks these people are protecting him. Watching his back.
Or, he simply doesn’t want to hear the truth, so he rewards the peddlers of feel-good information and punishes the purveyors of truth.
In either case, it’s a dangerous position for any leader.
*snip*
"Losing its battle against bureaucracy"
I have been working at Relic Entertainment full-time Pros
- some great people who still keep the company afloat
- good salary and benefits
- good work/life balance
- top management seems to be trying to enforce a great culture
Cons
Despite top management's efforts to build a company of a great culture, on the local (team) level there are enough people of certain highly competitive backgrounds, whose "culture" includes avoiding responsibility for their mistakes by blaming others, backstabbing, hypocrisy, nepotism, dumping new ideas in endless discussions and bureaucracy (again, to avoid personal responsibility), tightening the development process (which is already incredibly complicated) instead of [obvious solutions], being too important to be on time, having cut-throat mentality to strive to make it to the top of the hierarchy (or at least keep the job because of its benefits) no matter what it takes. It's not good for other people and it's not good for the games in development. Also, some of the normal good people are too conservative - resistant to ideas and practices that are new to them, even when these ideas and practices are de-facto standards of the industry.
Basically, the company is losing its battle against bureaucracy and people who joined it just for benefits, status/title, and just being part of Relic.
Advice to Management
Flatten the hierarchy to some extent to stop attracting people who are born and raised to just climb hierarchies, make a company attractive to team players instead. Let actual contributors do their work. Understand that currently a hell of a lot of time is wasted for nothing - not because of the complexity of the games, but because of some people you rely on who are not interested in changes.
According to Phil Spencer the AoE4 team (former CoH2 leads) is ahead of schedule/'making good progress' so this employee review might be related to the new CoH team(s) throwing money into a black hole?
Wasteful spending?
Relic growth spread competent leadership too thin?
liability?
Talk is cheap, which Relic team will walk-the-talk?
Pitchford expanded on the reasoning behind creating a small-screen take on Gearbox’s Brothers in Arms: “I love the stories we told in the games, and we do have more stories to tell, but a TV show lets us explore this subject matter and the effect on the relationships and people in broader ways.” Pitchford’s comment suggests more Brothers in Arms games may be planned in one form or another.
Elon Musk
@elonmusk
2018
Hello, have you met the Internet? Everyone gets harassed regardless of gender, especially if they say false things. Saying I’m against science is like saying Beyoncé doesn’t know beats. Blowback from latter (all genders) would make my comment stream seem like Socratic dialogue.
Dice as sweeden studio is too much tolerant.. black women fighting for germany ? Political correctness is true cancer in our time. In bf6 there will be third gender and soldier sexuality choice.
Expand your thinking. PC/woke culture (the final outcome) has little to do with POC or sexism.
Real vs Fake racism:
1) Africans in China: We face coronavirus discrimination (17 April 2020): https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-52309414
2) China State media (CGTN) - "Hug a Chinese" Italy (this did not age well):
This western culture war is not left vs right, political extremism do not play "fair".
Win by any means necessary.
Denmark
SturmTigerCobra
ihitto(wwU)
PanzerGrenadierAngreifen
TheMachine
Relic Entertainment
보드카 중대 
