[HN Gopher] PS5 shooter goes from 5 players to bestseller after ...
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PS5 shooter goes from 5 players to bestseller after devs defend
game
Author : driftsumi-e
Score : 64 points
Date : 2025-06-05 03:41 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.polygon.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.polygon.com)
| mindcrash wrote:
| Maybe this is me sounding really cringe, but the world needs more
| people like this.
|
| Now more than ever.
| 12_throw_away wrote:
| TBH, I think the problem is not a lack of people like this, but
| that there's no oxygen for them anymore. Tech/gaming journalism
| is on life support (at best). All the remaining platforms are
| huge and corporate. Big tech is laying everyone off ... The
| current ecosystem doesn't really reward passion and competence
| anymore.
| lupusreal wrote:
| Traditional gaming journalism as once existed with magazines
| and later websites modeled after those magazines is wholly
| obsolete. For game discovery, reviews, and game tricks and
| tips, it has been replaced by independent youtubers and
| streamers. We're all much better off for this too, the new
| system gives much wider and deeper coverage to much more
| obscure games than the magazines ever could or would. Just as
| one example, Master Hellish creates an absolute ton of
| OpenTTD tutorials and showcase videos. The most the old games
| journalism industry would ever make for a game like that is
| one or two articles highlighting it as an obscure novelty,
| but never going I'm depth with the game mechanics.
| lyu07282 wrote:
| Or Mortismal Gaming who only covers CRPGs with more depth
| and passion than any legacy gaming journo.
| RyanHamilton wrote:
| I love their honest answer. Very retro.
| kgwxd wrote:
| Literally every indie game dev says exactly the same thing. It
| had nothing to do with "honesty", just luck again.
| NotGMan wrote:
| Unfortunately this is the truth.
| mikeymz wrote:
| As original as the hacker news cynic
| munchler wrote:
| Yes, but luck is what happens when preparation meets
| opportunity.
| pryelluw wrote:
| Says the spermatozoon that beat the others to the egg.
| CorpOverreach wrote:
| I wish more games would prioritize couch co-op modes over online
| play. Games that are focused on online only play basically have
| an expiration date from the day that they launch. Some may live
| longer, some may be dead on arrival.
|
| But, make a good game that's playable by friends together at any
| time on a rainy day? If the game is good, it never dies.
| jayd16 wrote:
| I think the cloud providers should figure out some kind of
| service for perpetual matchmaking/hosting of private servers.
| Devs are not always going to open source things but if you
| could fit your game server in some kind of package for Amazon
| to host then you can skirt that issue.
|
| In theory, enthusiasts could pay to keep the lights on even
| after the developer went out of business.
| Gamemaster1379 wrote:
| Honestly Valve had it right with offering dedicated server
| packages. I respect any studio that does the same, like
| TripWire and Killing Floor.
|
| I run my own private server for a live service game that shut
| down in just 1 year. We got lucky because they seemingly
| bundled the server code into the client. But the game was
| never meant to allow for that...
| int0x29 wrote:
| This isn't a technical problem. It's a legal and corporate
| political one. Copyright and patent issues are no more likely
| to go away with Amazon. Also Amazon's gaming division may
| make them a potential competitor.
|
| I also doubt that such a could service would be immune to
| corperate restructuring by the like of Amazon. We need gaming
| companies to be more comfortable providing server binaries if
| we want anything that lasts.
| numpad0 wrote:
| I would have totally agreed, but it looks like Steam offers
| free matchmaking backend and P2P proxies. Why isn't this
| widely known???
| Jach wrote:
| I would hope it actually is more known among developers.
| Even big titles like Tekken 7 used it. Insistence on
| crossplay with consoles causes a stumbling block, but
| still, that's not most games.
|
| https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/sdk/api/example provides
| a good example, too. Steam has all sorts of extra
| functionality to justify their 30% cut on sales, they're
| not just taking it while doing nothing.
| chatmasta wrote:
| The reason for the "de facto expiration date" is that
| eventually not enough people will want to play the game for
| matchmaking to be consistently available.
| valryon wrote:
| We did a couch coop game (CTHULOOT) and the number 1 refund
| reason we have is that it doesn't have online. (It doesn't
| because we lacked budget) So I'd say players now really expect
| online over local.
| janalsncm wrote:
| What you have described is survivorship bias. What matters is
| whether the refund request rate is higher than other games.
|
| The people who enjoyed your game because it has couch coop
| (and therefore don't request a refund) aren't represented in
| that refund request stat.
| shayway wrote:
| This is not a criticism of the developers at all, and certainly
| not their sentiments. I am behind those 100%. But.
|
| There are so many fantastic games made with just as much heart
| out there that don't have a tweet go viral and revitalize the
| playerbase. Developers that aren't able to support their families
| by doing what they love. While it's always nice to see game
| development pay off, the real lesson here isn't honesty or
| values; it's good marketing and good luck.
| ninetyninenine wrote:
| Luck is a huge factor for many forms of success. It is also the
| least attributed factor.
|
| Partly because it's the least controllable factor.
| hnburnsy wrote:
| This speaks to the power of social media.
| wewewedxfgdf wrote:
| There's a motto in our house:
|
| "Gaming is complaining" or "When you're gaming, you're
| complaining."
| huhtenberg wrote:
| I picked up a copy of Hypercharge back in 2020 after spotting it
| on one of the gaming subs.
|
| While it is _technically_ a shooter, it turned out to be a 3D
| tower defense game - you place your turrets, shields and whatnots
| to protect against waves of enemies and then run around managing
| the defence and occasionally shooting at the baddies. It 's not
| PvP. This was a bit of letdown because I was really hoping for a
| remake of an old Unreal Tournament mod when all players were inch
| tall and were running around a house, hiding in cupboards,
| closets, climbing curtains, etc. That was crazy fun. Anyone else
| remember it?
| martythemaniak wrote:
| I don't remember that one, but I loved de_rats (same idea) so
| much I stopped playing CS when it fell out of favour.
| crawancon wrote:
| ut2004 had the make something unreal contest which really
| kicked maps and mods up a notch.
|
| i think even ut99 had some of those "we're small" maps like
| Simpsons house, etc.
|
| but yeah, kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms, all seemingly covered.
| pathartl wrote:
| Most FPS's of the era had that sort of map. Return to Castle
| Wolfenstein had Kung Fu Grip, which I played many, many hours
| of. The map was built by a clan member and we used to have map
| test nights.
| seanalltogether wrote:
| Shogo had a mod called Squishie where one player was normal
| size and on a team by themselves, and all the other players
| were tiny and on the other team. It was the most fun I've ever
| had at a LAN party in those early 00's. I'm surprised no one
| ever picked this up and turned it into a real game.
|
| https://www.moddb.com/mods/squishie
| lupusreal wrote:
| Article calls it a third person game but from the gameplay
| footage I see online it's clearly first person. Have games
| journalists already been replaced with LLMs? Or maybe they should
| be.
|
| In any case, I'm glad the devs found some success.
| SloopJon wrote:
| The video on Steam shows both first- and third-person
| perspectives. Speaking of LLMs, Gemini says: "Hypercharge:
| Unboxed is both a first-person and third-person shooter. You
| can switch between perspectives based on your preference."
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