Starfield's Delay Proves Modern Game Development Is Unsustainable
To the surprise of nobody, Starfield recently got delayed, along with Redfall. I'm not entirely sure of my maths, but I think that makes for the 7,391st game delay of this year. The way we make games is currently unsustainable, and yet we go on trying to sustain it. Elden Ring has been christened as the greatest game of all time, here to change the face of gaming forever, but maybe it should instead be a turning point. It took nearly five years to make Elden Ring, and most other major games have similar timeframes. We have to reach a point soon where we realise it just isn't worth it.
The Last of Us Part 2 was met with critical acclaim when it came out, but little of the fervour was dedicated to the smooth t-shirt physics as Ellie dresses her wound, or the realistic flow of the rope in her hands. The most obsessive fans pointed to it as evidence of the game's greatness, but did anyone actually care? Did anyone feel their time spent with the game - around 20 hours, not that long for a game with a six-year development cycle and a budget of over $100 million without marketing - was richer because of how Ellie's clothes moved? Was anyone more deeply affected by the tragedy of Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2 (eight years, $500 million including marketing) because the horse balls got smaller in the cold?
Related: Starfield Needs To Make Sci-Fi Games Good Again
When I was a kid, my favourite series was Tomb Raider. It was my favourite game of 1996. And 1997. And 1998. For the record, I'm talking about three different games here, because that's how games used to work. There were also Tomb Raiders in 1999 and 2000, although these were eclipsed by two different Spyro games as my favourite titles. Even in the mid '00s, we
Read more on thegamer.com
