Christopher Dring

"When you look at Clair Obscur, or Crimson Desert, those games are different. They are not a copy of other AAA games. I’m starting to feel like I did in the 1990s, when every game was some unknown. We want to deliver a similar experience.” thegamebusiness.com/p/rebel-wolves…

@Shakacarnage I am not sure that works without the rest of it, because what’s funding all those studios?

@Chris_Dring Well, if it were it's own business, it would be a unicorn.

And yet it's still highly profitable. As I've said for a while now.

The Blood of the Dawnwalker developer Rebel Wolves had multiple offers of money in 2022 thegamebusiness.com/p/rebel-wolves…

🎤 Kicking off the morning at the Games Finance Market with our special keynote. We started the day with an insightful conversation as Christopher Dring of @thegamebusiness sat down with Matteo Sapio from Poncle.

Big interview today with the head of Rebel Wolves, the studio behind The Blood of the Dawnwalker. That's the game from The Witcher devs that has around 1m wishlists and nearing certification

@superhys @Toadsanime (Also, all three game I picked are very console-friendly. But I just picked recognisable names. I could have gone with Total War)

The demo was a huge factor in this. All three of those other games had more wishlists on Steam before the demo came out. So great marketing effort there. Also, Pragmata is out this week, LEGO's target audience doesn't typically wishlist, and Tomb Raider doesn't have a release date yet. All these are factors. Typically, a very low number of wishlisters actually convert to buyers, too. While they're one indicator of success, they're becoming more of a vanity metric these days. There's a lot at play here that might prove Ryan right over time. I hope that's not true, though, as Pragmata rocks.

Pragmata looks sick, is critically well-loved, and has a unique spin on action gameplay, which means it is destined to be forgotten about very quickly and relegated as a "hidden gem" in 10 years from now

Wishlists are no guarantee, not. It seems to be usually about a 20% conversion on the indie level. But it depends on how it spreads. And I wasn't using those other games to suggest they were doing poorly. Just that Pragamata is actually trending really well in terms of wishlists, social buzz, press coverage, trailer views etcetera... far better than I would have pegged. But yes, proximity to release certainly is a big thing. Looks primed to be a modest hit, if people come out for it.

Ooooh, Sony's The Legend of Zelda has finished filming.

@rich8606 @Toadsanime Although, I think it’s meant to be for Bond fans

@Chris_Dring @Toadsanime I think Bond will alienate different franchises' fanbase. It's too clunky for Uncharted fans, and it's not Hitman enough for Hitman fans.

Pragmata feels like a comforting hot bath for millennials. It's a PlatinumGames / Shinji Mikami 360-era blaster, with Capcom's blockbuster polish. The Andy Robinson video game.

In this week's The Game Business Micro (paid subscribers only) we discuss Amazon's simplified Luna streaming service and BAFTA giving a nod to the mobile game industry thegamebusiness.com/p/amazon-simpl…

We made a game. It’s not a shooter 😲 Give it a try.

Most AI tools in game development don't help 'in the right way' thegamebusiness.com/p/one-of-the-w…

Rockstar also works on this small little thing called GTA Online. You may have heard of it. Makes over $100m every quarter. I think they’ve got 1 or 2 people working on that

Bit late today. This week's edition of The Game Business finally tackles the subject of AI, and why most game developers simply aren't set-up for the technology. “Everyone is focused on building better AI, and not on how to use it” thegamebusiness.com/p/one-of-the-w…

@Jeppebj I agree. I care a lot about the numbers, because I write for publishers and investors. But I really don't get why everyone else does.

@Chris_Dring I swear to god journalists and "gaming twitter" are more obsessed with sales numbers than the publishers and investors. Why does everyone care so much about how much a game sold, if you like it play it, if you don't play something else my god.

Split Fiction hit 7m sales 3 months faster than It Takes Two

@sharintaint It means it had a base to speak to so can launch faster. It's not unusual for sequels to drop down.

@Chris_Dring That means it had an audience. You're not supposed to hit the same numbers faster though, the sequel is supposed to grow the audience. A lot of modern projects have struggled with this from shows to movies to games.

@cryptoboysteph @Gamers_JoyRide No, games that sell those numbers are anomalies and are not the benchmark. But even so, 7m units in a year is a huge result that beats even that

@Chris_Dring @Gamers_JoyRide You think it gonna reach it takes two numbers lol