But at least with other games companies that churn out the same game year after year, I still get a sense of *some* sort of professional pride. Your EA Sports titles and their ilk are usually just lazy roster updates in terms of content, but they always at least look decent if nothing else. The newest Pokemon Legends game releases this week, where the game world consists entirely of one Paris-inspired city. At ground level where they're impossible to miss, there are building facades that look to be made up of one 4-sided polygon with a repeating texture slapped on top. There's zero geometry. That was borderline unacceptable in a second-generation 3D engine game from the late-90s, nevermind a title released on the most powerful platform the franchise has ever had access to in 2025. I'm not suggesting it's an ugly game exactly, the art direction is still at least present, but it's woeful how low-effort everything looks.Mantis wrote: ↑Tue Oct 14, 2025 12:54 pmI suppose you could argue why bother putting any budget or effort in when the franchise just prints money on its own? The return for their investment is absolutely incredible and I'm not sure how much making the games actually any better would really improve the sales given absolutely everyone already buys them.
I feel like even with modern-day capitalism, a product that measures its profit percentage with six figures should have some preference of giving something back to the customers. I can't think of another profitable game franchise that acts like this.