The Last of Us is still selling.

thats a shitty excuse if i ever heard one

man who normally buys "narrative-driven, story-rich games" forced to put his money back into his wallet

The title is a bit missleading considering that the actual article mentions a lot other problems that plagued the development.

Project 8 faced both progress and challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic made team stability difficult, but some quality improvements were achieved. However, critical issues persisted, causing delays and budget increases. The latest review revealed unresolved problems needing more time and money, along with revised sales forecasts, raising doubts about the project's profitability.
-- TLDR by Microsoft copilot

While there's still demand for "narrative-driven story-rich games" one should keep realistic expectations. For this genre I feel smaller scope and indie developers work much better.

Typical infantile C-suite logic “I didn't do X well, therefore X is impossible and no one can do X! It's not my fault, I swear!”

Did we already forget that BG3 existed like once year later...?

Obviously this is just me, but here is a list of the last 5 games I purchased that were not smaller indie titles:

Stalker 2, Elden ring, remnant 2, bg3, dragon's dogma 2

You could argue that remnant is intended for multiplayer and you could argue that maybe only bg3 and stalker and really narrative driven but the truth is, anymore I tend to buy single player and stream to my friends than I do actually play mp games. The only mp game i was tempted by was Helldivers and I was just too busy at the time.

Anything else are steam deck friendly indie games. I buy a lot of those, and bought a lot even before I had a deck.

In my anecdotal experience, when I see x game is multiplayer, or live service, or just not an experience I can enjoy on my own time I tune it out. For example, I always bought Diablo games but I don't own 4.

I also immediately think of some other big ones that I opted out of, like Wukong. People fucking love single player games when they are good games. I think the real issue is developing a good game is hard. Developing a game with dark practices and otherwise addicting (but not necessarily fun) gameplay is a much easier way to make uninspired games made by committee.

It's just easier to point the blame at the market than actually admit that upon self reflection you realized it is best to avoid the hard part of game development.

If Frostpunk is their idea of a "narrative-driven, story-rich game", I can see why they have concerns.

I'm going to guess they mean narrative-driven "games" like Hellblade or Indika, which were all narrative and almost no game.

They sell fine. Look at BG3.

What they don't do is make money hand over fist without the need to design more product, as happens with subscription-based, game-as-a-service multiplayer titles. Some companies don't want to make good games. They just want to make good money.

Sony has been screaming the exact opposite of this and it continues to garner them a fuck ton of cash. You don’t even need Sony money to do it, as per Baldurs gate that many are also referencing here in the comments.

There’s no way they actually believe that, the C-suite simply can’t stop salivating over the potential money a live service game can potentially provide

Larian rn:

Honestly I can't think of a recent game I enjoyed that wasn't a narrative-driven story rich game.

Narrative-driven games made Valve into Valve. But ok, you do you.

Did these developers completely miss Baldurs Gate 3

jizzpunk

Bad ones, sure. Wait, no, even bad ones sell. They’re just wrong.

Thats the studio head talking bullahit.
Not the actual creators

I liked Frostpunk and would have loved a story driven game in that universe.

Ah, so managerial problems again who would have thought but that's OK we that make the things can suffer a little more

Really? It feels like every other AAA game is an interactive movie these days.

If they actually believe something so patently ridiculous, then it’s probably best that they cancelled it. So I guess this is good news. Those are the only kinds of games I want to play. FFS.

Why does capitalist reasoning always sound like a prayer to an angry god?

We consulted the oracle and it seems that the dragon is tired of corn. So we've hedged our portfolio with wheat and virgins.