What do Prison Architect 2, Life By You, and Kerbal Space Program 2 all have in common? They are all perfect examples of how the games industry is in a time of turmoil and chaos. Let’s take a look at what exactly is going on.
Confusion and delay
Prison Architect 2 was originally set to open the prison gates in September 2024. However, the game has now been delayed indefinitely in order to improve the overall quality and performance. This is becoming a more common occurrence in the games industry, with more and more titles being either delayed or cancelled.
Games should never be released unfinished, or with major promised features missing, but seeing more and more games delayed to ‘improve’ them is not what players want to see. Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown is also set for a September release after originally being scheduled to launch all the way back in 2021.
These delays sometimes can’t be helped, technology isn’t always easy to work with after all, but to delay a game for years can only harm sales in the long term. Then the vicious cycle begins of a game entering development hell, only to be released to little fanfare and underperform. That then leads to the next problem plaguing the games industry.
Cut down in its prime
Have you ever been really excited for a game’s release, only to find out that development on that game has been cancelled? Well, that’s now happening fairly regularly, with even major releases being cut close to release.
Life By You was set to be a ‘Sims killer’ with Paradox taking on EA for the title of best life simulation game. Trailers had been released, gameplay had been shown, and the hype was truly building, only for the game to be cancelled at the eleventh hour in June 2024.
At the time, Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester claimed that the game wasn’t in a position to be released despite the promising promotional material.
““For a long time, we’ve held hopes for Life by You and the potential we saw in it, but it is now clear that the game will not be able to meet our expectations. A version that we’d be satisfied with is too far away, and therefore we are taking the difficult decision to cancel the release.””
The cancellation of Life By You also caused its studio, Paradox Tectonic, to close its doors, resulting in multiple job losses. This isn’t the first time a studio has shut down, but it’s still incredibly sad to see.
Kerbal Space Program 2 could also face a similar fate, with developer Intercept Games shut down in May this year. Development on the game has been confirmed to be continuing, but with the state the game is currently in, that might remain the case.
For the most part, delays and cancellations tend to be spread across the industry fairly evenly, with multiple publishers affected. Despite this, though, there is one company starting to stand out amongst the others.
The gaming Paradox
Paradox Interactive is one of the giants of modern gaming. Publishing titles from Age of Wonders to Stellaris, the Swedish company had built a good reputation for releasing standout games.
As we’ve seen with Life By You and Prison Architect 2, though, good runs don’t last forever. In the case of Paradox, the fate of these games is just one of many issues the company is facing.
Cities Skylines II was released in 2023 to heavy criticism. The game launched in a largely unfinished state, with refunds issued and the whole roadmap changed as a result. Planned DLC has also been shifted to future releases, with the first, Beach Properties, integrated into the game.
This was also botched, however, with large sections of the player base claiming the update broke their cities. Since then, even major reworks and fixes have been met with cynicism from the community as a result of the loss of trust.
Paradox is also the publisher of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. The game has seen multiple delays, with the original 2020 release date now pushed back to late 2024. Development has also been shifted from the original studio Hardsuit Labs to The Chinese Room.
It seems then that it’s miss after miss for Paradox right now. Ironically, the reason for these delays and cancellations is the result of a bit of a gaming paradox.
Self-fulfilling prophecy
The modern games industry is currently suffering from a self-fulfilling prophecy. A worry about falling short of sales predictions results in the marketing being ramped up, only for the game to fall short of fan expectations leading to poor sales.
Cities Skylines II and Kerbal Space Program 2 both fell victim to this. In the case of the former, the game never emerged from the shadow of its predecessor, with fans upset about the state of the sequel upon release.
As for the latter, promised features such as multiplayer were absent. It also became clear to the community that these features wouldn’t be added to the game for some time, or in some cases couldn’t be added at all. This was the cause for the low reviews KSP 2 scored on Steam.
Neither studio lied about the games in order to drive up sales, but evidently the ambition of both was too great. Colossal Order is a small team still trying to grow from the success of Cities Skylines, while Intercept Games simply overpromised based on what was possible for their game.
Sadly, both are now suffering from their marketing, with fans making their feelings clear now both games are available to buy. Delaying release would have cost significant amounts of money, too much for a small studio to swallow, while cancellation would likely result in the studios being forced to close.
So is the games industry in trouble? In short, no, but things do need to change to make things sustainable moving forward.
Reigning things in
The biggest issue in the games industry right now is expectation. Studios expect their games to exceed predictions, while fans want every game to blow their predecessors out of the water. Ultimately, we’ve reached a breaking point, with reigning things in the only option now.
When I was growing up, I remember seeing games advertised in magazines and through demo discs. The biggest difference was you only really saw games advertised that were ready to be released. Now, games are revealed years in advance in an attempt to build up hype and drive sales.
In the age of early access and preorders, there’s also an effort to rush out games that aren’t polished just to meet deadlines. Motorsport Games’ financial difficulties forced a rushed release of Le Mans Ultimate in February, with the game still in early access now, despite DLC since being released.
Some games never exit early access, with developers moving on once the game no longer brings in revenue. Those that do tend to get abandoned pretty soon after, with little to no updates once ‘Version 1.0’ launches.
Some developers have also got into the counterproductive habit of building up excitement for experimental features in order to ramp up preorders or sales. This is what leads to a toxic community when the game launches with those features nowhere to be seen. This even happens with graphics and visuals, with some games accused of being ‘downgraded’ prior to release.
The truth is it’s in a studio’s best interest to sell as many copies as possible, but the way they go about it proves detrimental. Revealing a game years in advance results in the community forgetting the game over time, while overpromising results in refunds en masse when the truth comes out.
Losing big conventions like E3 in recent years has also upset the system, with publishers no longer having a major platform outside their own shows to reveal upcoming titles. This means all upcoming games are shoehorned into a quick presentation, with no real substance to show.
Then there are leaks.
Credit: TechRadar
As in the case of GTA 6, the trailer was released early in response to a leak. This forced the hand of Rockstar, who brought forward their planned release in order to quash the leakers.
As good as it was to see the first look at the game, the subsequent delays to GTA 6 now mean it’ll be almost two years between the first trailer landing and the game being released. That’s definitely far from ideal for the dedicated fan base eager to hop back into Vice City after 23 years.
My solution
So how do you fix the games industry? Well, that’s easy. Studios need to learn to underpromise and overdeliver while holding off on any major promotional activity besides a brief announcement until the game is about to go gold.
Sounds simple, right!?
In my personal opinion, early access also needs to be consigned to the past. Too many studios now use early access as a dumping ground for unfinished titles, devaluing those who use the format genuinely in order to build a fan base.
As for how to fix the issues of unfinished games being released in the first place, that one’s trickier. No one wants to see a game cancelled, but at the same time, we’re all tired of paying full price for a beta. Preorders can be blamed for this, with publishers obligated to release a game for those who have already bought it.
I don’t think preorders should be ended, but clearly something has to change in order to remove this burden studios place on themselves. Ultimately preorders fund development, which is why they exist in the first place. This is also why they can’t just disappear, so what’s the solution?
Crowdfunding used to fill the funding gap, but these days that’s basically preordering. Studios aren’t willing to sacrifice the development budget either, but there is still an alternative that does involve a risk.
Several games sell different editions. There’s always a basic edition that contains the base game, then some kind of premium edition or editions that include various bonus items and features. These premium editions could easily be made using minor development resources to cover additional development costs, replacing the need for preorders.
The only downside to doing this is the costs won’t be regained until after the game is released. But a polished game ready for release is more likely to sell better, therefore the gamble is more likely to pay off.
Happy players are also more likely to buy a higher edition of the game, generating even more revenue for the studio behind it. That’s never going to happen right now with the spiral the industry currently finds itself in, but there is hope that things can turn around providing the work is put in.
Of course, this is all easy for me to say, but as an outsider looking in I’m tired of preordering games just to find out the features I was excited about are missing at launch.
Absent multiplayer modes, non-functioning game mechanics, and overhyped games are slowly ruining the hard work studios put into their games. It’s time everyone stopped, took a step back, and rebooted how games are developed and marketed moving forward.
Do you agree with my thoughts? Let me know in the comments below!