Laura Fryer var et stort navn, da Xbox-projektet blev lanceret og betragtes som en af konsollens medskabere; hun betragtes også ofte som grundlæggeren af Microsoft Game Studios. I dag er hun bedst kendt for sin YouTube-kanal, hvor hun holder et vågent øje med branchen og deler sine tanker om forskellige emner, uden at pakke, sine ofte direkte, ord ind.
Nu har hun gjort det igen, og denne gang går hun efter Naughty Dog og deres aflyste live-service-spil baseret på The Last of Us. Hun kan simpelthen ikke forstå, hvordan det overhovedet fik grønt lys til at begynde med, idet hun argumenterer for, at lederne må have været sjuskede i deres research. Et studie af deres størrelse ville aldrig kunne have håndteret projektet, hvis det faktisk var blevet lanceret, mens de også fortsatte med at udvikle singleplayer-titler, og derfor mener hun, at det var bedst, at det blev aflyst:
"I keep coming back to the bigger question of why did they start this game in the first place. Where was the planning? Live service games are not a mystery. There's plenty of data out there that they could have looked at to understand what it would take to do this type of game. You've got new maps. You've got new modes, weapons, seasons, balance patches. It's an infinite treadmill. Any studio leader could have run the numbers on what a team Naughty Dog size could realistically support. They could have seen pretty clearly that a team the size of Naughty Dog could never support a live service game and all of their amazing cinematic single player games. It wasn't possible."
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Men på trods af alt dette fortsatte arbejdet på spillet flittigt i syv år, og hun mener, at det var Bungie, der endelig fik alle til at indse, hvad der faktisk var nødvendigt:
"But instead of doing that analysis, they went ahead and let the game go forward. They let it run for 7 years. Eventually, Bungie was brought in to do an analysis in 2023, and their reality check on player retention and what it really takes is what finally convinced people that it might be a problem."
Som vi for nylig rapporterede, var spillet omkring 80% færdigt, da stikket blev trukket, hvilket ramte teamet hårdt og førte til flere opsigelser. Men Fryer mener, at det var den eneste rimelige fremgangsmåde, da Naughty Dog ellers ville være blevet reduceret til et live service-supportteam:
"I've seen it play out many times before, where you have a studio that's already spent many years and millions of dollars, and they feel like they have to ship the game anyway, that they have no choice, even when they know the long-term live service support will be brutal. Then the game comes out half-baked, the team burns out on endless updates, and it usually ends badly."
I sidste ende mener hun, at det var den rigtige beslutning at trække stikket på et spil, der aldrig burde have fået grønt lys til at begynde med, og vende tilbage til de singleplayer-titler, som Naughty Dog er bedst til:
"In my opinion, that was the right call, even though it hurt the team that worked so hard on it. They chose to go back to what the bread and butter of their studio was, single-player narrative games."
Synes du, Fryer har en pointe?