The unfortunate fact is that is is "cool" to hate Bethesda Game Studios right now. You have articulated many thoughts that I have been having over the past year. Nice video! Subscribed.
@@kineer I don't think Bethesda is going anywhere for a long time though. I just hope they don't give the next super popular game the skyrim treatment releasing it again every year XD
I agree, Xbox financials are reportedly good, the Activision-Blizzard acquisition was positive and they understand that long term headwinds for consoles. Sony knows this too. That said, I hope ES6 and other titles get fair treatment in the market overall. Also agreed on the Skyrim churn. It's often surprising how many times I bought that game.
It's funny, but I had no idea LS made that earlier video OR that he was using Cyberpunk has his example. I stopped watching the guy some time ago. I always like your content Richard! Thanks for stopping by! :)
As of this morning, Starfield has roughly 10K players on Steam right now, while Skyrim has 26K, FO4 has 18K, and Cyberpunk (since you brought it up) has 41K (according to Steam Charts). Most PC players prefer the older Bethesda franchises and games (or other content outside Bethesda), and I feel that's going to be reflected in the modding community, which is what keeps these games rolling for years (or decades, at this rate). You can talk sales numbers/speculation all you want, but active players being higher on older releases does not a positive image make. I played for about 130 hours, and was completely done with the game. In my estimations, it failed on just about everything I look for in a Bethesda experience.
Your last sentence is a perfectly value personal opinion. You can play something and decide you don't like it. The rest doesn't align with my analysis of what's meaningful. I can suggest other things to compare, but I've put a basic view of that in the video. It's not because I don't have more data that supports my conclusions, but is more about what fits in a YT video for a wide audience. I'm comfortable with my own business, software experience and analysis. Thanks for watching.
The issue Starfield is against is all of our imaginations. (besides Sony fans) We all got so stoked and just let our imaginations pre-launch run wild for years, and BGS did hype it up quite a bit. It's easy-to-make expectations too high personally. Steam numbers for single player games don't carry much but media hype train. Skyrim and Fallout 4 were thrashed hard too at launch. Launch Skyrim and Vanilla Skyrim now are two different games.
I think there's a lot to what you said about expectations. I was fortunate that I barely took note of the hype, only really kept an eye on dates and such. I didn't spend time hotly anticipating things and [frankly] never invented expectations that weren't present in the marketing. I think some of that expectation crash has dissipated over time, but every time I chased down someone's "but they said it would be A,B,C" in the past I found the person had misinterpreted something I understood to be different. So people filled their own minds with false expectations, got mad at Bethesda with it didn't live up the story they told themselves, told others (who the repeated it back to them). I have stopped asking people to show me examples of the thing they thought was supposed to be there. I never worked out for them.
I mean if those people with overactive imaginations pre release could simply keep their imagination going post release.... Starfield really is a wonderful playground.
Great analysis Kineer. I’m a huge Starfield fan as well and in my point of view, the key to longevity is creating and fleshing out the gameplay mechanics while creating quest content around it. Outposts could use a true settlement or economy system that affects the settled system economy for example. With vehicles, we should have some gameplay loops that involve transportation/escort missions, where we get attacked by hostile riding other vehicles. Most importantly, we definitely need a ship-focused update/DLC that introduces new parts/quests/manufacturers etc etc.
I had that idea about vehicle combat too and think it's great. Someone educated me on collision mechanics when I brought it up in an earlier video, but it would still very cool. I hope we are at the start of a series of vehicle updates. I also suspect that if vehicles were something that didn't make the original release cut, there is content that will come with them as well. Getting the Rev-8 just before Shattered Space helps, but it could have been the minimum they needed to exploration on Va'ruun'kai would be more fun. Thanks for watching!
@@kineer very good point. I lean towards both the REV-8 and Shattered Space being cut content so do expect some more fleshing out when it comes to vehicles.
Well said kineer, for me I find the game really enjoyable and I do think it has got better. The final part of the quest, in the citadel, I spent hours in there with looting etc., struggled at the end of that area, but really enjoyed it. Really enjoying your content BTW 👍👍
Thanks Mark! I wish I had spent more time looting the Citadel, but was on stream the first time through. Will definitely do that the second time through.
13:25 as someone who works in data science that argument is always nails on a chalkboard to me. It is such a small fraction of players, same goes for steam live player counts.
He didn't include percent of players who nought early access on PC but hadn't returned for the DlC - less than 5%. The data he supplied demonstrates that the only people that play it anymore as those on Gamepass. Which he spins as people who actually bought the game. Wow... That's a take. He also included a conjured up PSN sales number. You work in data science you say... Do you make the tea?
You understand then. The math, statistics are not intuitively obvious unless you spend your time dealing with them. I like two analogies in this space: 1. Carpenters can walk into a room and notice things that aren't plumb or level within a fraction of a second. If they don't spot it immediately, they might indicate something is 'off' until they do. 2. A fair part of the movie the Matrix was getting people to wake up and see what was already around them for what it was. As an engineer, I was conditioned to think of things in terms of certain mathematical disciplines, principles, etc. I also had plenty of formal training in statistics and probability (there and later). It's nearly impossible to put that cork back in the bottle. ;) Thanks for watching and commenting! I enjoyed your video and loved your research approach. The LS video reference was gold. For anyone that sees the comment, go sub and like his stuff.
As far as companions that you have found, do they have an affinity attached to them? Quests after getting X amount of affinity? Or are they more like those that you would pick up in a bar that have few skills but not really care what you do? When most people complain about them, they think they should be like in past released DLC of other Bethesda games, that are as good as or better than the base companions.
I did a couple of videos some time ago on how to get all the companions in the game (pre-shattered space) and how their skills stack up. A few of them still run if you shoot civilians. Some seem indifferent to how you play. I find a lot of variety and some of them have far more complex back stories than I expected. In my NG+5 playthrough, I run a crew of non-Constellation companions and I enjoy it quite a bit. I think there's a subjective value call for anyone playing the game about romancing NPCs. In my original games I married and ran with Constellation crew. I have done all the constellation specific companion quests to get them all for BFF/married level at different times. Later I didn't. I will note that after running a full non-Constellation crew for a while, starting a new playthrough with them is refreshing and they can be interesting again. But I really noticed a shift in my perception of the game when their Like/Dislikes were back in play. Shattered Space with Andreja was fun. If people believe companions, crew need to be romantic targets that's a personal value call. I wasn't impressed with the 'sleep with a bear' routing in BG3, but I get it. That's exciting for some people. In Shattered Space, adding two new companions adds value for me. I'll do something with them. Not sure what yet. I won't be bothered that I can't marry them and don't consider it important. All Companions ua-cam.com/video/Pzb11fRhUvI/v-deo.htmlsi=ZW5SiY5nBlXLPKWW Building a Non-Constellation Crew (skill comparisons) ua-cam.com/video/OaQhJfJ5PbM/v-deo.htmlsi=6K_r-vNOm3amH9aa
I wrote a negative review for shattered space. I like starfield a lot, and don't get on the hate train. I've got 1350 hours on starfield today and never had more on a single player game. I think it's the best space game currently out there. I've always been into space games. I've played many over the last decades and starfield is really great when it comes to building your own space dreams. but that's also why I wrote a negative review on the DLC. I don't think it adds much to those space dreams. the world design for the new planet is so much balanced toward fantasy it reminded me of playing wow 20 years ago. like I needed a dragon and not a buggy to get around. the cave and temple vibes made me think of Skyrim even though I never played that game. the vivid colors of Dazra made me feel I was playing a gacha like Tower of Fantasy. it looks unfinished and you get too much of everything everywhere. it 's like they combined three games into one and are losing it's own identity as a space game. there's only a few nice missions in this entire DLC with a sci-fi theme. I don't get the hate for starfield in general, think you are right about that hate being subjective. I would also not underestimate the hate coming from space game cults bashing every other space game out there not being as 'immersive' as the crypto scam they got involved in. but I get why people don't like shattered space. I'm one of them. I'm much happier in one of my outposts or space ships building a tribute to an old sci-fi movie.
You can write about, discuss or otherwise catalog bugs in software or even your own opinions. I had hoped to characterize that as 'group 3'. Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I could be. There is a truly objective group of players that do and I count myself in that group. Imagining that "my" opinion represents a significant body of others is more of the problem. None of us truly knows that so we have to use other data (externally visible) if we want some insight. In any case, writing a single negative review is different than farming a segment of the YT community just because you can. I'm not even judging that. Just calling it out.
It's worth pointing out the people that hate Starfield as a hobby will also survive even while others enjoy it. It's not clear they know that though. :)
This was an absolutely amazing video and the best way to box the tiny amount of haters into a corner, although that’s not your intention. I wasn’t planning on watching this whole video, but I’m glad I did, keep up the great content Kineer ✌🏼
@@kineer you’re welcome and thanks, it’s my gamertag as well. I plan on doing Starfield videos as well, just in a different format than yours. Always enjoy your content and delivery style. ✌🏼
I have a video that includes some coverage of the FO4 release date, DLC topics, and inflation adjusted prices. I would consider myself well versed in DLC topics of that nature (value, timing, etc). I've done the research. That video was more about how prices are set and what's reasonable. Still, it doesn't really matter to me when FO4 DLC was released. Cyberpunk 2077's primary DLC was 1000+ days after launch. That was a salvage job for a botched launch that resulted in a class action lawsuit and a title being pulled from the store. CP2077 did receive updates along the way and a next-gen push but Phantom Liberty was is the core of their redemption arc. That wasn't an issue for Starfield as the game was launched well, was the #3 in top sales on Steam in 2023 (despite being out for less than four months) and received regular patches for the minor issues affecting it. ua-cam.com/video/KsoMIbPydhg/v-deo.html
I was one of the players that bought Starfield the day it was released. I played the heck out of it for months, than migrated away. However I had no bad feelings I just feel like I had done everything I wanted at the time. With the DLC I decided to jump back in and it’s been a blast getting back in the world. I haven’t even downloaded the DLC yet as I wanted to get the feel of the game again and it’s just been a good time. I feel like negativity sells. Everyone now is just looking for a reason to be negative. The negativity is permeating our country and it’s sad. Starfield = Good, negativity = bad.
Great. I was just commenting that most realize no one marries a video game. It's a temporary distraction that can get intense and can be something your set aside and return to. That all sounds healthy to me. Hope you enjoy it when you get to it and thanks for watching!
Excellent analysis man, bravo. I think there's a whole other side of the Starfield story at play here as well but that's a story for another day. I've been saying since last year that the folks who've been most vocal about the same are the ones who understand it the least. After a year that still rings true, but its good to see so many folks having a blast with it just the same.
You can throw all the statistics, numbers, and projections out there, but let's be real, we all don't know what will happen to Starfield or even Bethesda, because Microsoft is so unpredictable. They kill off Arkane Austin studios for horrible reviews and low sales of Redfall, and yet at the same time, they kill off Tango Gameworks Studio for having good sales and an overwhelmingly high reviews of Hi Fi Rush. We'll all just have to wait a few years, just like with Cyberpunk 2077, to see what happens.
We live in a world of hate overall. And the people who are posting Starfield Hate content understand that titles in the negative tend to draw more clicks overall. This is especially true to the number of the Game Magazines and Sites like GameRant that are almost all negative to gain clicks. Great vid here Kineer.
Thanks! I watched a video from @Starfield_Eclipse (he's here commenting too) where he identified a very large content creator talking about this very practice. It's ironic that when he described it years ago he was speaking out against farming negative sentiment as a matter of integrity. Years later, he's [effectively] gone over to the dark side. It's fascinating to watch. He's not confused. I'm not trying to judge them too harshly. If/when your income comes entirely from ad revenue, maybe the incentives are mostly irresistible. This specific creator knows exactly what he's doing and if you were sit down with him over dinner/drinks I have little doubt he'd speak freely about it. The harm comes from the 'group 2' people that are being farmed. It's up to all of us to build up our own 'defense against the dark arts', but some of that spills over into more enjoyable communities at times. MSFT/BGS are all big kids at the table. I'm not worried about them. They have the inside ($$) view as well. In any case, nice to hear from you and thanks for checking out the video!
12:08 Starfield is in Xbox Gamepass because Xbox own the franchise, I doubt Xbox would allow sony to put it unto their own subscription service if they did port the game there
Agreed, very unlikely. I didn't do an exhaustive search, but see Diablo IV, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Minecraft as examples of standard practics. Purchase price up front. No reason they can't do it technically if (iff?) MS/BGS wanted to maximize installs, however financially it's hard to see why they'd breach that wall and let it be part of their service. So unlikely (low probability), but not zero.
The comparisons that has been most important to me has been the ones where they show clips from different games, because clips are literal facts and you can decide for yourself what you think of it. I saw a clip comparing the gameplay from Starfield when you're getting an artifact on neon, with getting the spider robot in Cyberpunk and I think it said a lot about story-telling without getting overly negative about it. Starfield made me get deeper into the genre, I played Cyberpunk when the DLC came out because of Starfield, played The Invincible (Can warmly recommend that game to everyone) and now the Mass Effect series. While I probably wont go back to Starfield, I do think that game has been important getting new players into the sci-fi genre (I mostly played fantasy games before).
I've played a lot of space games over decades (not on the channel). It would be difficult to overstate the value of bringing people into the science fiction (space) genre. There was an old quote in the U.S. where someone wished politicians would read more SciFi and fewer Westerns. That alone tells you it was a long time ago. I have no problem with things like RDR2, but this genre puts people's minds somewhere else. I also dabble in the dystopian, but given my long history reading in this area there are elements of even very popular titles that I don't find as innovated or interesting as others. That's 100% on me. Generally, I hope that everyone can experience and play games that meet their interests without interference by people manipulating the markets for their own personal benefit.
The modding community is growing and I have enjoyed the game +dlc with mods for the last month. With inflation morrowind dlc and far harbor dlc would've been more expensive. Steam charts don't show everything because many are playing on console or gamepass. I can't mod cyberpunk on xbox
I crawl through Nexus on occasion looking at the main titles I like, tallying the mods, comparing the rates of mod development/release (more simple math). Starfield was doing well before the Creation Store (quantity), but it opens up some very nice benefits if you're willing to tinker a little. That's a LOT of people! Thanks for checking out the video.
I play all the space games. One thing i have noticed with Starfield is that with the right mods you can have stuff like seamless travel, bag and tag bounty systems and quite good damage TTK overhauls in fps combat and space. This combined with ship interiors and boarding mechanics, it’s in a unique spot that is only occupied by the likes of Star Citizen, Empyrion galactic survival, X4 foundations and spacebourne 2. While without mods i would agree the game is in a very poor place, it has modding support and those mods do make a huge difference. Of course the most vocal about this game are the people who haven’t even touched the mods rendering any opinion they have about it total garbage. I’m a gamer. I dont care who makes the content so long as it gets made. If modding support salvages and brings the title up to standard i’ll play it. Other developers are opening their doors to modding support. So unless Bethesda steps it up in future they’ll go under eventually. But that isn’t my problem and it isn’t yours either.
I don't use many mods and enjoy the game, but I can clearly see the appeal. If a group is happy with the base game, another groups doesn't click in until the right mods are available, that's one of the great benefits of more open platforms. Without diving into the entire 'licensing' vs. 'buying' discussion, modding a game makes it more 'mine.' Thanks for watching.
@@kineer I also enjoyed the base game but for me, without seamless travel it kinda was a disappointment for me. It doesnt make it a bad game as such, its just i have other games in my library that do it better. Of course the beauty of modding it has added these features and they continually get better every few months. I still reakon the game has potential but I dont think it will be bethesda that make it shine, it’ll be the community. Rumour has it people are working on making it so the tiles on a planet are connected. Once that is cracked it will open the doors for atmospheric flight with maybe a little loading screen for transition from ground to space. I reakon its a few years off but there seems to be people working away at it :)
The numbers I like to look at are the premium users (on steam) that played the 3 day "early" access (near 220K). and compare them to the bump in concurrent users after shattered space launched (near 5K). Which suggests that around 215K people who already owned Shattered Space couldn't be bothered to even try it. 🤔 The player metric is all fine and dandy, but someone already subscribed to gamepass, doesn't really support the continued existence of BGS, at least IMO Microsoft had been in a grow the platform at all cost stage for some time, and thus discounting gaming, to give an unreasonable value for it. This IMO as made studios like Bethesda put out minimum viable products as a platform to sell micro-dlcs (creations) at exorbitant prices and a lack of value.
I wouldn't say it suggests what you've offered here. I apologize, but I've likely put this in another comment elsewhere and might not add all that detail here. Steam numbers show concurrent players, not unique and that's where the data falls down. You get a nice view in week one of players because prior to launch zero could play. Still if peak players on one day is 330k and the next day it's 200k, we have no idea how many are the same. Likewise we have no real way to tell how many people play a DLC on day one or at any time after. For a DLC some claim is only 6 hours (I disagree) and others easily get 20+ hours from, any bump in players will be short lived and spread out. But as an example, 5k players over 40 days (eventually getting it installed and playing it) makes up for 200k claimed to haven't bothered. Anecdotally, I have plenty of people watching my videos that told me they weren't playing on a weekday morning, evening, etc. and would be loading it later. Not unusual or nefarious. There's no way to tell from the outside if/when they played. Perhaps someday, BGS will tell us how many people played Shattered Space and for what average hours. If you have that data, I'm interested. Just don't see is in "Steam data."
@@kineer Those people claiming 6ish hours play time are most likely referring to the main quest which they most likely raced through dialog to get the next waypoint to follow to the following check point. It really comes down to play style and the dumbing down of games in general to find a bigger audience. You seem to forget that prior to launch on the 6th, there was an "early" access time that slightly over 200K people on steam played. While most people call it that the real launch day, people did have to pay for that access. While concurrent player counts might not represent the same people from day to day, it shows the current interest in the game and the majority of people play the same game over a given amount of time. While many may have said they would be playing shattered space at a later time, more people have said that they would not. So that point should be muted as being subjective at best. The point being the current interest in the game did not significantly increase, as would happen with most major DLC releases.
Oh, as far as negative reviews, at least they cared enough to leave a review, were as the majority of people don't bother. Good or bad. The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The reality is the hate is a boondoggle. The game is great. Truly amazing for people like me, but still, like, great for the mean average. It's laughable, ridiculous, farcical hate by the same players I guarantee are playing it more than most of the games they've ever played. Financially it's doing great. The hate is extremely weird. Like, truly weird. It's things that greatly overlap with many games in general OR are things that can't really apply because they only apply if Starfield wasn't a Bethesda game - if it were a shooter or if it were a cyberpunk. And most of the hate is likely from players that should know better. I refuse to cater to this laughable fake hate. And poor Bethesda who pulled some firsts for once, aren't getting any recognition for it because they had sullied their reputation in the recent past. Like: the fact they had an amazing launch, made a vehicle which is a minor miracle, and are squashing bugs like a machine. They released a DLC that didn't break. It like ran great. Another miracle. Even people running many mods just kept on playing. Those things are accomplishments. Again, I refuse to cater to the hate. It's viral silliness.
UA-cam videos dont illicit some sort of mind control upon it's audience. Videos bashing starfield are popular because it reflects the audience's sentiment. The content creators dont dictate public opinion, they amplify it. Starfield's active player count is 1/3 of skyrim's, a game released 13 years ago. It's count is 1/2 of fallout 4. Lumping gamepass into units sold is some creative accounting, my guy. The Microsoft acquisition was 7 biillion dollars. Infact, microsoft has reversed it's 'exclusivity' intentions with starfield(a tactic designed to drive xbox console sales) to try and recuperate the losses of acquiring Bethesda. Players aren't paying for starfield through gamepass, microsoft is.
I would suggest some of Robert Cialdini's books. Marketing is too broad a topic, but the idea that marketing and persuasion don't work is interesting. That you are here on this channel commenting is the result of algorithm that recognizes your interests and feeds you more. That only works if it's at least partly correct. I would also suggest that people (myself included) aren't really forming our own distinct opinions at most moments. We are largely shaped by the media and content we consume and are somewhat programmed by it. The sum of human knowledge far exceeds what an individual can reasonable know or keep up with ... so we consume from sources we like and there's a huge danger of merely amplifying confirmation bias. I'm likely qualified to discuss finance, accounting and the software business but I don't really get into that in open discussions. If you have sources that confirm your opinions on the financial state inside BGS/MSFT I'm always interested. I can't comb the internet for every piece of information, but I'm fairly efficient at finding filings and data. I produce content for YT, not b-school here so make of that what you will. Thanks for watching.
Haters gonna hate, especially if it puts cash in their wallets. I really enjoy this game, (it's definitely not for everyone) and I'm always finding new things to explore and try out by watching other people play. Thanx for putting this video together!
Agreed and thank you! It's been an interesting exercise watching 'group 2' roll in and seeing first hand repeats from the farmers. There have been very, very few of them. I wish it were different, but it's not. I don't lose sleep over it, but it's worth understanding too.
Glad to see some explorations on actual data instead of just riding the wave of what negative content exploiters make. Sure, youtubers are here to make money, so clearly you get more views from stuff that generate controversies; but honestly people are sick and tired to hear complains about everything... Maybe everyone should take a bit of Valium and chill the eff down royally, and start to do content like this again. Well done Sir; hat off.
People buying morrowind in 2002 and and having a positive kid reaction . Then demanding the same personal positive reaction 22 years later for a video game? If you have the same reaction to a game when you are in your 30 as you did as a kid. You need a doctor. You should be lucky to have time to play between baby napp. Its a game. They should have picked diff , newer engine to run it on.
Having some insight into the demographics on my own channel and the near Starfied exclusivity so far, I can confirm there's a general profile around this game. I would never go so far as to claim younger people can't enjoy it, but we know there are similar profile for other games. There are many factors that make a game appealing to different groups. That's perfect as I see it. I am also 100% confident that my own interests have changed over time. There are styles of games that were the core of my gaming experience when I was younger that I don't touch any more. There are also genre's which I find more or less interesting.
Look if you like Starfield great. I played Starfield for over 100 hrs, on Gamepass. I stopped because it's boring. I still have game pass, I'm still not playing it, and it looks like the DLC is still boring. I'm sure Starfield is doing fine without me.
We all get to have an opinion. That's legit. I will highlight something that contributes to the negative discourse. Starfield is great [in my opinion]. The Shattered Space DLC is a lot of fun [in my opinion]. How do you interpret my statement with and without the extra qualifier? The omission of the parts in [] contributes to the churn. When I see your comment, I mentally attach something like [in his opinion], but the internet, reddit, FB, YT, etc. are sort of terrible with nuance and that level of detail. I'll also note that one hundred hours exceeds what How Long to Beat says it takes to complete the main story and beyond. It also represents a $.70/hour cost which is excellent value compared to many things. I like to highlight the cost to enjoy my motorcycle is substantially higher and has a different entertainment profile, but for a game I'm quite happy with certain costs per hour of entertainment. Thanks for watching.
@kineer I guess I don't see it as a negative, it's just not a game i connect with. Now, from Bethesdas's point of view they have in me a customer who loved Fall out 3, enjoyed Fallout 4, Loved Skyrim, and Liked Oblivion. Fallout 76, not touching it, it's not for me, and Starfield was a good college effort, but it is pretty much an enhancement of all the things I didn't like in Fallout 4, with some extras added. So for me it's not a Bethesda bad thing, but it is a Bethesda is going in a direction I don't care for. Which is fine, that's why I said I'm sure they will do fine without me. I don't see that as negative, it just is.
@@kineerbig + for starfield over the motorcycle is you just turn into stardust & watch a little white circle turning when something goes really wrong.
Good evening sir....I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said in thos video. I have no tolerance for haters. Personally, I think this game is brilliant. I have been playing this everyday since launch with hours invested. I may build an outpost one night. Explore another night. Main quest another, so on and so on. This game is for us not for them. If you don't like it, move on. We enjoy this game as intended. As I've told another creator that I follow, the Universe needs people like yourself. Keep doing the work. Joining ranks soon. Take care
Agreed and thanks for the kind words. It's appreciate and makes a difference. In some odd ways we are all just experiencing a spill-over effect from connecting everyone to the Internet. I remind people human decision making in groups is still pretty primitive. ;) Thanks for watching Robert!
I feel like this is the same toxic positivity mindset that’s causing Ubisoft to falter. Starfield is hands down my favorite game of all time, but there’s no denying that it lacks depth in many areas that even diehard fans such as myself hope can improve. The way Starfield is, I see a fragile ecosystem at play here, one that requires a balance of content covering the game, players playing the game, and new updates for the game via mods and the studio. It’s quite shocking to me how Skyrim/Fallout consistently dwarf Starfield in terms of player count by more than double. Without players playing, it doesn’t make financial sense to continue supporting the game whether you’re Bethesda or a modder and it goes without saying, if support is dropped or drastically slows down, then the game will die sooner than later. With the internet consensus of Starfield being the way it is, you need all the positive momentum you can get at this point to reinvigorate the player base so that this game can actually last.
@@High_Key Bethesda are releasing more content for ultimate edition owners so no they wont stop supporting it early. There is more releasing in future and Todd even mentions that.
Great analysis as always. I have played continuously since launch and have played the dlc twice so far, and not as a speed run. My feeling is that the negative is amplified and the good is downplayed. I do feel like there are some legit concerns that BGS is somewhat out of touch with the fan base, but not apocalypticly so.
Thanks Ghengis. I like the apocalyptic reference. One person said there were other issues that we aren't discussing and I think I know what he means. There's some legit complaint territory I'm not touching (yet?). It's not what I'm talking about here, mostly group 3 stuff. What I've been a little surprised by are the 'discontented' (let's call them that*) and their strange confidence they represent a large number of players. I just don't see evidence of that. Of course, in any sufficiently large group you can find people with different opinions, but many seem to buy into specious arguments that sounds strikingly familiar to the 'farmer' pitches I've heard. I try to ask them to explain or expand so we'll see if there are solid points. I'm definitely interested. Hope the weekend is going well. Mine's been fun so far. ;) * I will note most don't seem like 'haters' but I have hidden one that wrote an absolute wall of text. I had to laugh at the effort that went into it and felt a little bad as one must be seriously disturbed to regurgitate all that into a comment on a channel the UA-cam channel just sent him.
Well said! Noise attracts attention. A large number of those complainers are actually just trolls. It's not so much that they do oppose or dislike the game, they just enjoy triggering people, whether it is the negative that will puke up all their hatred, or the fans that get angry in defending what they believe is a good game. I'm enjoying it as much as I am many of the other space titles that seem to have replaced my obsession with zombie apocalypse themed games.
Good plan. I think we all recognize that no one marries a game. It's a temporary distraction for a time and an option for return later. Thanks for watching!
I hope you guys all get the content you want, I really do. But I have to call out holes in number crunching when I see them, sorry. You literally did not even show the Steam numbers, the massive drop off at launch, the complete lack of any retention from the DLC. "14 million players" doesn't help Microsoft when most people played for free, played it for 20-30 hours and then somewhat angrily put it down and bitched about the Bethesda brand online for a year. Analogy for you: There's a famous business school case about Perdue Chicken making hot dogs out of chicken parts. They did an AMAZING ad campaign and everyone tried the dogs, huge initial sales. Once. That was it, because the hot dogs tasted like ass. Massive initial sales, then dropped to zero, business was over. That is what the "14 million players" represents here, at least that's what I predict fwiw. The key metric for deciding on more DLC is current players, not total players. Please note my interests are solely focused on good data analysis, I don't care if people think Starfield is good or bad
If you are under the impression that Game Pass is free, you are missing a critical element in what you understand (in what you are loosely calling data analysis). I am very aware of the SteamDB player counts, have downloaded the full histories of all the games here and looked at their performance. We could chase this individual game all the way up through MSFT stock price, EPS, and so on but it's just not meaningful when primarily what we're talking about is a psychological problem for Starfield haters. The data is fine. The game is fine. The question is if the people caught up in group 2 will be fine in 5 years when Starfield is sitting at 50M installs/players. You are welcome to come back and tell me I was wrong and prove it then (honest, I won't mind). Until then I'm merely sharing data. Thanks for watching.
I’ll say this if you like Bethesda games you’ll probably like starfield lol and the only negative thing I can say about starfield is that it made me sell my ps and buy an Xbox 😂
I bought an Xbox X just for it and play on PC too (separate characters, accounts, mod sets). I like a lot of space games so it was an easy call. Thanks for watching!
I compared the house of varuun faction to the other factions and this is how I rank them. 1. Constellation 2. Crimson Fleet 3. FreeStar col. A. TA 4. United Colonies 5. House Varuun 6. Ryujin I enjoyed the initial playthrough. The colors of the planet were lovely. I was extremely disappointed with the ending. After playing SS once, there really isn't a reason to return to this universe in NG+. The new content didn't offer up any sandbox toys. I love the game. I don't think this update did anything to improve the game. Most everyone said they enjoyed shipbuilding and the ship combat. If they were listening, they would of thrown us a bone. If we actually could of started a holy war, it may have been number 1 or 2. Worst ending I have seen in all of gaming, I think.
I think the most we can get from the 'holy war' are some random raids. Since I didn't choose it in this playthrough I'll have to do it in another one. I'll find out soon enough. Thanks for the comment!
Awesome video man! I’m 31 and I’ve been a Bethesda/Obsidian game fan since 2009. Truth be told, the overdramatic reactions towards Starfield and its DLC is extremely strange. The game does have flaws(I definitely have my own complaints with it) but still it’s a good game overall and it had good lore. Anyway, I think Starfield will do fine in the long run. Also side note, I hope we get the brown Freestar Ranger Marshall overcoat at some point. I want it so badly! Lol 😂
Honestly, I don't think it will. It's a shame as I really enjoyed Starfield, but now we are back to the original position of having nothing to do other than the odd meaningless side quest. Go here and fetch that and collect more credits
I'd like to ask you a sincere question (at the end of this comment). There's an element of any RPG where the player 'fills in the details' of why and what they are doing. There are games that come to an end because you've reached the end of a story. This can be like a book. In books the reader is largely captive to the author but the detail can be rich and tightly controlled. When it's over you could write or related content, but to re-consume the book is merely to re-read it looking for something you might have missed before. Ignoring the online versions when available, Fallout 4, Skyrim, ES are finite games as released by the same studio. Other studios do the same. Do they have some other type of end-state (not ending) when compared to Starfield in your view? Do we not always arrive at the end of a Bethesda game, having explored the entire map, met every NPC, triggered (and completed) every quest?
Of course it’ll survive, the hate is about the wokeness, PlayStation bro’s, and clickbaiting. I play the game every day after work, best I’ve played yet. I loved and did thousands of hours on MW, Skyrim, and Oblivion… Loved them all to an absurd level, but Starfield is better. I’ll be hooked on this until ES6 comes out and no doubt that’s when I’ll move on, because if they can put out an ES game with this level of complexity and immersiveness in a Fantasy setting, that would be my perfect game. I’m 50 (Gen X), so it’s conceivable to me that this game resonates far more with older gamers. Last point: This is the largest canvas in gaming, the sheer volume available to insert new content by DLC or mods is beyond exciting… Think alien invasion into the settled systems, another war, handcrafted planets… It goes on and on, you could continue building this game literally forever, it’s mind boggling.
I don't really understand the reason behind people getting emotional over a product like this. Big games companies such as Bethesda are companies that exist to produce a product that's supposed to make money for the company and if applicable it's shareholders. Nothing more. Are there people employed at said companies that like their job and are passionate about it? Sure. It might be a little naïve, but in the end, they have a job to live off. Cudos to them if they're happy with it, that's a luxury many do not have. Are there employees who dislike their job but do it anyways. Probably. As companies grow bigger there will be people who do a job they don't enjoy for a plethora of reasons. Can a product be bad, polarising or simply average yet be successful for a company? Of course it can. Quality does not necessarily speak for sales or perception of a product. And the key word for games is PRODUCT! It doesn't care for your emotional attachment to it. Yes there might be developers who genuinely want to create a great experience no matter the cost to them. But that is not how a publicly traded, or bigger company can work. Bethesda and many other companies have one purpose, to MAKE MONEY! If their stats say the product makes money, then it's a win. If their stats say otherwise, they'd either change their strategy, stop making the same mistakes for a long time, cancel the product or they'll simply close up shop and seize to exist if they ignore the signs for too long or make the wrong corrections. It simply is a business. People really need to learn how to hold their emotions and expectations in check. Forget how to hype yourself up, or how to get hyped up for a product and instead learn how to be surprised by a product if it turns out to be a good purchase for you. Idolizing companies is probably the worst mistake "the community" does as it inevitably will lead down to disappointment if a product turns out to be not what they expected it to be. As cold as it might be, you don't matter. Only your wallet does.
I completely agree with the author. Negative content always sells better. Our gaming community is much more toxic than yours and we have similar bloggers who spread hatred are thriving! And the largest channels, after publishers left our market, came to similar content. Starfield and Shattered Space do not deserve such strong hate. It's a great game, it's a great DLC. Yes, they have flaws, but everything has them. But for some reason, many people are silent about the advantages, deliberately creating a negative aura. This creates a lot of activity on the channels, due to which the blogger can charge more money for advertising some next suspicious school of game designers (like in us).... And ordinary people, for the most part, take everything at their word. The effect of social approval... Example: We have a gaming journalism channel called StopGame with 2.7 million subscribers. They released a negative review on Shattered Space. Based mostly on outright lies. The journalist tells - There is no variability in the DLC, I have a dialogue option marked [Attack], but I can't attack. At the time of viewing this review, I went through this quest literally half an hour ago and what the journalist says is an outright lie. And this is what the whole review is based on. Lies even in the most elementary details -There are no short outputs in large DLC locations.... God... What nonsense is this. And the most offensive thing. In one of the most popular comments under the review, the guy writes. - [Attack] in dialogue does not allow you to attack??? What a shame! 🤣... Obviously, the guy himself did not play the game and everyone who liked his comment and made it one of the most popular, also did not play the game and did not check this moment themselves... They blindly believe what journalists tell them. This is how the majority of people form an opinion about games. Mass zombification. If Starfield had been released in the absence of the Internet, I'm sure it would have been a hit! 😁 (My speech may seem like the speech of an intellectually limited person, it's just because I don't know English well).
I don't enjoy the game and despite owning the dlc I'm not even going to bother playing it. Which is common. As when you were discussing numbers on Steam. You didn't include the numbers of people who'd bought early access on Steam but hadn't bothered to come back for the dlc they paid for. Less than 5% I believe. I disagree with your analysis and odd use of data - You included projected PSN sales... Really!? Absolutely nothing here on this channel for me.
There is a simple logic/mathematical error here on your part. It's the assumption that people play DLC on launch day exclusively. When we look at the original launch we get a nice view of pent up demand. Day -1 the game is not available so no one is playing. In the days immediately after launch that demand is met, yet not everyone plays on day one either. There's a short curve and an area under that curve that in aggregate represent something like 'first week' players. We could do 'first month', but 'first day' is only party useful. However, and this is big, we have no 'unique player' data from SteamDB. Just concurrent counts. If you find more let me know, but I have all the data they release for free downloaded in spreadsheets. In any case, a DLC release during a weekday doesn't tell us something and claims about pre-order players not coming back are misleading (and likely deliberately so). I'm not saying you are deliberately misleading people. Only you could admit that, but there are 'group 1' creators that use that out of ignorance or deliberately that feed 'group 2' and it gets repeated. I appreciate the comment. I think you aren't seeing it clearly but if I've conveyed anything it's that YT will reward me for you making the comment. Not saying I did it for that reason, I really want people to just connect with that concept.
I chose early on to ignore the negativity surrounding Starfield. It started before most people had even seen the game. I found the game to be quite enjoyable. I may not play as often as I once did, but I am still enjoying it. Regarding bugs -- the game may have bugs. As a long time developer, I can attest that the Operating System has bugs, the development tools have bugs, the graphical libraries have bugs, the BIOS has bugs, the communication between one hardware piece and another will have bugs. Every one of these has a trickle-down effect on the end product. It's amazing that games don't have an order of magnitude more bugs that we do.
I always joke that if people really understood what it took to make software, they'd either experience a sense of paralyzing awe or be too afraid to leave their homes. It sounds like you've seen the side I've seen too. Thanks for checking out the video!
Shattered space didn't include any long term play features, so player numbers will continue to drop. No new ship parts, no new outpost features, no unique resources, no new space encounters, No M-class ships and no space station building. Many of these features are already in the game and just needed to be polished up, and they ignored all of these things. This is a fail.
Yeah once I finished story of dlc.i had no reason to go back besides side quests. The reskin weapons were nice imo because they were much stronger variants. There was many new features and mechanics like the new ranged heavy weapon and destructible cave walls etc. While I have almost 1k hrs played over release window and time since dlc the game def has issues. The truth is most dlc sales for SS are from pre-order/collector bonuses
It sounds like you probably missed things many of us found and have decided they aren't there. I hope you give the the DLC a try some day, play thoroughly and experience all the content. If I can make a suggestion, if you come into it with expectations you will be disappointed you will likely get exactly what you expect. I've always found things work that way. The power of expectations, prejudice and such can make it almost impossible to experience things as they are and not how we believe them to be. Probably too far off in the deep weeds, but thanks for checking out the video, hope you have a great weekend!
Can't say I hated it but the loot sucks and holy cow is this game empty your exploration is useless and a waste of your valuable time Missing all the spontaneous finds that all of their titles have
I have a different experience. I don't think every game is for every person. I can give you a list of games I don't care for. Some of them would have been far more appealing to me at different ages or stages of my life. There are entire game types that I shelved years ago as unrewarding. There are a lot of experiences in life like that. If I find something I enjoy, I focus on that. If I find that other people enjoy something I don't, I do ask myself what's different about how I play and consume entertainment. I had that experience with BG3 Act III, but was just left bored. Others were carried through by their own satisfaction for various elements. That may or may not be useful. Sometimes I just don't like a thing. Thanks for watching.
I have always seen the potential in Starfield. I think you are overestimating the hate train idea; more people than you think their anger is more out of love for the Bethesda name. I am happy the game clicked for you; that is also a valid opinion. Still, to many of us, there has been "an opinion-based observation" that the story quality has been declining and corners being cut in gameplay. Like the same bugs modders fixed being ported to later games. Or the outpost system that is less functional than fallouts. In my opinion, the game will be great once all the DLC is made for Starfield. I have over 200 hours in this game, and I lost interest. I have thousands of hours in past Bethesda games, tho I continue to check back in hopes It can be a game I stick with. I kept trying to find the fun for me. But everytime I tried something I felt like something is missing and cant shake the feeling they intent to sell to us later.
I have very light mod exposure in Starfield so far, but play with set in Fallout 4. I do have an inverted play time compared to yours, but that's also because of the channel. I have hundreds of hours in multiple earlier BGS titles, nearly 2k in Starfield. I might do something with FO4 on the 23rd for the channel. Great games for many years.
The unfortunate fact is that is is "cool" to hate Bethesda Game Studios right now. You have articulated many thoughts that I have been having over the past year. Nice video! Subscribed.
Starfield just isn’t my type of RPG. It is for many folks but just not my personal style. I can see how others can like it though
That's an incredibly reasonable and well stated opinion. Thanks.
@@kineer I don't think Bethesda is going anywhere for a long time though. I just hope they don't give the next super popular game the skyrim treatment releasing it again every year XD
I agree, Xbox financials are reportedly good, the Activision-Blizzard acquisition was positive and they understand that long term headwinds for consoles. Sony knows this too. That said, I hope ES6 and other titles get fair treatment in the market overall. Also agreed on the Skyrim churn. It's often surprising how many times I bought that game.
Every year? I thought it was twice they re-released skyrim.@@tylermorgan1294
Superb video. I agree that the numbers are solid and MS and BGS have the evidence they need to continue developing this great game. 👏
It's funny, but I had no idea LS made that earlier video OR that he was using Cyberpunk has his example. I stopped watching the guy some time ago. I always like your content Richard! Thanks for stopping by! :)
As of this morning, Starfield has roughly 10K players on Steam right now, while Skyrim has 26K, FO4 has 18K, and Cyberpunk (since you brought it up) has 41K (according to Steam Charts). Most PC players prefer the older Bethesda franchises and games (or other content outside Bethesda), and I feel that's going to be reflected in the modding community, which is what keeps these games rolling for years (or decades, at this rate). You can talk sales numbers/speculation all you want, but active players being higher on older releases does not a positive image make. I played for about 130 hours, and was completely done with the game. In my estimations, it failed on just about everything I look for in a Bethesda experience.
Your last sentence is a perfectly value personal opinion. You can play something and decide you don't like it.
The rest doesn't align with my analysis of what's meaningful. I can suggest other things to compare, but I've put a basic view of that in the video. It's not because I don't have more data that supports my conclusions, but is more about what fits in a YT video for a wide audience. I'm comfortable with my own business, software experience and analysis. Thanks for watching.
@@kineer I look forward to your 10 year analysis on the game then.
Oh man, if I'm here in 10 years doing this I'm buying you a Coffee.
@@kineer 😂
The issue Starfield is against is all of our imaginations. (besides Sony fans) We all got so stoked and just let our imaginations pre-launch run wild for years, and BGS did hype it up quite a bit. It's easy-to-make expectations too high personally. Steam numbers for single player games don't carry much but media hype train. Skyrim and Fallout 4 were thrashed hard too at launch. Launch Skyrim and Vanilla Skyrim now are two different games.
I think there's a lot to what you said about expectations.
I was fortunate that I barely took note of the hype, only really kept an eye on dates and such. I didn't spend time hotly anticipating things and [frankly] never invented expectations that weren't present in the marketing.
I think some of that expectation crash has dissipated over time, but every time I chased down someone's "but they said it would be A,B,C" in the past I found the person had misinterpreted something I understood to be different.
So people filled their own minds with false expectations, got mad at Bethesda with it didn't live up the story they told themselves, told others (who the repeated it back to them).
I have stopped asking people to show me examples of the thing they thought was supposed to be there. I never worked out for them.
I mean if those people with overactive imaginations pre release could simply keep their imagination going post release.... Starfield really is a wonderful playground.
As always, excellent content. Thank you, Kineer.
Thanks Ken!
Great analysis Kineer. I’m a huge Starfield fan as well and in my point of view, the key to longevity is creating and fleshing out the gameplay mechanics while creating quest content around it. Outposts could use a true settlement or economy system that affects the settled system economy for example. With vehicles, we should have some gameplay loops that involve transportation/escort missions, where we get attacked by hostile riding other vehicles. Most importantly, we definitely need a ship-focused update/DLC that introduces new parts/quests/manufacturers etc etc.
I had that idea about vehicle combat too and think it's great. Someone educated me on collision mechanics when I brought it up in an earlier video, but it would still very cool. I hope we are at the start of a series of vehicle updates. I also suspect that if vehicles were something that didn't make the original release cut, there is content that will come with them as well. Getting the Rev-8 just before Shattered Space helps, but it could have been the minimum they needed to exploration on Va'ruun'kai would be more fun. Thanks for watching!
@@kineer very good point. I lean towards both the REV-8 and Shattered Space being cut content so do expect some more fleshing out when it comes to vehicles.
Well said kineer, for me I find the game really enjoyable and I do think it has got better.
The final part of the quest, in the citadel, I spent hours in there with looting etc., struggled at the end of that area, but really enjoyed it.
Really enjoying your content BTW 👍👍
Thanks Mark! I wish I had spent more time looting the Citadel, but was on stream the first time through. Will definitely do that the second time through.
13:25 as someone who works in data science that argument is always nails on a chalkboard to me. It is such a small fraction of players, same goes for steam live player counts.
He didn't include percent of players who nought early access on PC but hadn't returned for the DlC - less than 5%.
The data he supplied demonstrates that the only people that play it anymore as those on Gamepass. Which he spins as people who actually bought the game. Wow... That's a take.
He also included a conjured up PSN sales number.
You work in data science you say... Do you make the tea?
You understand then. The math, statistics are not intuitively obvious unless you spend your time dealing with them. I like two analogies in this space:
1. Carpenters can walk into a room and notice things that aren't plumb or level within a fraction of a second. If they don't spot it immediately, they might indicate something is 'off' until they do.
2. A fair part of the movie the Matrix was getting people to wake up and see what was already around them for what it was. As an engineer, I was conditioned to think of things in terms of certain mathematical disciplines, principles, etc. I also had plenty of formal training in statistics and probability (there and later). It's nearly impossible to put that cork back in the bottle. ;)
Thanks for watching and commenting! I enjoyed your video and loved your research approach. The LS video reference was gold.
For anyone that sees the comment, go sub and like his stuff.
@@kineeralready subbed to eclipse.
As far as companions that you have found, do they have an affinity attached to them? Quests after getting X amount of affinity? Or are they more like those that you would pick up in a bar that have few skills but not really care what you do? When most people complain about them, they think they should be like in past released DLC of other Bethesda games, that are as good as or better than the base companions.
I did a couple of videos some time ago on how to get all the companions in the game (pre-shattered space) and how their skills stack up. A few of them still run if you shoot civilians. Some seem indifferent to how you play. I find a lot of variety and some of them have far more complex back stories than I expected.
In my NG+5 playthrough, I run a crew of non-Constellation companions and I enjoy it quite a bit. I think there's a subjective value call for anyone playing the game about romancing NPCs.
In my original games I married and ran with Constellation crew. I have done all the constellation specific companion quests to get them all for BFF/married level at different times.
Later I didn't. I will note that after running a full non-Constellation crew for a while, starting a new playthrough with them is refreshing and they can be interesting again.
But I really noticed a shift in my perception of the game when their Like/Dislikes were back in play. Shattered Space with Andreja was fun.
If people believe companions, crew need to be romantic targets that's a personal value call. I wasn't impressed with the 'sleep with a bear' routing in BG3, but I get it. That's exciting for some people. In Shattered Space, adding two new companions adds value for me. I'll do something with them. Not sure what yet. I won't be bothered that I can't marry them and don't consider it important.
All Companions
ua-cam.com/video/Pzb11fRhUvI/v-deo.htmlsi=ZW5SiY5nBlXLPKWW
Building a Non-Constellation Crew (skill comparisons)
ua-cam.com/video/OaQhJfJ5PbM/v-deo.htmlsi=6K_r-vNOm3amH9aa
One thing I dislike about non-constellation companions is how quickly they turn on you if they accidentally get hit by friendly fire.
I wrote a negative review for shattered space. I like starfield a lot, and don't get on the hate train. I've got 1350 hours on starfield today and never had more on a single player game. I think it's the best space game currently out there.
I've always been into space games. I've played many over the last decades and starfield is really great when it comes to building your own space dreams. but that's also why I wrote a negative review on the DLC. I don't think it adds much to those space dreams.
the world design for the new planet is so much balanced toward fantasy it reminded me of playing wow 20 years ago. like I needed a dragon and not a buggy to get around. the cave and temple vibes made me think of Skyrim even though I never played that game. the vivid colors of Dazra made me feel I was playing a gacha like Tower of Fantasy. it looks unfinished and you get too much of everything everywhere. it 's like they combined three games into one and are losing it's own identity as a space game. there's only a few nice missions in this entire DLC with a sci-fi theme.
I don't get the hate for starfield in general, think you are right about that hate being subjective. I would also not underestimate the hate coming from space game cults bashing every other space game out there not being as 'immersive' as the crypto scam they got involved in. but I get why people don't like shattered space. I'm one of them. I'm much happier in one of my outposts or space ships building a tribute to an old sci-fi movie.
You can write about, discuss or otherwise catalog bugs in software or even your own opinions. I had hoped to characterize that as 'group 3'. Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I could be. There is a truly objective group of players that do and I count myself in that group.
Imagining that "my" opinion represents a significant body of others is more of the problem. None of us truly knows that so we have to use other data (externally visible) if we want some insight.
In any case, writing a single negative review is different than farming a segment of the YT community just because you can. I'm not even judging that. Just calling it out.
What does 'survive' mean in this context? It's not a live service game. Starfield and Shattered Space exist and will continue to do so.
It's worth pointing out the people that hate Starfield as a hobby will also survive even while others enjoy it. It's not clear they know that though. :)
@@kineer Ha. True enough. I mostly liked Starfield. I'll play it again sometime, it's not going anywhere.
It is, as a matter of fact, a live service game.
Starfield is a great game. The majority of the hate it gets is clickbait nonsense
This was an absolutely amazing video and the best way to box the tiny amount of haters into a corner, although that’s not your intention. I wasn’t planning on watching this whole video, but I’m glad I did, keep up the great content Kineer ✌🏼
Thanks MoonSammich! (also I love the name)
@@kineer you’re welcome and thanks, it’s my gamertag as well. I plan on doing Starfield videos as well, just in a different format than yours. Always enjoy your content and delivery style. ✌🏼
Fallout 4 had all the DLC + mod support out within a year of launch btw
I have a video that includes some coverage of the FO4 release date, DLC topics, and inflation adjusted prices. I would consider myself well versed in DLC topics of that nature (value, timing, etc). I've done the research.
That video was more about how prices are set and what's reasonable. Still, it doesn't really matter to me when FO4 DLC was released.
Cyberpunk 2077's primary DLC was 1000+ days after launch. That was a salvage job for a botched launch that resulted in a class action lawsuit and a title being pulled from the store. CP2077 did receive updates along the way and a next-gen push but Phantom Liberty was is the core of their redemption arc.
That wasn't an issue for Starfield as the game was launched well, was the #3 in top sales on Steam in 2023 (despite being out for less than four months) and received regular patches for the minor issues affecting it.
ua-cam.com/video/KsoMIbPydhg/v-deo.html
Great stuff, thanks
Thanks!
I was one of the players that bought Starfield the day it was released. I played the heck out of it for months, than migrated away. However I had no bad feelings I just feel like I had done everything I wanted at the time. With the DLC I decided to jump back in and it’s been a blast getting back in the world. I haven’t even downloaded the DLC yet as I wanted to get the feel of the game again and it’s just been a good time. I feel like negativity sells. Everyone now is just looking for a reason to be negative. The negativity is permeating our country and it’s sad. Starfield = Good, negativity = bad.
Great. I was just commenting that most realize no one marries a video game. It's a temporary distraction that can get intense and can be something your set aside and return to. That all sounds healthy to me. Hope you enjoy it when you get to it and thanks for watching!
Excellent analysis man, bravo. I think there's a whole other side of the Starfield story at play here as well but that's a story for another day.
I've been saying since last year that the folks who've been most vocal about the same are the ones who understand it the least. After a year that still rings true, but its good to see so many folks having a blast with it just the same.
Thanks! I'm having a blast with it too!
Sensible and informative take on a game that's been my favorite since release. Take a subscription.
🎵Now you're back, From outer space. And I find you here with that sad look upon your face...🎵 😎
Classic song. Thanks for watching.
You can throw all the statistics, numbers, and projections out there, but let's be real, we all don't know what will happen to Starfield or even Bethesda, because Microsoft is so unpredictable. They kill off Arkane Austin studios for horrible reviews and low sales of Redfall, and yet at the same time, they kill off Tango Gameworks Studio for having good sales and an overwhelmingly high reviews of Hi Fi Rush. We'll all just have to wait a few years, just like with Cyberpunk 2077, to see what happens.
We will indeed see over time. You are correct.
Amazing content.
Glad you enjoyed it
We live in a world of hate overall. And the people who are posting Starfield Hate content understand that titles in the negative tend to draw more clicks overall. This is especially true to the number of the Game Magazines and Sites like GameRant that are almost all negative to gain clicks. Great vid here Kineer.
Thanks!
I watched a video from @Starfield_Eclipse (he's here commenting too) where he identified a very large content creator talking about this very practice. It's ironic that when he described it years ago he was speaking out against farming negative sentiment as a matter of integrity. Years later, he's [effectively] gone over to the dark side. It's fascinating to watch. He's not confused.
I'm not trying to judge them too harshly. If/when your income comes entirely from ad revenue, maybe the incentives are mostly irresistible.
This specific creator knows exactly what he's doing and if you were sit down with him over dinner/drinks I have little doubt he'd speak freely about it.
The harm comes from the 'group 2' people that are being farmed. It's up to all of us to build up our own 'defense against the dark arts', but some of that spills over into more enjoyable communities at times. MSFT/BGS are all big kids at the table. I'm not worried about them. They have the inside ($$) view as well.
In any case, nice to hear from you and thanks for checking out the video!
12:08 Starfield is in Xbox Gamepass because Xbox own the franchise, I doubt Xbox would allow sony to put it unto their own subscription service if they did port the game there
Agreed, very unlikely. I didn't do an exhaustive search, but see Diablo IV, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Minecraft as examples of standard practics. Purchase price up front. No reason they can't do it technically if (iff?) MS/BGS wanted to maximize installs, however financially it's hard to see why they'd breach that wall and let it be part of their service. So unlikely (low probability), but not zero.
The comparisons that has been most important to me has been the ones where they show clips from different games, because clips are literal facts and you can decide for yourself what you think of it. I saw a clip comparing the gameplay from Starfield when you're getting an artifact on neon, with getting the spider robot in Cyberpunk and I think it said a lot about story-telling without getting overly negative about it.
Starfield made me get deeper into the genre, I played Cyberpunk when the DLC came out because of Starfield, played The Invincible (Can warmly recommend that game to everyone) and now the Mass Effect series. While I probably wont go back to Starfield, I do think that game has been important getting new players into the sci-fi genre (I mostly played fantasy games before).
I've played a lot of space games over decades (not on the channel). It would be difficult to overstate the value of bringing people into the science fiction (space) genre.
There was an old quote in the U.S. where someone wished politicians would read more SciFi and fewer Westerns. That alone tells you it was a long time ago. I have no problem with things like RDR2, but this genre puts people's minds somewhere else.
I also dabble in the dystopian, but given my long history reading in this area there are elements of even very popular titles that I don't find as innovated or interesting as others. That's 100% on me.
Generally, I hope that everyone can experience and play games that meet their interests without interference by people manipulating the markets for their own personal benefit.
The modding community is growing and I have enjoyed the game +dlc with mods for the last month. With inflation morrowind dlc and far harbor dlc would've been more expensive. Steam charts don't show everything because many are playing on console or gamepass. I can't mod cyberpunk on xbox
I crawl through Nexus on occasion looking at the main titles I like, tallying the mods, comparing the rates of mod development/release (more simple math). Starfield was doing well before the Creation Store (quantity), but it opens up some very nice benefits if you're willing to tinker a little. That's a LOT of people! Thanks for checking out the video.
I play all the space games.
One thing i have noticed with Starfield is that with the right mods you can have stuff like seamless travel, bag and tag bounty systems and quite good damage TTK overhauls in fps combat and space.
This combined with ship interiors and boarding mechanics, it’s in a unique spot that is only occupied by the likes of Star Citizen, Empyrion galactic survival, X4 foundations and spacebourne 2.
While without mods i would agree the game is in a very poor place, it has modding support and those mods do make a huge difference.
Of course the most vocal about this game are the people who haven’t even touched the mods rendering any opinion they have about it total garbage.
I’m a gamer. I dont care who makes the content so long as it gets made. If modding support salvages and brings the title up to standard i’ll play it.
Other developers are opening their doors to modding support. So unless Bethesda steps it up in future they’ll go under eventually. But that isn’t my problem and it isn’t yours either.
I don't use many mods and enjoy the game, but I can clearly see the appeal. If a group is happy with the base game, another groups doesn't click in until the right mods are available, that's one of the great benefits of more open platforms. Without diving into the entire 'licensing' vs. 'buying' discussion, modding a game makes it more 'mine.' Thanks for watching.
@@kineer I also enjoyed the base game but for me, without seamless travel it kinda was a disappointment for me.
It doesnt make it a bad game as such, its just i have other games in my library that do it better.
Of course the beauty of modding it has added these features and they continually get better every few months.
I still reakon the game has potential but I dont think it will be bethesda that make it shine, it’ll be the community.
Rumour has it people are working on making it so the tiles on a planet are connected.
Once that is cracked it will open the doors for atmospheric flight with maybe a little loading screen for transition from ground to space. I reakon its a few years off but there seems to be people working away at it :)
Yes! Thank you!
The numbers I like to look at are the premium users (on steam) that played the 3 day "early" access (near 220K). and compare them to the bump in concurrent users after shattered space launched (near 5K). Which suggests that around 215K people who already owned Shattered Space couldn't be bothered to even try it. 🤔
The player metric is all fine and dandy, but someone already subscribed to gamepass, doesn't really support the continued existence of BGS, at least IMO
Microsoft had been in a grow the platform at all cost stage for some time, and thus discounting gaming, to give an unreasonable value for it.
This IMO as made studios like Bethesda put out minimum viable products as a platform to sell micro-dlcs (creations) at exorbitant prices and a lack of value.
I wouldn't say it suggests what you've offered here.
I apologize, but I've likely put this in another comment elsewhere and might not add all that detail here. Steam numbers show concurrent players, not unique and that's where the data falls down. You get a nice view in week one of players because prior to launch zero could play. Still if peak players on one day is 330k and the next day it's 200k, we have no idea how many are the same.
Likewise we have no real way to tell how many people play a DLC on day one or at any time after. For a DLC some claim is only 6 hours (I disagree) and others easily get 20+ hours from, any bump in players will be short lived and spread out.
But as an example, 5k players over 40 days (eventually getting it installed and playing it) makes up for 200k claimed to haven't bothered.
Anecdotally, I have plenty of people watching my videos that told me they weren't playing on a weekday morning, evening, etc. and would be loading it later. Not unusual or nefarious. There's no way to tell from the outside if/when they played.
Perhaps someday, BGS will tell us how many people played Shattered Space and for what average hours. If you have that data, I'm interested. Just don't see is in "Steam data."
Capitalism, change it 🤷♂️
@@kineer Those people claiming 6ish hours play time are most likely referring to the main quest which they most likely raced through dialog to get the next waypoint to follow to the following check point. It really comes down to play style and the dumbing down of games in general to find a bigger audience.
You seem to forget that prior to launch on the 6th, there was an "early" access time that slightly over 200K people on steam played. While most people call it that the real launch day, people did have to pay for that access.
While concurrent player counts might not represent the same people from day to day, it shows the current interest in the game and the majority of people play the same game over a given amount of time.
While many may have said they would be playing shattered space at a later time, more people have said that they would not. So that point should be muted as being subjective at best. The point being the current interest in the game did not significantly increase, as would happen with most major DLC releases.
Oh, as far as negative reviews, at least they cared enough to leave a review, were as the majority of people don't bother. Good or bad. The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The reality is the hate is a boondoggle. The game is great. Truly amazing for people like me, but still, like, great for the mean average.
It's laughable, ridiculous, farcical hate by the same players I guarantee are playing it more than most of the games they've ever played.
Financially it's doing great. The hate is extremely weird. Like, truly weird. It's things that greatly overlap with many games in general OR are things that can't really apply because they only apply if Starfield wasn't a Bethesda game - if it were a shooter or if it were a cyberpunk. And most of the hate is likely from players that should know better.
I refuse to cater to this laughable fake hate.
And poor Bethesda who pulled some firsts for once, aren't getting any recognition for it because they had sullied their reputation in the recent past. Like: the fact they had an amazing launch, made a vehicle which is a minor miracle, and are squashing bugs like a machine. They released a DLC that didn't break. It like ran great. Another miracle. Even people running many mods just kept on playing. Those things are accomplishments.
Again, I refuse to cater to the hate. It's viral silliness.
We will not feed the trolls. :)
Spittin' straight truth this guy.
A vehicle. A frickin' vehicle! & a bloody good fun one at that. Well done Bethesda! 😂
UA-cam videos dont illicit some sort of mind control upon it's audience. Videos bashing starfield are popular because it reflects the audience's sentiment. The content creators dont dictate public opinion, they amplify it.
Starfield's active player count is 1/3 of skyrim's, a game released 13 years ago. It's count is 1/2 of fallout 4.
Lumping gamepass into units sold is some creative accounting, my guy. The Microsoft acquisition was 7 biillion dollars.
Infact, microsoft has reversed it's 'exclusivity' intentions with starfield(a tactic designed to drive xbox console sales) to try and recuperate the losses of acquiring Bethesda.
Players aren't paying for starfield through gamepass, microsoft is.
I would suggest some of Robert Cialdini's books. Marketing is too broad a topic, but the idea that marketing and persuasion don't work is interesting. That you are here on this channel commenting is the result of algorithm that recognizes your interests and feeds you more. That only works if it's at least partly correct.
I would also suggest that people (myself included) aren't really forming our own distinct opinions at most moments. We are largely shaped by the media and content we consume and are somewhat programmed by it. The sum of human knowledge far exceeds what an individual can reasonable know or keep up with ... so we consume from sources we like and there's a huge danger of merely amplifying confirmation bias.
I'm likely qualified to discuss finance, accounting and the software business but I don't really get into that in open discussions. If you have sources that confirm your opinions on the financial state inside BGS/MSFT I'm always interested. I can't comb the internet for every piece of information, but I'm fairly efficient at finding filings and data. I produce content for YT, not b-school here so make of that what you will. Thanks for watching.
@@kineer Interesting , Thank You
Haters gonna hate, especially if it puts cash in their wallets. I really enjoy this game, (it's definitely not for everyone) and I'm always finding new things to explore and try out by watching other people play. Thanx for putting this video together!
Agreed and thank you! It's been an interesting exercise watching 'group 2' roll in and seeing first hand repeats from the farmers. There have been very, very few of them.
I wish it were different, but it's not. I don't lose sleep over it, but it's worth understanding too.
Glad to see some explorations on actual data instead of just riding the wave of what negative content exploiters make.
Sure, youtubers are here to make money, so clearly you get more views from stuff that generate controversies; but honestly people are sick and tired to hear complains about everything... Maybe everyone should take a bit of Valium and chill the eff down royally, and start to do content like this again. Well done Sir; hat off.
People buying morrowind in 2002 and and having a positive kid reaction . Then demanding the same personal positive reaction 22 years later for a video game?
If you have the same reaction to a game when you are in your 30 as you did as a kid. You need a doctor.
You should be lucky to have time to play between baby napp.
Its a game. They should have picked diff , newer engine to run it on.
It's entirely possible to have the same positive reaction as an adult. If you can't have that any more, maybe it's time to discover a new hobby.
Having some insight into the demographics on my own channel and the near Starfied exclusivity so far, I can confirm there's a general profile around this game. I would never go so far as to claim younger people can't enjoy it, but we know there are similar profile for other games. There are many factors that make a game appealing to different groups. That's perfect as I see it.
I am also 100% confident that my own interests have changed over time. There are styles of games that were the core of my gaming experience when I was younger that I don't touch any more. There are also genre's which I find more or less interesting.
Look if you like Starfield great. I played Starfield for over 100 hrs, on Gamepass. I stopped because it's boring.
I still have game pass, I'm still not playing it, and it looks like the DLC is still boring.
I'm sure Starfield is doing fine without me.
We all get to have an opinion. That's legit. I will highlight something that contributes to the negative discourse.
Starfield is great [in my opinion]. The Shattered Space DLC is a lot of fun [in my opinion]. How do you interpret my statement with and without the extra qualifier?
The omission of the parts in [] contributes to the churn. When I see your comment, I mentally attach something like [in his opinion], but the internet, reddit, FB, YT, etc. are sort of terrible with nuance and that level of detail.
I'll also note that one hundred hours exceeds what How Long to Beat says it takes to complete the main story and beyond. It also represents a $.70/hour cost which is excellent value compared to many things. I like to highlight the cost to enjoy my motorcycle is substantially higher and has a different entertainment profile, but for a game I'm quite happy with certain costs per hour of entertainment.
Thanks for watching.
@kineer I guess I don't see it as a negative, it's just not a game i connect with. Now, from Bethesdas's point of view they have in me a customer who loved Fall out 3, enjoyed Fallout 4, Loved Skyrim, and Liked Oblivion.
Fallout 76, not touching it, it's not for me, and Starfield was a good college effort, but it is pretty much an enhancement of all the things I didn't like in Fallout 4, with some extras added.
So for me it's not a Bethesda bad thing, but it is a Bethesda is going in a direction I don't care for. Which is fine, that's why I said I'm sure they will do fine without me.
I don't see that as negative, it just is.
@@kineerbig + for starfield over the motorcycle is you just turn into stardust & watch a little white circle turning when something goes really wrong.
@@skyriminspace No risk, no reward. :)
Good evening sir....I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said in thos video. I have no tolerance for haters. Personally, I think this game is brilliant. I have been playing this everyday since launch with hours invested. I may build an outpost one night. Explore another night. Main quest another, so on and so on. This game is for us not for them. If you don't like it, move on. We enjoy this game as intended. As I've told another creator that I follow, the Universe needs people like yourself. Keep doing the work. Joining ranks soon. Take care
Agreed and thanks for the kind words. It's appreciate and makes a difference.
In some odd ways we are all just experiencing a spill-over effect from connecting everyone to the Internet. I remind people human decision making in groups is still pretty primitive. ;)
Thanks for watching Robert!
Just play the game, enjoy and ignore the trolls!!! You should only care about player count if you work at bethesda.
No feed trolls!
@@kineer Trolls feed off of upset people.
Eh. We should care in the sense that if the player base is too low, Bethesda will not support the game with updates and content.
I feel like this is the same toxic positivity mindset that’s causing Ubisoft to falter. Starfield is hands down my favorite game of all time, but there’s no denying that it lacks depth in many areas that even diehard fans such as myself hope can improve.
The way Starfield is, I see a fragile ecosystem at play here, one that requires a balance of content covering the game, players playing the game, and new updates for the game via mods and the studio. It’s quite shocking to me how Skyrim/Fallout consistently dwarf Starfield in terms of player count by more than double. Without players playing, it doesn’t make financial sense to continue supporting the game whether you’re Bethesda or a modder and it goes without saying, if support is dropped or drastically slows down, then the game will die sooner than later. With the internet consensus of Starfield being the way it is, you need all the positive momentum you can get at this point to reinvigorate the player base so that this game can actually last.
@@High_Key Bethesda are releasing more content for ultimate edition owners so no they wont stop supporting it early. There is more releasing in future and Todd even mentions that.
Great analysis as always. I have played continuously since launch and have played the dlc twice so far, and not as a speed run. My feeling is that the negative is amplified and the good is downplayed. I do feel like there are some legit concerns that BGS is somewhat out of touch with the fan base, but not apocalypticly so.
Thanks Ghengis. I like the apocalyptic reference. One person said there were other issues that we aren't discussing and I think I know what he means. There's some legit complaint territory I'm not touching (yet?). It's not what I'm talking about here, mostly group 3 stuff.
What I've been a little surprised by are the 'discontented' (let's call them that*) and their strange confidence they represent a large number of players. I just don't see evidence of that. Of course, in any sufficiently large group you can find people with different opinions, but many seem to buy into specious arguments that sounds strikingly familiar to the 'farmer' pitches I've heard. I try to ask them to explain or expand so we'll see if there are solid points. I'm definitely interested.
Hope the weekend is going well. Mine's been fun so far. ;)
* I will note most don't seem like 'haters' but I have hidden one that wrote an absolute wall of text. I had to laugh at the effort that went into it and felt a little bad as one must be seriously disturbed to regurgitate all that into a comment on a channel the UA-cam channel just sent him.
Good man.
✊
Go Starfield!
Well said! Noise attracts attention.
A large number of those complainers are actually just trolls. It's not so much that they do oppose or dislike the game, they just enjoy triggering people, whether it is the negative that will puke up all their hatred, or the fans that get angry in defending what they believe is a good game.
I'm enjoying it as much as I am many of the other space titles that seem to have replaced my obsession with zombie apocalypse themed games.
Good plan. I think we all recognize that no one marries a game. It's a temporary distraction for a time and an option for return later. Thanks for watching!
I hope you guys all get the content you want, I really do.
But I have to call out holes in number crunching when I see them, sorry. You literally did not even show the Steam numbers, the massive drop off at launch, the complete lack of any retention from the DLC. "14 million players" doesn't help Microsoft when most people played for free, played it for 20-30 hours and then somewhat angrily put it down and bitched about the Bethesda brand online for a year.
Analogy for you: There's a famous business school case about Perdue Chicken making hot dogs out of chicken parts. They did an AMAZING ad campaign and everyone tried the dogs, huge initial sales. Once. That was it, because the hot dogs tasted like ass. Massive initial sales, then dropped to zero, business was over. That is what the "14 million players" represents here, at least that's what I predict fwiw. The key metric for deciding on more DLC is current players, not total players.
Please note my interests are solely focused on good data analysis, I don't care if people think Starfield is good or bad
If you are under the impression that Game Pass is free, you are missing a critical element in what you understand (in what you are loosely calling data analysis).
I am very aware of the SteamDB player counts, have downloaded the full histories of all the games here and looked at their performance.
We could chase this individual game all the way up through MSFT stock price, EPS, and so on but it's just not meaningful when primarily what we're talking about is a psychological problem for Starfield haters.
The data is fine. The game is fine. The question is if the people caught up in group 2 will be fine in 5 years when Starfield is sitting at 50M installs/players. You are welcome to come back and tell me I was wrong and prove it then (honest, I won't mind). Until then I'm merely sharing data. Thanks for watching.
I’ll say this if you like Bethesda games you’ll probably like starfield lol and the only negative thing I can say about starfield is that it made me sell my ps and buy an Xbox 😂
I bought an Xbox X just for it and play on PC too (separate characters, accounts, mod sets). I like a lot of space games so it was an easy call. Thanks for watching!
@@kineer yeah when I get a pc I’m sure I’ll have it on there to lol and no problem thanks for some positive content 👍🏻
I compared the house of varuun faction to the other factions and this is how I rank them.
1. Constellation
2. Crimson Fleet
3. FreeStar col.
A. TA
4. United Colonies
5. House Varuun
6. Ryujin
I enjoyed the initial playthrough. The colors of the planet were lovely. I was extremely disappointed with the ending. After playing SS once, there really isn't a reason to return to this universe in NG+. The new content didn't offer up any sandbox toys. I love the game. I don't think this update did anything to improve the game. Most everyone said they enjoyed shipbuilding and the ship combat. If they were listening, they would of thrown us a bone. If we actually could of started a holy war, it may have been number 1 or 2. Worst ending I have seen in all of gaming, I think.
I think the most we can get from the 'holy war' are some random raids. Since I didn't choose it in this playthrough I'll have to do it in another one. I'll find out soon enough. Thanks for the comment!
Awesome video man! I’m 31 and I’ve been a Bethesda/Obsidian game fan since 2009. Truth be told, the overdramatic reactions towards Starfield and its DLC is extremely strange. The game does have flaws(I definitely have my own complaints with it) but still it’s a good game overall and it had good lore. Anyway, I think Starfield will do fine in the long run. Also side note, I hope we get the brown Freestar Ranger Marshall overcoat at some point. I want it so badly! Lol 😂
Thanks and welcome to the channel Steel 101.
@@kineer Thank you sir!
Honestly, I don't think it will. It's a shame as I really enjoyed Starfield, but now we are back to the original position of having nothing to do other than the odd meaningless side quest. Go here and fetch that and collect more credits
I'd like to ask you a sincere question (at the end of this comment).
There's an element of any RPG where the player 'fills in the details' of why and what they are doing. There are games that come to an end because you've reached the end of a story.
This can be like a book. In books the reader is largely captive to the author but the detail can be rich and tightly controlled. When it's over you could write or related content, but to re-consume the book is merely to re-read it looking for something you might have missed before.
Ignoring the online versions when available, Fallout 4, Skyrim, ES are finite games as released by the same studio. Other studios do the same. Do they have some other type of end-state (not ending) when compared to Starfield in your view?
Do we not always arrive at the end of a Bethesda game, having explored the entire map, met every NPC, triggered (and completed) every quest?
Of course it’ll survive, the hate is about the wokeness, PlayStation bro’s, and clickbaiting. I play the game every day after work, best I’ve played yet. I loved and did thousands of hours on MW, Skyrim, and Oblivion… Loved them all to an absurd level, but Starfield is better. I’ll be hooked on this until ES6 comes out and no doubt that’s when I’ll move on, because if they can put out an ES game with this level of complexity and immersiveness in a Fantasy setting, that would be my perfect game.
I’m 50 (Gen X), so it’s conceivable to me that this game resonates far more with older gamers.
Last point: This is the largest canvas in gaming, the sheer volume available to insert new content by DLC or mods is beyond exciting… Think alien invasion into the settled systems, another war, handcrafted planets… It goes on and on, you could continue building this game literally forever, it’s mind boggling.
You fit the demographics I see on my channel and yes I think age (and maturity) makes a difference for a game like this.
I don't really understand the reason behind people getting emotional over a product like this. Big games companies such as Bethesda are companies that exist to produce a product that's supposed to make money for the company and if applicable it's shareholders. Nothing more.
Are there people employed at said companies that like their job and are passionate about it? Sure. It might be a little naïve, but in the end, they have a job to live off. Cudos to them if they're happy with it, that's a luxury many do not have.
Are there employees who dislike their job but do it anyways. Probably. As companies grow bigger there will be people who do a job they don't enjoy for a plethora of reasons.
Can a product be bad, polarising or simply average yet be successful for a company? Of course it can. Quality does not necessarily speak for sales or perception of a product. And the key word for games is PRODUCT! It doesn't care for your emotional attachment to it.
Yes there might be developers who genuinely want to create a great experience no matter the cost to them. But that is not how a publicly traded, or bigger company can work. Bethesda and many other companies have one purpose, to MAKE MONEY! If their stats say the product makes money, then it's a win. If their stats say otherwise, they'd either change their strategy, stop making the same mistakes for a long time, cancel the product or they'll simply close up shop and seize to exist if they ignore the signs for too long or make the wrong corrections. It simply is a business.
People really need to learn how to hold their emotions and expectations in check. Forget how to hype yourself up, or how to get hyped up for a product and instead learn how to be surprised by a product if it turns out to be a good purchase for you. Idolizing companies is probably the worst mistake "the community" does as it inevitably will lead down to disappointment if a product turns out to be not what they expected it to be.
As cold as it might be, you don't matter. Only your wallet does.
I always knew ducks were smart. ;)
edit: I change the wording as it was ambiguous. I appreciate the comment and it makes a lot of sense.
I completely agree with the author. Negative content always sells better. Our gaming community is much more toxic than yours and we have similar bloggers who spread hatred are thriving! And the largest channels, after publishers left our market, came to similar content.
Starfield and Shattered Space do not deserve such strong hate. It's a great game, it's a great DLC. Yes, they have flaws, but everything has them. But for some reason, many people are silent about the advantages, deliberately creating a negative aura. This creates a lot of activity on the channels, due to which the blogger can charge more money for advertising some next suspicious school of game designers (like in us)....
And ordinary people, for the most part, take everything at their word. The effect of social approval... Example:
We have a gaming journalism channel called StopGame with 2.7 million subscribers. They released a negative review on Shattered Space. Based mostly on outright lies. The journalist tells
- There is no variability in the DLC, I have a dialogue option marked [Attack], but I can't attack.
At the time of viewing this review, I went through this quest literally half an hour ago and what the journalist says is an outright lie.
And this is what the whole review is based on. Lies even in the most elementary details
-There are no short outputs in large DLC locations....
God... What nonsense is this.
And the most offensive thing.
In one of the most popular comments under the review, the guy writes.
- [Attack] in dialogue does not allow you to attack??? What a shame! 🤣...
Obviously, the guy himself did not play the game and everyone who liked his comment and made it one of the most popular, also did not play the game and did not check this moment themselves... They blindly believe what journalists tell them.
This is how the majority of people form an opinion about games. Mass zombification.
If Starfield had been released in the absence of the Internet, I'm sure it would have been a hit! 😁
(My speech may seem like the speech of an intellectually limited person, it's just because I don't know English well).
I found your English to understandable. It's a lot of background but it was fine. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for this! All the negativity surrounding the game gets overwhelming sometimes. Like a breath of fresh air.
Now I get to sit back and watch for 'group 2' to arrive. :)
@@kineer They are here. Crazy. Haha
I don't enjoy the game and despite owning the dlc I'm not even going to bother playing it. Which is common. As when you were discussing numbers on Steam. You didn't include the numbers of people who'd bought early access on Steam but hadn't bothered to come back for the dlc they paid for. Less than 5% I believe.
I disagree with your analysis and odd use of data - You included projected PSN sales... Really!?
Absolutely nothing here on this channel for me.
There is a simple logic/mathematical error here on your part. It's the assumption that people play DLC on launch day exclusively. When we look at the original launch we get a nice view of pent up demand.
Day -1 the game is not available so no one is playing. In the days immediately after launch that demand is met, yet not everyone plays on day one either. There's a short curve and an area under that curve that in aggregate represent something like 'first week' players. We could do 'first month', but 'first day' is only party useful. However, and this is big, we have no 'unique player' data from SteamDB. Just concurrent counts. If you find more let me know, but I have all the data they release for free downloaded in spreadsheets.
In any case, a DLC release during a weekday doesn't tell us something and claims about pre-order players not coming back are misleading (and likely deliberately so). I'm not saying you are deliberately misleading people. Only you could admit that, but there are 'group 1' creators that use that out of ignorance or deliberately that feed 'group 2' and it gets repeated.
I appreciate the comment. I think you aren't seeing it clearly but if I've conveyed anything it's that YT will reward me for you making the comment. Not saying I did it for that reason, I really want people to just connect with that concept.
I chose early on to ignore the negativity surrounding Starfield. It started before most people had even seen the game. I found the game to be quite enjoyable. I may not play as often as I once did, but I am still enjoying it. Regarding bugs -- the game may have bugs. As a long time developer, I can attest that the Operating System has bugs, the development tools have bugs, the graphical libraries have bugs, the BIOS has bugs, the communication between one hardware piece and another will have bugs. Every one of these has a trickle-down effect on the end product. It's amazing that games don't have an order of magnitude more bugs that we do.
I always joke that if people really understood what it took to make software, they'd either experience a sense of paralyzing awe or be too afraid to leave their homes. It sounds like you've seen the side I've seen too. Thanks for checking out the video!
Shattered space didn't include any long term play features, so player numbers will continue to drop. No new ship parts, no new outpost features, no unique resources, no new space encounters, No M-class ships and no space station building. Many of these features are already in the game and just needed to be polished up, and they ignored all of these things. This is a fail.
🙄
Yeah once I finished story of dlc.i had no reason to go back besides side quests. The reskin weapons were nice imo because they were much stronger variants. There was many new features and mechanics like the new ranged heavy weapon and destructible cave walls etc. While I have almost 1k hrs played over release window and time since dlc the game def has issues. The truth is most dlc sales for SS are from pre-order/collector bonuses
Blah blah blah
I didn’t need any of that from this DLC. 🤔
It sounds like you probably missed things many of us found and have decided they aren't there.
I hope you give the the DLC a try some day, play thoroughly and experience all the content. If I can make a suggestion, if you come into it with expectations you will be disappointed you will likely get exactly what you expect. I've always found things work that way. The power of expectations, prejudice and such can make it almost impossible to experience things as they are and not how we believe them to be. Probably too far off in the deep weeds, but thanks for checking out the video, hope you have a great weekend!
Can't say I hated it but the loot sucks and holy cow is this game empty your exploration is useless and a waste of your valuable time
Missing all the spontaneous finds that all of their titles have
I have a different experience. I don't think every game is for every person. I can give you a list of games I don't care for. Some of them would have been far more appealing to me at different ages or stages of my life. There are entire game types that I shelved years ago as unrewarding.
There are a lot of experiences in life like that. If I find something I enjoy, I focus on that. If I find that other people enjoy something I don't, I do ask myself what's different about how I play and consume entertainment. I had that experience with BG3 Act III, but was just left bored. Others were carried through by their own satisfaction for various elements.
That may or may not be useful. Sometimes I just don't like a thing. Thanks for watching.
I have always seen the potential in Starfield. I think you are overestimating the hate train idea; more people than you think their anger is more out of love for the Bethesda name. I am happy the game clicked for you; that is also a valid opinion. Still, to many of us, there has been "an opinion-based observation" that the story quality has been declining and corners being cut in gameplay. Like the same bugs modders fixed being ported to later games. Or the outpost system that is less functional than fallouts. In my opinion, the game will be great once all the DLC is made for Starfield. I have over 200 hours in this game, and I lost interest. I have thousands of hours in past Bethesda games, tho I continue to check back in hopes It can be a game I stick with. I kept trying to find the fun for me. But everytime I tried something I felt like something is missing and cant shake the feeling they intent to sell to us later.
I have very light mod exposure in Starfield so far, but play with set in Fallout 4. I do have an inverted play time compared to yours, but that's also because of the channel. I have hundreds of hours in multiple earlier BGS titles, nearly 2k in Starfield. I might do something with FO4 on the 23rd for the channel. Great games for many years.