The uncertain future of Immersive Sims

Not sure where to suggest news articles anymore, so I'll post this one here.

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-uncertain…nd-dishonored/

Came across this article as I was upgrading the Prey demo to buy it. Greatly enjoying the game, and it's sort of a good sign that it made its way into my dreams after only playing it for a few hours.

I would be very sad if 'immersive sims" like Prey are no longer made.

Mods, feel free to post this to the news stream, if you wish.

I'm not really a fan of this type of game. "Immersive Sim" - a good name for it; while you may have more freedom than in a traditional shooter, it rarely has much real player choice w/ consequences. While entertaining, it's more of a popcorn flick variety of entertainment for me.

Still, it's the middleground between a an FPS shooter and something with more depth and choice such as Arx Fatalis. If studios can't reap any profits from this hybrid genre, it doesn't bode well for the funding of full-fledged AAA RPGs with even less of a market.

Also, what is this!??!?

Perhaps immersive sims are just a particularly tough sell in a crowded market. The next ones on the horizon—a Dishonored 2 expandalone, a spiritual sequel to Ultima Underworld, and both a new System Shock and a remake of the original—might face the same problem.

At the end of the article it is written that there was a drop of revenue across the board of all game genres. So this may be hand wringing over nothing, except that the market is currently flooded with too much supply. However, no Deus Ex sequel planned is a reality.

Apparently there are repercussions from your choices made in Prey, including whether you sneak or kill aliens among many others. Deus Ex and Dishonored had similar consequences, so will see….

Dishonored 2 expandalone would be Death of the Outsider which is out now.

Ultima Underworld spiritual successor would be Underworld Ascendant. Out next year. I hope.

Immersive sims are great when done right, but they don't sell because the average mainstream moron would rather play Destiny or Call of Duty.

I thought Prey was one of the best games I've played in the last few years. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was also really good. That game is criminally underrated and should have sold a lot better than it did.

I'm really looking forward to the System Shock remake.

The 'mainstream morons' are certainly buying a lot of X-Com. I think Mankind Divided and Dishonored 2 both got a hard hit because they came out with serious technical issues. It will be interesting to see how they do in the long run but I'm afraid that it's going to take far too long for the big publishers to be impressed even if they eventually get the recognition they deserve.

"Immersive sim" is nonexisting thing and someone's internal joke.

As usual, future of internal jokes is they all get forgotten when those who push them visit a shrink or die.

I think most types of AAA traditional game that don't lend themselves to post-sale exploitation are in trouble.

Got to keep the bovine herd shuffling cheerfully towards the big shed with no windows and horrible noises coming from it.

I've got a feeling this same article was covered here

Originally Posted by Zloth
Dishonored 2 expandalone would be Death of the Outsider which is out now.

Ultima Underworld spiritual successor would be Underworld Ascendant. Out next year. I hope.

Oh, thought they were referring to the Arkane expandalone being the UU Spiritual successor. Confusing statement.

Originally Posted by Thrasher

Mods, feel free to post this to the news stream, if you wish.

It is a repost: it was already posted weeks ago in the news section or elsewhere.

Another evidence people do not pay attention and are obsessed with kicking back.
Which questions the utility of triggering a discussion or a debate as the discussion or debate is not considered meaningful by any point.

Originally Posted by ChienAboyeur
evidence

Ought to point at Kafka's book, but then what's the point as you won't read. So here's a good old one instead.

I honestly never understood why "immersive sims" = shooters, I mean, to me that's completely wasted potential to build up an immersive sim exclusively for shooters. Or the shooter genre in general.

There just don't exist immersive sims for any other genre. I still long for Monkey Island as an immersive sim !

Well you can play prey as a sneak and avoid killing a lot of things or simply run away. But then it degrades to find the safe paths through a scavenger hunt.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I honestly never understood why "immersive sims" = shooters, I mean, to me that's completely wasted potential to build up an immersive sim exclusively for shooters. Or the shooter genre in general.

There just don't exist immersive sims for any other genre. I still long for Monkey Island as an immersive sim !

They are not shooters. They do not belong to the shooter genre. Immersive sim is supposed to be a genre by itself.

As I said, there is no such genre.
There are only hipsters who write busywork or themepark instead of plain and simple: grinding.

You mean like Warren Spector, joxer?
http://dl.pcgamer.com/PCG_Show_79_ma…Roundtable.mp3

To be clear, I would rather not have this be a genre, either, but I'm not going to pretend the term isn't being used.

Originally Posted by ChienAboyeur
They are not shooters. They do not belong to the shooter genre. Immersive sim is supposed to be a genre by itself.

Maybe. BUt I've never seen any other kinnd of gameplay happening in these "immersive sims" than what is in shooters and similar "killing games".