This is from earlier this month. But it didn’t really hit until seeing more Suicide Squad details.
“Our focus,” he continued, “is on transforming our biggest franchises from largely console and PC based with three-four year release schedules to include more always on gameplay through live services, multiplatform and free-to-play extensions, with the goal to have more players spending more time on more platforms.”
Gotham Knights is a example. Get ready to see Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Batman, and Mortal Kombat all get that “live services” treatment.
They’re already beating MK with the live-service stick; they really fucking around about to make me a primarily Tekken player for the first time in like 20 years.
Going to by the things the new Tekken has in common with the new Street Fighter, I don’t think you’ll escape that stuff in Tekken.
god fucking dammit
What fighting games even exist anymore that are both satisfying and non-polluted by publisher greed? I don’t do shonen that isn’t DBZ anymore; so I can’t just backpedal to anime fighters for that-- and FighterZ’s dead in the water without rollback, so even that’s out
Tons. Just not the latest crop with the biggest marketing budgets. For what it’s worth though, the live service nonsense in these fighting games doesn’t really get in the way if you’re not tempted by cosmetics. The real problem with MK is that you can’t decline wi-fi opponents, and the problem with Tekken is that the netcode appears to be unimproved from Tekken 7. These days, I mostly play Street Fighter 6, Guilty Gear Strive, and Skullgirls. Killer Instinct is getting one more balance patch soon, and rumor has it there’s a sequel on the way. GranBlue Fantasy Versus: Rising is coming out very soon with Under Night In-Birth’s sequel hot on its heels. There’s lots to play.
Granblue VS and Under Night In-Birth are both WAY too white for my tastes; and that’s the issue I have with most anime-fighters. Strive is lacking in proper melanin too; and from what I remember of Skullgirls’ playerbase, it’s like 90% 4channers-- that’s a pass from me big dawg.
If they still made Soul Calibur iterations I wouldn’t be in this trick bag; because I hate having to put my faith in unverified hype-- I def don’t believe the IG announcement Wednesday is going toward a sequel, much as I’d like for that to be the case.
I know a sizable amount of the Skullgirls community, and I wouldn’t call any of them 4channers. I don’t have melanin on my list of fighting game criteria, nor do I know what’s acceptable for your standards, but that’s probably restricting your selection far more than live service shenanigans. If Tekken does it for you, then I hope you can tolerate its netcode.
EDIT:
The rumor was there was a sequel cooking long before IG became available again.
Considering it’s like pulling teeth to get any kind of favorable representation in games these days, especially out of eastern devs, it’s a larger consideration than you’d think-- and frankly, with a response like that, I don’t expect you to have thought about any of the fuckery in this space that might shift a non-settler’s priorities. When the likes of Granblue or Under Night has Leroy Smiths, Eddie Gordos, Zasalamels, Jax and Jacqui Briggses, and Darriuses running around every iteration, then we can talk. Til then, I don’t fuck with anime fighters, and barely fuck with JRPGs.
Live servicing things that never needed it is a much more recent irritant.
I’m not faulting you for the perspective. I just don’t know what to recommend you if Leroy and Jax satisfy you but not Nagoriyuki, especially since the percentages of representation appear to me to be similar or better than DBFZ and Soul Calibur.
Soul Calibur and Dragonball were a part of my life long before I started seeing just how fucked the whole field was as far as representation was concerned is the only reason those never got cut off-- and Zasalamel was the first Black character I’d seen in a fighter since Jackson Briggs. (I didn’t get into KI until 2013, so I can’t say TJ Combo.) Nagoriyuki looks really new though; I’ve literally never heard of this dude regarding Guilty Gear. It’s a start at least.