Is Bethesda desperately trying to go belly up?
Well let’s hope not. But with another big budget flop in their hands — Wolfenstein Youngblood — we may anticipate them shifting their business strategy from releasing 1–2 big releases every year, to multiple mediocore games of their (soon to be unpopular?) popular franchises.
The list of games that this publisher has released in the last two years is quite long, but most of them have not found any significant fan base, unlike most of its games from before, which became instant classics that are played to this day. This trend should be worrisome for Bethesda.
I personally had great hopes from Youngblood, with the 80s aesthetics and co-op play. However, the game has been marred by an obviously flawed design choice. Far Cry New Dawn did commit the same major mistake, which is of making a first person action game into a semi-action RPG (Not Diablo like but the action RPG of the recent wave like Destiny). That means making the game into a somewhat The Division like game, with bullet sponges for enemies.
Far Cry has been one of the very few franchises of Ubisoft that I have been playing even today. But Far Cry New Dawn was such a pain in the ass that I don’t think I want to revisit this open world title ever again.
That is because this kind of gameplay doesn’t exactly work with a typical run and gun game like Wolfenstein (or stealth game like Far Cry), which has seen an incredible revival since Bethesda took control of it. It has been one of my favorite games of the current generation mainly because it brings back the typical long, fleshed out single player campaign that is more fun than today’s repetitive multiplayer grinds.
It is quite obvious that players would have wanted more fast paced action rather than a slow burn where you have to stand in one place and continuously pump bullets into the enemy. It is likely that no research went into making this game.
When we talk about poor research, Rage 2 also comes to mind. The market wasn’t gauged very well before taking a call on bringing it out. I don’t think anyone really needed a Rage sequel. While the shooting was pretty good, it didn’t have anything else going for it. It was Rage with a new coat to play as a modern shooter of today’s time.
Fans were ready to wait for Wolfenstein 3
Why didn’t the company make a call to wait and make a better Wolfenstein (maybe the third part), which would have been a big hit and probably got them more amount of money anyway? The game has a 45% approval rating on Steam currently, which is shocking for a Wolfenstein title. Look at Rockstar, it is still milking from GTA 5, a game that released 6 years back. Why can’t Bethesda focus on something like that: a mega project?
In fact, the earlier stand alone expansion of the first part, titled Old Blood, was a brilliant game in its own right. We get to revisit the Castle and then there is the fun twist with the stealth gameplay and yes, zombies. It was a refreshing change from the main game and was really a fun to play through. This new one, however, shows the underlying weakness in the way Bethesda is approaching its games.
Bethesda is today, not thinking about the gamers needs, at least the ones that brought it to the success that it enjoys. It is rather focussing on what would earn it more cash rather than customers. Remember Bethesda, customer is king. If you lose us, eventually the well will run dry. This is the time for them to bring back their focus on making big ticket games — with all the cash they have — like CDProject Red or Rockstar does, instead of such tactics to make money.
But to be honest, Doom Eternal looks extremely promising, although only the single player campaign. The new 2v1 multiplayer doesn’t look that interesting. Quakecon gameplay of the multiplayer looked very boring and lacked the imagination required to make such a mode with playable demons. I haven’t seen many games making tha bad guys play any better. Take for example the Dead Space 2 multiplayer or the Left 4 Dead zombies, most such games are just gimmicks.
Apart from Doom we have nothing in the foreseeable future. Everything looks bleak for Bethesda fans, even as the company rakes in money dishing out mediocre titles that really shouldn’t even have seen the light of day. I can anticipate Bethesda using these tricks to make a quick buck in the near-future, only to come down hard like EA. At least EA has the sports division which is the cash cow. What does Bethesda have?
Take a deep breath
Bethesda need to plan the next move carefully. The gamble of bringing out a hit after a flop can run their coffers dry. They need to sit it out and see if they can figure out a new game that can bring them back to their early prominence. Only one game currently in the market, Elder Scrolls Online, is worthy of the Bethesda tag. It is not a pay-to-win despite having in game currency, and keeps adding some quality content from time to time through free and paid DLCs. This is what all games of the publisher should strive to be.
While the upcoming Doom Eternal may end up becoming a big hit, they still need to go back to the drawing board and figure out what happens of their (and our) cherished titles.
