Yesterday I voiced my concern about the recent news that Splinter Cell might (read: without a shadow of a doubt.) be making it's way to mobile in the future. This might come off as a tad elitist without any context, so let me share the reasoning behind my furrowed brow and disapproving tuts. Firstly, I have very little against the platform of mobile gaming, in fact I love the concept of being able to take games on the go and play them wherever and whenever you want. (I won't openly admit to engaging in emulators but let's just say that I've used my phone to keep myself up-to-date with my Pokemon fandom for a while now.) What's more, I find it heartening to think how far mobile gaming has seeped into the public and furthered the reach of the industry. Statista estimates there to be around 2.3 billion mobile gamers in the world this year, just imagine what heights that could reach a decade down the line.
So my problem isn't with the concept of mobile gaming, nor am I driven by some hipster-esque distaste for the popular; my issues stem for the fact that the actual games themselves are an embarrassment to the industry. I have written an article on this specific topic before, but just to recap, the vast majority of mobile games are some of the worst excuses for entrainment you could subject yourself too. Most are passionless, devoid of ingenuity and creativity and absolutely dripping with microtransactions and anti-consumerist practises. Some may wonder where the concepts of obfuscating premium currencies, moneypit lootboxes and intimidating time-exclusive offers, first came from; well, most rose to fame from the humble market of mobile. With the player base being so big and the community comprised of mostly casual gamers, (Who are more likely not to question the money grubbing, assuming it to be the norm.) small developers manage to rake in silly money using these tactics and so it was only a matter of time before the industry grandfathers caught up.
"But these mobile developers are usually small developers." You may argue. "Surely a big studio with experience behind them, manpower, capital and, most importantly, a reputation to uphold, would endeavour to make their mobile debut worthwhile." And you'd think that, but remember, money is the be-all end-all of the corporate world; why put effort and passion behind a project when you can simply follow the path of least resistance and get the same rewards. It may sound like I'm being disparaging, and I am, but it does make sound business sense to invest as little as possible for the most returns. ("Don't hate the player, hate the game", I suppose.)
Because of this, we are starting to see a trend amongst big games companies wherein they drag in the rotting carcass of one of their beloved, dead franchises and stick it on the mobile platform for all to see. No, I'm not talking about adapting the gameplay and mechanics that made the franchise great whilst porting it to more accessible systems (That would actually be pretty cool.) I talking about crafting a pathetic archetypal-mobile game clone and slathering it with a familiar coat of paint. I'd imagine meetings go something like; "Oh, people seem to be sinking a lot of money into runner games. We have a mascot famous for running don't we?" and then we end up with the Sonic Dash games. (Yes I said games.) That isn't the only example we have of nostalgia baiting either.Electronic Arts have appeared so much on my blog that soon I'm going to have to start giving Andrew Wilson an assistant writer credit; but trust me, EA earns their place in my daily word-count with gusto. This time I'm dragging them back under the 'shame' spotlight in order to verbally lash them for the mess of a game that they called Dungeon Keeper. For those who are unfamiliar, The Dungeon Keeper series ran back in the late 90's and allowed players to assume the role of the overlord/architect of an expansive dungeon system. Players had to set up traps and defences in order to hold off against plundering humans and righteous heroes that seek to confront you. The whole concept was a fun subversive look at medieval fantasy and carried the delightful dark humor that one would come to expect from the same developers who made Theme series: Bullfrog Productions.
Of course, things changed once EA got more involved with them. Dungeon Keeper 3 was cancelled and Bullfrog were moved to working exclusively on the more profitable Harry Potter franchise until their complete assimilation back in 2001. This left EA with all of the licences and none of the responsibility to uphold their quality, but at least they waited until the game got nostalgic before going at it with a hacksaw. In 2013, EA and Mythic entertainment announced that they were creating a mobile game that would be a "twisted take" on the Dungeon Keeper franchise, and I cannot think of a more deliciously ironic statement that has ever been uttered.
2014 saw the release of one of the worst "reimaginings" to ever grace gaming. Final Fantasy 10 fans may complain about how their remake sacrificed artistic integrity for the sake of a higher resolution, but Dungeon Keeper fans get to top that with a game that was such a corporate cash grab that the British Advertising Standards Authority had to clamp down on EA for "misleading advertising" in claiming the game was free. In this Dungeon Keeper, players had to build their dungeons in real time, with every tile taking days or weeks to be mined out (Creating a cavern could literally take months.) But, not to worry, because you could speed up the time that each action took with a little bit of premium currency. Imagine the marketing techniques of Clash of Clans on steroids and you get 2014's Dungeon Keeper. Whereas in the original games you could set up your base and engage in raiding in about 10-20 minutes, here you had to make it either your life or your bank account's work in order to even reach the actual gameplay. That is assuming that this game even had raids, I don't think anyone managed to stick around long enough to find out. Needless to say, this was the last Dungeon Keeper game.
That isn't even the only time that EA pulled this trick, just the most well known. The Sims suffered a similar fate with Sims Freeplay. That game follows the exact same structure as Dungeon Keeper, with actions costing precious time or even more precious premium currency. Then there was E3 2018. That was the E3 in which EA did the apology tour for Battlefront 2 and ramped up excitement for the upcoming Anthem with a sizzle reel of uninteresting action. (In their defence, now we know the history of Anthem's development it is amazing they had anything ready for this E3 at all.) But none of those were the real focus for EA, judging by how they devoted the most conference time to their new mobile title, 'Command and Conquer: Rivals'. Just as strategy fans were begging EA to give them a new C&C, they turned around and gave us a 6-minute snoozefest of a presentation about this husk of a game. Now it's out, I can confirm that the thing isn't as desperate for your wallet as their previous mobile attempts, but it's still embarrassingly basic to be considered the follow-up to the most storied real time strategy game of all time. Guess it just cost a lot less time and money to make a mobile game
Diablo is a very storied franchise that birthed a whole genre around its gameplay style. (I'd even argue that it birthed the looter shooter genre, but I'll save it for another blog.) It is a game that built it's community among some of the first hardcore PC gamers and has always been sure to cater to their origins. Then Diablo Immortal was announced, with it's re skinned characters, outsourced workload and identical gameplay to the last, critically panned, release. It should come to no one's surprise, least of all Blizzards, that one fan approached the mike after the show to ask if this was all just some "Out of season April Fools prank." (That actually happened by the way.) Blizzard have since come out to defend the decision, claiming that it was done with the intention of 'expanding the franchise' or some such corporate rot, but it doesn't take a genius to see the truth: There's a lot of money-pie on mobile and Blizzard thought they were due a slice.
Recently we've had a few classic series go the way of mobile fodder. Bethesda, ever keen to assassinate their decades worth of consumer goodwill, took time out of their E3 conference to announce their mobile remake of Commander Keen (See what I did there?) Square Enix recently announced a follow-up to their archetypal-mobile money sink Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. And Nintendo recently broke their promise about staying away from microtransactions in their mobile outings with the pay-wall ridden, Dr. Mario World. Not all of these mobile outings sound the death knell for their respective franchises but they are an affirmation to fans that quality is no longer the primary area of concern for these specific brands. And that may just be even worse.
So perhaps you can now see why I find myself scared for the future of Splinter Cell now that Ubisoft have aimed it at the mobile market. Things are only worsened by the fact that this E3, Ubisoft announced: Tom Clancy's Elite Squad; a crossover mobile game between all the Tom Clancy brands that looks to be another archetypal-battle game. Just seeing their low-polygon rendition of Sam Fisher makes my heart sink to think about what dire straits the Splinter Cell franchise could, and likely will, end up in.
Recently there was a little bit of hope for Splinter Cell fans in the form of a surprise cameo from Sam Fisher in 'Ghost Recon: Wildlands'. (I may have even picked up the game solely because of this cameo.) He was even being voiced by Michael Ironside again, which had players bouncing off the walls with excitement. "Ironside it back! The next game's announcement is merely a formality at this point!" However, the next E3 went by and all we got was this foreboding snippet from Yves about what size coffin he wants to bury the series in- I mean, how "There will be new types of experiments, but on more different devices." And it got me thinking to that crossover itself.
There in one scene in which Sam is talking with the player's CIA handler, Karen Bowman, about how he is a relic of the past. Sam refutes that claim and mentions how there was another guy, "Army infiltration- he wore a bandana or something." to which Karen replies "I heard he finally retired." For those who don't know, this is subtle reference to Metal Gear and the fact that, after 'Survive', the series is now dead. These franchises have acknowledged each other now and then throughout the years, alongside Gabriel Logan from Siphon Filter, so it feels strange now to think that only Splinter Cell remains. Sam shares these sentiments when he remarks "Then it's only me..." with a pensive stare. I bring this up because, in someways Splinter Cell is the last gaming link we have to the golden age of stealth games, those others might be gone but Sam is still around to hold the torch. But I fear that may be in peril once he is relegated to a low-effort currency farm mobile game and the franchise is hung out to dry. It may just be the end of an area, and I find nothing more sad than thinking of the once proud stealth genre going out with a whimper instead of a quiet chokeout like it deserves.
No comments:
Post a Comment