I'm don't work in the gaming industry, so I'm coming from a largely ignorant position of game development....however:
- I don't think "devs" make games anymore in big studios. Publishers seem to call the shots, and they are financially motivated. They'd happily churn out turds if it'll sell.
- He's asking for things people like/dislike, and to be more vocal about it and clearer about it. That's incredibly difficult to do in any meaningful way....you'll just get a massive scope of people who hate everything and love everything
- Surely looking at massively successful games from various genres like BG3, Elden Ring, Half Life, Zelda, Spiderman, The Witcher, GTA, Mass Effect....there are countless example of what works, and is well recieved that surely would be better than a bunch of nerds of Reddit asking for more cleavage in the female models.
I feel like he contradicts himself, almost suggesting that they need more positive feedback/suggestions, but also that those suggestions are too broad, or specific, or generalised as to not be helpful.
He's veteran in the field and I don't think he's so much stating suggestions to improve things, rather the difficulties of dealing with the public at large, which is often compounded by dealing with those in charge of the studio/publisher.
What works changes over time, if someone presented Fortnite to me as a kid I'd have laughed in their face, now it's utterly massive for younger people and I still don't get it. Experience comes with age, but understanding between generations can absolutely differ, and I feel there's a bit of a void there, more-so when there's meddling and politics involved from those higher in the chain.
You seem to be taking him very literally, rather than contextually as a problem for development and why it might become mixed up. People within the process absolutely do suffer those problems and it's very visible.
To address your bullet points:
1. He's stating that the actual people in charge of development aren't those making the games, and it shows.
2. Of course it's difficult to do, that's the entire point and why the process can be difficult, especially for long term support. Go read any Steam forum regarding a game with X issue, you just see pages upon pages of people saying something is wrong without explaining why, made worse by the quality of discourse.
3. No. There are trends in any media industry, as above Fortnite is massive now and I'd never get it in a million years, I'd happily go back to the Quake days. But furthermore, you have a problem in which those in charge of actual development and story ultimately don't have the final say in major aspects of creative design and the focus of said story. There's a lot of meddling to appease higher ups, who are often looking at appealing to investors etc who don't understand the industry but look at poor resources such as social media or
current popularity (often combined) as metrics for what the public wants, it becomes a paint by numbers affair that ultimately turns people off.
Look at Concord, it was a decade late to the scene for a Hero shooter and had to face against multiple established F2P games while requiring payment up front. That's not to say that you can't make a good "Hero Shooter" as Marvel Rivals proves, but you sure as hell shouldn't have charged for the cost of entry with a very basic game.
It's complicated as hell but frankly I agree with him.
