Eidos Montreal employee talks to Jim Sterling about Publisher meddling (SQENIX), Fee 2 Play and SP DLC on DE:MD

[Master Disaster]

It is important to do due diligence and (as Jim says in his video) reveal from the off that the source for these comments wishes to remain anonymous and while Jim has done everything he can to verify the employee (and is happy he is who he says he is) these claims cannot be reported as factual, they are after all the words of a single anonymous source.

 

First off you should watch this video for context...

 

So basically while Jim says DE:MD is one of his favourite games of 2016 he will not add it to any lists for GOTY simply because of the tacked on SP DLC shop. He went on to say he believed the developers actually balanced the game to be fair without the DLC and that he thought it was a last minute tacked on addition just to squeeze monies out of players. Well as it happens...

 

He was contacted by an employee of Eidos Montreal after that video went live and the revelations are quite telling.

 

First off, yes the SP DLC store was added at the very last minute by SQENIX. Infact they (Eidos) were 2 weeks away from submitting the game for final validation and were in the final process of bug fixing when they received an email from SQENIX telling them they had to take coders off bug fixing and task them with adding the DLC store API to the game. Eidos Montreal employees actually protested about this to SQENIX. So anybody who says modern DLC doesn't affect game development should read this one.

 

The next point the developer made was that the DLC store being hidden from the review copies might not actually have been an intentional move by SQENIX, it was just that the thing was so early into development that it wasn't finished and didn't work.

 

Next the developer went on to explain that SQENIX actually have 2 teams of developers working on Deus Ex titles right now. The first team were the ones responsible for Mankind Divided and the second team are responsible for its sequel. Nothing strange about that you might think, until you hear that team 2 have been working on the sequel for almost 2 years already. Jim had previously theorised that in actuality the plan was to create a bigger Dues EX title but SQENIX decided to chop it up into 2 games in order to create a trilogy, something which his source refused to confirm but instead revealed this snippet of info.

 

Lastly he goes on the talk about Breach mode. He admitted it was entirely SQENIXs decision to include Breach and that it was designed entirely to be a fee 2 play game and that the breach team actually had more micromanagement from SQENIX than the team making the actual game did.

 

He goes on to cover some other facts..

 

SQENIX Marketing Dept. blew $50,000 on DETV which was unsuccessful to the point that no one had ever heard of it but the guy behind the idea still got promoted

DE:MD took 5 years to develop and had a budget of $70,000,000CAD

DE:MD must sell at least 3 million units just to break even

SQENIX pays interns at Eidos Montreal some of the lowest wages in the entire country of Canada

SQENIX management have been heard saying, and I quote "we don't give a fuck about games"

DE:MD had no internal BETA inside SQENIX or Eidos

 

Finally, Mankind Divided is simply put a giant keylogger. Yep, apparently it literally sends every key press you make while its running back to SQENIX for analysis.

 

He also states that this was SQENIX USA the developer was talking about and the SQENIX Japan is actually much better. 

 

Video Source

 

Holy fucking shit, I mean I wasn't totally clueless to SQENIX being a bad publisher but this level of meddling and shittery is just insane.

 

Like I said above, anybody who still claims DLC culture doesn't hurt modern videos should watch this video and then try and argue their case.

[Ashaira]

I'm prob one of the few people that still feels as strongly about all this bs as much as jim. Most other people in the industry have given up on trying to keep this in everyones attention.

Any and all forms of micros in 60$ games are fing bs. If they can't afford to make the game without selling 4 million copies to break even then don't. I don't need famous voice actors or models that look like actors.

[TrigrH]

2 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Holy fucking shit

^

[3DOSH]

Well this sure explains why the DX 12 patch was delayed when it should have been in the game at launch, fucking micro-transactions and fuckery from SQENIX. GG
PS: guess what game is gonna get blocked with windows firewall.

[Notional]

I've said it before, Japanese companies are cancer to the gaming industry. They are completely clueless. They don't understand the market or gamers in any way to the point where they actively sabotage their own consumers (SEGA/NINTENDO/etc). They are pretty much all obsolete and make some of the worst games out there, and by far the worst PC ports imaginable. I LOVE DEMD, but that is made by Eidos, NOT square or any jap dev. I wish SQUEENIX would just frack off and leave Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, etc alone. Same modus operandi with the DLC on those two games as well. Just fuck off Square.

 

It's sad to see such a low grade on Steam for DEMD, as it is definitely GOTY for me, but it's frustrating to see incompetent Japanese companies frack it up completely.

[ShadowCaptain]

19 minutes ago, Notional said:

I've said it before, Japanese companies are cancer to the gaming industry.

This was the WESTERN side of SQUENIX according to Jim, and he said the Jap side is much better

 

but I do agree with what you are saying

[Notional]

19 minutes ago, ShadowCaptain said:

This was the WESTERN side of SQUENIX according to Jim, and he said the Jap side is much better

 

but I do agree with what you are saying

I assume the western part of Squeenix is owned and controlled by the Jap division? Either way, Square US has really screwed up this year. From an XBone exclusive Rise of the Tomb Raider, to micro transactions and crap on that same game, to doing a lot of the same crap with Deus Ex. That game deserves so much better. It is so clear that Eidos Montreal loves what they are doing, as you can feel the love they put into the game. The attention to detail is insane. 

[ShadowCaptain]

Just now, Notional said:

I assume the western part of Squeenix is owned and controlled by the Jap division? Either way, Square US has really screwed up this year. From an XBone exclusive Rise of the Tomb Raider, to micro transactions and crap on that same game, to doing a lot of the same crap with Deus Ex. That game deserves so much better. It is so clear that Eidos Montreal loves what they are doing, as you can feel the love they put into the game. The attention to detail is insane. 

As always its rarely the devs that make these decisions

 

just the dicks that run them

[-BirdiE-]

I love the Deus Ex franchise, but I will not buy this game...

 

I know to some it seems pretty trivial "well just don't buy any single player DLC".... But if it becomes a standard practice, how long until they start making the single player a bigger and bigger grind so you're forced to spend extra money to actually enjoy the game?

[dragosudeki]

2 hours ago, Notional said:

I've said it before, Japanese companies are cancer to the gaming industry.

-snip-

I don't understand all the hate against Japanese companies. All the worst examples of PC ports I can think of are all American/European. EA Games (up/down relationship), Ubisoft, Warner Bros (Who can forget Arkham Knight?). Hell, you give examples of you disliking Tomb Raider which was a deal which involved Microsoft. Hell, the most other recent example is ARK creating DLC for an early access game.

 

 In the end, a lot of companies are aiming to earn profit, so to blanket it out to Japanese companies is pretty harsh...

[That Norwegian Guy]

17 minutes ago, -BirdiE- said:

I love the Deus Ex franchise, but I will not buy this game...

Same, I have these principles

 

1. If your game is more than $40, no microtransactions

2. If your game is between $20 or $40, microtransactions can only be cosmetic

3. Pay to win microtransactions never, no matter the price

 

If these are broken I won't buy the game even on a $5 sale.

[Sparviero]

Well if we can convince people that you don't have to pay for cheat codes this would be swell?

[Yoinkerman]

There's probably more journalistic validation than more traditional media.  Keep that in mind.

[Derangel]

2 hours ago, Notional said:

I've said it before, Japanese companies are cancer to the gaming industry. They are completely clueless. They don't understand the market or gamers in any way to the point where they actively sabotage their own consumers (SEGA/NINTENDO/etc). They are pretty much all obsolete and make some of the worst games out there, and by far the worst PC ports imaginable. I LOVE DEMD, but that is made by Eidos, NOT square or any jap dev. I wish SQUEENIX would just frack off and leave Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, etc alone. Same modus operandi with the DLC on those two games as well. Just fuck off Square.

 

It's sad to see such a low grade on Steam for DEMD, as it is definitely GOTY for me, but it's frustrating to see incompetent Japanese companies frack it up completely.

I wouldn't go as far as saying they're a cancer on the industry, some of the worst practices and most bullshit tactics still come from Western publishers. The problem with Japanese studios is simply that they're run by the older generation and still have the old Japanese mindset when it comes to running a business. They're all in panic mode now because they can't figure out how to save the collapsing Japanese console market and have no idea how to appeal to a global market. They see how well free-to-play and mobile-style games do in their own country and think that's what people want. The Japanese game market is a mess and it's really only a matter of time before one of the major players goes belly up.

 

1 hour ago, Notional said:

I assume the western part of Squeenix is owned and controlled by the Jap division? Either way, Square US has really screwed up this year. From an XBone exclusive Rise of the Tomb Raider, to micro transactions and crap on that same game, to doing a lot of the same crap with Deus Ex. That game deserves so much better. It is so clear that Eidos Montreal loves what they are doing, as you can feel the love they put into the game. The attention to detail is insane. 

As far as I understand it they operate fairly independently. The Japanese HQ probably doesn't give a damn what the Western studios are doing as long as they're bringing in money. Though they are are fault for putting the wrong people in charge and then not bothering to do anything to fix it. That's been a common problem for SquareEnix since the company formed. From the get go they put Yoichi Wada in charge of the whole company even though he is the reason Squaresoft nearly died and Enix had to come in and buy them (after Sony tried and failed to save them) and the person that took over after Wada "stepped down" inherited his mess and is now clearly in panic mode trying to make FF15 not a monumental disaster financially.

 

4 minutes ago, dragosudeki said:

I don't understand all the hate against Japanese companies. All the worst examples of PC ports I can think of are all American/European. EA Games (up/down relationship), Ubisoft, Warner Bros (Who can forget Arkham Knight?). Hell, you give examples of you disliking Tomb Raider which was a deal which involved Microsoft. Hell, the most other recent example is ARK creating DLC for an early access game.

 

 In the end, a lot of companies are aiming to earn profit, so to blanket it out to Japanese companies is pretty harsh...

There are a lot of bad ports from Japanese companies. SquareEnix's Japanese ports are especially well known for this. Dragon Quest Heroes, FF13, 13-2, and Type-0 are the worst offenders, though not the only ones. Bandai Namco is all over the place with port quality, NIS' port of Disgaea was a huge fucking disaster (that they've have been working on since release). KoeiTecmo is even worse than WB when it comes to PC ports. Capcom is usually pretty good with their PC ports but they do release some bad ones here and there. Sega was rather iffy for a while but they're getting better now. You hear more about bad ports from AAA studios because, well, they're AAA studios and drive hits. Just because you don't hear about bad Japanese ports often doesn't mean they don't happen. It's bad enough that people are more surprised when a Japanese company releases a good port then when something bad gets released.

[Centurius]

8 hours ago, Ashaira said:

I'm prob one of the few people that still feels as strongly about all this bs as much as jim. Most other people in the industry have given up on trying to keep this in everyones attention.

Any and all forms of micros in 60$ games are fing bs. If they can't afford to make the game without selling 4 million copies to break even then don't. I don't need famous voice actors or models that look like actors.

Eh you might not but a lot of people do. Plus even if all that additional stuff wasn't added $60 simply is worth less than it was 10 years ago. Despite inflation game prices have remained mostly stagnant so the only way to compensate for the additional cost and inflation is to either move away from the $60 base price or enable additional sources of revenue.

[Trixanity]

4 hours ago, Notional said:

I've said it before, Japanese companies are cancer to the gaming industry.

More like game publishers are cancer to the gaming industry in the same way that record labels are cancer to the music industry and studios (both movie and tv) are cancer to the film industry. When art becomes all about squeezing money it starts to become cancer instead and that's why the majority of releases suck. The big companies have the money and they finance it which means they call the shots, so their slaves better work 90 hours a week for low pay for the first 40 hours and no pay for the rest, so the execs can drive Ferraris and live in mansions.

It's a sad reality when you really think about it.

[dragosudeki]

1 hour ago, Derangel said:

-snip-

A lot of the japanese PC ports that have been released have only recently been starting to happen, which makes it understandable for some ports to be of poor quality. I'm more surprised by the fact that they are even porting to the PC, rather than how bad their ports are. It is quite funny to actually have to put the new emergence of Japanese PC ports to the same level of quality of companies that have been doing some of these for years (although some Japanese companies have been doing it for awhile and have not been impressive).

It's unfortunate that I haven't played any of those titles you mentioned, however I can still shed some light on their direction. Square Enix's FF10 was a good port. Project Setsuna didn't have problems, though I wasn't as interested for that game as the other. NIS' port of Phantom Brave was also pretty good too. I haven't had problems with Koei Tecmo's recent ports, though the fact that their games are still considered their own stagnant genre, "Warriors", I wouldn't be surprised to see anything amazing from them.

 

It's just a fact that PC ports will always be questionable, regardless of who made them or who published them. Though, at least give some credit to those companies for at least trying to reach out to the PC market which they may not have ever touched before. Some of the American/European can't even be considered as an attempt especially with the previous experience and bigger budget they have...

[Master Disaster]

4 hours ago, ShadowCaptain said:

This was the WESTERN side of SQUENIX according to Jim, and he said the Jap side is much better

 

but I do agree with what you are saying

Thanks for the reminder, I intended to include that but forgot. 

[KrumpetPirate]

This further exemplifies why you should cool your heals and wait to see if the game is actually good before buying it. I'm stoked about BF1, but I won't buy it till after the launch to figure out if some bullshittery took place. NMS was the exact same thing for me and I'm glad I dodged that one.

 

This all comes from my purchase of the Division because I wanted to play with my buddy. That one still stings...

[Misanthrope]

Good for Jim: we need more journalistic efforts on his part and less SJW whining about Dead or Alive.

[Yoinkerman]

3 hours ago, Misanthrope said:

Good for Jim: we need more journalistic efforts on his part and less SJW whining about Dead or Alive.

Dude every thread lol

 

[laminutederire]

4 hours ago, KrumpetPirate said:

This further exemplifies why you should cool your heals and wait to see if the game is actually good before buying it. I'm stoked about BF1, but I won't buy it till after the launch to figure out if some bullshittery took place. NMS was the exact same thing for me and I'm glad I dodged that one.

 

This all comes from my purchase of the Division because I wanted to play with my buddy. That one still stings...

At least bf1 has an open beta (which reaaaaaaaaally sucks performance wise, dx12 version even has more cpu overhead than the dx11 one, anyway...)

Thankfully not everyone does like you and me, which gives us the opportunity to see what's wrong

[Misanthrope]

2 hours ago, Yoinkerman said:

Dude every thread lol

Oh come on is not like we have daily, weekly or even monthly Jim Sterling threads.

[Castdeath97]

18 hours ago, Notional said:

I've said it before, Japanese companies are cancer to the gaming industry. They are completely clueless. They don't understand the market or gamers in any way to the point where they actively sabotage their own consumers (SEGA/NINTENDO/etc). They are pretty much all obsolete and make some of the worst games out there, and by far the worst PC ports imaginable. I LOVE DEMD, but that is made by Eidos, NOT square or any jap dev. 

I will probably try to excuse gamefreak and capcom, but even then I still see both companies repeat silly mistakes that keep their games potential wasted thanks to silly publishers with their "targeting children" mentality.

[Bouzoo]

18 hours ago, Notional said:

I've said it before, Japanese companies are cancer to the gaming industry.

Except there are many western studios that are even worse. To be clear, I'm saying both sides have good and bad studios, it's not like one of a saint and the other one is a sinner.