It's not just publishers, it is wall street too. They want more profits and don't care how. It's the same problem with boeing. The publishers are beholden to wall street and apply pressure on studios to deliver on "more for less", but you can't sell less for more.
@RealILOVEPIE for most companies its tencent these days in china wall street doesnt have that much stock in gaming industry relative to china these days
"I still have some time credits to cash in from last year" That was fucking hilarious. Also this is so true. I'm a pessimist so I don't have much faith but I really hope he's onto something
It looks to me like he is. Just look at Ubisoft, they're pretty much on the verge on bankruptcy at this point. Meanwhile indie and AA studios that make good games are eating like crazy
@@KingslayerSrb Its worse than that. He was starting to tear up thanking his team and trying to honor people who died during development.a few from cancer.
@@KingslayerSrb What's worst is that they did this 30sec into his speech, so he had to cut it short, making his "full" speech for winning GotY 1min long. He then posted what he had prepared online, but damn.
@@Iridium-77-g To be fair to Swen... Swen is criticizing a hollow video game industry, where corporations attempt to put profit (and political messaging, for some reason...) before fun and creativity, then wonder why it doesn't sell. Ricky Gervais was criticizing a film and entertainment industry that was willingly looking the other way and enabling sex offenders who frequently target underage kids. Gervais is naturally going to be more savage because for us much as we loathe the video game industry, they're STILL not on the same level of bad as the film industry.
Except he seems to be a better person than Ricky Gervais. Ricky Gervais just says things to piss people off, while Swen Vincke said what he said hoping for a positive and wholesome change.
Swen is a legend, while this message alone won't change anything I do have to applaud his persistence in roasting the industry. Best we can do on our part is to support devs like this and refuse to feed money to toxic AAA publishers. Vote with your wallet, **maybe** in time we could wear them down and force some change
@@Serobi_Web3 Swen wore an Artists For Ceasefire pin on stage in support of Palestine. Is that too political for you? Blaming "politics" is a distraction. The problem is the profit motive above everything else, above labor, above players. That's it.
That's what happens when you focus group every aspect of a game instead of following an unified artistic vision. Ubisoft is a large enough studio to just do a game for the sake of it without thinking about profitability. But it won't happen bcoz the shareholders don't want that. It's going to be slop after slop as long as the company only works for shareholders and not the customers.
There are many more. The media just doesn't promote them, and so the people don't know about them. For example, Warframe. DE fits many of the things Sven says. They also don't spend money on marketting, instead they spend that budget to make game even better. But sheeps just follow what the media tells them and the media tells them to play the big-publishers' games instead because the big publishers pay the media a lot of money to do so.
We need more people like Sven everywhere! People who are passionate about their work and aren't afraid of confronting those at the top to make things better; every industry needs that.
He's talking about you Ubisoft, Activision, Blizzarrd and EA. Edit: Just keep adding on the companies with shady practices. Let’s call them all out here.
And Bethesda, in which case the employees at ZeniMax were unionizing while this show was happening. They know better than to wind up like the rest of the exploited staff that have been laid off at other studios.
I know its fun to shit on WotC (I've partaken myself plenty) but this makes no sense in contrast to the straight bars he was spittin - you might not like them but Swen has openly praised Wizards of the Coast for being great partners and giving Larian a lot of creative freedom on their almost 10 year development process of BG3.
@@-Samx There is a reason they aren't making story expansions or another game and that's because during the last years of development all of the people they worked with from WotC were laid off.
@@Frostman411 Nope, what Swen has openly stated however was that the team immediately started working on DLC after release (3 August 2023) but quickly realized that they weren't passionate enough about it anymore, they've been working on the same game for almost a decade and wanted to start fresh on something new and exciting for the team. As for the Hasbro layoffs, the first round didn't happen till December 2023 and even after that Swen explains theories about bad blood between Larian and WOTC aren't true. so no, the timeline doesn't add up nor do Swens words.
Yeah it feels kinda wild. After this while speech, the winner of game of the year is the game that is just a big advertisement for the sony catalogue. It can't be denied that the people who made it poured genuine love for it and for all games into it and made something that's actually fun and celebrates games, but it's still just a big advert for the playstation games. Sigh
@@marcog.verbruggen674 "it's an advert" -99% of the references are for long dead and deceased IPs that are never coming back in any monetizable way Folks, I beg you, try to understand the difference between advertisements and homages...
@tubalord3693 tell me you didn't read my comment without telling me you didn't read my comment. I never said i was upset it won. I think it was deserved, though might not have been my personal pick. And I agree that it's a good game made with passion and love for not just it, but games in general. I said so explicitly. But it IS an advert. That's what it is, that's why it was made. It's an advertisement for the playstation catalogue, starring the playstation mascot, featuring only games on the playstation, "comissioned", if you will, by the owners of playstation. The devs managed to turn it into a genuinely good game with their love and craft, but at it's core it's still an elaborate advertisement for the flagship product of one the very companies that uses the practices caled out in this very speech. If you can't see that I don't know what to tell you, because they're not even trying to hide it. Edit: shame on me, i didnt read YOUR comment properly either. Just noticed after posting you're replying to the original comment, not to mine specifically. Thank the phrasing on youtube's mobile notifications for that one, my bad. Though the point stands. It's a good game, but still an advert.
@@Caliif Astrobot is no where close to being on the level of BG3, astrobot is a cash grab tech demo on the same level as sony's non stop barrage of remakes of 4 year old games. They are just hoping to sell off nostalgia alone, because the game is a bare bones mario clone.
This speech followed by Astro Bot for GOTY, made by a small, passionate team who made a fun, high quality game with zero micro transactions, no bugs and perfectly executed from day one... icing on te cake.
@@Ren_kusanagi black myth is just another blurry souls wannabe with cool world and character design. Astro Bot on the other hand is pure fun and a 10/10 on all fronts, no technical issues, literally nothing wrong with it. You obviously can’t compare them because they are different genres, but overall Astro Bot is a well deserved GOTY. Now you can continue crying in the pillow
@@theoDSP by that logic bg3 never shouldn't have won last year since game is totally not family friendly and def not does appeal to masses if anything crpg are more uncommon than most other games, you're kinda clown for saying this buddy boy
I remember when devs and companies fell in love with their creations. They made games out of love and passion. Now a days it’s about target sales and pleasing shareholders. Hopefully companies wake up and go back to the traditional way of making games
its just so corporate now. you'll have teams working from different studios pulled in on a game or moved onto a different one. Just entirely fungible devs with no means of actually controlling what they create. its quite sad really.
So nice to see the game with actually dedicated and passionate devs pull through to win goty ^^ The game awards award passion over whichever jerks players off the most... No wonder most "gamers" hate them
@@ince55ant well the devs can now crowdfund and start their own projects but it's so saturated on every platform now that getting noticed is so difficult
All devs make games out of love and passion today, why else would they do it? They are crunched and laid off constantly and many end up leaving the industry permanently for their own well being and financial stability. The thing to know here is that that doesn't matter if leadership is bad and production/management is a mess. Sprinkle shareholders expectations and corporate meddling and you have a recipe for disaster. No amount of talent and passion from devs can overcome that unfortunately. That's why Swen focuses on what he does, his speech is for those who ultimately make the decisions.
there's no such a thing. Back then the companies weren't headed by market zombies whose only purpose in this existence is to see virtual numbers increasing. They were headed by gamers who learned how to code. Blizzard is the best example, what happened in the time between Diablo 1 and Diablo 3? They turned from a group of friends drawing half naked orcs and programming spell attacks to a *HUGE* business company making millions of dollars. Suddenly they weren't five guys in a room brainstorming about fantasy races and lore for dungeons, they were hundreds of employees receiving orders from people who don't play games. You know when Blizzard will make anything like Diablo 2 or Warcraft 3 again? Never, because that company was killed when World of Warcraft started making money. As long as the concept of profit exists, these companies won't make art, they will make products. This is the traditional way of making games (and anything) in a world where profit exists.
What's the best game you played in 2024?... It's still BG3. This wasn't a roast, this was just an honest description of how to help artists to make great art.
@alexfrank5331 that is sadly probably true. But frankly that's okay by me. I get through about one big game every three years, and that's about the rate at which they are released, so I can happily ignore the sea of crap.
@van7915 this is the way. Voting with your wallet called for an individual solution to a systemic problem. The only way to get things to change is through organization and legislation. These people have the power to influence markets, not just follow trends, they can MAKE alot of people do what benefits them, and they will only stop if they are forced to.
While you are right, we still need those kind of speech because if we want people to "vote with their wallets", they need to be informed. You know it's bad but that's because you either got disappointed by a studio at one point or because you heard how bad it was. While you know it's bad, the average CoD / Bethesda player still doesn't know badly rotten the industry has become. But yea, nothing will change :(
@@nolann2900the industry isn’t rotten just a few companies are. Look at Larian and Team Asobi they care. Also Ubisoft is going bankrupt so people actually ARE voting with their wallets.
Nothing will come of it? He didnt sell out to microsoft. Sure some megadevs like ubi micro and playstation will continue to nosedive their games. But we also have studios like larian, warhorse, cdpr or hello games. Just stop looking in the wrong places
idk why but i expected a punchline where he says the oracle handed him a paper of companies that can make the perfect formula and he says that it was a blank paper
@@Hangman11 How so? It just means that any company can do what he's describing, which is true. Many studios are not permitted to operate in that way, but they could operate that way.
@@stysner4580 It is ok to get money from somewhere to do something that is RIGHT. And Astrobot was that. Sony sponsored development of many GREAT games and not always did they get a return on investment. Many times they risked great things, fell flat on their face and risked it again. I think Sony might be a huge ass corporation, but their gaming section really isn't all that bad. (It is still a huge corporation and layoff etc. are just daily business in such structures)
"And remember should you be told to wrap it up for tonight, you can always come back next year and chat for three minutes." Statler and Waldorf must have been proud of Swen for that quick jab at Geoff.
I got to meet Swen twice at Pax West 2024, once in the expo halls outside the Baldurs Gate booth and second at the 1 year anniversary Baldurs Gate 3 panel. He's such a chill guy
@@aziouss2863 All it takes for this speech to inspire one studio to make their dream game, one person to not waste money on a game filled with predetory microtransactions and I'd consider this speech a success. Unfortunately change doesn't happen overnight but that doesn't mean we should completely give up and not even talk about these very real issues.
@@aziouss2863 eh... I'm pretty sure that every single convetionally bad or atleast AAA underaverage game this year didn't make shit except for like few exceptions
@@aziouss2863 25% are “hardcore gamers”, meaning 37+ hours a week. Dont know about the money distribution among all the groups, but the people who follow award shows and the market trends in general, are probably not the one with the highest amount of money to spend. So like democracy the people best informed wont have any meaningfull effect by "voting with their money".
Sven isnt roasting, this is an important statement about the state of the gaming industry. I love that it was capped by Astro Bot, the game that embodies the joy of gaming spirit
Calling all that out, and then calling Astrobot to win is the perfect one two punch. Clapped so hard when it won, that dev team absolutely hit a homerun.
Yeah but somewhere Team Asobi is the sole survivor of SIE Japan layoffs so the part where he says that the Goty is made by people not afraid to loose their job is cringing me a bit..
I think most of the viewers, me included, didn't played the game. (I mean it's for kids right?). So, I was a bit disappointed with this choice. And even thought it was bought GOTY or something. So for me after that speach it was a bit ironic. But I see a lot of people who genuinely happy with this choice. I guess it's not
Incredibly concise with raising as many critical points ,confined to the time to announce the award. Also, a great job at elevating the prestige of achieving GOTY and angling judging and voting towards good honest dev teams and studios. Swen! You are a true hero !
God there’ll be no other man like Swen Vincke and Larian Studios. He really took it against the industry as a whole. I wish we could get more people and studios like Swen. This makes me want to play Baldur’s Gate 3 again more than Astro bot really.
He isnt the only one, that's for sure. But he is definitely the most fortunate of all of them & he used that for a good cause rather than maximizing revenue to no limits
1:24 ...and [the developers] didn't make decisions they knew were shortsighted or in function of a bonus or politics. They knew that if you put the game and the team first, the revenue will follow. Words to live by... if you can nowadays.
I haven't meet a single dev or artists that deliberate want to deliver a shit software, trust me, game developers agree on every single point he made, but if you work on the AAA industry, you don't have much choice, do you think a programmer wants to spend time developing the in game shop of a new cool game mechanic? Do you think artists want to create shit skins to sell for cheap or spend time creating something new for the game?
I bet they were debating it but thought amongst themselves “if we cut his mic it’ll be too obvious, let him say his speech and continue to change nothing industry wise”
I swear, every time this man makes a speech or does an interview, he's either thanking the fans, his teams, roasting the gaming industry, or all of the above. Absolute LEGEND. We must protect him at all costs.
For as much as Astrobot is a giant Sony Brand Game, they made a really fun title and referenced a bunch of super dead game series that playstation has had over the years. Its simple, sweet, and for as big a company Sony is they realize that good single player experiences are a way to move their consoles.
So in other words, games made by a mid-sized, privately held company with a passion for the work. He ruled out essentially any publicly held company that has to move to please share holders and stock price, and therefore has to elevate share price as the sole priority.
"if they treated their developers and players well, those same developers and players would forgive them when things didn't go as planned" I wish this sentiment would trickle down to the players. There is so much negativity from players to developers online and it saddens me. People freaking out over imbalance in games or whatever the issue... there's people that tried to make this the best experience they can. Game reviews should use A-F and - / + to rank quality of content and quality of effort
What he said actually fit Astro Bot very well too. Could feel the love they had for gamers and video gaming and PlayStation history. Even if PlayStation itself has forgotten so much of that history.
This guy deserves all the praise, not only for BG3, but for the things he says about the industry at this point. He speaks only truth and only that! More and more people should stand besides him.
Seeing this comment section support what he’s saying is refreshing. The live chat made me wanna die. Just a bunch of folks saying he was yapping. GOTY ain’t gonna be the latest hero shooter or “Fortnigh/Genshin killer”. Make something you love, and we’ll love it too & sink 500+ hours into it. It’s on the studios to take care of their teams, but it’s also on us to not kick these other weenies a dime.
looking at chat in live events is always the worst decision you can do, there's not a single non toxic comment during the stream, it's just distraction.
The worst issue is people addicted to brands. They have some obsessive love for brands that were decent (maybe) 10-15 years ago when they were kids, keep buying the new installments, get disappointed, complain online and then do it again. Like for Marvel movies, the only people who actually watch the shit new ones are the ones who are gonna complain about them.
@@cristianobrogna1225 I pre ordered metro exodus, stalker 2 and baldurs gate 3 because I trusted the development companies to deliver a solid game like they did in the past, and they did. Are ya gonna cry about it?
Yeah they trotted him out so he could do a little 3min speech right at the end, but the previous 3 hours of the show was epitomizing everything he's saying is bad in this speech which makes it ring hollow.
Not really true. Balatro won some awards and not every trailer was a triple A game from a big studio. Plus the guy who's helping people get jobs was amazing.
This man has balls calling out the industry... and if I was him... I would shout on that stage... DEVS make more games with DIRECTION/CREATIVITY over PHOTOREALISM...
Couldn’t said it better myself. Wish more video game people were like Swen. That way theirs less unnecessary layoffs, pay to win mechanics, live service games, broken launches and so on. And more groundbreaking & awesome games like BG3. Hopefully we will see more key gaming ppl speak out on AAA BS like Swen here. That man is a hero!!
Assbot is a fking joke bro. They can’t pick wukong cuz of the multiple concerns including geopolitics influences. They can’t pick Elden ring cuz of the DLC and they didn’t pick rebirth since it’s just not the best. So they had to settle on the most politically correct option, assbot
And what game ended up winning Game of the Year? A small, cute, focused platformer celebrating 30 years of history with a character that debuted in a tech demo with a dev team that doesn't even hit triple digits in size. Call this man Shulk, because he held up the goddamn Monado with how the GOTY vote was gonna go.
i almost didnt recognize sven without his armor
He doesn't need it at his level.
He's unlocked Unarmored Defense
He kinda look like Sting the musician
He is using transmog, He is wearing his armor but has the appearance of a suit 😂
@@KisekiFan LOL. OK dude, you win the internet for today 😆
calling publishers out for a year straight at every award show is so fucking tough 😤 love swen and his team
It's not just publishers, it is wall street too. They want more profits and don't care how. It's the same problem with boeing. The publishers are beholden to wall street and apply pressure on studios to deliver on "more for less", but you can't sell less for more.
And then announcing Atsro bot as a winner this a is a clown
@RealILOVEPIE for most companies its tencent these days in china wall street doesnt have that much stock in gaming industry relative to china these days
and nothing changes still
Larian is as woke as they come.
what a fucking legend , sad thing is that those who this message is intended for wont even care to understand
We must hope that someone is actually listening. It may not change the industry but if it changes a few then its well worth it.
All that premium currency they're selling is drowning out the noise.
None of what he said actually matters to the end user, hence, why the industry stays the same year in and year out.
Funny thing is Phil Spencer was in the front row, probably felt awkward for him trying to act like he wasn’t getting roasted to his face lol.
We can fix that by not playing their games. Don't rush out and buy anything at all, wait for the reviews.
He could have said anything but chose to say this. Protect this man. Legend.
Swen and Ricky are legends w
"I still have some time credits to cash in from last year"
That was fucking hilarious. Also this is so true. I'm a pessimist so I don't have much faith but I really hope he's onto something
I didn't see the 2023 awards, did something happen last year with him?
@@123MDBrown yes they flashed him with a "wrapped it up" sign while he was talking during a speech for winning an award
It looks to me like he is. Just look at Ubisoft, they're pretty much on the verge on bankruptcy at this point. Meanwhile indie and AA studios that make good games are eating like crazy
@@KingslayerSrb Its worse than that. He was starting to tear up thanking his team and trying to honor people who died during development.a few from cancer.
@@KingslayerSrb What's worst is that they did this 30sec into his speech, so he had to cut it short, making his "full" speech for winning GotY 1min long. He then posted what he had prepared online, but damn.
dude just did a ricky gervais at the game awards
this is the comment I was looking for!
But with no redditor talk, thank God
No he didn't. Gervais was SAVAGE. You need to watch that 10 min supercut if you think this is on the same level.
@@Iridium-77-g To be fair to Swen...
Swen is criticizing a hollow video game industry, where corporations attempt to put profit (and political messaging, for some reason...) before fun and creativity, then wonder why it doesn't sell.
Ricky Gervais was criticizing a film and entertainment industry that was willingly looking the other way and enabling sex offenders who frequently target underage kids.
Gervais is naturally going to be more savage because for us much as we loathe the video game industry, they're STILL not on the same level of bad as the film industry.
Except he seems to be a better person than Ricky Gervais. Ricky Gervais just says things to piss people off, while Swen Vincke said what he said hoping for a positive and wholesome change.
Swen is a legend, while this message alone won't change anything I do have to applaud his persistence in roasting the industry. Best we can do on our part is to support devs like this and refuse to feed money to toxic AAA publishers. Vote with your wallet, **maybe** in time we could wear them down and force some change
People this year voted with their wallet like never before and punished all corrupted games imposing politics and stuff.
@@Serobi_Web3 Swen wore an Artists For Ceasefire pin on stage in support of Palestine. Is that too political for you?
Blaming "politics" is a distraction. The problem is the profit motive above everything else, above labor, above players. That's it.
@@Serobi_Web3 What are you talking about? There were plenty of "political" games like Metaphor that did well.
Voting with your money is an idiotic concept. It never happens. Corporations and CEOs change name and faces, the damage remains.
@@Serobi_Web3 Concord, star wars outlaws, among others.
As a fellow Belgian, I am incredibly proud of this guy and Larian Studio. Legend.
based
I'm Dutch, so I'll give you this one. Proud to be in the country next to the one this guy is from.
Van Speijk heeft niets fout gedaan!
Ubisoft made 70 bad games since this speech
That's what happens when you focus group every aspect of a game instead of following an unified artistic vision. Ubisoft is a large enough studio to just do a game for the sake of it without thinking about profitability. But it won't happen bcoz the shareholders don't want that. It's going to be slop after slop as long as the company only works for shareholders and not the customers.
Sorry man get your facts straight! They SOLD 70 bad games since this speech.😉
@@chrisnelson6991 Sold? Citation needed.
Bioware too
🤣😂🤣
We need more people like sven in the game industry.
There are many more. The media just doesn't promote them, and so the people don't know about them.
For example, Warframe. DE fits many of the things Sven says. They also don't spend money on marketting, instead they spend that budget to make game even better. But sheeps just follow what the media tells them and the media tells them to play the big-publishers' games instead because the big publishers pay the media a lot of money to do so.
We need more people like Sven everywhere! People who are passionate about their work and aren't afraid of confronting those at the top to make things better; every industry needs that.
He's talking about you Ubisoft, Activision, Blizzarrd and EA.
Edit: Just keep adding on the companies with shady practices. Let’s call them all out here.
And funnily enough, Hasbro
And Bethesda, in which case the employees at ZeniMax were unionizing while this show was happening. They know better than to wind up like the rest of the exploited staff that have been laid off at other studios.
Don’t forget Warner Brothers
Bethesda
No Sony?
The biggest flop of the year?
Come on, dude!
Saying this in front of Phillip Spender 😂 Pure flex
Spencer doesn't care about the awards. He only cares about revenue, because his shareholder overlords force him to.
Also in front of multiple Sony executives who ordered the shutdown of the Japan and London studios.
@@OneLastScholarI thought most of Japan studio went to asobi? So they were just moved around?
@@joshnizzle oh no, they fired a lot of people. they also do most things Swen talked about here.
@OneLastScholar they regrouped in Asobi studio that delivers GOTY winners
What a fucking G, we love sven
Tell me you hated working with wizards of the coast, without telling me you hated working with wizards of the coast.
I know its fun to shit on WotC (I've partaken myself plenty) but this makes no sense in contrast to the straight bars he was spittin - you might not like them but Swen has openly praised Wizards of the Coast for being great partners and giving Larian a lot of creative freedom on their almost 10 year development process of BG3.
@@-Samx There is a reason they aren't making story expansions or another game and that's because during the last years of development all of the people they worked with from WotC were laid off.
@@Frostman411 Nope, what Swen has openly stated however was that the team immediately started working on DLC after release (3 August 2023) but quickly realized that they weren't passionate enough about it anymore, they've been working on the same game for almost a decade and wanted to start fresh on something new and exciting for the team.
As for the Hasbro layoffs, the first round didn't happen till December 2023 and even after that Swen explains theories about bad blood between Larian and WOTC aren't true. so no, the timeline doesn't add up nor do Swens words.
I remember hearing somewhere that the people from WotC who greenlit Larian working on the IP got laid off before BG3 was even finished.
This message was directed at ubisoft bethesda and other companies making trash and telling the fans they are wrong for criticism
Dude roasted the awards, industry, execs, shareholders in must 3 mins. What a legend
Astrobot winning is the perfect punchline to this speech.
Yeah it feels kinda wild. After this while speech, the winner of game of the year is the game that is just a big advertisement for the sony catalogue. It can't be denied that the people who made it poured genuine love for it and for all games into it and made something that's actually fun and celebrates games, but it's still just a big advert for the playstation games. Sigh
@@marcog.verbruggen674 "it's an advert"
-99% of the references are for long dead and deceased IPs that are never coming back in any monetizable way
Folks, I beg you, try to understand the difference between advertisements and homages...
@@marcog.verbruggen674Way to say you didn't play the game without saying you didn't play the game
Look, I don’t think Astro bot should’ve won either but calling in an advert it’s just kind of petty and childish. It’s a very good game.
@tubalord3693 tell me you didn't read my comment without telling me you didn't read my comment.
I never said i was upset it won. I think it was deserved, though might not have been my personal pick. And I agree that it's a good game made with passion and love for not just it, but games in general. I said so explicitly.
But it IS an advert. That's what it is, that's why it was made. It's an advertisement for the playstation catalogue, starring the playstation mascot, featuring only games on the playstation, "comissioned", if you will, by the owners of playstation. The devs managed to turn it into a genuinely good game with their love and craft, but at it's core it's still an elaborate advertisement for the flagship product of one the very companies that uses the practices caled out in this very speech. If you can't see that I don't know what to tell you, because they're not even trying to hide it.
Edit: shame on me, i didnt read YOUR comment properly either. Just noticed after posting you're replying to the original comment, not to mine specifically. Thank the phrasing on youtube's mobile notifications for that one, my bad. Though the point stands. It's a good game, but still an advert.
Just imagine if all dev teams had a boss like this.
then all of them would be fan favourites like larian!
There just too much potential profit. It has turned the industry into a souless churning mill.
@@Odog78ironically if all games were made with the same passion and love for games like BG3 or Astro Bot they would earn a lot more money
@@Caliif Astrobot is no where close to being on the level of BG3, astrobot is a cash grab tech demo on the same level as sony's non stop barrage of remakes of 4 year old games. They are just hoping to sell off nostalgia alone, because the game is a bare bones mario clone.
@@DempigThe industry lacks 3d platformers. Astro Bot is creative as a platformer and does things Mario doesn't.
> gamers make good games
> profit
?
ea, ubisoft, activison executives: *surprised pikachu face*
This speech followed by Astro Bot for GOTY, made by a small, passionate team who made a fun, high quality game with zero micro transactions, no bugs and perfectly executed from day one... icing on te cake.
Astrobore
the same for Black myth and btw was 100 times better 😂
@@Ren_kusanagi black myth is just another blurry souls wannabe with cool world and character design. Astro Bot on the other hand is pure fun and a 10/10 on all fronts, no technical issues, literally nothing wrong with it. You obviously can’t compare them because they are different genres, but overall Astro Bot is a well deserved GOTY. Now you can continue crying in the pillow
@@uSACRIFICE Astro Bot is more family friendly and appeals the masses.
@@theoDSP by that logic bg3 never shouldn't have won last year since game is totally not family friendly and def not does appeal to masses if anything crpg are more uncommon than most other games, you're kinda clown for saying this buddy boy
This is why I love Larian, and why I will continue to support them and follow their projects.
Sven is a legend, and his heart is in the right place.
This is the speech this industry needed. Let artists be artists.
This guy has been great anytime he’s spoke.
I remember when devs and companies fell in love with their creations. They made games out of love and passion. Now a days it’s about target sales and pleasing shareholders. Hopefully companies wake up and go back to the traditional way of making games
its just so corporate now. you'll have teams working from different studios pulled in on a game or moved onto a different one. Just entirely fungible devs with no means of actually controlling what they create. its quite sad really.
So nice to see the game with actually dedicated and passionate devs pull through to win goty ^^
The game awards award passion over whichever jerks players off the most... No wonder most "gamers" hate them
@@ince55ant well the devs can now crowdfund and start their own projects but it's so saturated on every platform now that getting noticed is so difficult
All devs make games out of love and passion today, why else would they do it? They are crunched and laid off constantly and many end up leaving the industry permanently for their own well being and financial stability.
The thing to know here is that that doesn't matter if leadership is bad and production/management is a mess. Sprinkle shareholders expectations and corporate meddling and you have a recipe for disaster.
No amount of talent and passion from devs can overcome that unfortunately. That's why Swen focuses on what he does, his speech is for those who ultimately make the decisions.
there's no such a thing. Back then the companies weren't headed by market zombies whose only purpose in this existence is to see virtual numbers increasing. They were headed by gamers who learned how to code. Blizzard is the best example, what happened in the time between Diablo 1 and Diablo 3? They turned from a group of friends drawing half naked orcs and programming spell attacks to a *HUGE* business company making millions of dollars. Suddenly they weren't five guys in a room brainstorming about fantasy races and lore for dungeons, they were hundreds of employees receiving orders from people who don't play games.
You know when Blizzard will make anything like Diablo 2 or Warcraft 3 again? Never, because that company was killed when World of Warcraft started making money. As long as the concept of profit exists, these companies won't make art, they will make products. This is the traditional way of making games (and anything) in a world where profit exists.
The really sad thing is the crowd was split and only applauded and cheered at certain times. Super telling.
not so easy to criticize people who have power over you
more power you have, more control you gain
Yep. They only started cheering when he said something positive about devs. Such narcissists lol
Yeah it’s tough. These studios have cotton in their ears. It’s going to be a while before anything changes I think
I thought it was out of respect
What's the best game you played in 2024?... It's still BG3.
This wasn't a roast, this was just an honest description of how to help artists to make great art.
That's why they told the players to have realistic expectations.
Cuz they know none of the new games in the next few years will measure up to BG3.
@alexfrank5331 that is sadly probably true. But frankly that's okay by me. I get through about one big game every three years, and that's about the rate at which they are released, so I can happily ignore the sea of crap.
Factorio space age or Stalker 2 should have won game of the year. And not a game I have no desire to play
Same, on my 4th run already
BG3: nice graphics, but that's it.
It's genuinely nice to hear sentiments like this on the big stage, for whatever it may be worth
Comments are saying this speech may not change much, but i believe it will further encourage us to vote with our wallets and not to give up.
as well as encourge devs to unioonize
@van7915 this is the way. Voting with your wallet called for an individual solution to a systemic problem. The only way to get things to change is through organization and legislation.
These people have the power to influence markets, not just follow trends, they can MAKE alot of people do what benefits them, and they will only stop if they are forced to.
As much as he is right, nothing will change or come out of it. You want real change, vote with your wallet and you will see change
having said that how many times has a live service failed and studios still try to make them
While you are right, we still need those kind of speech because if we want people to "vote with their wallets", they need to be informed. You know it's bad but that's because you either got disappointed by a studio at one point or because you heard how bad it was.
While you know it's bad, the average CoD / Bethesda player still doesn't know badly rotten the industry has become.
But yea, nothing will change :(
May as well not be informed if they're going to vote with their wallet in favor of corporations anyways
@@nolann2900the industry isn’t rotten just a few companies are. Look at Larian and Team Asobi they care. Also Ubisoft is going bankrupt so people actually ARE voting with their wallets.
Nothing will come of it? He didnt sell out to microsoft. Sure some megadevs like ubi micro and playstation will continue to nosedive their games.
But we also have studios like larian, warhorse, cdpr or hello games.
Just stop looking in the wrong places
idk why but i expected a punchline where he says the oracle handed him a paper of companies that can make the perfect formula and he says that it was a blank paper
It is a blank paper, and any company's name can be written on it.
@@reijishian2593 that would've been VERY cynical
@@Hangman11 How so? It just means that any company can do what he's describing, which is true. Many studios are not permitted to operate in that way, but they could operate that way.
Classic, “The secret ingredient is…nothing.” -Goose
Astro bot winning immediately after his speech further proves his point, so perfect
😂 it was savage actually, but everyone acted, like it was just a joke
how does it prove his point?
@@nattochiiin8939most people feel like Astro Bot was made out of pure appreciation for platformers and the history of PlayStation games
@@ghosbaby Yes but it was also paid for by Sony until it was done. How many devs have that privilege?
@@stysner4580 It is ok to get money from somewhere to do something that is RIGHT. And Astrobot was that. Sony sponsored development of many GREAT games and not always did they get a return on investment. Many times they risked great things, fell flat on their face and risked it again. I think Sony might be a huge ass corporation, but their gaming section really isn't all that bad. (It is still a huge corporation and layoff etc. are just daily business in such structures)
"And remember should you be told to wrap it up for tonight, you can always come back next year and chat for three minutes."
Statler and Waldorf must have been proud of Swen for that quick jab at Geoff.
angryjoe aswell
I got to meet Swen twice at Pax West 2024, once in the expo halls outside the Baldurs Gate booth and second at the 1 year anniversary Baldurs Gate 3 panel. He's such a chill guy
The best part of the show! this bloke is a legend, smashed his peers in a 3 min speech! 👌
Peers? That man stands in a league of his own
@jeremygeller9145 ok 'peers' then 😅
@@AlphariousOmegon-d5d thank you, my primarch. Hydra Dominatus
@@jeremygeller9145 Hydra Dominatus 💪🏻
most of the people in the audience were "journalists" , and producer/managers.ublishers.. Not his peers.
This flew over people's heads I think.
Of course. He's talking to a crowd from L.A. the modern Sodom and Gomorrah. They couldn't give less of a fuck
No not really this nihilistic approach is dumb.
Millions heard this and millions will not be better informed by voting with their money.
@@aziouss2863 All it takes for this speech to inspire one studio to make their dream game, one person to not waste money on a game filled with predetory microtransactions and I'd consider this speech a success. Unfortunately change doesn't happen overnight but that doesn't mean we should completely give up and not even talk about these very real issues.
@@aziouss2863 eh... I'm pretty sure that every single convetionally bad or atleast AAA underaverage game this year didn't make shit except for like few exceptions
@@aziouss2863 25% are “hardcore gamers”, meaning 37+ hours a week. Dont know about the money distribution among all the groups, but the people who follow award shows and the market trends in general, are probably not the one with the highest amount of money to spend. So like democracy the people best informed wont have any meaningfull effect by "voting with their money".
I think the term young people today use for this kind of speech is, BASED
Based, Giga Chad energy, Sigma ? What else is there ? lmao
I still have no idea what "based" means and what is the etymology of that term.
Absolute. Fucking. Legend
How do you not love this man. Single handedly advocating for everything that the video game industry should stand for, and then leading by example.
My eyes widened at that. Multiple based people like him, the muppets, and Josef.
Sven isnt roasting, this is an important statement about the state of the gaming industry. I love that it was capped by Astro Bot, the game that embodies the joy of gaming spirit
Calling all that out, and then calling Astrobot to win is the perfect one two punch. Clapped so hard when it won, that dev team absolutely hit a homerun.
Yeah but somewhere Team Asobi is the sole survivor of SIE Japan layoffs so the part where he says that the Goty is made by people not afraid to loose their job is cringing me a bit..
I, too, spontaneously applauded
I think most of the viewers, me included, didn't played the game. (I mean it's for kids right?). So, I was a bit disappointed with this choice. And even thought it was bought GOTY or something. So for me after that speach it was a bit ironic.
But I see a lot of people who genuinely happy with this choice. I guess it's not
@@TheSlorcit's for everyone
@@larasgate3 yeah for everyone who owns a playstation lol
Incredibly concise with raising as many critical points ,confined to the time to announce the award. Also, a great job at elevating the prestige of achieving GOTY and angling judging and voting towards good honest dev teams and studios. Swen! You are a true hero !
He wasn't wearing full plate but he came swinging at the industry with a bastard sword.
He doesn't need his armor, he's got the audience to give him armor buffs and health regeneration, so he went for full DPS.
Just so everyone knows. BG3 was so successful it bumped this guy to the 83th richest Belgian. let that sink in.
Phil Spencer sitting front row and not even clapping was the cherry on top
He knows how much fucking up he’s been doing to the Xbox brand, ESPECIALLY Tango Gameworks
God there’ll be no other man like Swen Vincke and Larian Studios. He really took it against the industry as a whole. I wish we could get more people and studios like Swen. This makes me want to play Baldur’s Gate 3 again more than Astro bot really.
There's a whole slew of mods now, and new subclasses incoming! Now's a great time to give it another go. =)
@ I know, I’m so excited to get back into the game again for all of that! Right now I’m just enjoying the moment from a legendary man like Swen.
Probably the only other AAA "good guys" at this point is Gabe Newell and the team at Valve behind Steam.
He isnt the only one, that's for sure. But he is definitely the most fortunate of all of them & he used that for a good cause rather than maximizing revenue to no limits
@ I’m proud and happy that he was the man to do it, we need more fortunate people like him and those to be uplifted in the industry.
Sven is such an amazing human being!
1:24 ...and [the developers] didn't make decisions they knew were shortsighted or in function of a bonus or politics. They knew that if you put the game and the team first, the revenue will follow.
Words to live by... if you can nowadays.
Jesus I get the feeling he is talking about Activision, Ubisoft, EA Games
Don’t forget bungie.
He's talking about the whole industry.
I think he means every industry even those are the most mainly industries are destroying gaming but it's everyone yeah I miss golden era of gaming
yup, the first thing that came to my mind is the new Dragon Age
Bioware, CD Projeckt...all of them
Very well spoken. Genuinly perfect speech. This is a person to look up to in the industry.
Ubisoft be like "Ah yes, we must find this Oracle and put them behind a pay wall" RIP
So simple and yet so many gaming developers / publishers find this impossible to comprehend.
not game developers corporations capitalists. Game Developers love what they do if given the freedom to create and make the game they want to make.
It's usually not on the developer's It's the CEOs and shareholders.
I haven't meet a single dev or artists that deliberate want to deliver a shit software, trust me, game developers agree on every single point he made, but if you work on the AAA industry, you don't have much choice, do you think a programmer wants to spend time developing the in game shop of a new cool game mechanic? Do you think artists want to create shit skins to sell for cheap or spend time creating something new for the game?
The beautiful irony of this comment 😂
Ubisoft & Bethesda: can't we just pay off the jury?
as someone who works in the gaming industry, after this year, this speech brought a tear to my eyes
man gave this speech while wearing the artists4Ceasefire pin
bro is made of pure integrity
oh, gross
don't chuck rocks at your neighbour and cry when they do it back
@@interrobangingslittle different when they’ve been doing more than chucking rocks but that might just be me
@@defaultdan7923 well yes but you get my point i hope
@@interrobangingsdon't need to be pro-Hamas to be pro-ceasefire.
@@interrobangings Free Palestine
I've just been talking with my mom about good developers, Larian (and DE) included, and then YT shows me this! Such a great speech!
The absolute definition of a rising tide raising all ships.
I was watching this live and I was so worried they were gonna cut him off while he was saying all this!
I bet they were debating it but thought amongst themselves “if we cut his mic it’ll be too obvious, let him say his speech and continue to change nothing industry wise”
@@slazeblaze319 you reading into this too much, this speeches are rehearsed, Geoff knew what Sven would say and for how long.
I love Sven's attitude and honesty.
Thank you Swen. You gave a glimpse of hope to devs and players.
I have massive respect for that guy!
Dude is an icon. Protect him at all cost.
I got a coffee ad before this video. You know it was a good roast.
And then he announces that astrobot is goty...
Icing on the cake ;-)
I swear, every time this man makes a speech or does an interview, he's either thanking the fans, his teams, roasting the gaming industry, or all of the above. Absolute LEGEND. We must protect him at all costs.
For as much as Astrobot is a giant Sony Brand Game, they made a really fun title and referenced a bunch of super dead game series that playstation has had over the years. Its simple, sweet, and for as big a company Sony is they realize that good single player experiences are a way to move their consoles.
to quote Jacob Galler, its more of a monument than a celebration of playstation games.
Still doesn't deserve the GOTY or even to be mentioned at all during the awards.
@@Ron_Jambo_ let's agree to disagree.
@shortw00d81 Disagreeing with reality is never a good look,but it has been tthe norm in America since 2016, so I can't blame you I guess
@@Ron_Jambo_I’ve been there back in 2020, so it’s fine now
And the beautiful irony of his speech is that shortly after, a game that met the positive side of his speech won GOTY 2024.
The fact that this was right after the Naughty Dog game makes it even funnier
When telling the blunt truth is more entertaining and inspiring than most of the games nominated this year. And probably a few more years to come.
So in other words, games made by a mid-sized, privately held company with a passion for the work. He ruled out essentially any publicly held company that has to move to please share holders and stock price, and therefore has to elevate share price as the sole priority.
the problem is the stock market without it a lot of problems (not only gaming) wouldn't exist.
Why can't large companies be privately held? Shareholders ruin everything.
@@ablationer They can, like Valve.
@@ablationer greed is the reason
I love that he did this! I hate how they did Neil during his speech last year when they cut him off. Keep making great games Larian!!!
The excellent speech and summary of the current state of the gaming industry. 👏
if you watch he's holding is wedding ring the whole time. You can tell hes nervous but feels it needs to be said. Class act all the way
"if they treated their developers and players well, those same developers and players would forgive them when things didn't go as planned" I wish this sentiment would trickle down to the players. There is so much negativity from players to developers online and it saddens me. People freaking out over imbalance in games or whatever the issue... there's people that tried to make this the best experience they can. Game reviews should use A-F and - / + to rank quality of content and quality of effort
Swen should present an award at EVERY TGA!!! This man knows his people!!!
I'm honestly kinda worried that they will never invite him again lol
Thank you for uploading
What he said actually fit Astro Bot very well too. Could feel the love they had for gamers and video gaming and PlayStation history. Even if PlayStation itself has forgotten so much of that history.
Bravo. Bravo.
This is not only how the gaming industry should work, this is how the f**king WORLD should work.
This guy deserves all the praise, not only for BG3, but for the things he says about the industry at this point. He speaks only truth and only that! More and more people should stand besides him.
At least someone in the games industry understands what is needed to succeed! Swen Vincke is the Saviour of the games industry.
Seeing this comment section support what he’s saying is refreshing. The live chat made me wanna die. Just a bunch of folks saying he was yapping.
GOTY ain’t gonna be the latest hero shooter or “Fortnigh/Genshin killer”. Make something you love, and we’ll love it too & sink 500+ hours into it. It’s on the studios to take care of their teams, but it’s also on us to not kick these other weenies a dime.
looking at chat in live events is always the worst decision you can do, there's not a single non toxic comment during the stream, it's just distraction.
You would sink 500 hours into a garbage game like astro bot
astrobot winning goty proved this message’s point even further
This legend speaks for all of us gamers, thank you!!
Swen is the man!! Love that guy and the way he does things!
Stop pre-ordering games people, use the fucking internet to see if the game is worth your time and money
Yes, i'm looking at you Ubisoft
The worst issue is people addicted to brands. They have some obsessive love for brands that were decent (maybe) 10-15 years ago when they were kids, keep buying the new installments, get disappointed, complain online and then do it again.
Like for Marvel movies, the only people who actually watch the shit new ones are the ones who are gonna complain about them.
@@cristianobrogna1225 I pre ordered metro exodus, stalker 2 and baldurs gate 3 because I trusted the development companies to deliver a solid game like they did in the past, and they did. Are ya gonna cry about it?
Absolutely amazing and mad respect for him for Standing up for all devs. Executives would have NOTHING without developers
What a legend
Dude gave me goosebumps. Thank you, Sven!
Yeah they trotted him out so he could do a little 3min speech right at the end, but the previous 3 hours of the show was epitomizing everything he's saying is bad in this speech which makes it ring hollow.
Not really true. Balatro won some awards and not every trailer was a triple A game from a big studio. Plus the guy who's helping people get jobs was amazing.
Swen for president of the world! He took "f*ck the Oscars" and ran with it! xD
This man has balls calling out the industry... and if I was him... I would shout on that stage... DEVS make more games with DIRECTION/CREATIVITY over PHOTOREALISM...
Couldn’t said it better myself. Wish more video game people were like Swen. That way theirs less unnecessary layoffs, pay to win mechanics, live service games, broken launches and so on. And more groundbreaking & awesome games like BG3. Hopefully we will see more key gaming ppl speak out on AAA BS like Swen here. That man is a hero!!
Last year BG3..this year Astro Bot..atleast they award developers and studios that really care about the gamers.
I legit never heard of Astrobot until tonight.
Assbot is a fking joke bro. They can’t pick wukong cuz of the multiple concerns including geopolitics influences. They can’t pick Elden ring cuz of the DLC and they didn’t pick rebirth since it’s just not the best. So they had to settle on the most politically correct option, assbot
Astrobot winning GOTY should have stayed a joke and not a reality.
His speech is meaningless if astrobot wins right after.
@@kellevichy never heard? What do you play?
@@Ron_Jambo_ why is it meaningless,
Thank you Swen!
Thank you for the games you (and your team) make.
Thank you for saying what needs to be said on the stage.
AMEN we play video games for FUN
My god gaming would be incredible if every developer or publisher would think like Swen.
And what game ended up winning Game of the Year? A small, cute, focused platformer celebrating 30 years of history with a character that debuted in a tech demo with a dev team that doesn't even hit triple digits in size.
Call this man Shulk, because he held up the goddamn Monado with how the GOTY vote was gonna go.
Why are you clapping and cheering at a tech demo winning the Game of The Year award ? Sony fanboys are weird asf
@Ron_Jambo_ Because the game is not a tech demo anymore. It's a full length 3d platformer.
TAKE NOTES & PROTECT THIS MAN AAT ALL COSTS! ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾
This man and Larian are the messiah of the gaming industry
what a beautiful speech, thank you sven and karina as a whole for setting such a beautiful standard.