"A dried husk of a product": former Doom producer berates Microsoft for making Halo a "mid-tier" game and mourns the "financialisation" of AAA

"A dried husk of a product": former Doom producer berates Microsoft for making Halo a "mid-tier" game and mourns the "financialisation" of AAA Also scorns Asha Sharma's talk of trimming the management layers Former Doom: The Dark Ages producer Andrew Willis has shared tuppence on the state of the blockbuster videogame trade, arguing that the biggest companies and most popular series are going through a familiar "cycle" whereby the moneyfolk finally displace the creatives, and start messing games up in the name of short-term returns. He reckons that the likes of Halo are well on their way to becoming "a dried husk of a product that everyone just now associates with like, slop". I imagine the wizened amongst you are mouthing "you don't say????" while theatrically fanning yourself with dog-eared copies of Cory Doctorow's book Enshittification. Read this next - Unions accuse Microsoft of having "unlawfully fired people" in unfair labor practice complaints filed over Xbox layoffs - "Id Tech is there, the Doom team is here": Doom: The Dark Ages director pushes back against idea studio have been "nerfed into the ground" by Xbox layoffs - "There are no benefits to being owned by Microsoft": Xbox owners accused of cultivating a "disposable worker mentality" in damning report on layoffs