Tim Spencer

Lead Designer & Product Owner @TTGames. #BAFTA member. Prev: Sumo Digital, Free Rad, Lionhead, Frontier, etc. 20+ years designing games. Tweets != Employer.

[Tim Spencer @ThatThereTim]

Regarding all discourse, drama, and shenanigans involving #videogames, ever. There is only ever one, single, answer to it all: VOTE 👏 WITH👏 YOUR👏 WALLET👏. Buy and play what *YOU* like. For whatever reason you like it. Do not buy, and do not play, what you don't like. And remember: you don't *HAVE* to like anything, for *ANY* reason you want. You do you. Enjoy your life. ❤️ #games #gamedev

[Tim Spencer @ThatThereTim]

@_YorkshireRose_

[Tim Spencer @ThatThereTim]

Tapping the sign again. People voted with their wallets 👍💪 Now, we can only hope that lessons were learned, and that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated in the future, if any of those IPs are used again. The public majority are screaming for what they want. Give it to them. #gamedev

[Tim Spencer @ThatThereTim]

Regarding all discourse, drama, and shenanigans involving #videogames, ever. There is only ever one, single, answer to it all: VOTE 👏 WITH👏 YOUR👏 WALLET👏. Buy and play what *YOU* like. For whatever reason you like it. Do not buy, and do not play, what you don't like. And remember: you don't *HAVE* to like anything, for *ANY* reason you want. You do you. Enjoy your life. ❤️ #games #gamedev

[Paweł Sasko @PaweSasko]

Not to obsess over numbers, but holly fuck chooms, you are incredible! Thank you for spending your weekend in the Night City, forever grateful 😭

[Pirat_Nation 🔴 @Pirat_Nation]

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has sold 8.7 million copies and generated around $366 million in revenue, according to Alinea Analytics.

-58.8% on Steam
-5.5% on Xbox

The game also had 4.3 million Game Pass players, which may have reduced Xbox sales but it also helped more people discover the game.

Make amazing games, sell like crazy? Who would have wondered this

[Tim Spencer @ThatThereTim]

Disgusting behaviour. #gamedev

[Chris Avellone @ChrisAvellone]

@Iliekturtles12 @Joebno_Gaming I guess I can say it now - so when applicants would apply to the studio, the producer would go through their LinkedIn to see what posts they liked, and if he disagreed with their political/social Like, he'd advocate not to hire them based on their Like.

[Tim Spencer @ThatThereTim]

EA own the IP, and for a company: that's the most valuable part. Sure EA could give a staff group + Canadian gov first dibs *IF* they sold the studio name Bioware, but if they wanted to buy the IP... there's an absolutely unimaginable cost to do that. So they'd almost certainly be starting from scratch, and at that point: the group might as well just start a new studio with the same people - it'd cost less, be easier, and they'd get a lot more easy-to-access gov support. EA might be sat there thinking: ok, give us $500m for the Bioware name, easy money for us, but you're not getting the IP for that, because we still have a bit of a long tail on some of the existing IP sales. If you want that IP, well, what would our projected sales for the good Bioware games + remasters + any projects we get other studios to make with the IP, for the next 100 years? ...and thats a big, BIG number. #gamedev

[Pirat_Nation 🔴 @Pirat_Nation]

A Canadian political leader is calling for the government to help BioWare developers buy the studio from EA and run it themselves.

NDP leader Avi Lewis says the developers should get the first shot at taking control, with government support.

“The developers at BioWare know how to run the studio. They know how to make the games we all love.”

He also criticized corporate ownership, arguing that Canada should keep control of major game studios in Canadian hands.

[Tim Spencer @ThatThereTim]

Decided to get something to distract myself when I'm not at the hospital. Snagged this for £40. Had it when I was a kid, and my dad built it with me. Very cool set, and really looking forward to building it #LEGO

[God Empress of Mankind @nuhre_]

"You don't get it, they only had 50 people working on it and the budget and resources were limited—"

MOTHERFUCKER, GAME DEVELOPERS USED TO PUT OUT ENTIRE GAMES EVERY COUPLE OF YEARS. WHAT THE FUCK WERE THOSE 50 PEOPLE AT BIOWARE DOING FOR SIX YEARS? TAKING TURNS HOLDING THE MOUSE?

[Pirat_Nation 🔴 @Pirat_Nation]

Gears of War: E-Day reportedly cost over $500 million to develop, excluding marketing.

A source familiar with Xbox’s business says the budget exceeds earlier reports of over $400 million.

Alinea Analytics estimates around 230,000 copies sold in the first week, generating about $37 million. Microsoft has not yet released official sales or player numbers.

A PS5 release probably wouldn’t have solved the problem. Gears of War: Reloaded sold 684,000 copies on PS5, which would have added roughly $33 million in revenue for E-Day after platform fees.

If true, the studio is cooked, Asha is coming for them.

[BASED PLAYER @BASEDPLAYER0]

Gamers celebrate the closures of these studios because we've already mourned them a decade ago when they really died.

You're crying over the zombie.

[Alex Hutchinson @BangBangClick]

Very sad news about BioWare. One of my favourite studios back in the day. But for the nth time: if you cost too much, carry too many staff and take too long then you are pre-dead. Ubisoft, BioWare, Bungie the list goes on. The teams and work style that built them has been lost.

[Tim Spencer @ThatThereTim]

@BellularGaming Just a staggering amount for something that isn't even original IP. If I were Asha, I'd demand a full breakdown of costs by the morning. A ton of money has absolutely been funnelled, hosed, gysered out of that project.

[GreasyPixel @GreasyPixel]

once you start playing older games you begin to understand that graphics were never as important as gameplay

[Tim Spencer @ThatThereTim]

If this is even half true, $500m for E-Day is insanely over budget. Heck, for what it is, $250m is a very high price. It's not original IP. At *least* 50% of the core design, 3Cs, is inherited on day 1 from Gears 5. E-Day should have been a 3 year, $100m Dev cost, $100m marketing project. There's is absolutely zero chance of them making back $500m on it, even if it was very commercially successful - which, given current numbers, it has not been. #gamedev

[Paul Tassi @PaulTassi]

‘Gears Of War: E-Day’ Cost Xbox $500 Million, Says New Report via @forbes https://t.co/EhN9HYG1cL

[Tim Spencer @ThatThereTim]

If all you've got to show that's somewhat C-Suite/public quality after 6 years, is precanned sequences in engine, then there's no wonder EA closed Bioware in the blink of an eye. And the Bioware that closed yesterday is not the Bioware that made Baldurs Gate, NWN, Dragon Age Origins, KOTOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect 1-3. I mourned the lost of that Bioware, the Bioware I loved, somewhere around 2017. EA should license out ME/DA. Get some European or Chinese RPG studios to have a crack at them. #gamedev

[Kala Elizabeth #SaveMassEffect @kalaelizabeth]

A BioWare dev on reddit leaked a Mass Effect 5 trailer... it's called MASS EFFECT UNIVERSE and it's fucking gorgeous. I'm crying. This is everything I wanted. They were a lot farther than we thought. FUCK EA

[Tim Spencer @ThatThereTim]

Here are 3x Invite-A-Friend Launch Codes for WoW: Forever.

JKDG-RFPG-CFVHV-J4SD-JGQN
M489-GN38-GXHKL-9DV9-R8QS
3VTH-5FSH-S4JXX-GKLV-D46V

"Your friend does not need an active World of Warcraft subscription to play. Redeeming this code will grant them access to WoW: Forever during launch week starting on November 4, 3PM PST."

[Tim Spencer @ThatThereTim]

Easy fix: cancel every subscription, block every URL at the router, and use a VPN. This will kill all streaming services in the UK. @BBC @andyburnham @YouTube @netflix @PrimeVideo @HBOMaxUK @DisneyPlus @AppleTV @NOWTV @ParamountPlusUK

[Pirat_Nation 🔴 @Pirat_Nation]

The UK could make people pay £180 a year to watch YouTube, Netflix and other streaming services.

The government is considering changing the TV Licence rules as part of the BBC’s next Royal Charter.

Right now, you only need a TV Licence for live TV or BBC iPlayer. You can watch Netflix or normal YouTube videos without one.

If the plans go ahead streaming viewers could also have to pay the annual fee.

[Adrian Chmielarz 🧙‍♀️🔥 @adrianchm]

Gears of War: E-Day is better than you think, but worse than it should be. A few words on the gameplay, “Gears of Woke,” and the execution.

THE GOOD
The graphics, especially in the second half, can feel truly next-gen. The world never feels fully organic, since the cover system forces it onto a grid, but in scope and scale it’s the video game equivalent of Avengers. A few moments are genuinely breathtaking.

The soundtrack might be the best in the franchise. Mid-fight I forgot to notice most of it, which is praise in itself.

THE NEUTRAL
This is old-school Gears. If that’s what you want, that’s what you get. Personally, I think the cover system has passed its expiry date: snapping to walls just doesn’t thrill anymore. Remnant proved a great TPP shooter doesn’t need a grid. And before you protest: GTA changed its CCC (character, camera, control) once, and it worked out fine. I’d love a first-person Gears. Still, if the next one keeps the good old clunky cover, I’m buying it anyway.

THE BAD
Unfortunately, there’s a lot. The game crashes more than it should due to gameplay and scripting bugs, the UI is god-awful, and I soft-locked myself once.

But the biggest problem is the story. It’s 2026; I can demand a good story from a video game. E-Day is Bravo Squad thrown around town for bullshit reasons, and then it ends. The tragedy of Emergence Day boils down to screaming, NPCs you can never save, piles of corpses, and a few gory scenes. What should have been an emotional apocalypse reads mostly like a dry weather report.

The dialogue is often bad, and so is the delivery. In a game that cost hundreds of millions, some of it sounds like the devs recorded it themselves.

And the peak issue: like many others in the last decade, the game has been hijacked for propaganda. I don’t mind that a disabled black lesbian plays an important role. I mind how she, and every other woman in the game, is written.

Mags Carter is walking perfection: always right, always gets the last word, best ideas, and often takes the lead because reasons. Same goes for the heroic pilot, the virtuous mayor, the tough-but-understanding captain. Unlike the men, every woman is written by a writer on his knees, and it’s not only transparent, it’s embarrassing. The women of the new Gears aren’t characters. They’re statements.

So here’s my biggest Gears puzzle: how do you spend hundreds of millions, involve thousands of people, and still let the madmen run the asylum?

Why inject so much estrogen into a franchise people loved for its testosterone?

VERDICT
Good enough if you need every bit of Gears lore or just want to live inside a blockbuster. Fingers crossed the next one returns to the franchise’s original spirit, not just in gameplay but in story too.

[Tim Spencer @ThatThereTim]

Double Fine is definitely going under if they don't make any games that sell. #gamedev

[Pirat_Nation 🔴 @Pirat_Nation]

Double Fine’s latest game, Thank You Bus Driver, peaked at just 99 concurrent players on Steam.

That’s even lower than Kiln and Keeper.

This comes less than 24 hours after it was announced that two Double Fine games are leaving Game Pass

Ooff… Not looking good for this studio

[Golden Joysticks @GoldenJoysticks]

The nominees for Console Game of the Year are...

🍸 007 First Light
🗡️ Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave
🏁 Forza Horizon 6
🦇 LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight
⚔️ Nioh 3
👹 Onimusha: Way of the Sword
🔴 Pokémon Pokopia
🧑‍🚀 PRAGMATA
🧟 Resident Evil Requiem
🔫 SAROS

Cast your vote at https://t.co/FOTrtZtEFi

Voting closes on Friday 23 October

#GoldenJoystickAwards