DF Direct Weekly: Xbox's Developer Direct is the perfect vehicle for a big game reveal
And Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was exactly that.
It's been just over a year now since Microsoft delivered its first Developer Direct - and back in the day I called it the "best games show we've seen in years". After its latest episode, I stand by those words and more than that, I also believe it's the perfect way to debut a big new game. I don't think they get much bigger with the hugely promising Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
This new Developer Direct is the main point of discussion in this week's DF Direct (no underscore) Weekly, where myself, John Linneman and Alex Battaglia share our first thoughts on each of the key titles shown in the show - but the key point is that the formula for the Microsoft show fundamentally addresses a key concern we've had with platform holder event coverage and the 'trailerfication' of games. The truth is, it takes a lot of time, money and effort to make a game - so to boil the experience down into a sub-two minute slice of action, often with no context whatsoever, means a game has to work incredibly hard to command attention.
- 0:00:00 Introduction
- 0:00:44 News 01: Developer_Direct 2024 reaction: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
- 0:21:06 News 01: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
- 0:33:41 News 01: Ara: History Untold
- 0:39:35 News 01: Visions of Mana
- 0:46:15 News 01: Avowed
- 0:54:03 News 02: Hellblade 2 to go digital-only
- 1:10:49 News 03: Is The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered worthwhile?
- 1:23:08 News 04: RTX 40 Super series reaction + Q&A
- 1:45:50 News 05: Bulletstorm VR is a disappointment
- 1:53:05 Supporter Q1: How much manpower does it take to produce current-gen 60fps patches for consoles?
- 1:57:32 Supporter Q2: Was 2023 the year of the in-house engine?
- 2:04:24 Supporter Q3: Will 2024 be the year of Linux gaming?
Of course, big games get more of a focus and more time, but the beauty of the Developer Direct format is that Microsoft reduces the amount of games covered but goes into relatively luxurious depth on each project. More than that, while the lines are obviously highly scripted and well-rehersed, the point is that it's the developers telling us about what they're working on. There's a compelling level of authenticity in factoring out the marketing execs and the 'suits' and letting the creators of the games tell us about what they're up to.
As for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, it's great to see Machine Games at work on a project of this magnitude - and this studio definitely qualified for the task. Key Starbreeze staff members still work at Machine, and it's great to see DNA from the Riddick games and The Darkness present in the new Indy game. That starts with the first-person perspective, giving way to third-person for cutscenes and traversal - just like Riddick.
Engine technology is confirmed as idTech - the engine Machine Games has used extensively in its prior Wolfenstein titles - meaning that Indiana Jones should be shipping on Xbox consoles running at 60 frames per second, while the pedigree of the tech should ensure a high quality, stutter-free PC experience. Everything seems to be aligning perfectly on this one and at Digital Foundry, we're very excited about this one.
Beyond Developer Direct and the other titles discussed in the Microsoft showcase, we spend some time discussing the decision not to release Hellblade 2 as a physical media product. This, in combination with the Microsoft FTC's leak about an 'adorably all-digital' Xbox Series X suggest some momentum towards the discontinuation of Xbox discs. Perhaps it's what the audience wants at this point and to be honest, shipping discs that sometimes have no code on them isn't exactly ideal. Either way, we're concerned about this on several fronts: in terms of the preservation of games, not to mention the user's right to actually buy a piece of software and own it, share it or sell it.
Meanwhile, we also discuss the negative reactions to The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered's release - and its uncannily similarities to the existing PS4 Pro version, and we also field a range of questions from our supporters about the RTX 40-series 'Super' refresh, which kicked off with the nicely pitched RTX 4070 Super. There's also some reaction to our content on modded PS5s unlocking the frame-rate caps on a bunch of key PlayStation 4 titles, and the extent to which some of these mods could get some form of official release for everyone.
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