If a different company can make the same game, but better, then more power to them. They'll have to overcome the wall of players that "dont want to play another horizon" as well as innovate to make it feel fresh.
If someone made a copy of legally-distinct bloodborne it would do beyond amazing if enough effort and love was put into it.
All of this to say, if the game is a cash grab with tracky drm or microtransactions then its not going to do well if it is like that PLUS a 'rip-off' of another game.
Just don't preorder and see if its a cash grab first. Extremely difficult for some i know.
Tencent owns Digital Extremes as of a few years ago, and last I knew its monetization wasn't too bad. So maybe there's a slim chance they'll take a lesson from that?
I'm sure that's a stretch though since DE built up their payment model many years prior and were bought when they were already successful with a large playerbase. A new franchise is likely a very different story.
Yep. Tencent has a major share in Path of Exile too and that game is beyond generous being f2p with no p2w.
I remain cautious but optimistic for all games. There's nothing wrong with being excited. Just dont buy into stuff without proof and you wont be disappointed.
At worst, it's just not what you thought it'd be and you dont buy/play it.
Yeah, remains to be seen but even Palworld got flack for copying Pokemon's style even if it was a good game which I enjoy. I saw an article just a bit ago where the palworld developer was interviewed and he stated he felt he was still under the shadow of the AI copying accusations.
Still like you said, it's one thing to copy an art style, another to actually make a good and compelling game.