Pragmata and Saros give hope for the future of big-budget video games

Screenshot of Diana's Hacking Pragmatism — Pragmata has been a well-received success (Capcom)

The two best games of the month have a surprising amount in common, including proving that not every new release has to be a sequel or licensed game.

Twin films are the phenomenon where two films come out around the same time, with very similar premises, but from completely different companies. There is no reason why this happens, with contributing factors ranging from industrial espionage to reacting to the same current events. It’s really weird though, when you get Antz and A Bug’s Life or Deep Impact and Armageddon arriving at the same time.

pragmatic AND saros are not as similar as some of the more extreme examples of twin films, but it is curious that April has played two new IPs (even if Saros has a close relationship with Return) are both sci-fi shooters with weak narratives but excellent combat.

Their similarities are not as great as it sounds, but what is interesting is the other asset they share: they are not shy. video gameswhose number one priority is gaming and providing an experience that cannot be replicated in other media. And it really has been a breath of fresh air to play them both.

Not only are most publishers afraid of creating new IP (intellectual property), but they are usually just as afraid of asking players to learn a new skill. This used to be one of the main joys of video games, but while modern big-budget titles are happy to allow a certain level of difficulty what they don’t believe in doing, it’s assuming one has the patience to learn something new.

And yet Pragmata is built entirely around the premise that its control system is unique and unusual. And while Saros is a continuation of what was created in Returnal, it adds a bunch of unusual rules and systems on top that take a while to get used to.

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Both games are still third-person shooters, so it doesn’t feel like a wild leap into the unknown, but what’s so encouraging is that they’re proud to be different, and instead of apologizing for it they use it as their main selling point.

The best thing of all is that Pragmata has already been a considerable hit, to the point where Capcom THERE raised its forecasts for the year. So while hoping it will encourage other publishers to create new IP requires a significant amount of optimism, it will certainly convince Capcom that it was a worthwhile risk. This will inevitably mean a Pragmata 2, but hopefully also entirely new franchises.

Publishers are extremely wary of making anything that isn’t a sequel or based on a well-known property, but it’s curious that that risk aversion disappears once there’s a new trend to follow. Most publishers can go years, if not decades, without creating a new IP, but apparently they lose hundreds of millions in a new untested franchise it’s fine as long as it’s a live service game.

This seems incredibly short-sighted, but then Western publishers are increasingly only interested in ultra-successful games and have little time for even modest big-budget successes, let alone double-A games.

Activity has only made one game for over a decade now, while the likes of Take-Two and EA are coming dangerously close to the same situation (in fact, until EA Sports UFC 6 was announced on Tuesday, the company had no games planned for this year or beyond, although other sports games are undoubtedly coming).

It’s sadly clear that Western publishers’ answer to the problem of what to do about rising development costs is to… just stop making games. Or at least not anything that isn’t a guaranteed mega hit.

There’s reason to worry that indie studios and Japanese publishers will slowly come to the same conclusion, but for now at least that’s not the case. Although if PlayStation 6 will encourage Sony into a new era of productivity, or convince them to follow the same path, the adverse risk as Western publishers remains to be seen. Especially since Sony is technically Japanese, their games division is run by the US and increasingly acts like one.

However, they gave the green light to Saros, which they must have known would never be a big hit. Thankfully, however, their bean counters decided that his modest budget would yield an acceptable amount of profit. If it had been Activision or EA, that wouldn’t be the case, because the volume of revenue simply wouldn’t be worth the trouble, according to them.

It would be an absurd act of naivety to imagine that Capcom or Nintendo or some other Japanese publisher is pursuing their business plans out of a burning desire to create great art, but they at least seem happy that it’s being created as a byproduct of their actions.

Pragmata and Saros aren’t retro in style or look, but there’s something woefully old-fashioned about the fact that they’re linear experiences with a beginning and an end, with no multiplayer and no microtransactions or means of making money other than the price you pay to own them. You play them, you enjoy them, and then you’re free to move on to something else – which is exactly what live service games don’t want you to do.

Maybe Pragmata will inspire other publishers, but there’s no way it or anything like it will sway Western publishers from their destructive all-or-nothing approach to game development. It won’t be a turning point for the industry and the appearance of Saro at the same time is certainly nothing more than a coincidence.

But in the end it doesn’t matter. Two great games, of an increasingly rare breed, have been released in the space of a few weeks, and that alone is reason to rejoice and renew at least a general sense of hope for the future.