Is this only me, but doesn't this whole thing remind anybody the Star Wars - Galaxies combat rewamp that never arrived. I never played the game but I had also lurked at those forums while the discussions were most heated. A few reminders of that incident:
1. The game was in alpha shape while they called it the beta.
2. Game goes live in an uncompleted shape (bugs and game balance issues)
3. Developers promise things will be sorted as they go along (carrot dangling)
4. They don't fix things, instead put more content into it
5. The lead developers are made to work on an expansion instead of the patch
6. Every attempt they make at balancing the game breaks it further (Maybe they should take some game balancing and polishing lessons from blizzard guys )
7. They release the expansion for essentially a broken game.
8. I stopped lurking at that time, so don't know the rest but don't think they fixed anything
How it relates to the current discussion is I believe there is a pattern about the LA guys approach to SW games:
1. Get in
2. Milk the cash-cow
3. Get out
I believe there won't be a content patch for KOTOR. LA got what it wanted, they moved in, got the quick cash, got out. From this point on they don't have anything to gain so why would they care. As the obsidian folks have said they are already working on their next game. (This is likely more information than LA folks would like them to release) It's highly unlikely they will ever look back. Put yourself in their position for a while. You know that you can practically package junk (no I don't imply that KOTOR2 was junk), slap the SW logo on it and it will sell! From their (manager/beancounter) perspective KOTOR2 was a big success. KOTOR is a classic (and that is thanks to BIOWARE not LA) and KOTOR was a good game which sold well. The sad truth about LA is they don't care about the SW franchise or as we like to call it the SW universe. Anything playable with the SW logo will sell and that is all to care about.
About KOTOR, it is a classic thanks to bioware. They weren't that easy to push around and had more resources to spend on the game. They can risk lower profits and resist LA in order not to damage their reputation. Obsidian in the other hand is a new company. Besides LA most likely forced them an offer like: Take it if you will do it in 12 moths or we'll find another company that will bend to our desire. It is also likely that the bioware people saw this coming and that's why they delegated the sequel to another company. 12 months is nowhere enough for a game that intends to be the sequel to the best thing that ever happened to the SW universe. The deleted stuff shows that obsidian wanted to make it another classic and they were indeed on the right track to accomplish exactly that.
Now obsidian doesn't have the resources to put up the content patch. Even if they had the resources LA wouldn't allow them to do it because it would put LA in a bad point from a PR perspective (ie. reveal them for what they really are)
On other various ramblings, I believe NWN2 will be one hell of a game. First obsidian people are the ones that created the games we (crpg players) love. I personally for one respect these guys and their games. Second nwn is bioware property. I trust bioware will not act in a way to hurt their reputation and property. nwn just doesn't have the kind of blind followers (like we are) LA is enjoying with SW intellectual property.
What will happen now is, (I believe) LA will force OE to close down the forums (clean any evidence against them, don't let the community become more informed, oh boy I can't imagine how much they wanted to shut down SW-galaxies forum ) It's just plain sad that the dedicated community get's this treatment. You can't really see them pull these kinds of tricks off with non-SW games. LA has other really good games, (monkey island, grim fandango, full throttle) and they were all finished and well polished because they needed to be good to sell without the SW logo.
Then they will wait, until we cool off and forget. And forget we will. I am not sure whether whey will do / are doing a KOTOR3. I expect/hope even they know that they can't get a KOTOR3 in 12 months.
I just hope (but don't expect since who would stop milking the cash-cow we are?) someday LA changes her attitude towards SW-games.
