Flouride

Finished This is the Police. Frustrating in some ways, so many flaws in design that I would have done completely differently and after that it would have been a completely different game. But still though, I hoped it would have been more about managing an actual Police Station in a big city instead of story based game where the management part was really lacking. How come no one has a made a game where you move up in the ranks of a police force of a city by deploying your available forced based on data and statistics and try to prevent crime. You promote the right people, to the right places to solve actual crimes instead of being hands on yourself, except maybe in the beginning before you make rank. So instead of some story driven casual game an actual simulation. This is the Police suffered from a completely unbeliavable story, endless amounts of massacres, terrorism and mafia crimes and apparently the city was infested with so much organized crime and riots there was always people going into the jail by the truckloads. It just got boring after a stellar start. Sandbox mode will just offer more of the same, so no thank you. Oh, and next up Tyranny playthrough #2

Same here. I'm pretty sure they could get a budget around of 1.5-2 millions at least on Fig for that game. Hopefully Josh gets to make it after Deadfire.

It's not petty, it's borderline retarded. Obsidian has outsourced the console port to a different company. Sawyer has stated multiple times that he doesn't have anything do with the ported version, nor does he take it into consideration when designing PoE2. The game is made for PC/Mac/Linux that's it. It's up to Paradox to figure it out, if they even are going to port 2nd game as well.

It's not a massive marketing push for Tyranny+DLCs and Pillars of Eternity. They fly out few journalists to Irvine and pay few hotel rooms. That's relatively cheap marketing if you ask me. Add few of Paradox's streams that don't really work for a plot driven game and you've got part of their marketing campaign right there. I would be surprised if it turned out that Paradox is publishing Project Indiana. I'm not sure they are big enough to publish a multiplatform AAA game.

Finished Hitman: Absolution. Next up probably Tyranny, but before the DLC actually comes out I think I'll try to finish This is the Police that just get really repeative, so I can get rid of that game from my HDD.

Indiana is a new IP, so it can't be Alpha Protocol 2.

That's a great article. It's still depressingly sad that Black Hound and Fallout 3 never got released.

Yup, though it might be Tyranny DLC #2 by now. Constant Gaw who worked on upcoming DLC shifted onto a different unannounced project in July according to her LinkedIn profile.

Mistborn crpg set in the Wax&Wayne era. That could and should be a great game!

Supernatural wild west game. Make it happen!

Anything that isn't fantasy.

Having 1 lesser party character is a clear sign. Many would mindlessly defend Obsidian here but i would not. Their initial plan was 4 party characters. Due to how well the reception on Tyranny (if you asked me, Obsidian testing the water). And they know making Deadfire with 4 party characters and hell will break lose and so they go with 5. The issue here isn't consoles. It's the controller. Many cRPGs designed with controller in mind would ruin that game hard. If it sells like hot cakes on consoles, then say goodbye to Pillars franchise. Is the same as Dragon Age. It is why we have Dragon Age 2 and Inquistion. Button mashers. Also i have completed Inquisition on the highest difficulty. There's no tactics. It's an action game. Sure many would say more moneys to devs the better. I agree. But you really like the franchise to get watered down in terms of gameplay and design because of controllers? Nope. I'd rather it stay exclusive. Oh, **** off already. 5 or 6, it really doesn't matter, it is still really hard to make that work on consoles with the current game mechanics. Fallout had what, 2 companions? I don't remember people complaining about that. 6 party members isn't some mythical number you must hit when it comes to making a crpg. Some games had 8, Dungeon Master/Legend of Grimrock had 4 etc. Just because Baldur's Gate ended up having 6 party members (thus making all the Infinity Engine have the same number) doesn't mean they are dumbing the game down for consoles, if they cut one of those party members. Are PC gamers really that insecure that every change is thought as a threat and not as an opportunity to make the game better?

Yes, I mean old school ones. Dragon Age:Origins would probably make the cut, at least it had some effort. The sequels were EA rubbish. The console versions don't need to be huge successes, they are meant for extra profit, especially in PoE's case since the core audience will be on PC's for a long time. Although in some cases the company might have an existing fanbase even on consoles. if you look at Obsidian's portfolio there's plenty of multiplatform games there so having a customer base on consoles isn't far fetched idea in that case.. Yes, the core audience is on PC. That much is clear, as the games will be better on PC. I think it comes down to which company is making the game. InXile doesn't have much of a following outside the PC gamers, even there they are slipping. In Larian's case the IP is old, but still fresh unlike Wasteland IP. Divinity 2 was released on XBOX360, so there might be some existing fans on consoles as well.

1. What other western turnbased/proper RPG can claim numbers like that on consoles? It shows there's a viable market for such games and not only for Final Fantasy and Skyrim and it's clones. When you compare the numbers, you have to take into account that the PC version has been out much longer, has been on multiple sales and was part of the D:OS2 Kickstarter campaign. Yes, even without those it would still be in favour of the PC version. But the port is also cheaper to make than building the game from ground up on PC. In that sense the sale numbers are great. If the game had sold more... well it depends. Does Larian go all in and hire plenty of more staff members and do they skip the Kickstarter for D:OS2. I doubt they would want to skip the Kickstarter campaign even in that scenario. It's free marketing for a small company and I don't see Larian doing a Kickstarter for multiplatform version of D:OS2 since it would alienate PC gamers and the risk is just too big to take.

It's not just Paradox. D:OS is still at 16 euros on Steam sales. It's like Larian just refuses to sell it at 10 euros

1. For a game that was ported to consoles year after the PC release it is a good and solid number. It's a niche market even on PC, selling 300-400k on consoles is amazing and I'm sure they made a hefty profit with those numbers. They aren't releasing it as a multiplatform game because they asked money on Kickstarter and it would be just bad PR to do that, not to mention the company doesn't have endless resources. For them it's more important to get the game out on PC than release it on all platforms at the same time because their core audience is on PC. With the 300-400k copies sold, I'm sure they will end up releasing D:OS2 on consoles as well later on. 2. No, they didn't port the games because back then it would have been technically pretty much impossible to do that, so instead they came up with a way to bring the franchise on consoles. Dark Alliance games were one of the few succesful games Interplay released on consoles. Interplay was late to the console party and went under because of that, not because they focused on consoles. PC piracy was ridicilous back in those days, I'm pretty sure everyone at my school who played Fallout had it as a pirate copy. You can't succeed when 75% of your potential clients won't pay for the content but will get it for free instead.

Too many damn games! I managed to finish up with Batman: Arkham Origins Playing currently: Badland, Day of the Tentacle Remasterd and Darkest Dungeon among few other games. It really doesn't help that I just bought 10 new games from Steam sales and I'm quite sure I'm not even done yet with my purchases.

1. Well if DoS:EE sold 300-400k copies on consoles, I hardly call that disappointing. With those numbers a 10 month development cycle makes perfect sense for Paradox. The point is extra revenue, more brand recognition and catering to the rpg fans on consoles, obviously there are some or otherwise DoS wouldn't have sold so well. Also, it wouldn't be first time a developer doesn't dumb down their game, just because someone ports their game on consoles. 2. I must have missed the part where they promised that the game would be a PC exclusive for eternity. You are talking about a scenario that didn't even happen. None of what you said happened, none of it. The console port doesn't change anything, it's not a financial risk for Obsidian. PoE2 development will continue, PoE1 will still be playable in it's current state on PC. Oh, and even Baldur's Gate series made it to consoles. 3. Uh, the DLC didn't come out right after release and if they hadn't released it in parts it would have taken ~a year which is too long or at least with the info they had they thought it would be too long. Especially since they heavily tweaked the game when the expansion came out, making it a lot better. With Tyranny they have taken a different course, although they did release few DLC's for it to show the game is still being supported. So one could say that they've either learned from PoE or they are trying to see if 10 months without a bigger DLC won't have an impact on sales. Either way they are reacting to what went on with PoE's expansion. 4. I just don't care what Paradox does with these small packs. If they have a market for it, fine. I personally couldn't care less about any additional portraits for their games, hence I just won't buy them. If someone else is willing to pay for such content, fine. 5. It doesn't serve any purpose to YOU. Take the blinds off your eyes and look around, there's a world around you and everything doesn't revolve around you and your well being and needs. Since you clearly have some psychic abilities as well, why don't you look to the future and check EuroJackpot winning numbers for tomorrow. I'm not preaching, I'm just stating a fact that severing all ties with Paradox would mean job losses and one less publisher to work with in the future, when there's already too few to begin with. That is not the way to run a business if you want to stay alive. You don't burn the bridges, you try fix what went wrong and learn from the mistakes. If you look at Paradox's portfolio they haven't release games like PoE or Tyranny before. PoE had the Kickstarter campaign giving it a huge boost, Tyranny didn't. Paradox's marketing is heavily focused on streaming and they benefit a lot from streaming, crgp's aren't really streamable and now they need to figure out a different plan to promote games like Tyranny in the future.

1. Too bad for you, someone is willing to share these games with console players as well. Don't lose your sleep over it though, as traumatic as it must be for you. You are comparing oranges to tomatoes. Dragon Age 2&3 were published by EA, a company that doesn't do PC exclusives or development with PC gamers as their core audience and on the other hand you are looking at an indie developer who is using crowd funding to fund their PC games. I wonder, which of these two companies has more to lose if they lose the faith of the PC gaming community. In case you are wondering the correct answer doesn't start with an E. 2. Backers got exactly what they backed, a PC version of the game. No one is taking your copy away now that someone else is porting the game to consoles. Stop being a 3 year old girl. Most of the backers couldn't care less, if someone on consoles gets to play the game that Obsidian themselves won't even put resources behind. It would be a different story if they suddenly shifted Brennecke and Sawyer to work on the console version. 3. So I guess they learned their lesson with PoE and are making sure not to repeat it with Tyranny. But oh, wait that's a bad thing as well... 4. So it's fraud in Italy to ask money for something you've created? Have you ever stopped to think some of these people might actually want to support the developers/publishers, or they actually enjoy those trivial packs. Just because it isn't to your or my liking doesn't make it fraud or Paradox a bad company. 5. Well from the look of it, you aren't sleeping tonite with the way you are ranting about a console port. Tyranny does however employ a good number of people, so if they would say cut their ties they would have to find a new project and fast for those people and like I said earlier there aren't that many publishers just waiting to throw money at Obsidian. Yes, they are diabolically evil them Swedes. I

Josh has already said that they are developing PoE2 with only PC and Mac in mind. They are NOT looking into consoles at all when it comes to developing PoE2. If there ever is a port for PoE2, someone else (Paradox?) will have to figure out how to make that game, just like they are with PoE.

1. Yes, Obsidian has the final say. Why does it matter if someone releases a console port for the game when it's not Obsidian? Because console players shouldn't be allowed to play games like Cities:Skylines and PoE? Just because they are allowing PoE to be ported to consoles doesn't mean they would go all InXile on us and make the next game with consoles in mind from the get go. If their plans on PoE IP goes as planned they will make an open world game like Skyrim in the setting (not PoE 3), which would make it quite important for their IP and brand to have some recognition before hand on the console crowds. Not to mention any financial gain they get from this deal will help them get there, as well going to that self publishing mode Feargus has been talking about. 2. And how exactly are they giving the finger to backers? They are allowing someone else to port their 2 year old game to consoles. They are not making PoE2 with consoles in mind or creating console version of that game either. How much it sells is quite irrelevant depending on the deal. Obsidian isn't using their own resources or funds to create the port, hence it's Paradox that is taking the risk. InXile did all the work themselves. 3. Well, Paradox is right about timing. Most games get first DLC quite fast after the initial launch date, if Obsidian had waited until the whole expansion pack was done, it would have been one year after the game came out which is far too late for most people. I had trouble getting into the expansion even after the shorter wait period and I'm not alone on this. 4. If Paradox has customer who want to buy such things, then let them buy such things. I would hardly call it exploiting if there is demand for such packs. If it was force fed with larger DLC packs, then it would be exploiting. 5. Sure, cut all ties. Lose whatever Tyranny based projects they have going on and possible future publishing deals such World of Darkness game. There are soooo many publishers just waiting to publish CRPG's.

This is the first good response to my original post. Fluoride, you're absolutely right that I overlooked an important factor. As for the posts above Fluoride, they're a rehash of reasons why a player shouldn't ASSUME that a game on one platform must be available on other platforms. And I say again, as I did in the first post here, that there are several galaxies of difference between an ASSUMPTION and an EXPLICIT PROMISE BY DEVELOPERS. I guess my first post was a little long and some people couldn't be bothered to read it. So let me spell it out: A prospective buyer of the game comes along and says, "Hey Obsidian, if I pay $25 to get the content on mobile, will I have to pay again to get the same content on the eventual future PC version?" Obsidian says, "Nope! Buy it once and you have it on all platforms!" Based on this information from Obsidian, the prospective buyer pays $25 to unlock the game on mobile. Now if you don't see how that is a problem, I honestly don't know what else to say. Yes, they've promised that and I'm sure they know that they've promised that, otherwise they wouldn't try to fix the situation. Their promises and integrity however don't mean s**t to the publisher, who is out to make profit with their investment. It sucks for all parties involved, even for Obsidian. I'm sure they don't want to piss off their customer base, but it just might be out of their hands and all they can do is trying to fix with creativity when they can't solve the pricing.

Yeah. Paradox Arctic made it apparently. Well the better news is this made the news all over the interwebz in couple of hours than Deadfire could ever in a week long E3. Good publicity for the IP It is good news, as long as the console version is well made. It builds up the brand recognition and gives their sequel some free promotion as well. It could give them a nice boost financially as well, depending what sorta deal they made with Paradox.

Lol, the game is not even out and console users are already asking to dumb the game down. GG Obsidian, this will turn out nicely. Can't wait for multi-platform, 4 team member sized, with cooldowns, and hugely dumbed down in everything PoE3. How is fixing the leveling up dumbing the game down? Level capping 20-30 hours prior to the end of the game isn't really optimal whether the game is on PC or consoles.

That's the thing, they didn't do the port themselves. Instead Paradox did it and Obsidian gets some money out of the deal that they can use on their other projects. T:ToN port was made by InXile while they were making the game for PC, Mac etc. , this is a completely different case as Obsidian didn't have much or anything to do with the development. Sure they've probably went through some design choices and okayed a bunch of ideas, but actual work that takes longer times of periods. Uh, I doubt it. So, no. I don't see this is going the same road as InXile. I think they said it early on, that they would not work on any console port themselves but were open to an idea of someone doing it for them, if a good opportunity comes up. Can't remember if this was even asked during the original Kickstarter campaign as well. But the idea has been there for years as far as I remember. Are you sure it was Paradox's plan to cut the expansion in two? From what I've read the decision was made because it would have otherwise taken them too long to get an expansion out and this was from Obsidian. Don't like the portrait pack? Don't buy it, pretty simple. Obviously there is a market for such packs or Paradox wouldn't have those out for pretty much every single game they've created. I guess Paradox's marketing studies disagree with your assesment on the market for rpg's on consoles. Otherwise they would not dish out money to port the game to consoles. While they might not make millions, I'm pretty sure they've got better info on the actual market for such games than some random guy on forums. One does not just simply go for self publishing. It takes time and guess what partners don't really grow on trees either.