I hear Darksiders 2 is going to have RPG-lite elements...I'm sorry, couldn't resist.
Not as you would describe, I believe. This list should give you a good perusing opportunity. Bare in mind for anyone else looking, that obviously doesn't necessarily include all their owned IPs.
I respond to bluntness in kind.Originally Posted by Lukasz
I wonder what's going to happen to their third-party publishing plans: Devil's Third, South Park RPG, Insane... I'm actually more interested in those than anything they're developing internally.
Thanks. A quick scan through didn't reveal anything of value for me.
I wonder what will happen to that South Park RPG Obsidian are currently making.
Althea, I'm a little confused about your stance on DoW2: Retribution; while there has been quite a bit of DLC it has been mostly cosmetic, entirely optional, and judging by the forums and the opponents I meet online, rather popular.
I have purchased precisely none of it, and still play regularly. What is the issue?
Obsidian have enough clout with their name combined with the fact they only need publishing funding, that someone else will probably pick them up if necessary. As a wild guess, I could see it as something EA would do under their Partners scheme (saying without knowing exactly what that entails). Absolutely no idea about Devil's Third. Perhaps one of the Japanese publishing groups? Konami, Capcom?
EDIT: Gonna have to agree with arathain. It's one of the few IPs where having purely cosmetic stuff is exactly the kind of thing that appeals to that specific player base. As far as I'm aware, the only DLC that can give you any sort of advantage is that designed for the co-operative Last Stand mode.
Deep Silver had the best-selling new IP of 2011.
I doubt European publishers would pick up anything big from THQ except for the strategy IPs and Metro. It wouldn't make sense to separate most of the hot properties from their studios IMO. THQ doesn't own interchangeable devs like EA or Ubisoft do, nor do they own multiple similar IPs to have multiple studios help each other 2K style.
The South Park RPG is safe because Viacom funds it. THQ is the distributor. Speaking of which, they have a fantastic distribution channel. I guess that's what the big publishers will fight over, not the studios and IPs.
That Itagaki guy in charge of Devil's Third said he's happy that he's not working with Japanese publishers anymore. Let's see how things turn out for him lol
AFAICT tomorrow's MLK day and NASDAQ will be closed.
No one doubts that Steam isn't profitable. However if Gabe were to fold development operations, I doubt Chet and Eric and the rest of their development staff would be on salary for long.
Publishing is a massive undertaking. Albeit Steam is big, if you're going to make AAA games you need to sell multi-platform and have a definite retail presence (The only reason why games like Metal Gear solid and Uncharted done come to the 360 & PC is because Sony heavily subsidize them in order to keep them platform exclusive). I just don't see Valve wanting to get into that space, especially with the next console generation likely 6 months to a year away in terms of announcements.In addition, they have consumed development studios before; granted, they're not exactly large ones when they do, but they could definitely handle extra talent if they saw it fit. Whilst it is unlikely, I wouldn't say put Valve out of the running entirely for getting a group such as Relic.
Why yes you're right I'm deliciously evil
Tradition is the tyranny of dead men
Steam:Kadayi Origin: Kadayi GFWL: Kadayi
Probable Replicant
*blush* I'm flattered by the attention boys, but please let's not make the thread about liddle old me
I do.10char
Fair enough. That gives them an extra day. They have since put out a response from their PR, saying they're not aware of any cancellations, but that doesn't mean it's not happening.
I entirely agree, Kadayi. The reason I specifically highlighted Relic is because of their focus on PC titles. It wouldn't be too drastic a change to have them do PC only stuff. Anything they sell at retail would be sold with the partners who sell Valve's stuff at retail anyhow (which I believe is EA) and...well, it's not like they don't have somewhere to put a DD version! Like I said though, it's highly unlikely, but if any of those three studios stood any chance of being picked up by Valve, I'd say it was them.
Ever stopped to think for a moment that exactly those lost sales on the "Used Market" might have been the ones required to keep the company afloat and this actually *proves* their point? I find it perfectly understandable that Publishers want to stop this practice. I'd still really like to be able to lend my games to other people or trade between friends etc. but there's a big difference between that and gross corporate exploitation of the "used games" model at no or very low personal risk for the companies involved.
There's this and that was a few years back, couldn't find any new numbers: http://venturebeat.com/2010/08/19/ga...ed-game-sales/
That was almost a 50/50 split in sales right there, it likely is by now.GameStop is making its move into digital distribution and online games as well, but the vast majority of its revenues still come from brick-and-mortar stores. About 36.9 percent of sales are new games, but used games are now 31.4 percent of sales. Used games also account for the biggest profits.
And there's this: http://www.gamespot.com/news/56-of-c...-study-6343451
Last edited by Dexter; 16-01-2012 at 12:13 AM.
If the loss of sales because of used market bankrupted them it just means that they were having much much bigger problems than that and it was a straw which broke the camel's back.
Very sad news for the industry. Despite some bad decisions, THQ has put out a very formidable roster of titles over the years. Sad to see them go.
I can only assume this is a joke or my head will explode.
Nah, they didn't start publishing games until 1994 after people stopped making RPGs.
Sounds crazy, but I saw this coming in the 1990's. This is the company that published Time Killers and the Lawnmower Man games, after all. I am stunned they lasted this long.
Right, but clearly all they proved is that you can't stop the 'pre-owned threat'.
Also, had they 'won' and somehow stamped out pre-owned games throughout the market, we'd see Gamestop shutting down and one could say "aren't the sales they lost from the pre-owned market the reason they're closing stores?"
The fact is, neither the publishers or the retail stores are doing well right now. And they're both being forced to try and cannibalize the other's profits in order to stay afloat. So you have publishers pushing stuff like Project $10, and retail stores charging prices for pre-owned stuff that's hardly discounted from new stock.
Because they both know that they can't solve this by charging more for games as the consumer won't tolerate another price rise. But game development costs are still going up.
Should they?
excluding inflation, I wonder would it be possible to make a game and profit from it by having a budget of 1993 game. Isn't the rising costs of development fault of the industry itself by trying to outdo each other by spending more and more on bigger projects?
I cannot remember where on earth the quote is from, so you'll have to go with me; I remember watching a video from one decent developer who was saying that development costs probably won't go up too much come the next gaming generation. The reason being is that they're already working on things like HD graphics, full scripting/audio and so on. The jump to that was the biggest, so the next jump shouldn't be anywhere as big from last gen to this one.
Why? Is there an obvious one I'm forgetting?
Of course. Indie games do it all the time. But again, it's the publicly traded companies thing. It's not okay to keep making profitable games every year and paying shareholder dividends. You have to make more profit every year to generate 'growth' so that the value of shares goes up. Which means investing more and more in the flashiest games and marketing the shit out of them, to the point where one failure kills you.
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