Game News Pillars of Eternity delayed to early 2015

[agris]

What are the chances of a Steam Early Access release in December, I wonder.

I think pretty slim. The BB is what it is so that the story isn't spoiled, and I think most players who fork over the cash for Early Access and get the content in the BB would be massively disappointed. Look at the negative reaction that Dead State received with their "7 days" EA. Of course, they could change course and open the game up, but I don't think they will since Feargus/Josh already professed a desire not to.

As to where the money is coming from: bank loan, publisher loan; creative accounting to pay the PoE staff out of other contracts, with the assumption that sales will be able to replenish it (the most risky of course).

I don't see them selling Early Access based on their desire to avoid spoiling the story, and the obvious fallout that would occur if the currently limited content were charged for. I'm assuming they intend to stick to their guns, because if they pulled an inXile and released ~50% of the game with an arbitrary block, they would rake in cash and simultaneously be full of bullshit.

 

[Infinitron]

What are the chances of a Steam Early Access release in December, I wonder.

I think pretty slim. The BB is what it is so that the story isn't spoiled, and I think most players who fork over the cash for Early Access and get the content in the BB would be massively disappointed. Look at the negative reaction that Dead State received with their "7 days" EA. Of course, they could change course and open the game up, but I don't think they will since Feargus/Josh already professed a desire not to.

As to where the money is coming from: bank loan, publisher loan; creative accounting to pay the PoE staff out of other contracts, with the assumption that sales will be able to replenish it (the most risky of course).

I don't see them selling Early Access based on their desire to avoid spoiling the story, and the obvious fallout that would occur if the currently limited content were charged for. I'm assuming they intend to stick to their guns, because if they pulled an inXile and released ~50% of the game with an arbitrary block, they would rake in cash and simultaneously be full of bullshit.

Yeah we already know: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/68877-delayed-to-early-2015/page-5#entry1519332

So, Brandon, Steam Early Access release on the original release date? You know you want to.

I really don't want to. =)

I don't think we are going down that route. I don't make the final decision on it, but I don't think it is in the cards for us.

OK, I hope Paradox's new percentage isn't too harsh (assumptions.jpg ).

You guys did seem to be very very eager to release the game this year and very sure that you would, and I have to wonder why.

We were really pushing for a release this year because we felt it was possible. I still think we could have done it if we needed to, but it would have been a death march for the team, it would have lacked polish, and it likely would have been a buggy experience. We want Eternity to be good. We all have a lot of pride in what we do. Plus, we want to give the backers a game that they can be proud to have backed.

 

[agris]

So that's a tacit admission of Paradox giving them a loan? He didn't disagree..

I'm surprised, but maybe Paradox gave them better terms than a bank would.

 

[Infinitron]

So that's a tacit admission of Paradox giving them a loan? He didn't disagree..

Hah, I wouldn't read anything into that. He's just not so dumb that he'd respond to an obvious leg-pull.

 

[agris]

Since the game is backer-funded, I do think they should update us on who our new partners are.

Was there ever an analogous situation with inXile, or was it all EA money?

 

[Menckenstein]

Just cancel it.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Crooked Bee wins!

 

[Abelian]

Good news, I guess. I wonder how they're funding it.

Licensing the game engine to Beamdog for BG3?

 

[nikolokolus]

I have to wonder if there wasn't a moment of a realization where the team started to dissect the backer beta feedback as well as Paradox's QA efforts and concluded that there is quite a bit of re-work that needs to be done to not just the mechanics, but the basic kinaesthetics that goes beyond "tightening and polishing?"

I have no real idea how polished a normal beta RPG is supposed to be 3 or 4 months out from its "gold" stage, but when Brandon Adler says it would have been a deathmarch to get it into a polished, playable and fun state by December I believe him

 

[mastroego]

Not very significant unless they change the lead too.
He's already cost them this half-failure.

 

[DalekFlay]

I'm probably bias because I'm still behind on a ton of other incline games, but I don't mind this at all. Get the game right, release when it's ready. Thumbs up.

 

[Grunker]

Why would I be upset about being wrong?

I don't care if you're upset, but you have some opinions to alter. You have tied your opinion of management very intricately to release dates and have claimed very stubbornly that PoE has been managed much better than other Kickstarters and thus would be released on time.

If I'm to continue taking you seriously, you gotta backpedal on that. Either good management can still result in delays (so the other Kickstarters were managed fine) or PoE was mismanaged just like the other Kickstarters. Take your pick?

Also, look at my first post. Your sole argument that this game was managed better than other Obsidian games was tied to the release date. What's your reasoning as to buggyness, polish, etc. now? So far there's nothing that separates the Josh-led Obs project from other Obs projects.

You've always defended NWN2's problems with the fact that Josh came on late, but look at the engagement mechanics of the beta. Their bugginess and gameplay problems are near identical to NWN2.

Josh as the infalible project manager certainly took a hit.

(Of course I still believe like Sensuki that he's very good at that, it's just that, like usually, the fictitious HUGE gap that you've convinced yourself exists between the management skill of Josh and other lead designers on KS simply does not exist)

I still have extremely high hopes for this game over all other Kickstarters and I love the BETA. But I didn't make extremely arrogant statements that I need to double back on in light of the delay and the other problems that face all projects regardless of their manager.

 

[Sensuki]

I'd say the differences boil down to preferences of gameplay, rather than management skill.

 

[catfood]

Guess they have to balance the game a bit more.

 

[nihil]

Good. It looked like it really needed extra time.

 

[InspectorRumpole]

Grunker 1 Roguey 0

 

[Hormalakh]

roguey is to fellation what imweasol, chaotic_heretic et al are to sawyer shitposting. neither really have any basis for what they say, they just say it in reaction to the other.

now that we have sensuki, roguey can be ignored to oblivion.

 

[Volrath]

Just cancel it.

 

[Achiman]

It was going to be too good to be true that we got drip fed a steady stream of fantastic CRPGs all year long. Div, WL2 then POE.
Having said that, anyone know if Underail is likely to be released before the end of the year. That and Serpent in the Staglands is probably my next must play.

 

[Arkeus]

How early do we usually learn about a project being delayed? learning this very early october could be a good sign that they have a good head on their shoulder, but not sure what the trends are.

 

[mindx2]

It was going to be too good to be true that we got drip fed a steady stream of fantastic CRPGs all year long. Div, WL2 then POE.
Having said that, anyone know if Underail is likely to be released before the end of the year. That and Serpent in the Staglands is probably my next must play.

Don't forget Lords of Xulima and Antharion.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Just cancel it.

This.
Divert everyone to the World Of Tanks clone.

 

[imweasel]

Good news, I guess. I wonder how they're funding it.

Probably with the rest of the money from crowdfunding. They were up to 6m dollars or something last I heard, I seriously doubt they spent it all with an average team size of about 20 developers.

Anyway, this is good news. The game needs more development time to be good. Hopefully they also listen to the feedback that people have been giving them.

 

[DemonKing]

Dang...now if DA3 gets reasonable reviews I'll probably end up buying it to tide me over once I finish off Wasteland 2 and Grimrock 2...



...sigh...I was hoping to avoid that.

 

[Roguey]

I don't care if you're upset, but you have some opinions to alter. You have tied your opinion of management very intricately to release dates and have claimed very stubbornly that PoE has been managed much better than other Kickstarters and thus would be released on time.

If I'm to continue taking you seriously, you gotta backpedal on that. Either good management can still result in delays (so the other Kickstarters were managed fine) or PoE was mismanaged just like the other Kickstarters. Take your pick?

I'd rather believe this project was managed well, only they tried to do too much given what time they had like they always do. Similar deal with Fallout New Vegas, only this time it still doesn't seem as bad.

Also, look at my first post. Your sole argument that this game was managed better than other Obsidian games was tied to the release date. What's your reasoning as to buggyness, polish, etc. now? So far there's nothing that separates the Josh-led Obs project from other Obs projects.

I don't know how you can look at Divinity: Original Sin and Wasteland 2, neither of which ever entered a state of feature completeness, and say they're comparable to PoE. D:OS, who had to cut their day and night cycles, NPC schedules, and mega-dungeon, delayed their second two companions until months after release, and have such a balance mess in their second half that they feel it necessary to make a huge rebalance patch. Or Wasteland 2 which moved from gridless to hexes to squares, from a fixed camera to a mess of a rotating one, added "headshots" at the last minute, included an endgame where the best thing to do is wear no armor, and LA, which to paraphrase Josh, is a tangled skein of nightmare scripting that shipped as a broken mess of half-fulfilled dreams.

All this proves is that even with good management you can't make a full-scale RPG in 26 months. If PoE is comparably bad compared to Wasteland 2 after 29 months I'll agree it was mismanaged like the others. But I will never say the others were managed just fine.

Oh I forgot to answer your question. What separates this project from other Obsidian projects is a much longer feature- and content-complete beta period.