Game News Puuk dishes out THE TRUTH about Fallout 3

[Spazmo]

Tags: Damien Foletto; Fallout 3 (Van Buren); Interplay

In a thread in the <a href="http://www.nma-fallout.com">No Mutants Allowed</a> forums, ex-BIS dev <b>Puuk</b> (or <b>Damien Foletto</b> to his mom) said some interesting things about Fallout 3 and why they cancelled it in response to some dubious claims (read: flat out lies) blathered by a <a href=http://www.interplay.com/fbos/>Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel</a> developer.
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First off, a certain <b>Dan</b> said this:
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<blockquote>Luckily for us, the BIS guys were very interested in what we were doing with F:BOS, and from the very beginning we had a lot of contact with them regarding storyline, setting and characters. They also provided us with a mountain of information to help out with all the tiny details that litter such a landscape, from timelines to bibles.</blockquote>
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Quoth Puuk,
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<blockquote>I call bullshit. I don't recall anyone in BIS who spoke with the FBOS design team and them actually taking our input. Again, I call bullshit. Personally, I never even met this "designer," and I'm uncertain if anyone from the Van Buren team who ever said more than 2 words to him. Maybe it was another BIS team he was referring to... There was little to no interraction between the FOBOS team and the Van Buren team. Yeah, maybe the FOBOS team glanced over the original Fallouts and the Fallout bible, but I distinctly remember Chuck (another one I never met or recall ever seeing) stating that the FOBOS universe is intentionally different than the PC universe (paraphrased, of course).</blockquote>
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Nice lies there, FOBOS dev team! Now here's the part that actually relates to <b>Fallout 3</b>. <b>Saint_Proverbius</b> posted the following:
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<blockquote>Partly? It's entirely the reason they cancelled Fallout 3. The excuse Darth Molitor gave was that Fallout 3 probably wouldn't be completed on schedule. One big reason it might not make it on that schedule is because Darth Molitor kept pulling people off Fallout 3 to work on Fallout Enforcer: Brothelhood of Steel.</blockquote>
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Puuk then confirmed this:
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<blockquote>Damn straight. I'll 100% confirm this.</blockquote>
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So there you have it! Fallout 3 pretty much died not because it was looking bad or taking too long or costing too much. Nope, it's because <a href=http://www.interplay.com>Interplay</a> didn't give a shit about it in the first place, neglecting their game that might have not sucked in favour of the <b>SLAM DUNK!</b> Although to be fair, I doubt even Feargus would take the "real-time + multiplayer + particle effecks = SALES!" theory this far.
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Thanks to <b>Chris Beddoes</b> for pointing this out to me.
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[Greenskin13]

Unbelivable. I was hoping someone from the inside what publicly stand up and tell the truth. Hope this spreads like a praire fire.

 

[chrisbeddoes]

Puuk is a hero. People do not easily risk their professional reputation like that exposing f**s that they ex employer made in todays sh**y job market.

 

[Jed]

Yeah, those console CRPGs sure do a great job of funding more PC CRPGs!!!

 

[Seven]

It is kind of amazing to see a dev post that. I'm very impressed. BTW, has he found a new job yet?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

This bit of news doesn't surprise me one bit.

 

[Dan]

That's one sucky Dan.

 

[Mr. Teatime]

I wonder if Gamebanshee and the other preview sites will add THIS to their previews or news? Hah.
Maybe gamespot will though because they seem to have done some relatively decent articles on BIS recently.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I wonder if Gamebanshee and the other preview sites will add THIS to their previews or news? Hah.
Maybe gamespot will though because they seem to have done some relatively decent articles on BIS recently.

What? And give up their free trinkets from Interplay and the promise of more trinkets to come?

 

[Odin]

What? And give up their free trinkets from Interplay and the promise of more trinkets to come?

:D

 

[Montez]

What? And give up their free trinkets from Interplay and the promise of more trinkets to come?

You know, there are two things you can never have enough of - latex gloves and glow in the dark condoms.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

BTW, when I hastily posted this on DAC, I said that I'm betting they're going to slap the BIS logo on Fallout Enforcer. Anyone think that's NOT a safe bet?

 

[Vault Dweller]

Absolutely. I wouldn't be surprised if it says " The last game brought to you by BIS, please buy it as a tribute to this great studio. Fallout was the first game that BIS made and it's symbolic that Fallout:BOS is their last game. That's how they would want to be remembered. Since it's YOUR fault that BIS is closed because YOU didn't preorder at least 3 copies, the last thing you can do is buy one now!!!"

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Absolutely. I wouldn't be surprised if it says " The last game brought to you by BIS, please buy it as a tribute to this great studio. Fallout was the first game that BIS made and it's symbolic that Fallout:BOS is their last game. That's how they would want to be remembered. Since it's YOUR fault that BIS is closed because YOU didn't preorder at least 3 copies, the last thing you can do is buy one now!!!"

With a smaller print: "And its still better than sex!"

 

[Spazmo]

And we all want to have sex with the corpse of BIS, right? There's a lot of bad things to be said about Chucky, but at least he had the class to quit.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

He didn't quit so much as he was quitted.

 

[Jinsai]

Unfortunate Truth

Console games make at least 10x the money that PC games do.

So yes, console games do fund PC game development at some studios. And I do believe the PS2s, XBoxes, and Gamecubes of the world will contribute to a decline in quality PC games.

If you have $10M to spend making a game, are you going to make it for the PC market, where it'll sell 50K-100K units? Or the console market, where it will do 10x that? For an answer, see Halo, Thief 3, Deus Ex 2, etc.

I actually had considered buying a copy of Fallout: POS just to give Interplay some positive reinforcement. That was before they cancelled Fallout 3.

Barring big sales, I fear the near-future contains limited "great" titles for the PC. I think indie guys like Spiderweb will have to pick up the slack.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

If you have $10M to spend making a game, are you going to make it for the PC market, where it'll sell 50K-100K units? Or the console market, where it will do 10x that? For an answer, see Halo, Thief 3, Deus Ex 2, etc.

I'd make it for the market layer which i know would buy it. In between selling a game that might go for 50K-100K on the PC market, and between a game which has the potential to have mediocre sales on the console market, i think its easy to see what i'd go for.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Re: Unfortunate Truth

Console games make at least 10x the money that PC games do.

Tell it to Blizzard. How long did it take WC3 to sell 1 million units? A week?

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

Re: Unfortunate Truth

Console games make at least 10x the money that PC games do.

Tell it to Blizzard. How long did it take WC3 to sell 1 million units? A week?

no.

 

[Psilon]

It took Diablo II something like 48 hours to sell a million units, counting preorders. I can only conclude Blizzard would hit the 1M mark within eight hours when they release StarCraft II.

 

[triCritical]

Re: Unfortunate Truth

Console games make at least 10x the money that PC games do.

Not true.

Are you making this up?
Did you go to college?
Or are you just a blatant liar?

Either post some figures backing your claims, or go away. A console game can make more money then PC game or it can make less money? The reason why on average console games are more profitable is becaus you can slap them out like cheap whores, given that most of them are low quality PoS's.

For what its worth BGDA did not out sell BG.

So yes, console games do fund PC game development at some studios. And I do believe the PS2s, XBoxes, and Gamecubes of the world will contribute to a decline in quality PC games.

Would you like to give any example, or are you just god? Why should I believe you? Given that we just saw FO3 get canned due to a console game and BG3 get canned due to a console game.

If you have $10M to spend making a game, are you going to make it for the PC market, where it'll sell 50K-100K units? Or the console market, where it will do 10x that? For an answer, see Halo, Thief 3, Deus Ex 2, etc.

See Diablo2 and WarCraft 3. And since you mentioned a game that is not out yet I will say see Half Life 2.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

And i think its rather obvious why Halo sold more units on console.

 

[Jinsai]

Well, I actually work in the game industry. So my information comes from people who run development houses and do things like decide whether to make a PC game or a console game.

As for backing up what I say with figures, sure!
IDSA (now known as ESA), 2002 (2003 numbers not published yet):
Console games accounted for 5.5 billion dollars US worth of sales. PC games sold 1.4 billion dollars.

Same Source:
The market share for console games is now 80% of the gaming market vs. 65% 5 years ago.

Empirically, what do you think more people will do? Continually upgrade their $2500 PCs or go buy a $150 console? The size of the market alone is one reason why PC games are having a tough time.

SALES NUMBERS:
Best selling console game, November 2003 (most recently available):
Mario Kart: Double Dash sold around 527,000 units

NPD (market research company):
Best selling PC Game of 2002: The Sims: Unleashed

As of September 2003, combined sales of ALL of the Sims titles (including 5 expansion packs), "the best-selling PC franchise ever", were 16-17 million. (EA press materials)

Best selling Console game of 2002: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. As of December 2003, it has sold over 11 million copies (SJ Mercury News). 8.4 million of those were within the first 5 months of release (CNN/Money).

...of course, now you can go ahead and flame me and say they're non-representative. And maybe it's not 10x, but the point I was trying to make was that console games outsell PC games by a wide margin.

Don't misunderstand my own personal preferences -- I really don't care for console games, love great PC games, and think Fallout and Planescape: Torment are the best games ever made.

I'm just pointing out that it is hard for companies to justify putting big budgets behind PC games instead of console games.

Yeah, there are always notable exceptions, like Diablo II (6 million or thereabouts, with another 3 million for the expansion) or Warcraft or whatever -- but console games regularly sell in the hundreds of thousands per month. And I'm sure when/if Blizzard makes Diablo III it'll sell a pile. I also wouldn't be surprised to see it come out on the XBox. It's practically a console game as is.

Lighten up.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Well, I actually work in the game industry. So my information comes from people who run development houses and do things like decide whether to make a PC game or a console game.

Wow, that is like so cool! These people must be really knowledgable just like Herve Caen who decided to go with FOBOS instead of FO3

Console games accounted for 5.5 billion dollars US worth of sales. PC games sold 1.4 billion dollars.

That's generalization. It doesn't mean that every PC game would not sell well, while every console game would make gazillions. The answer is quality not a platform choice,

Empirically, what do you think more people will do? Continually upgrade their $2500 PCs or go buy a $150 console?

Tweaking facts in your favour. You can buy a good PC for 600-700, you can buy a console for 200. Not that big of a difference.

The size of the market alone is one reason why PC games are having a tough time.

PC games are having a hard time because they are often crappy (Lionheart) or rushed (ToEE). The heavy hitters like HL2, Starcraft2, etc would do fine, just like BG3 would have done.