Alpha Protocol taken down from Steam because the licensed music rights have expired

[Infinitron]

Hard truth: Alpha Protocol would actually have been better as a straight up Call of Duty single player campaign with choice & consequence dialogue sequences (I exaggerate, but only a bit)

I've only heard of SEGA demanding they add the stealth system, not more meaningful reactivity. It was Chris Avellone who was concerned about that (which eventually resulted in Brian Mitsoda getting booted off the project)

 

[Luckmann]

Is it possible that SEGA's ownership of the Alpha Protocol IP was a time-limited arrangement and Obsidian have never revealed that to the public?

It might even have been a stipulation of the agreement that Obsidian could not tell anyone, since that'd potentially compromise any attempts of SEGA to use it.

 

[Tigranes]

Alpha Protocol is the most purely concentrated orgasmabowl of reactivity there exists besides Age of Decadence, and I wonder if an AP2 could capture that. I do agree everything would be easier if they got rid of some of the retarded magic abilities and focused on shooting not sucking.

 

[Sailor Woedica]

Maybe this is why Feargus was so wanting to collab with the Xbox zombie game!

 

[Quillon]

Sega has been in touch to say it still owns the Alpha Protocol IP, and to clarify the game was pulled from Steam due to the expiry of music rights.

 

[Nano]

Post the source bro.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...d-from-steam-as-sega-publishing-rights-expire

Alpha Protocol pulled from Steam due to expiry of music rights
UPDATE: Sega says it still owns the IP.

UPDATE 20th June 2019: Sega has been in touch to say it still owns the Alpha Protocol IP, and to clarify the game was pulled from Steam due to the expiry of music rights.

Last night, Sega issued a statement saying Alpha Protocol was removed on Steam "following the expiry of Sega's publishing rights". This was incorrect.

The future of Alpha Protocol, then, remains in Sega's hands.

What the fuck, man.

 

[Duraframe300]

WTF?

Is this a miscommunication inside of Sega? Why do they release the first statement if it was wrong in the first place.

WTF is wrong at SEGA?

 

[Luckmann]

Big oof.

 

[Infinitron]

Glad I waited to hear another source before publishing news about this.

I'm afraid the game might be gone for good now - it's not an important enough title for Sega to go to the effort replacing the music.

 

[Duraframe300]

Glad I waited to hear another source before publishing news about this.

I'm afraid the game might be gone for good now - it's not an important enough title for Sega to go to the effort replacing the music.

Yeah, I’m more shocked that the initial answer from SEGA was wrong (that the publising rights expired) since that was what multiple outlets got and reported.

I mean thats just bad.

 

[Bohr]

Just another day of crushed hopes and dreams on the Codex...

 

[luj1]

How was the game? Never played it

 

[LESS T_T]

Well, at least this showed that there's not insignificant interests in Alpha Protocol. Who knows this may motivate SEGA or Microsoft to do something about it.

 

[Turuko]

Post the source bro.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...d-from-steam-as-sega-publishing-rights-expire

Alpha Protocol pulled from Steam due to expiry of music rights
UPDATE: Sega says it still owns the IP.

UPDATE 20th June 2019: Sega has been in touch to say it still owns the Alpha Protocol IP, and to clarify the game was pulled from Steam due to the expiry of music rights.

Last night, Sega issued a statement saying Alpha Protocol was removed on Steam "following the expiry of Sega's publishing rights". This was incorrect.

The future of Alpha Protocol, then, remains in Sega's hands.

What the fuck, man.

 

[Vulpes]

To be a Codexer in these times is to be one amongst untold millions of sheepish consumers. It is to live in the cruelest and most disappointing era of gaming imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of decent game design and coding, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and improvement, for in the grim dark future there is only decline. There is no competence amongst today's game developers, only an eternity of unfinished games and broken promises, and the laughter of thirsting publishers.

 

[Quillon]

Well, at least this showed that there's not insignificant interests in Alpha Protocol. Who knows this may motivate SEGA or Microsoft to do something about it.

There isn't anything in AP that's too special/iconic to the IP; they just need to want to make a spy RPG and name it something else i.e. spiritual successor

 

[InD_ImaginE]

How was the game? Never played it

A janky third person RPG with guns and amazing reactivity. Easily Obsidan best game, I would argue AP is even more entertaining than New Vegas.

 

[cloudropis]

Went from "AP2 baybeee" to "forever lost and forgotten in digital hell" in the span of two hours

 

[Nano]

Well, at least this showed that there's not insignificant interests in Alpha Protocol. Who knows this may motivate SEGA or Microsoft to do something about it.

There isn't anything in AP that's too special/iconic to the IP; they just need to want to make a spy RPG and name it something else i.e. spiritual successor

It's not just the setting, it's the characters too. Steven Heck is being detained at some SEGA vault right now, with no hope of escape in sight.

 

[vortex]

The best would be they forget AP and make new sci-fi espionage RPG inspired by Deus Ex. Now that would be great rebound game for Sawyer.

Like this:

 

[Infinitron]

The mythology of Alpha Protocol is actually set up so that you could easily reboot it as a new IP. The Alpha Protocol organization has had previous incarnations with different names and that could happen again. They'd almost certainly get shut down after the events of the game after all.

But yes, you'd have to say goodbye to Steven Heck.

 

[Roguey]

Went from "AP2 baybeee" to "forever lost and forgotten in digital hell" in the span of two hours

Thank him.

Additionally, a Brayko without Turn Up the Radio isn't Brayko at all. Let this heap rest in peace.

 

[Cross]

Hard truth: Alpha Protocol would actually have been better as a straight up Call of Duty single player campaign with choice & consequence dialogue sequences (I exaggerate, but only a bit)

That would have been even worse. Call of Duty has the worst level design in the entire shooter genre and while its gunplay is obviously better than Alpha Protocol, it still isn't very good.

Though what you describe is in fact what Obsidian originally wanted Alpha Protocol to be (albeit in third-person rather than first-person, obviously). It was going to be a linear succession of shootouts: safe houses and stealth were not added until the game was rebooted late in development. It's why the game has a weird tonal mismatch between the po-faced narrative about the dangers of private military contractors (a plot that could have come straight from a Call of Duty game) and whacky characters like Brayko and Steven Heck.

I've only heard of SEGA demanding they add the stealth system

https://www.gameinformer.com/b/feat...col-delays-and-similarity-to-mass-effect.aspx

A document leaked from Sega contained criticism that Alpha Protocol felt like it didn’t have enough RPG elements. Does the team have any plans for tweaking the RPG elements between now and spring? Or do you find the concern inaccurate?

It should be noted that the document being referred to contained criticisms on a demo that was quite old at the time - and that was some time ago. We refined our systems and the RPG feel a lot over the spring and summer of 2009

I can't find any source that Sega pushed for more narrative reactivity specifically though.

Still, it's quite obvious that the game would have turned out far worse if not for Sega's intervention. This isn't particularly surprising when you consider that Alpha Protocol was the brainchild of Feargus "RPGs should be about killing kobolds and goblins" Urquhart (and Chris Parker).

 

[Nano]

It's why the game has a weird tonal mismatch between the po-faced narrative about the dangers of private military contractors (a plot that could have come straight from a Call of Duty game) and whacky characters like Brayko and Steven Heck.

Steven Heck was always wacky, even when Brian Mitsoda was writing him. Brian said so himself: http://www.rpgnuke.ru/2013/11/04/interview_with_brian_mitsoda_eng.html

I never played Alpha Protocol after its release, so I really don’t know what made it in other than the dialogue system I created. I know Travis Stout (writer/designer) kept some of my Heck lines in and kept his character close to the original version, but other than that, I’ve been told most of my work is absent from the release version.

 

[Luckmann]

Still, it's quite obvious that the game would have turned out far worse if not for Sega's intervention.

I'm not seeing how that is obvious at all, based on what you've linked and mentioned. If that's your case, it's extremely weak, especially since SEGA's criticism was so easily deflected by saying that it was an old demo, because it makes perfect sense that RPG elements would be weak(er) in earlier iterations of the game, as you'd focus on fundamentals first before you start adding such things, in a game like this. You don't start with RPG mechanics and then build gameplay, you start hewing out gameplay before you create mechanics, anything else would be ass-backwards in this type of game, like it or not.