Arkane Arkane Studios 20th Anniversary and Noclip Documentary

[vortex]

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

"It's a miracle!"

Hope that's gonna be true for Deathloop too.

 

[vortex]

Mitton didn't want to play Bioshock becuase he thought luggage was too large, lol. But eventually he did.

 

[Gerrard]

Remember the Fallout """"documentary"""" that definitely wasn't a paid-by-Bethesda marketing campaign for F76?

I remember.

 

[LESS T_T]

I guess this is a build-up for Deathloop announcement?

9:00 Still funny Dark Messiah could have been Arx Fatalis 2 as it was originally intended if they were signed with Bethesda instead of Ubisoft.

1:08:50 Mention of the debate about weapon degradation in Prey. The lead system designer wanted to keep it but everyone else opposed to it because 'the game was already too hard'. I wonder this debate will be more detailed at the upcoming Prey documentary. (The lead designer, Seth Shain, is now working at Bungie btw.)

Also confirms that Arkane's Ravenholm was a continuation of Warren Spector and Junction Point's Ravenholm prototype. Arkane did not see them as an episode, more of a standalone game featuring Adrian Shephard. The weapons look fun.

 

[flyingjohn]

So they shelved a entire game play concept(weapon degradation) because the game was already too hard?Is that kinda some kind of a joke?Prey is one of the easiest arkane game to date.
Also the lead system designer wanted it implemented.

All the bad system choices in making dishonored are staring to make sense now.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Great watch. There's also a lot of never seen LMNO and Ravenholm footage there. The cancellation of LMNO is comprehensible (It's EA, fuck them), but why Ravenholm? Did Gaben's ADD kick in again? FFS Gaben.

Also literally one day before signing Arx 2 with Bethesda they signed Dark Messiah with Ubisoft. Oh Christ.

 

[Dodo1610]

LMNO looked insane for 2005, why would anyone cancel this?
Ravenholm would have been fun but Valve probably couldn't release it since that would have meant officially admitting that Valve doesn't make HL games anymore.
Though the biggest surprise for me is that Bioshock 2 was partially made by Arkane which explains why it's actually good since the devs there know and love System Shock.
At least they finally admit that Corvo is only playable because the Beth was sacred, so much money wasted for nothing

 

[Jarpie]

Something tells me that they don't mention anything about the rumors of Bethesda/Zenimax claimedly withholding the milestone payments to pressure Arkane to sell themselves to Bethesda :D

 

[karoliner]

Ravenholm sounds much more interesting than the actual Half Life 2.

 

[gurugeorge]

That was very entertaining. I remember being blown away by Arx Fatalis at the time. Funnily enough I never got into Dark Messiah or Dishonoured, but I enjoyed the hell out of Prey, which was a great homage to the first System Shock game - and none the worse for it.

 

[Lutte]

So they shelved a entire game play concept(weapon degradation) because the game was already too hard?Is that kinda some kind of a joke?Prey is one of the easiest arkane game to date.

Prey to the average loser is fundamentally harder than any of Arkane's other modern games. Dishonored is only harder if you force yourself to go through a ghosting run. The game itself doesn't really give a shit whether you ghost levels or not. Of the modern games from Arkane, Prey is the only one that really requires the player to engage with the systems and not as an optional task.
Average gamer doesn't understand the genre Prey sits in, so one of the most common complaint they make is that "the game doesn't give you enough ammo" because they aren't conservative enough, don't run away from enemies enough, don't try to stealth, or craft too much other crap and don't have resources left for it. They also don't make an effort to explore side areas (which by the end of the game left me with so many neuromods and materials to craft neuromods I had almost all typhon abilities after having maxxed out the useful parts of the human tree..)

https://www.reddit.com/r/prey/comments/71sin5/where_is_everyone_getting_all_this_ammo/
https://www.reddit.com/r/prey/comments/7q23y8/no_ammo_finding_combat_challenging/
https://www.reddit.com/r/prey/comments/aa0ix1/need_help_limited_ammo_and_health/
https://www.reddit.com/r/prey/comments/6c6kju/im_stuck_on_a_mission_with_no_ammo_or_psi/
https://www.reddit.com/r/prey/comments/7orwp1/am_i_playing_it_wrong/
this one cracked me up because of the tone of desperation and the strange apprehension to abilities

If I am faced with more than one enemy at a time, I'm usually slaughtered in seconds. I am hesitant to learn Typhon abilities, because I don't want to "lose my humanity", but I feel like scanning enemies for weaknesses is useless, because none of them are weak to bullets. Only other typhon powers.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/480490/discussions/0/1697169163409362732/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/480490/discussions/0/1291817208487269944

One of the few people I know IRL who plays video games tried and dropped Prey after a few hours because he got completely reamed by early phantoms and didn't want to spend the effort to learn the systems. It's the level at which the modern gamer sits in.

I think the achievement stats speak a lot for how little people read the tech trees and engaged with the systems. Only 28% of the player base used combat focus to kill anything.

Was it not obvious from the description in the tree how overpowered that ability would be? I would have expected far more people giving this a go but I guess people don't want to waste time reading when they could continue just firing pew pew until they run out.

 

[Child of Malkav]

That blonde chick. I like her. She knows what she's talking about especially at the end. It truly is a miracle that a studio like Arkane manages to exist in this current day and age.
Personally, I don't see them making it very far, unfortunately. If their games keep underselling they won't be making immersive sims anymore. Especially under Bethesda.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Enough with these "underselling" fairy tales. D2 and Prey weren't run-away hits, but they sold well enough over time. We'll be getting D3... eventually.

 

[Nito]

Enough with these "underselling" fairy tales. D2 and Prey weren't run-away hits, but they sold well enough over time. We'll be getting D3... eventually.

Agreed. People confuse "not a billion dollar success" with "immersive sims are a relatively thin market to begin with".

 

[Wunderbar]

D2 and Prey weren't run-away hits, but they sold well enough over time.

with 75% discounts.

 

[Nano]

One of the few people I know IRL who plays video games tried and dropped Prey after a few hours because he got completely reamed by early phantoms and didn't want to spend the effort to learn the systems.

I dropped Prey because it's dull as rocks. It's full of busywork and the "horror" elements fall flat.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

D2 and Prey weren't run-away hits, but they sold well enough over time.

with 75% discounts.

You see those sort of discounts only ~2 years after release from Bethesda titles. Those games already sold well enough before that.

 

[Lutte]

Those games already sold well enough before that.

Sales barely grow over the years for this game genre, while cost keeps rising. 1m copies sold for a game with Dishonored 2's level of prod values isn't the same as 1m sold for Dishonored 1. D2 sold 40% less copies during the most important time period of launch window by the way.

I don't think publishers like Bethesda are satisfied with games doing just a tad better than breaking even which is the ultimate fate of Arkane if they keep up with contemporary prod values while not actually growing their marketshare. The reason why D2 exists is because Bethesda was indeed very satisfied with the ratio of investment/return on D1. D2 did a lot worse in that regards and hence they themselves announced they're putting the series on frozen status.

Here's the difference in treatment you can see in Beth's sentiment :

https://www.destructoid.com/bethesda-dishonored-sales-exceeding-expectations--239407.phtml

"I can tell you that Dishonored is far exceeding our sales expectations, which is especially cool considering it’s new IP facing a host of well-established franchises this quarter," said PR chief Pete Hines. "We did terrific numbers again this past weekend, both in stores and on Steam, where Dishonored was listed as the #1 selling title over the holiday weekend. And Dishonored has really sold well overseas.

https://www.techspot.com/news/76047-bethesda-arkane-studios-put-dishonored-franchise-hiatus.html

It seems that Arkane Studios has decided to put the Dishonored franchise to bed. Lead designer Richard Bare told VG24/7 in a recent interview that the series was being put on an indefinite hiatus.

"I can’t say definitively what might happen down the road, anything could happen, but [Dishonored] is resting for now," said Bare.

Long term games in the genre having the level of prod values of a D2 or Prey just isn't going to keep happening. Either the franchises will indefinitely stay in the freezer or they will produce them with indie style graphics.

On publisher expectation for Dishonored 2 vs 1 :

He continues: Dishonored was the only new IP released in the holiday of 2012. It made it seem different and some folk even said it was like an indie game. But now we’ve established its credibility, we think Dishonored 2 will get much more attention and focus.”

Imagine their face when it sold less.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Enough with these "underselling" fairy tales. D2 and Prey weren't run-away hits, but they sold well enough over time. We'll be getting D3... eventually.

You think we're going to get another D1\2\Prey quality immersive sim games if they keep selling "well enough over time"? You serious bro? The first month is the most important one. After that, it's over. Whatever breadcrumbs come after won't be enough to save a franchise.
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory apparently sold 5 million copies over time. Do you see any return to form? Do you hear any news of a new SC? Dead franchise. Dead.
Just like Arkane soon enough. If Deathloop flops, Arkane will go the way of Visceral (remember those guys? Remember why they got shut down?).
D3? Funny.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

The Evil Within made breadcrumbs and still got a sequel. Go figure.

Dishonored is not dead as a franchise.

 

[Child of Malkav]

Sure.
Edit:
EW is also not an imsim, nor an RPG, nor stealth.
And that game is the exception, not the rule.

 

[Lutte]

Enough with these "underselling" fairy tales. D2 and Prey weren't run-away hits, but they sold well enough over time. We'll be getting D3... eventually.

You think we're going to get another D1\2\Prey quality immersive sim games if they keep selling "well enough over time"? You serious bro? The first month is the most important one. After that, it's over. Whatever breadcrumbs come after won't be enough to save a franchise.
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory apparently sold 5 million copies over time. Do you see any return to form? Do you hear any news of a new SC? Dead franchise. Dead.
Just like Arkane soon enough. If Deathloop flops, Arkane will go the way of Visceral (remember those guys? Remember why they got shut down?).
D3? Funny.

Somehow people keep forgetting history and naively believe Arkane can make it where Looking Glass Studios, Ion Storm, Troika and plenty others didn't.

Well, Arkane the studio probably isn't going to shut down because Beth is repurposing them all the time, like having them help work on the wolfenstein garbage coop game or FO76. Arkane as in the maker of Arx Fatalis, Dishonored and Prey won't have long to live.

 

[Wunderbar]

The Evil Within made breadcrumbs and still got a sequel. Go figure.

Dishonored is not dead as a franchise.

the evil within sold well actually, it was its sequel that sold like crap.

 

[Nano]

Somehow people keep forgetting history and naively believe Arkane can make it where Looking Glass Studios [...] didn't.

Both Thief games were successful. The games that really flopped hard enough to eventually cause LGS's closure aren't immersive sims (e.g. Terra Nova, British Open Championship Golf, Flight Unlimited 3). The cancellation of the Star Trek adventure game they were working on was also a hard blow.