Game News Divinity: Original Sin Kickstarter Update #67: Enhanced Edition Officially Announced

[DramaticPopcorn]

Can anyone explain will I have to buy this game separately if I already own D:OS ?

 

[Crooked Bee]

Can anyone explain will I have to buy this game separately if I already own D:OS ?

No. Try it, it's free.

 

[Zeriel]

Yeah, related to what Crooked Bee said, this whole thing kind of rubs me the wrong way...

Plowing money into full VO? Console version? What are they doing? Presumedly Swen now has enough of a cash cushion to make some small mistakes, but it all seems unneccessary. All this stuff is tangential to the reasons for their success, and in some cases completely counter (they succeeded because they serviced their niche, there is no turn-based RPG niche on consoles, that shit is going to crash and burn).

I'm sure I'll still enjoy their future games, but it seems like they're shifting away from what I considered cool about them and the new kickstarted RPGs in general (less of an emphasis on VO so you can have more content, et cetera).

Maybe the VO is just part and parcel of making a console version, that market really can't stand reading for more obvious technical reasons like TV size.

 

[Ulrox]

Honestly, Larian has become my favorite developer out there after PoE failed to live up to the hype. Looking forward to it!

 

[Crooked Bee]

there is no turn-based RPG niche on consoles

There is, actually - a very large turn-based (J)RPG niche. Admittedly, though, most console JRPG players don't usually play this style of RPGs. That is why I will be curious to see just how successful D:OS will be on consoles; I hope Swen discloses the sales figures at some point.

I do hope they won't crash and burn, but we'll see. Full VO is overkill in any case, though.

 

[DeepOcean]

VO for all characters seems like a huge expense, considering all the text in the game. Unless they "streamlined" that. Who would listen to all that instead of just clicking through it?

People who can't read also called consoletards.

 

[felipepepe]

OMG, they kill the RPG Codex troll and announce a console version! I feel so betrayed right now.

Seriously now, this is a very clever move IMHO. If nu-gen console fags are buying all the remasters & enhanced editions because they have nothing else to play, giving them an enhanced edition of a game that was PC exclusive until now will certainly lead to A LOT of sales, especially being a unique multiplayer RPG with couch co-op and tons of awards. Larian will spend a tiny fraction of what would take to develop a new game, yet will probably get way more sales than the ~1M they got so far. And whatever then can milk from console gamers will go into their next RPGs.

What remains to be seen is how the UI will be, as apparently the PC and the console versions will use the same UI...

 

[abnaxus]

AAA voice-actors, really?

They should just rehire the Divinity 2 ones, they were good enough.

 

[Infinitron]

OMG, they kill the RPG Codex troll and announce a console version! I feel so betrayed right now.

Seriously now, this is a very clever move IMHO. If nu-gen console fags are buying all the remasters & enhanced editions because they have nothing else to play, giving them an enhanced edition of a game that was PC exclusive until now will certainly lead to A LOT of sales, especially being a unique multiplayer RPG with couch co-op and tons of awards. Larian will spend a tiny fraction of what would take to develop a new game, yet will probably get way more sales than the ~1M they got so far. And whatever then can milk from console gamers will go into their next RPGs.

What remains to be seen is how the UI will be, as apparently the PC and the console versions will use the same UI...

I'm not sure they will get "way more sales than the ~1M they got so far". Pretty sure even XCOM didn't do that. Just doubling their sales would be great, though.

 

[Zeriel]

There is, actually - a very large turn-based (J)RPG niche. Admittedly, though, most console JRPG players don't usually play this style of RPGs. That is why I will be curious to see just how successful D:OS will be on consoles; I hope Swen discloses the sales figures at some point.

I do hope they won't crash and burn, but we'll see. Full VO is overkill in any case, though.

Guess I should have specified. Meant this particular type of WRPG. I'm open to being wrong and this exploding to popularity on consoles. Stranger things have happened. I just don't find it likely, and think Swen would be better off focusing on what they already do well. I'm also a little concerned this will carry forward and affect their future games as a development path, but oh well.

The VO thing bothers me more than the console bit, if I'm being honest, but I suspect they're connected, so I suppose I'll just shutup and wait for their new games like a good little grog.

 

[DeepOcean]

AAA voice-actors, really?

They should just rehire the Divinity 2 ones, they were good enough.

I read the works some of them did and the best I found was they dubbing some seconday characters on Dragon Turd 2 and other games, hardly Troy Baker and Nolan North AAA voice actors. Not saying they aren't good but I don't think their paycheck is at AAA level yet.

 

[Zeriel]

OMG, they kill the RPG Codex troll and announce a console version! I feel so betrayed right now.

Seriously now, this is a very clever move IMHO. If nu-gen console fags are buying all the remasters & enhanced editions because they have nothing else to play, giving them an enhanced edition of a game that was PC exclusive until now will certainly lead to A LOT of sales, especially being a unique multiplayer RPG with couch co-op and tons of awards. Larian will spend a tiny fraction of what would take to develop a new game, yet will probably get way more sales than the ~1M they got so far. And whatever then can milk from console gamers will go into their next RPGs.

What remains to be seen is how the UI will be, as apparently the PC and the console versions will use the same UI...

I'm not sure they will get "way more sales than the ~1M they got so far". Pretty sure even XCOM didn't do that. Just doubling their sales would be great, though.

Yeah, XCOM is my posterchild example of why chasing mad bucks on console for niche PC genres doesn't make much sense. This game was a critical darling, players loved it, but it did such mediocre numbers on console that they might as well have not bothered. And then you consider XCOM looked like it was built from the ground-up for consoles, and wonder how much better it could have been for PC if they'd just ignored the consoles altogether. Presumedly a company like Firaxis feels it can't ignore consoles because of publishers, but Larian absolutely can.

 

[Doktor Best]

You guys have to keep in mind that porting a game to console has gotten easier now with the console architecture being much more close to pc. They also dont have to squeeze the last bit of fps out of the game because its not that demanding after all.

Also a splitscreen coop rpg will sell, definitely.

 

[Athelas]

Full VO is one of those things that has been pretty much mandatory for any big non-niche release from the past decade. Larian wants this game to do well, obviously.

 

[Infinitron]

OMG, they kill the RPG Codex troll and announce a console version! I feel so betrayed right now.

Seriously now, this is a very clever move IMHO. If nu-gen console fags are buying all the remasters & enhanced editions because they have nothing else to play, giving them an enhanced edition of a game that was PC exclusive until now will certainly lead to A LOT of sales, especially being a unique multiplayer RPG with couch co-op and tons of awards. Larian will spend a tiny fraction of what would take to develop a new game, yet will probably get way more sales than the ~1M they got so far. And whatever then can milk from console gamers will go into their next RPGs.

What remains to be seen is how the UI will be, as apparently the PC and the console versions will use the same UI...

I'm not sure they will get "way more sales than the ~1M they got so far". Pretty sure even XCOM didn't do that. Just doubling their sales would be great, though.

Yeah, XCOM is my posterchild example of why chasing mad bucks on console for niche PC genres doesn't make much sense. This game was a critical darling, players loved it, but it did such mediocre numbers on console that they might as well have not bothered.

"Might as well have not bothered", well, that depends. XCOM:EU was a multiplatform release, which kind of gimped the PC version which probably could have sold enough on its own, so that's bad.

But if you're taking an already existing PC game and porting it, and potentially doubling your revenue, for an independent company like Larian, that's pretty significant, even if the overall numbers aren't impressive to an AAA.

 

[DeepOcean]

There is, actually - a very large turn-based (J)RPG niche. Admittedly, though, most console JRPG players don't usually play this style of RPGs. That is why I will be curious to see just how successful D:OS will be on consoles; I hope Swen discloses the sales figures at some point.

I do hope they won't crash and burn, but we'll see. Full VO is overkill in any case, though.

Guess I should have specified. Meant this particular type of WRPG. I'm open to being wrong and this exploding to popularity on consoles. Stranger things have happened. I just don't find it likely, and think Swen would be better off focusing on what they already do well. I'm also a little concerned this will carry forward and affect their future games as a development path, but oh well.

The VO thing bothers me more than the console bit, if I'm being honest, but I suspect they're connected, so I suppose I'll just shutup and wait for their new games like a good little grog.

What worries me is if Larian sells more on Consoles than on PC. The publishers are demonized but the truth is that money is something hard to resist and if you sell more on the consoles, it is kinda hard to throw money away just because some PC nerds want the game done for PC. Hope this console release doesn't affect Larian.

 

[Zeriel]

OMG, they kill the RPG Codex troll and announce a console version! I feel so betrayed right now.

Seriously now, this is a very clever move IMHO. If nu-gen console fags are buying all the remasters & enhanced editions because they have nothing else to play, giving them an enhanced edition of a game that was PC exclusive until now will certainly lead to A LOT of sales, especially being a unique multiplayer RPG with couch co-op and tons of awards. Larian will spend a tiny fraction of what would take to develop a new game, yet will probably get way more sales than the ~1M they got so far. And whatever then can milk from console gamers will go into their next RPGs.

What remains to be seen is how the UI will be, as apparently the PC and the console versions will use the same UI...

I'm not sure they will get "way more sales than the ~1M they got so far". Pretty sure even XCOM didn't do that. Just doubling their sales would be great, though.

Yeah, XCOM is my posterchild example of why chasing mad bucks on console for niche PC genres doesn't make much sense. This game was a critical darling, players loved it, but it did such mediocre numbers on console that they might as well have not bothered.

"Might as well have not bothered", well, that depends. XCOM:EU was a multiplatform release, which kind of gimped the PC version which probably could have sold enough on its own, so that's bad.

But if you're taking an already existing PC game and porting it, and potentially doubling your revenue, for an independent company like Larian, that's pretty significant, even if the overall numbers aren't impressive to an AAA.

Yeah, that's the main reason I'm able to back off and go, "Hey, whatever, it's their business."

I do worry about the whole "we're going to design our UIs for consoles and PC moving forward" inevitability that always wafts off of announcements like this, though.

There's certainly an anti-console kneejerk mentality around here, which I'm guilty of too, but that kneejerk mentality exists for very good reason. We've been burnt so many times.

 

[commie]

I'm very upset about getting a version of D:OS for FREE that allows me to still play the original if I prefer...

 

[Onholyservicebound]

All this stuff is tangential to the reasons for their success, and in some cases completely counter (they succeeded because they serviced their niche, there is no turn-based RPG niche on consoles, that shit is going to crash and burn).

I don't think that's true. D:OS is the only one of the kickstarter titles that I think really has mass appeal outside of it's niche. All the derpy jewtubers and their fans love it, the most surprising of people enjoy the game, and a lot enjoy it despite it's Turn based gameplay as opposed to because of it.
My woman originally insisted we get the game, she's all about the console and her favourite RPG is Fable. Between the co-op, the graphics style, and just being really fun and vibrant, the game isn't really a turn off to console gamers.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

On the one hand I'm angry because they ditched the linux version they promised so they could get console money, which means I still haven't played the game yet (after giving them all my money during the final hours of kickstarter lunacy), and on the other hand I'm angry because they're spending my money on voice actors so the illiterate can play it. I'm also angry for vague and undefined reasons related to anything involving consoles and money.

We're a bunch of angry cunts.

Oh, it's 'we' now is it?

 

[Bumvelcrow]

Oh, by the way, Onholyservicebound:

Messages: 1,337

Congratulations, sir!

 

[karnak]

Guess Larian is slowly going into the same path once walked by Bethesda.
I still remember the bad feelings I had when Morrowind was announced for Xbox.

 

[Kz3r0]

You guys have to keep in mind that porting a game to console has gotten easier now with the console architecture being much more close to pc. They also dont have to squeeze the last bit of fps out of the game because its not that demanding after all.

More because Xbone has fixed FPS, I really hope that this move was dictated by receiving an economic incentive by M$ and not a real business decision.

 

[Infinitron]

Guess Larian is slowly going into the same path once walked by Bethesda.
I still remember the bad feelings I had when Morrowind was announced for Xbox.

Only one man remains stalwart. One man who refuses to walk the dark path of consolization.

JS: Because it is PC-focused, we can say Mouse and Keyboard. Yes. You play the game this way. Someone asked about consoles last time, I said "$&$^&# no." You're not going to do that.

(Wonder if they'll ever change their mind about that. Or just go straight to tablet. )

 

[vonAchdorf]

(Wonder if they'll ever change their mind about that. Or just go straight to tablet. )

Well, the IE games are already on tablet, and their current interactive story would be a good fit as well.