Company News JoWooD working on Gothic 4?

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Tags: JoWood Productions

It seems soon after <a href=http://www.rpgcodex.com/index.php#4704>Piranha Bytes and JoWooD's separation</a>, <a href=http://www.jowood.com/>JoWooD</a> has announced that it is <a href=http://presse.jowood.com/?id=760>currently working on Gothic 4</a>. Here's a rough translation courtesy of RPG Watch:<blockquote>JoWooD Productions has talked to possible developing studios for Gothic 4 on PC & consoles for many weeks now. The focus on picking a developing studio is high quality standard and bugfree coding... JoWood is focusing on the console market...</blockquote>Gothic and console market in the same sentence. Wow. I don't think this could get worse.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgwatch.com">RPG Watch</A>

 

[Brother None]

End of the series, time to go the TES route.

 

[Shoelip]

It can always get worse...

That's funny though, it's also the forth game in the series.

 

[Amasius]

I predict that Gothic 4 will fall into oblivion.

 

[Moggs]

This news makes baby Jesus cry.

 

[OccupatedVoid]

Gothic 4
Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

Weird, huh? Both getting raped at number 4.

 

[denizsi]

Gothic and console market in the same sentence. Wow. I don't think this could get worse.

Once we were past the point where it would be PB making further sequels as their own game, Gothic is DEAD, just as is Fallout and TES.

 

[Julio]

At least PB can now work on a new IP that sets right what G3 did wrong.

 

[Oarfish]

Or go bust as they have been dropped by a major publisher for producing a bug ridden mess that would only run reasonably on bleeding edge hardware. The crappy new 'repeatedly mash standard attack button to take out entire town full of orcs' was piss poor too.

 

[jiujitsu]

Funny. PB developes(invents) Gothic 1,2&3 and now they're out. They created all of this. Now they are left with nothing and pretty much so are we. There will be no uber patch. No addon. No more developers making new Gothics that have any clue or right to do so.

This sounds so familiar... Oh, yeah. Same thing happened with Fallout.

 

[stargelman]

Here's hoping PB gets a proper publisher with plenty of money for whatever it is they're doing next. Maybe they can start a new series in the same style as Gothic. set in a different location and with different characters.

 

[The_Pope]

I'm ambivalent about this. It's always sad to see a good series get raped, but Gothic wasn't meant to be a series in the first place and it shows. Dragon invasion?

Hopefully PB will be able to do something good with a new publisher.

 

[Claw]

Or go bust as they have been dropped by a major publisher for producing a bug ridden mess that would only run reasonably on bleeding edge hardware.

I wasn't aware that an AthlonXP3200 with a GeForce6600 constituted "bleeding edge" in 2006.

 

[MessiahMan]

My cup runneth over with joy...

 

[Section8]

I wasn't aware that an AthlonXP3200 with a GeForce6600 constituted "bleeding edge" in 2006.

I'm packing more ePenis than that and even at low detail and low res, bits of the game are bordering on unplayably slow.

 

[hiciacit]

 

[Elwro]

(The most important thing seems to be RAM)

 

[Nedrah]

This is pretty sad news to me.
Gothic 1 and 2 were true gems that can still be played today without seeming primitive at all.
The way that characters and the world in general were flashed out, the way it all came together for the most part, has not been matched before (ok, Ultima 7) or ever after.
Sorry, but (at least) in that regard I still like them even better than the Fallouts.
I dare say the only area were I truely liked the fallouts better was choice&consequence.
The world had a (scripted) reaction ready for pretty much whatever you could do - whereas the Knights in G2 would still play "besieged" even after you singlehandedly wiped out the whole damn orc camp.


The games weren't all that "epic", they had big but not huge worlds to explore. There was a certain style, a vision to it - perhaps more importantly, there was plenty of humour to the situations that arose, the kind of humour that made you smirk, the kind that didn't smack you in the face expecting to make you roll on the floor. The guys at PB clearly loved what they were doing with their games, that showed. As for Gothic 3 - it runs like ass on my current hardware, and now it seems like there won't be another patch. From what I've seen and heard however, PB clearly dropped the ball on it. They do indeed deserve a kick in the nuts for not understanding what defines the Gothic games, what makes them stand out for those that love them. But it's their baby, and it's neither a service to the fans/random gamers nor for anyone else involved to make gothic go the way of the Elder Scrolls. The devs deserve a chance to make G4 the game that fans had hoped G3 to be. If PB goes down, Gothic should go down with them.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

http://www.gametab.com/news/913940/

JoWooD confirms having been in promising negotiatons for the development of Gothic 4 on PC and console with various prospective development studios. Releasing Gothic 4 on current-gen console is the next logical step for the Publisher's strategy. JoWooD puts most of its focus on high quality standards as well as reacting to the communities comments and requests for the sequel to its flag-ship title.

Since Pluto 13 and JoWooD have not come to terms regarding the development of Gothic 4, the collaboration has come to an end.

I wouldn't mind Bethesda doing Gothic 4. :twisted:

 

[Nedrah]

Actually they should do every crpg from now on.

Seriously, I can forgive PB a slip up like g3. They have always been very close to their community and they've been the first to admit that a lot of things went wrong with g3 - a good indication of them not being willing to repeat these mistakes.

If PB goes down then I don't see how it'll be less of a loss than the troika disaster.
Let's face it, we have been runing out of "big" devs (20 guys working in Essen, germany) with a decent track record and at least a willingness to try and put out decent rpgs for a while.

 

[Krafter]

Well, we got three games out of the series before it went the consolization route. All future games will be made for 13 year old ADD kids now. Gothic lasted longer than Fallout or Deus Ex did in this regard. Whee.

Welcome to RPG Hell.

 

[SimpleComplexity]

Gothic 4
Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

Weird, huh? Both getting raped at number 4.

i have seen the future with my own eyes. :shock:

trust me, you dont even want to know, what will happen to Fallout 4

 

[Nedrah]

Well, we got three games out of the series before it went the consolization route. All future games will be made for 13 year old ADD kids now. Gothic lasted longer than Fallout or Deus Ex did in this regard. Whee.

Welcome to RPG Hell.

The welcome was a bit overdue, but thanks anyways

Well, I consider what is happening to Gothic extremely sad.
The makers of Deus Ex 2 need to be shot, though - it's a crime.

 

[Kingston]

Gothic 4
Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

Weird, huh? Both getting raped at number 4.

Deus Ex 2 (half of 4!)
Ultima 8 - 2 (just like deus ex 2) times 4!!!
Ultima 9 - square root of 9 is 3 and Morrowind was the third installment of Elder Scrolls!

Deus Ex 2 + Elder Scrolls 3 = 5.
5 x 161 (161 divided by 7 is... wait for it... 23! 2 and 3 just like above!) = 805
805 turned into letters is BOS = BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL WHICH WUZ A SHITTY SPIN-OFF!

Coincidence? I don't think so.

 

[Claw]

I'm not sure how I feel about this. PB indeed did scew up in many ways with G3 and I wasn't terribly satisfied with their explanations (excuses) either. Some of them seemed mind-bogglingly daft to me. And when one of them said that the reputation system was never meant to be any more sophisticated, I wondered how low you can aim.

On the other hand, I don't really trust Jowood. They seem to be related to too many terribly buggy games released in a horrible state or other catastrophes.
And how can there be still no (satisfying) patch for Gothic 3 but an announcement for Gothic 4? Fuck you, Jowood. Patch my Game!

I'm packing more ePenis than that and even at low detail and low res, bits of the game are bordering on unplayably slow.

That kinds proves my point, since it runs ok on my system with all the bells and whistles. Gothic 3 doesn't seem to run reliably on different hardware. That's not the same as being hardware-instensive. Seriously, why have an educated opinion when you can have a simple one?