Game News Stoic's John Watson reveals that The Banner Saga 2 was a commercial disappointment

[twincast]

Well, I had to point out that two studios roughly of Obsidian's size and ambitions already managed to copy Telltale successfully. Add to that the fact that neither of those games are actually based on a pre-established and well-recognized IP, and the fact that Telltale's Batman just tanked, and it does undermine the key points of your argument.

Gamers these days like novelty, they want their new and exciting spectacle - not the same old shit, and that's what the Telltale series lack, and you can very clearly see it in the public reception and slowly decreasing sales.

That's certainly part of it, but considering the apparent staying power compared to other huge trends past and present, I'd like to think that audiences are catching up on the fact that lack of gameplay and illusion of choice simply don't offer much satisfaction in the long run - both of which Until Dawn and Life Is Strange offer considerably more of, partly because they aren't foolishly chasing dreams of multiple seasons. Plus Telltale's writing is growing ever worser. The only good thing about their Batman game is Catwoman (weird gadget aside); the rest's a giant pile of horseshit.

 

[Johannes]

If you think that all rasons behind fail and bunkruptcy are "games are buggy and flawed" you don't understand at all.
Also it should mean that all sucessful games arn't "bugged and flawed" which is also wrong.

My point was that - I agree with Lurker King - game industry is a not-a-business, because you can make more money with skils that required for gamedev in different fields and more reliable.

Actually I think there are two kinds of devs, those who honestly do their job of making interesting games, not making money - those naive guys who think that making a gams is a prophitable business, and those who understand that making good games is not a business, it is more like paying tribute to the art where in best cae you will get break even.

Except there's a lot of people who've done much better than break even. Best case scenario is becoming the next Notch, though that of course is extremely unlikely. But just a fraction of that will make you extremely succesful. It's getting harder and harder to get succesfully into the games biz though, I think. The market's too crowded. Same thing probably could've been said 10 years ago or so, before the advent of Steam and such. But I doubt any similar paradigm shift is likely in any near future.

 

[Fenix]

Except there's a lot of people who've done much better than break even.

Yeah, like - Bethesda with TES, those with Call of Duty, Battlefield and Rockstar with GTA.
Also Blizzard, Valve and MOBA-company.
So many people, like I can count them on a fingers on two hands, if we talk about real successfull companies.

 

[Johannes]

Except there's a lot of people who've done much better than break even.

Yeah, like - Bethesda with TES, those with Call of Duty, Battlefield and Rockstar with GTA.
Also Blizzard, Valve and MOBA-company.
So many people, like I can count them on a fingerson two hand, if we talk about real successfull companies.

Because the rest of the games industry breaks even, at best.

 

[Fenix]

Because even if tthey were profitable somewhen, there was moment when they start to lose money.
A few successful games mean nothing in game industry - because next few game might as well kill your company.
It is not what I can call business, because it is even more risky than movie business.
When I'm talk about game industry I don't mean mobile "gaming" and such.

 

[Irenaeus]

I have Banner Saga installed (bought on a Sale I think) but never drummed up the will to get past the starting screen.

 

[Rahdulan]

Intradesting. They're Kickstarting the third game. I'm too lazy to open a new thread.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/banner-saga-3

 

[Fever]

http://www.rpgcodex.net/tags.php?id=1507

It is still too early to seriously contemplate a return to crowdfunding
​

They have just created the kickstarter campaign for the third chapter.

I knew that things didn't go well for the series, but I didn't think it was this bad.​

 

[Mustawd]

It is still too early to seriously contemplate a return to crowdfunding
​

They have just created the kickstarter campaign for the third chapter.

I knew that things didn't go well for the series, but I didn't think it was this bad.​

So there's zero build up to this. Just fucking start a kickstarter out of nowhere. You'd think they would have engaged the community more and gave more of an indication of what was to come to get their ducks in a row. But whatevah.


Also, dat funding goal...$200k...didn't their last games require a much bigger budget?

 

[Infinitron]

Thread: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/banner-saga-3-kickstarter.113231/