Decline Thiaf Pre-Release Thread

[Turisas]

Does this mean the game gets cancelled?

We can only hope.

 

[jcd]

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[dnf]

When Management is telling you to make shit fucking games, why is it the Employee's fault?

Yes. They needs to make shit fucking games that sells or else...

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

The City: Colonial Thieves.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

That's the writing on the wall, right there. This is turning into another Aliens: Colonial Marines fiasco, not 3 months later, and the game is still over a year away from release.

Any suit with half a brain will see this and pull the plug now. Unfortunately suits with brains are in incredlibly short supply these days.

 

[Dexter]

That's the writing on the wall, right there. This is turning into another Aliens: Colonial Marines fiasco, not 3 months later, and the game is still over a year away from release.

Any suit with half a brain will see this and pull the plug now. Unfortunately suits with brains are in incredlibly short supply these days.

Why would they do that? That would be an entirely stupid thing to do after blowing money into a project for 5 years. They could/should minimize the PR costs and maybe think about not putting any more of their money into it (what was that with the German investment firm unrelated to Squeenix?), as well as setting an Ultimatum like SEGA did with Aliens: Colonial Marines for when the game has to be out. But entirely pulling the plug and saying "it's over" at this point in time would be retarded. Even if it only sells like a million copies on Pre-Order hype alone it would still go ways on making some of that money back.

Remember that for all the games (Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs, Hitman) the point was that they made lower than expected sales on them and not that they couldn't recoup the initial investment.

Sleeping Dogs for instance was done in slightly over a year. Squeenix had picked it up August 2 2011 and it released August 13 2012.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

what was that with the German investment firm unrelated to Squeenix?

It will be fun if they end up under the Nordic Games, like most of the potatodevs did.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Because the backlash is already visible BEFORE the game is even out. They cobbled together a tech demo and the fans ripped it apart and tore Eidos Montreal a new one.

How far along in development was Sleeping dogs when Squeenix picked it up? How long a development history did the game have? But as an original IP, it had no fanbase to appease. That was not a factor to worry about. With Thief it's different. They already have 5 years (too long), they have a tech demo that barely works, and little else - except that we, the consumers, know all this. 2 years is the minimum they need to salvage this into anything that even comes close to attempting to recoup losses. I can tell you right now, they never will. The Thief series were fringe titles when they came out, they always were. Looking Glass Studios did not survive publishing them, remember? The fanbase is strong, but small. And older and wiser than you'd expect. They won't buy crap if it's thrown at them. Trying to turn this into a moneymaker will not work, that much is obvious right now. Too much money has been sunk into it, with next to no return to show, and next to none guaranteed.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

I'm feeling great today with larian's successful campaign at Divinity original sin, and now, news of trouble in the thiaf: abomination. This is too good that I feel it can't be true. I'm feeling exactly the opposite way of when I realized how they were destroying the legacy of mighty thief and good stealth games (which consists almost only by thief games)...

 

[octavius]

I hope they shelve the whole thief game, but salvage what work they have done and make it a generic first person stealth game where you play an assassin instead. It should be easier to sell as well. Apart from one of the Hitman games I don't think it has been done before either.

 

[Azazel]

Not cutting their losses and shitcanning this project now is the very definition of the Sunk Cost Fallacy. They don't even have a game right now, they have a 20 minute tech demo that they spent 10 months building, which barely fucking works. There is no product here to sell, there won't be for years. Are you trying to tell me that the new boss of Square Enix, (who was very blunt about ending the kind of bullshit that allowed Final Fantasy XIV to straggle along for years), is just going to tell Eidos that they can have another extension and lord knows how many millions?

Eidos Montreal is totally fucked and they know it. It suddenly makes perfect sense why they look so incredibly disinterested in all the promo videos, and why the Lead Game Designer quit the same month they started waving this turd under the nose of the press. I will eat my hat if they aren't all desperately writing resumes and shitting themselves over the layoffs in other studios this week.

 

[Gelbvieh]

Because the backlash is already visible BEFORE the game is even out. They cobbled together a tech demo and the fans ripped it apart and tore Eidos Montreal a new one.

How far along in development was Sleeping dogs when Squeenix picked it up? How long a development history did the game have? But as an original IP, it had no fanbase to appease. That was not a factor to worry about. With Thief it's different. They already have 5 years (too long), they have a tech demo that barely works, and little else - except that we, the consumers, know all this. 2 years is the minimum they need to salvage this into anything that even comes close to attempting to recoup losses. I can tell you right now, they never will. The Thief series were fringe titles when they came out, they always were. Looking Glass Studios did not survive publishing them, remember? The fanbase is strong, but small. And older and wiser than you'd expect. They won't buy crap if it's thrown at them. Trying to turn this into a moneymaker will not work, that much is obvious right now. Too much money has been sunk into it, with next to no return to show, and next to none guaranteed.

After half a decade of work and salaries, Thiaf isn't going away because a few nerds think it's too emo. They might fire a few people, bring in better management, that sort of thing, but they're not shelving the project. Not unless they're either bankrupt or preparing to axe most of their employees to avoid bankruptcy.

The point to make regarding fan backlash and dissatisfaction is that it probably matters more to us than it does to Squeenix or Eidos. We aren't the game's primary audience, which is everyone. I guarantee you that most people who buy games nowadays don't give two farts about "legacies" and all that (especially when we're talking about a 10+ year gap). If the devs can put in enough fanservice to cater to the nostalgia angle, great - the marketing department can turn that into good press. If they can't, fuck it. As long as the game is functional, it will have an audience.

 

[SCO]

Nice unprovable bet Azazel

 

[Darth Roxor]

The level, which takes place in part inside a brothel, apparently featured "Cinemax-level" sex sequences at one point that some animators were uncomfortable creating.

 

[MetalCraze]

The level, which takes place in part inside a brothel, apparently featured "Cinemax-level" sex sequences at one point that some animators were uncomfortable creating.

I WANT TO BE A THIAF

Peeping from the shadows fog

 

[Infinitron]

T2X actually did this first:

 

[skacky]

I'm pretty sure the FM Hush... Hush Sweet Harlot was the first to introduce a brothel in Thief, but T2X's is much more memorable. And you can even spy on people with hidden cameras.

 

[sea]

The level, which takes place in part inside a brothel, apparently featured "Cinemax-level" sex sequences at one point that some animators were uncomfortable creating.

Clearly, this is a true Thief game. Good AI? Proper dynamic light, shadow and sound systems for player detection? Rope arrows? Hah! No, Thief enthusiasts want to see softcore 3D porn. Bravo Eidos Montreal, bravo.

I'd like to apologize on behalf of the Canadian government for providing tax breaks that allowed this studio to exist in the first place.

 

[Infinitron]

The level, which takes place in part inside a brothel, apparently featured "Cinemax-level" sex sequences at one point that some animators were uncomfortable creating.

Clearly, this is a true Thief game. Good AI? Proper dynamic light, shadow and sound systems for player detection? Rope arrows? Hah! No, Thief enthusiasts want to see softcore 3D porn. Bravo Eidos Montreal, bravo.

I'd like to apologize on behalf of the Canadian government for providing tax breaks that allowed this studio to exist in the first place.

I'm pretty sure it's the Quebec government's doing, not the national government's.

Yeah, I know,

 

[sea]

I'm pretty sure it's the Quebec government's doing, not the national government's.

Quebec is like a big, screaming baby. The federal government is ultimately responsible for them, like a tired, stressed-out, borderline-suicidal parent.

Waah, we want handouts from the other provinces even though we're one of the most economically independent in the country! Waah, we want our language put on every product and sign in the country but make it illegal for people in Quebec to use English! Waah, we're gonna secede and rejoin France, and- wait, they don't want us? Shit, well uh, maybe we'll put that on hold, but we'll use that as ammo next time we want something! Waah!

 

[AstroZombie]

This screenshot...

 

[MetalCraze]

What if the player is too retarded to tell a candle from a typewriter?
With Thiaf's target audience you can never know.

 

[octavius]

What if the player is too retarded to tell a candle from a typewriter?
With Thiaf's target audience you can never know.

"wats a typewriter, lol"

 

[Jasede]

You know, this is a good point. The target audience probably has never seen a typewriter before.

 

[LivingOne]

I browsed a few mainstream sites and read some users comments.Looks like even those who were hyped are starting to get worried about these mismanagement news.It might really tank then?