Tyranny Pre-Release Thread

[Deleted member 7219]

Steam Spy can't estimates pre-order numbers. (Unless a game is visible in user's library before the release. Like Football Manager 2017. They are offering beta version to pre-order purchasers.)

Surely we must have a few dozen people here who could tell us whether a Tyranny pre-order shows up in your game library.

It does.

 

[Bubbles]

Yeah, I've been looking at people's libraries, and Tyranny shows up right next to Witcher 3 and DotA 2, with no distinction about "not owning" the game. Seems like the pre-order numbers show up on Steamspy after all.

 

[Infinitron]

They'd better hope for some stellar reviews. Better hope people read them quick before Dishonored 2 comes out, too.

 

[Bubbles]

As far as I can tell, the review keys haven't even gone out yet. They might be cutting it a bit close there, unless they really expect reviewers to only spend one or two days with the game.

 

[LESS T_T]

Tyranny's number is likely based on a few dozens of Obsidian and Paradox employees (see geography section).

Well, apparently Steam Spy stopped updating geography stat for a while due to some error.

 

[prodigydancer]

They'd better hope for some stellar reviews. Better hope people read them quick before Dishonored 2 comes out, too.

Big budget first-person stealth action and mid-tier isometric CRPG is a bit too far apart for direct competition. Some people may like both but certainly not everyone. Besides, like any blockbuster, Dishonored 2 will come and go. Tyranny, if Obsidian will make good on their promises of replayability, might stay relevant for quite a while.

Of course, if the question is which game will make more in the first week, the answer is p. clear good reviews or no good reviews.

 

[Fry]

Does anyone post on official company forums these days?

The Paradox forums are very active... https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?forums/

Probably because Paradox makes an effort. The devs read and reply to posts, games in active development get frequent dev diaries, etc. If the publisher's focus is to communicate with players though streamers and PR, naturally their forums will be either shit or nonexistent.

 

[Infinitron]

Stream is live:



They're continuing Tim Cain's Cleve playthrough, but he's not playing this time.

 

[Infinitron]

This stream goes a bit further into the game than last month's 100 minute Polygon stream did. Next stream will be on release day.

 

[santino27]

Steam Spy can't estimates pre-order numbers. (Unless a game is visible in user's library before the release. Like Football Manager 2017. They are offering beta version to pre-order purchasers.)

Surely we must have a few dozen people here who could tell us whether a Tyranny pre-order shows up in your game library.

Can't speak for anyone else, but those people who pre-ordered from external sites that will give steam keys on release (uk.gamesplanet, for example) obviously don't have it showing in their library yet, so the #s won't be completely accurate.

 

[Ignatius Reilly]

I can never enjoy those streams. I want to click the buttons and move the characters. It's a nightmare having to experience it that way. Like watching my brother play MGS2. Some good chat, though, I guess.

8 day time limit is only for the first act.

Kind of nice that the game tracks every little action you've done to gain favor or wrath with a faction.

 

[ilitarist]

Hope faction relations work well. In PoE they've only mattered in that big city and felt both obscure and meaningless. At least, say, Alpha Protocol was obscure but it suited the theme and results. FNV had much fuss with factions but it only mattered if you've tried to sit on a fence for as long as possible, plus the most rewarding and interesting ending could be achieved whatever your relations were with different factions.

Perhaps I only like Alpha Protocol faction system cause I've completed it only once and didn't see it collapse.

 

[Morality Games]

Hope faction relations work well. In PoE they've only mattered in that big city and felt both obscure and meaningless. At least, say, Alpha Protocol was obscure but it suited the theme and results. FNV had much fuss with factions but it only mattered if you've tried to sit on a fence for as long as possible, plus the most rewarding and interesting ending could be achieved whatever your relations were with different factions.

Perhaps I only like Alpha Protocol faction system cause I've completed it only once and didn't see it collapse.

... I mean, Alpha Protocol and Fallout: New Vegas have are competitive for best faction design ever in a PC RPG. There are natural limits to what you can accomplish outside of the tabletop, just like with C&C.

 

[ilitarist]

... I mean, Alpha Protocol and Fallout: New Vegas have are competitive for best faction design ever in a PC RPG. There are natural limits to what you can accomplish outside of the tabletop, just like with C&C.

Maybe factions themselves are good - especially dynamic of changing perception of Legion/NCR/Brotherhood by the player - but interaction with them is very limited. Yet indeed, they're probably the best in the genre. Sad, isn't it?

I can remember very few games that are better in both representing factions as an interesting entity and allowing player to interact with them. Pathologic, maybe? - though it's much smaller in scope and gameplay is not nearly as complex as story interactions. Many systemic games like Daggerfall have better system of faction quests and accounting player actions, but those mostly feel like soulless calculators.

 

[Sannom]

Kind of nice that the game tracks every little action you've done to gain favor or wrath with a faction.

I love that you can gain Wrath with Tunon without having never met the guy. Apparently he takes respecting a white flag very seriously.

Hope faction relations work well.

They're much more central to the game and the plot this time around, so I'm not worried. They're also much more defined.

 

[Morality Games]

They might have decided in advance that Tyranny (being 'indie' and RPG) lends itself to a lifetime sales approach and that they don't need to do a lot of marketing.

 

[ilitarist]

They might have decided in advance that Tyranny (being 'indie' and RPG) lends itself to a lifetime sales approach and that they don't need to do a lot of marketing.

This is what hanging around with Paradox does to you.

 

[Infinitron]

There's a difference between not doing a lot of marketing and needlessly handicapping yourself.

 

[Morality Games]

Well, this is a "long shot" analysis, but in the video game industry success is still regarded as preorders/release sales regardless of how little sense that makes in the world of Steam sales. Because *some* big blockbuster franchises still have big preorders/release sales it necessarily follows that any game must have that to constitute any sort of success (from an investor's/buyer's perspective). Paradox is attempting to graduate to the big leagues while addressing the handicap of belonging to a markets context where consumers are high info buyers (strategy game enthusiasts) and will take care of most of the research to inform themselves of upcoming releases without the publisher having to do anything at all. In this context, attempting to generate hype around a game that is *bound* to sell poorly at release and sell well over time is going to get a lot of negative feedback from commentators and critics who will start writing that Paradox's and Obsidian's new game failed at launch. So paradoxically raising awareness about the game at launch is going to hurt their company more than help them, and they are only putting out enough for the high info buyers to be aware that it exists.

 

[Ignatius Reilly]

This very well may be the game that sinks Obsidian, no wait, that was the New Vegas bonus. Never forget.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[vortex]

This very well may be the game that sinks Obsidian, no wait, that was the New Vegas bonus. Never forget.

Obsidian won't sink. Bethesda or EA will buy them eventually. Unless, they'll go on the road like CDProjekt Red and Rockstar. What Obsidian needs is some big title like Skyrim or Witcher to stand alone.
I believe they are making something big along PoE2.

 

[Morality Games]

At this point Obsidian sinking feels kind of unlikely. If they can successfully reverse outsource to do work for video game companies in developing countries whose language they don't even speak then they'll pretty much go to any lengths to survive, something Tim Cain was unwilling to do with Troika. Between that in the fact that half a million people in their fan base will buy whatever RPGs they make eventually + crowdfunding, they seem to be sitting pretty. Whether or not they'll ever attain Fallout: New Vegas levels of mainstream glory ever again is sort of contentious, though.

Remember that the Obsidian owners come from an era where game developers would do work unrelated to their field of expertise in order to survive (military programming, etc).

 

[Deleted member 7219]

The Chinese MMOs have kept Obsidian going over the past few years, and Pillars of Eternity was successful too. Tyranny may not do well because of the lack of press, but Paradox will be happy with it and they'll get to make more Paradox games in the future. Pillars of Eternity 2 will do the business too. If anything, Obsidian may downsize and continue to crank out games of this type instead of AAA console games.

They won't get another big publisher contract again. All the publishers have their own studios now, and as TheSentinel said, CDProjekt could only get away with making their own AAA RPG because they have a powerful publishing arm behind them (as well as tax breaks from the Polish government and other benefactors).

 

[Infinitron]

The Chinese MMOs have kept Obsidian going over the past few years, and Pillars of Eternity was successful too. Tyranny may not do well because of the lack of press, but Paradox will be happy with it and they'll get to make more Paradox games in the future. Pillars of Eternity 2 will do the business too. If anything, Obsidian may downsize and continue to crank out games of this type instead of AAA console games.

They won't get another big publisher contract again. All the publishers have their own studios now, and as TheSentinel said, CDProjekt could only get away with making their own AAA RPG because they have a powerful publishing arm behind them (as well as tax breaks from the Polish government and other benefactors).

You're forgetting the secret Cain and Boyarsky project http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...discussion-thread.84849/page-142#post-4753575