Malakal said:And nothing of value was lost.
Still I wonder why they even started working on it. Wasnt Arcanum a flop that destroyed Troika?
Malakal said:Xor said:SCO said:I would kill for a Bloodlines sequel. But maybe not bloodlines. Werewolf? Wraith?
Shit would be so cash.
Fucking peasants
buying shit like HL
I would kill for a well done Mage the Ascension cRPG.
This. Bloodlines sequel I would gladly buy.
No.Azrael the cat said:Malakal said:And nothing of value was lost.
Still I wonder why they even started working on it. Wasnt Arcanum a flop that destroyed Troika?
Volourn has no excuse for his ignorance (not talking about his not liking Arcanum - that's personal taste, and personally I don't think it's their best game either), but you're a newbie so I'll stop laughing long enough to explain why that isn't true:
Arcanum was Troika's first game, and the only game of theirs that had a very very healthy profit. Arcanum was financially successful, and was their highest selling game by a long margin.
So no, it wasn't a flop that destroyed Troika. It wasn't even a flop. It made a lot of money - I don't have links, but if you do a search of the Dex you'll find an interview with one of the founders giving their sales and profits for each game.
ToEE dipped, and was their weakest title. VtM:B ended up selling ok, but had a very slow start due to being unplayable at release.
They started the initial design in 1998 on a steampunk/fantasy crossover computer RPG named Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura and convinced Sierra Entertainment to publish it. The game was launched on August 21, 2001. While criticized for being unpolished and having a bad combat engine, it received in general favorable reviews with an average of 81% on Metacritic.[3] With 234,000 units sold it is, to this date, Troika's best selling game.
After Arcanum was released in 2001, two teams start to work on two separate games. One team created The Temple of Elemental Evil for publisher Atari which was released on the September 26, 2003. It was lauded for the good implementation of the D&D 3.5 system but overall it got mixed reviews due to gameplay bugs and lack of a plot. With a 71% on Metacritic it was the lowest rated Troika game.[4] It sold about 128,000 units.[5]
The other team worked for Activision on Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. Using an early version of the Source engine, development was finished in October 2004. Due to contractual obligations with Valve Corporation, Activision was not allowed to release the game before Valve released Half-Life 2, scheduled for release in November 2004. Troika Games used the interim period to code a patch into the main program. Bloodlines was released on November 16, 2004 (the same day as Half Life 2). Critics praised Bloodlines' visual, audio and story but warned about a bug-ridden game. It got a rating of 80% on Metacritic,[6] and sold merely 72,000 units.[5]
Think of the positive too:GarfunkeL said:Don't remember it being leaked before-hand. Or at least not much. Troika's problem was that none of their publisher wanted to go steady - they only had one-night stands. OTOH, considering what Obsidian has made so far, it's possible that if they had had a Feargus-type running the show instead of the troika, their games would've been worse off.
Yes, it leaked SIX (!) months before the release (publisher held it so they could make simultaneous intl. release, or something...). It was pirated to hell and back and this is one of the main reasons it didn't sell that well (as it could).Silellak said:Didn't Arcanum also have issues revolving around the fact it was leaked a good time before the release date?
NPD (US-retail only) numbers from March 2005.Shannow said:Those numbers are strange. Where are they from? Walmart sales in North America in the first year?
Yeah, Mr. B also mentioned in one of his few 'dex posts that ToEE was their fastest-selling.I distinctly remember an interview that mentions ToEE as being their best selling game in the long run.
It's from NPD which claimed that the numbers they presented cover about 60 percent of American and Canadian market. And even these estimates were disputed by some devs.Shannow said:Those numbers are strange. Where are they from? Walmart sales in North America in the first year?
I distinctly remember an interview that mentions ToEE as being their best selling game in the long run.
(source)Leonard Boyarsky said:I don't have any actual numbers at hand (nor do I know whether I can reveal numbers per our contract, since I don't have that with me at the moment either), but to the best of my knowledge, ToEE was our best seller - or at least our fastest.
Awor Szurkrarz said:No.Azrael the cat said:Malakal said:And nothing of value was lost.
Still I wonder why they even started working on it. Wasnt Arcanum a flop that destroyed Troika?
Volourn has no excuse for his ignorance (not talking about his not liking Arcanum - that's personal taste, and personally I don't think it's their best game either), but you're a newbie so I'll stop laughing long enough to explain why that isn't true:
Arcanum was Troika's first game, and the only game of theirs that had a very very healthy profit. Arcanum was financially successful, and was their highest selling game by a long margin.
So no, it wasn't a flop that destroyed Troika. It wasn't even a flop. It made a lot of money - I don't have links, but if you do a search of the Dex you'll find an interview with one of the founders giving their sales and profits for each game.
ToEE dipped, and was their weakest title. VtM:B ended up selling ok, but had a very slow start due to being unplayable at release.
They started the initial design in 1998 on a steampunk/fantasy crossover computer RPG named Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura and convinced Sierra Entertainment to publish it. The game was launched on August 21, 2001. While criticized for being unpolished and having a bad combat engine, it received in general favorable reviews with an average of 81% on Metacritic.[3] With 234,000 units sold it is, to this date, Troika's best selling game.
After Arcanum was released in 2001, two teams start to work on two separate games. One team created The Temple of Elemental Evil for publisher Atari which was released on the September 26, 2003. It was lauded for the good implementation of the D&D 3.5 system but overall it got mixed reviews due to gameplay bugs and lack of a plot. With a 71% on Metacritic it was the lowest rated Troika game.[4] It sold about 128,000 units.[5]
The other team worked for Activision on Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. Using an early version of the Source engine, development was finished in October 2004. Due to contractual obligations with Valve Corporation, Activision was not allowed to release the game before Valve released Half-Life 2, scheduled for release in November 2004. Troika Games used the interim period to code a patch into the main program. Bloodlines was released on November 16, 2004 (the same day as Half Life 2). Critics praised Bloodlines' visual, audio and story but warned about a bug-ridden game. It got a rating of 80% on Metacritic,[6] and sold merely 72,000 units.[5]
Kosmonaut said:Could anybody tell me in a very detailed way, or point me to a review or analysis, why did Arcanum combat sucked? Why is widely considered a badly implemented combat? Thanks.
Bladderfish said:Anyway, the reason why Bloodlines was so good was the plot and the dialogue and the voice acting. Bringing those three things together in equal measures of brilliance for a second time would probably spell the end of the universe. Because I can't think of a single development studio alive today that can actually write an original plot and quality dialogue.