Brother Inquisitor on 16/2/2014 at 14:54
Quote Posted by Azaran
Actually, I'm convinced they'll do just fine on a financial level. There's enough new gamers who don't know about the other games who will buy it thinking it's a brand new series, and the NuThief FB page has 112,000 fans - not all of them will buy the game of course, but most of them will; most of the people commenting on there seem ecstatic at everything that gets posted. Assuming the game costs $60, that's at least $6 million in sales right there.
$6 million is a pretty dismal number when it comes to a project of this magnitude. If that's the kind of sales they can expect from Thiaf, the Squeenix overlords won't settle with simply closing the studio down, they would have the people responsible ritually disembowel themselves.
Here's why I'm convinced the game won't sell, regardless of the quality (or lack thereof) of the actual product: A lot of new players won't bite because they see a Dishonored rip-off. A lot of oldschool fans won't bite because they see this game as sacrilege. The rest will probably hold off due to the highly negative word of mouth, even from the gaming press shills. Recent SE reboots like Tomb Raider and Hitman Absolution didn't meet sales expectations (with TR it was apparently bad enough that they decided to rerelease pretty much the exact same game one year later at full price) and those had nowhere near as bad a reputation as Thiaf has. Also, after disasters like "Colonial Marines", many players are probably wary of pre-order sales tactics and even promising them a new level won't be enough to take that risk again.
Goldmoon Dawn on 16/2/2014 at 17:41
Quote Posted by Mr. Tibbs
One reason why the delivery sounds especially awkward is that when Eidos Montreal removed the majority of the profanity from the game, they did so without re-recording the lines. They replaced every instance of "fuck" with "frig". People who went hands-on said it sounds dreadful.
As a talented sound editor myself, I can already imagine how terrible and frankenstein-ish this would sound. :eww:
If your initial design and subsequent actual development time are so inherently flawed that you find yourself backpedaling to this degree, oh man, you are screwed! A proper development, like with Dark Project for example, is a majestic ride going from the developers masterfully honing and feverish outpouring of their creativity to the fans who eat up each and every new development message, anticipating in their dreams the glorious release date.
The fans need not have input, because the team is lovingly crafting what they know will be a classic and enduring effort. These types of games and these types of development cycles seem like a thing of the past, oh wait... Ultima and Might and Magic are *still* doing it, and doing it well.
:ebil:
Jason Moyer on 16/2/2014 at 18:27
Here's why I'm convinced the game will sell, regardless of the quality of the actual product: A lot of new players will bite because it looks similar to Dishonored. A lot of oldschool fans will bite because they're open to a new game in a beloved series. The rest will probably buy it day 1 after everyone gushes about it, especially sites like RPS, Eurogamer, and Zero Punctiation. Recent SE reboots like Tomb Raider and Hitman Absolution didn't meet sales expectations despite being among the best-selling games SE has ever released, but Thief is looking like a far better game than either of those. After the success of nearly every AAA title released in the past 20 years, many players will probably pre-order this in order to get a free bonus mission.
Quote Posted by Goldmoon Dawn
Ultima Wizardry Might&Magic Bard'sTale PoolOfRadiance Wasteland DragonWars DungeonMaster EyeOfTheBeholder and a pile of other crap that barely influenced games made in the late 90's not to mention games being made now, even sequels and spiritual successors to those very games
Goldmoon Dawn on 16/2/2014 at 19:41
Blasphemer!!!! :ebil:
SubJeff on 16/2/2014 at 20:52
Tech work around
Painkiller on 16/2/2014 at 23:48
Wish they'd release a SDK for some serious modding. I realize the chances of that happening are about zero. Amazing what the mod community can, and could do if they'd release one for this Thief. I'd be shocked if it happened.
Starker on 16/2/2014 at 23:50
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
The rest will probably buy it day 1 after everyone gushes about it, especially sites like ... Zero Punctiation.
Heh, good one.
GodzillaX8 on 17/2/2014 at 01:35
Quote Posted by Goldmoon Dawn
A proper development, like with Dark Project for example, is a majestic ride going from the developers masterfully honing and feverish outpouring of their creativity to the fans who eat up each and every new development message, anticipating in their dreams the glorious release date.
The fans need not have input, because the team is lovingly crafting what they know will be a classic and enduring effort.
You are quite possibly the most delusional human on this planet. The staff that worked on TDP were not sent from the heavens in order to deliver a video game to you.
Eidos Montreal has ~500 employees. Looking Glass had 80 or fewer. (Also keep in mind that LGS released between 1 and 3 games per year) The scale and scope of making a game is incredibly different now. You really seem to not understand this. Assuming TDP had never been made before, and Thief were going to be functionally identical to it, but with modern AAA graphics, it would be a massively hideous failure in today's market. Please understand and accept this, as it is the truth. There are not enough competent "hardcore" fans to purchase that game for what it would cost to make from scratch with modern tech. Games cost less for the consumer now and cost more for the developer/publisher.
Things have to appeal to people who haven't been worshiping a 15 year old game like it was handcrafted by Zeus and gifted to the world, and regardless of how much you, or I, or anyone else here like the original game, it would not sell. If The Dark Mod had paid everyone for all the work they did on it and sold it as a retail product with a full campaign for $50, it would have lost
incredible amounts of money.
Renault on 17/2/2014 at 02:03
Quote Posted by GodzillaX8
The scale and scope of making a game is incredibly different now.
You can't just claim that's the case across the board - there are projects on all levels, from one man shops to places with 500+ employees. But if Thief doesn't do well sales wise, you can bet that Eidos will start to rethink how they make games. When they're expecting 6-8 million in sales from all their franchises and only getting half of that or less, you might see some of these studios scaling things back a bit more. They can't just use Assassin's Creed type budgets for every game they make.
Goldmoon Dawn on 17/2/2014 at 02:08
Quote Posted by GodzillaX8
(Also keep in mind that LGS released between 1 and 3 games per year) The scale and scope of making a game is incredibly different now. You really seem to not understand this.
Why is it that video games is the one thing that no one takes pride in its roots and history. Probably because the very nature of video games itself is childish I guess. Richard Garriott, the crpgs, Looking Glass, and a handful of others created and shaped this industry from the ground up. They paved they way so that the youngsters could have their live action killing sprees. You make mock of the people who made it possible for you to be typing at a video game forum. If you dont like me, thats one thing, but to deny the history of computer role playing games, which Thief is a part of, speaks volumes about you, not me.
