Heres EAs message to Dungeon Keeper fans who are let down by the franchises revival as a free-to-play game: perhaps paraphrasing Jay-Z, Dungeon Keeper producer Jeff Skalski told PGs Mark Brown, If you want to play Dungeon Keeper or Dungeon Keeper 2, go to Good Old Games and download them.
Clearly nobody should be holding Jeff Skalski accountable for Dungeon Keepers transformation into a Clash of Clans-style freemium game chock full of timers and in-app purchases that decision was certainly sent down to Mythic Entertainment from EAs fell fortress.
But Skalskis surprise at the fan revolt is eyebrow-raising. How could he have expected anything different?
The original Dungeon Keeper was an intricate-but-whimsical fantasy sim from Bullfrog, the British studio responsible for some of the best strategy games ever made. Taking a classic and making a loosely related modern incarnation of it in a wildly different genre has never gone well: look at the frosty greeting offered by fans to 2Ks proposed XCOM shooter, which caused the game to go back to the drawing board more than once.
Theres a very questionable strategic decision underlying this whole thing. People with fond memories of Dungeon Keeper & Dungeon Keeper 2 from the 1990s will now be in their 30s & 40s the demographic segment least likely to spend on free-to-play games.
I dont doubt that the size of the prize is smaller if youre selling to 30 & 40 year olds, and you cant begrudge EA for wanting to chase that Clash of Clans money, but what exactly is the business case for this game? Slapping an original IP on it (or giving it an IP with a younger built-in audience, like Dragon Age) would have been considerably smarter. Ultima Forever, EAs last attempt to freemium-ize a classic video game property, was a bomb.
Brown asked Skalski if hes demoralized by the fan reaction to Dungeon Keeper. Its honestly part of the business, Skalski said. It doesnt have to be, man.
Dungeon Keeper is currently soft-launched in Canada.
