I love Bethesda and Obsidian, but there is no way they should touch STALKER. Valve could probably do it justice, based on Half-Life, but even that isn't a 1-to-1 fit. I think it would have to be somebody from that region of the world leading the development.
Okay, got SoC since you say it's better than CoP... Is Complete the definitive mod for that still? Oblivion Lost seems popular too and has some nice videos but it's not like I know exactly what's modified in them...
I love Bethesda and Obsidian, but there is no way they should touch STALKER. Valve could probably do it justice, based on Half-Life, but even that isn't a 1-to-1 fit. I think it would have to be somebody from that region of the world leading the development.
Okay, got SoC since you say it's better than CoP... Is Complete the definitive mod for that still? Oblivion Lost seems popular too and has some nice videos but it's not like I know exactly what's modified in them...
Oblivion Lost is terrible, dude. Why not just play the game vanilla first to see if you like it before going all willy-nilly?
I must be a console gamer.
We will do our best to continue. However, at this moment, nothing is certain.
Look, I love the STALKER games, but this seems like a collection of bullshit excuses.I'm reading publisher's discussion on twitter (people who worked/started russian publishers focused on PC gaming) and judging from numbers they mention it seems that the problem was in lack of console versions indeed. Most sales of PC games come from Russia/Poland and these markets have lower prices than usual (like 3 times lower in Russia for example). By selling 800 000k at retail (where the market still is in Russia/Poland) they get only 10 million$. 200 000k through digital - another 3 million. And that is for a major project with experienced publisher behind it. so they just broke even.
The bottomline - you can't have a team of 50 people and develop for PC only, period.*
Today GSC will issue an official statement and according to various rumours Grigorovich may say that he closed the company because of personal reasons. But personal reasons or not, the real reasons behind closing ae likely to be mostly financial. "Personal reasons" - I don't want to develop a game and then barely stay alive next two years, I had enough of this - something like this, I guess.
*edit: by this I mean single-player games.
Look, I love the STALKER games, but this seems like a collection of bullshit excuses.
-Some self-introspection is necessary on their part. Are they ignoring comments from both gamers and reviews about how shoddy their games are? They're absolutely wonderful for the few people like me who can struggle through the broken-ness, but even Call of Pripyat - by far their most polished game - had severe issues with regards to performance and stability. Whether it's people who heard from their friends or who pirated before buying, why would anyone buy the game after they had a chance to try it? It's not an excuse for pirates, but it's also not an excuse for GSC.
-Furthermore, this shit would fly even less on consoles. Why would they think a console version would magically turn their sales around? Plenty of games outright fail on consoles - many did exactly that this year. And most of those games are far more polished and mainstream-ized than even the best STALKER game was.
-That is, of course, if they could even get the STALKER games on consoles in the first place. But with such an unoptimized engine, they would have had to spend significantly more money just to re-work the engine and conform to platform standards, it would have been even more difficult to make their money back.
I can't understand why you are talking about STALKER but I was talking about sales of big PC exclusives (TW2 in this case).
So when are these publishers going to consider raising money from gamers? What if they asked for x number of dollars to be donated so the game can be made? Gabe mentioned this a couple times a few years ago but nothing came of it.
The Witcher 2 made a significant profit despite those facts about Russian distribution, wildly outpacing their expectations. So I'm not sure why you're talking about The Witcher 2 when it goes directly against your statement.
Seemed like you're implying that GSC closed because of sales numbers of STALKER games. That's why I brought up STALKER.
Also, we're in a thread about STALKER, so, ya know...
50 person team sounds super small. No wonder the games are so clunky. What are the wages there if 4 million sales over less than 3 years aren't enough to conveniently sustain them? I mean, Spiderweb Software only has a family to feed more or less but they only sell tens of thousands of copies, not hundreds, and don't usually have a game out every year,while some perform much less. I'd think the numbers can work as multiplied for the 50 people in a country with lesser living expenses. And why didn't they try to do more widespread appeal games inbetween/on the side if they were really hurting for cash, instead of continue business as usual if it clearly wasn't viable? And would their wages really be increased all that much if the games did better or just all go to the boss/company? Did employees actively go with less than standard wage?
You never once clarified in your first post that you were quoting anyone remotely related to The Witcher or CD Projekt. You just listed random context-less numbers generically stating what games sell in Russia.I just told you how much money they made from TW2. This comes from a man from a company who were publishing TW1 and then TW2 when 1C bought them. He knows better than you. 13 million $ approximately. That is all. (and not only in Russian distribution, east european market included).
Is it enough to exist? Yes. Is it good for a company where majority of people have families to suppot and they need stability and therefore profitability, not barely break even? No. and that is a major publishing house with marketing and all that stuff. GSC didn't have that muscle but they had these expenses. That is why I'm talking about them.
edit: I'll try to clarify these numbers, just in case.
I guess Grigorovich tried to make extra money with merchandise but it didn't work out.
well, let's wait and see...
It seems like you came into this thread out of the blue.
Still right now, nothing you've posted is adequately sourced or suggest anything but The Witcher and The Witcher 2 making a profit.
It seems like you came into this thread out of the blue, without any sources, and even after being questioned still failing to provide any source, and are using your unsourced numbers to back a claim that the unsourced numbers don't even seem to back up in the first place.
The Witcher obviously made a profit. It's how they were able to develop The Witcher 2 with such excellent quality, stability, and polish that GSC could never dream of reaching. There is also 0 indication that the STALKER games weren't profitable too.
Ex-developers (not Sergey) are looking for investor at this moment, so they could continue development.
Im not certail how they are going to pull this off, since all rights to STALKER brand belong to Sergey Grigorovich.
Stalker-Risen anyone?
Well, rights to already developed and ufinished STALKER 2 are too belong to Grigorovich, so it would be hard to rebrand it and finish under a new name. Although Grigirovich might be fine with that if he gets his money, right?
on a related note Sergey Galyonkin said in RPS comment sections that devs seek investors:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/12/stalker-2-a-light-in-the-wasteland/
I would gladly play $500 to fund the development of STALKER 2. It is a corner of gaming that has the biggest potential. Letting it die will only making gaming worse.
A lot more console devs have bit the dust than pc devs. Go reread nirolak's list.
I sincerely doubt that the exclusive rights to make videogames based loosely on Roadside Picnic and the STALKER movie are owned by him. And Chernobyl itself is public knowledge.on a related note Sergey Galyonkin said in RPS comment sections that devs seek investors:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/12/stalker-2-a-light-in-the-wasteland/
Well, that's going into way subjective territory. For example, obviously console-only gamers might think all the PC studios that closed weren't important, while a heavy old school PC gamer might think no current studio matches the importance of those PC devs so any new closure wouldn't be nearly as important to him/her. Disasters have occured on both sides of the industry regardless of what you're mostly into (I mean, look at what happened to SEGA), that doesn't always show an issue with the market conditions on the platforms as a whole but also with the decisions of publishers and developers alike, especially for many of those you just mentioned.
I yelled no as loud as I could for a minute- now I am sad, dizzy and my throat hurts.
This day fucking sucks.
Enjoying the first game with the Complete mod more than I expected (and more than the last couple times). Although I must say it's way more linear than I thought it would be after seeing people rail Metro 2033 for its linearity.
Real talk Bethesda should just buy the fucking IP
Dear Stalkers: We will not be releasing any official news until around mid January. However there is cause for hope! Good hunting!
The Stalker team continues work on the project and hopefully everything will turn out well. Good Hunting Stalkers!