Telefrog
2934
Their game is on Desura and Humble Bundle. Unfortunately, it’s highly doubtful that any combination of vendors will give them enough sales to make up for losing Steam. Maulbeck himself pointed out that they sold 12 copies of Paranautical Activity outside of Steam on their launch day. They had sold that per minute on Steam before they were taken down.
Other indie devs have said that Steam can be up to 90% of their total sales, even vs console versions.
RickH
2935
Option 1: He left for the good of the company, but it didn’t fix the problem, so the better option was for him to return and make the best of it and try to help the people he hurt with his foolish actions.
Option 2: He lied, they lied, lies all around.
There are things we know and there are things we think we know. And there are phrases used to suggest we know things we don’t, such as “rings a bit hollow now.”
They admitted he never sold his half of the company to his partner. That’s not a “think we know” that’s a “we definitely know”.
…when it finally came time to put pen to paper…
That’s the key phrase. He never actually did anything but take a leave of absence.
RickH
2937
Yep, business transactions take time. Sometimes so much time you realize the purpose of the transaction went away. Such as Valve using its godlike powers over PC indies to render you dead (not just threaten) on their damn-near-monopoly platform.
As in “don’t bother lining up the financing, it’s pointless now.” One interpretation assumes falsehood and deceit, the other an acceptance of reality. But journalists get to pick one and run with it.
Joe_M
2938
We’re all about personal responsibility until we’re not, eh?
RickH
2939
Ha, sadly yes. People usually do what they need to do rather than what they said they’d do or what they should do. Especially when it comes to money.
At least it’s a small variation on the usual slow news day/lazy writer “Apple should buy Nintendo” article.
An interesting (historical) article from when AAA’s used to be more experimental, and in particular about Activision’s Alter Ego (courtesy of a link via the Critical Distance website):
http://www.filfre.net/2014/11/alter-ego/
I never really got into the game that much, it was often too opaque i feel, but it was a curious diversion and just nice to experience the more experimental game design doing the rounds back then.
A Disney owned Nintendo… that’s a nightmare scenario; but in terms of how the companies act they are probably part of the same circle.
Some news on the probable closure of C&VG magazine, i think they were a uk only based game magazine, and certainly in the early days were awesome. I started my experiences with game programming by typing out their Basic game listings back in the 80’s. Happy Days :) Now while it is sad to see them go, it is not a unique story in the game magazine space, and they are certainly a shadow of their former greatness from last time i picked up a copy (mid 2000’s sometime):
‘Two Eras End In UK Games Journalism’:
‘Peter Molyneux learns the harsh lessons of Kickstarter and Early Access’:
oh, Peter.
LMN8R
2947
You’d think someone of his caliber would have enough connections to know those lessons well before he ever considered going that route.
I realize Betteridge’s Law of Headlines doesn’t technically apply here, but I’m gonna venture that no, Molyneux hasn’t learned much at all.
Terrific article from The Atlantic about Softporn:
“Software for the Masses” might have been an otherwise arid tech story, buried and forgettable. But it ran with a warm, risqué photo of three brunettes in an outdoor hot tub, their breasts bobbing and nudging the waterline. This image was the promotional photography for the “computer fantasy game” Softporn, in which “players seek to seduce three women, while avoiding hazards, such as getting killed by a bouncer in a disco.” For $29.95 (plus $1 shipping and handling) a company named On-Line Systems would mail out this “funny, provocative, challenging adventure game for adults only!” on a single 5.25-inch floppy disk. Time reported that 4,000 copies had already been sold, making each and every purchaser the proud, unsuspecting owner of America’s first commercially-released pornographic computer game.
Fun fact: That’s Roberta Williams in the hot tub.
Wow - history! I don’t think that game was available over here? Maybe mail order?
Not just Roberta, that’s Ken Williams in that picture too. Not sure who the other women are though.
‘Retailer drops GTA V due to depictions of violence against women’:
I’m not big on violence towards women, so this sounds disappointing, although i know the GTA games have a history of this kind of ‘gangsta’ culture in them, which are often anti-social (one reason i never could play them for long).
Razgon
2953
Its a shame yes. I have a friend who loves this game, and says all the violence and stupidity is irony. While I appreciate irony normally, its too crass for me in this iteration of the game.
