Hob - Runic Games, open-world, sans dialogue, Shadow of Ico

MAP i saw posted on neogaf.

Hob Map

https://us.v-cdn.net/6029772/uploads/editor/hm/4exdnq6y0rjh.jpg

Ah, I didn’t notice that you said “lite” as opposed to “like” (although the latter seems to be included in the former). Anyway, yours isn’t the only Zelda reference I’ve seen, and I’m not trying to challenge those comparisons. I’m really curious about the pedigree of the game and because the Zelda games I’m most familiar with are the NES ones, I wanted to know which era of games presented something like this–Wind Waker? Ocarina? Or is it just in the sense that any action-adventure game with as much exploration as fighting ties back to Zelda? Hm…

Wow, finished it!

It’s real good, and I’m sure will end up among my favorite of the year. Still can’t shake the feeling that there was an utter masterpiece inside this thing that just didn’t come to fruition. But this does so many things well that I’ll still remember it fondly.

Updated version of that map with a couple other things (including the sword pieces I couldn’t find:

Hob Map

So I’m quite enjoying this game, but am having performance issues. I shouldn’t be having performance issues on a game like this - I’m running on a 1080 with an overclocked CPU and tons of RAM. Maybe it’s due to bad performance in ultra-widescreen? Anyone else having issues? It gets very stuttery as I’m running around. No issues with other games.

It’s a known bug in the game affecting some 1070 and 1080 users. Apparently Runic are working on a patch to fix it

Welp. That’s that for Runic. Perfect World is shutting them down.

Crap, just saw that over at Kotaku. Man that sucks.

Very sad, I heard the game was rough around the edges but still fun.

Shutting down Motiga as well.

Oh no! :(
This is terrible but not unsurprising news.
I thought Hob was fantastic and it’s one of my favorite games of the year but it had pretty abysmal sales.
Approx 45k (according to Steamspy).

A PCGamer article I came to link, though I see the word broke here already, in case there are more details to be gleaned.

(Thread, yep.)

Statement from Runic Games.

Hey everyone,

It’s been over nine years since a rag-tag team of 17 developers helped open Runic Games. We’ve been so lucky for the community that has supported us and made us successful. Thanks to that support, we have had the chance to meet and work with the best people in the world. Our team here at Runic has released three successful games, and over that time we have seen many changes; team members got married, kids were born, but the most important thing is that we have become a family.

I’m sorry to say that today will be Runic’s last day open. Our focus is on our family here, and helping them find a new place to call home. If you are in games and looking for some of the best talent in the industry, please email [email protected].

For those that love the Torchlight series, there will be some news coming. And for all our fans, our community and multiplayer services will keep running even after the studio’s lights go off.

It has been an amazing experience. To my family here at Runic, I know we won’t be far from each other, and I’ll miss seeing you all every week.

You haven’t heard the last of us,

Marsh Lefler

Studio Head

So why did Hob fail, lack of marketing? All the reviews said it was rather splendid.

Well I, uh, didn’t actually know it was released for whatever reason.

I think I remember one person on one podcast gushing over it, and that was it. Completely forgot it existed until today’s sad news.

Man, the XBox 360 version of Torchlight 1 was unbelievable. Loved that game.

So yeah, lack of marketing.

How so? If we’re going by very limited anecdotal evidence: It had a 2 year old thread here with some participation. I remember some talk about it on Reddit in a gaming forum. It was on the front page of Steam the week it was released (at least for me). Youtube people I follow were playing it. It just didn’t look like something I would be interested in.

I don’t think it was lack of marketing but rather the genre/type of game.

I think a lot of people said:
“I love Torchlight - I’ll definitely buy Torchlight 3!”
“Oh, they made this weird platformer called Hob? - Looks boring to me, I’ll skip”