UA probably didn’t help, but my guess is Prey was the real killer. Prey was an incredible game, extremely well-reviewed, the latest in the line of Looking Glass-esque titles, and it sold poorly.
Not the end of the game, but it was her popups throughout the game that were brilliant and deeply disturbing.
Prey is great, and is basically the closest thing to a System Shock 3. Much more so than BioShock and Dead Space. I think it just didn’t have any buzz whatsoever, and the enemy design is kinda one-note, and it re-used a name of a previous game that was totally different…FPS in the post-Doom 3 vein.
PREY would have probably done much better if it had another name.
The name was definitely a mistake. I thought it was a re-release until someone corrected me.
I liked Prey, but honestly, the enemies just didn’t scare nor intimidate me at all.
SS3 edge over Prey could be a more charismatic villain and more intense horror vibe.
Maybe the audience just doesn’t exist for such a game if it isn’t also being developed on a shoestring indie budget, or isn’t getting cash infusions from whales.
This is a weird stance since these days you don’t really need a publisher.
I wonder if what they’re really looking for is more money to finish the game.
Publishers help with marketing too. That’s what killed Prey, nobody knew about it.
Nobody knew about Fallout: New Vegas, either. Or maybe I’m just making up an excuse.
F:NV had a strong IP and followed a successful game.
The point I was trying to make was that Fallout: NV was less successful than Fallout 3 or Fallout 4 because it tried to be smart. But looking at it further the sales for FNV were actually still very good.
I don’t share your dim view of gamers, my feeling is F:NV undersold F3/F4 because it wasn’t marketed to the same degree and was outrageously buggy.
If F:NV were marketed based on its strengths it would have offended a lot of people.
I’m not saying there aren’t games that are smart. I mean, there are plenty of strategy games. Even games like NMS or Subnautica require careful planning and execution. But approaching mature topics with maturity isn’t something AAA publishers can sell to teenagers (or PewDiePie).
The irony being they had a publisher - Bethesda. Seems Bethsoft did their best to not do anything.
Yeah, that is pretty freaky. Please do not show me that at this point in time.
-Tom
Can’t unsee this.
The fact that Otherside Entertainment owns this IP makes baby jesus cry. Underworld Ascendant was a steaming pile of dog shit and even 3 major patches later it is marginally playable. The company should have been shuttered and the SS IP released but somehow they held on.
The game was hot garbage and its backers felt (rightly) swindled by the alpha test that was released as a finished product. tl:dr- Unless Otherside farms out development this game’s chance of resembling anything like SS 1 or 2 is approximately zero percent.