No Content Since Jan 2023?

[Morotheri]

First off, I love this game, and Demeo stands as *the* definitive VR board game experience to me. It has it all - a hangout (in a basement, no less), DM, player interactions, painting - you name it, all in one package. The Oculus version having Mixed Reality would warrant a second purchase of this game alone, would that I had upgraded to the Quest 3.

But I'm starting to think this game abandoned. It's a shame, because no other VR titles have this level of immersion, and closeness to a true tabletop experience. Tabletop Simulator is good as an emulator, but doesn't have player interactions, an immersive environment, the visuals, voice acting, or AI in its own games to take advantage of the fact that it's software, and not actually a tabletop board game.

If the devs have fully swapped over to making a D&D game, good for them on snatching up that as an IP, but I'd have rather had the D&D collaboration title as a major DLC to add another game to the basement (As I'd have liked to see with Demeo Battles), with another team still adding books and other DLC content to Demeo as to not leave us hanging dry. Hell, they could have funded both through the Walkabout Minigolf model of DLC and DLC sharing. The DEMEO basement would have worked well as a hub to host multiple kinds of games. The only thing that would have make it better would have been customization to host in a tavern themed bar with axe throwing, a decorated LGS, or even some fantastical environments. D&D collaborations don't have a good track record of longevity. As good as Baldur's Gate 3 is, Larian has no further plans for it. I don't know if that's a signal that it's hard or expensive to work with the IP owners past the initial release or not, but I'd rather not see more games like this one abandoned of it does prove to be a one-and-done deal.

[Memori]

i feel the exacty same way

[SolomonDimension]

These people haven't launched a new campaign or anything. They didn't care about users' wishes.

[Stuka]

new patch, only visuals but looks amazing

[Smooshieus]

I get that you want more content for free/cheap (hell, who doesn't?), but VR games are already extremely difficult to develop profitably, so I would be very surprised to see Demeo get more content, paid or not.

From your post, suggesting one team do this and another team do that to build on Demeo, I think you vastly overestimate the size of the Demeo dev team. At this point, I can all but guarantee that there isn't any one person working full time on Demeo. It's done, it works, it's 99% free of critical bugs, and... almost no one is buying new copies. To be able to pay a developer's salary, generally speaking, that developer needs to be working on something that's going to make money in the future (or occasionally, protect or boost the studio's reputation, like fixing a critical issue). To do that, studios essentially always need to be working in their next game - otherwise they're paying a bunch of decent salaries with no promise of enough income to cover them, leading to all kinds of budget cuts, layoffs and eventually the studio closures we've been seeing in the VR space lately. Fortunately, checking out Resolution Games' website shows a healthy roster of new titles rolling out.

I couldn't find any data from Resolution Games stating how many copies they sold, but currently there are only 19 people playing Demeo on Steam and there were only 336 players playing at its all-time peak - four years ago. Those aren't DLC-worthy numbers. If they released a DLC, this would get extremely limited industry coverage versus a new full-game release, it would pretty much only target the already limited existing player base, and of those players it's estimated that only around 50% buy the DLC (likely, lower here considering the age of the game and people that have moved on). That doesn't really sound like a worthwhile endeavor.

If Resolution Games can get headlines for a new full-price game, there isn't much argument to be made for wrapping that content into a DLC for a 4-year-old game - especially if it doesn't save an enormous amount of work. That's especially so considering that with a new game, they can improve on the overall game by adding core concepts that are entirely missing from Demeo but required for a D&D game, like branching stories with impactful decisions, character customization and progression, puzzles, etc.

Anyway, all of this (especially the low player base) is the whole reason VR gaming is an expensive hobby. It's not just the hardware, but for VR studios to survive, they need to publish titles regularly, keep costs low, and charge premium prices for them. Developing a DLC for a niche game in the further niche VR space is rarely a good idea.

[Smooshieus]

Actually, the one DLC I think would be smart for them to release would be a very minor, free D&D-themed cosmetic DLC in the final weeks leading up to the D&D game release, purely for marketing, publicity, and to drive up awareness among Demeo players of the upcoming D&D game.