Studio dead?

[adamkkool]

So next major update is nightingale city and the devs even said that this is going to complete the story. After barely a year of development it seems suspicious that this would happen. Other EA games that also announced the "story end" to their games after a short development period also shut down soon after. I know some people are going to pull the "WHAT ABOUT NO MANS SKY!?" argument even though that is the only game to ever do such a thing while literally every single other studio get shut down. I think it's safe to say once Nightingale city hits the game is going to be over.

[Foxglovez]

NMS never went into EA. It was full release first drop. EA is a more recent exploit of both dev companies and players. The only winner is steam as near as I can tell.

[Wickitt]

It was a bit confusing in the Dev Bites. I think that they meant the chapter of the story but it could go either way when you listen to it. I hope they clarify soon.

[Sakhari]

Originally posted by adamkkool:

I know some people are going to pull the "WHAT ABOUT NO MANS SKY!?" argument even though that is the only game to ever do such a thing while literally every single other studio get shut down.

And NMS got away with it because even the 'failure' of the launch still sold in numbers that most developers outside of the AAA-space would kill for and it had mechanics that people 'really' wanted to engage with - even if there wasn't much to do with them initially. Most other projects (especially the ones that fail to generate much interest from the outset) never see that kind of success and have a much harder time committing to long-term support.

As for where things go for Nightingale from here, honestly, having played through the latest update on the PTR and watched the latest dev bit, I'm not terribly optimistic about the future at the moment. The Nightingale city content certainly feels like a race to the end of the project (even capped with an ending cutscene) and I get the impression that they don't have a clear idea where things are going from here - but they also haven't said anything about the early access period wrapping up anytime soon so... who knows what the next priority will be.

[adamkkool]

Originally posted by Sakhari:

Originally posted by adamkkool:

I know some people are going to pull the "WHAT ABOUT NO MANS SKY!?" argument even though that is the only game to ever do such a thing while literally every single other studio get shut down.

And NMS got away with it because even the 'failure' of the launch still sold in numbers that most developers outside of the AAA-space would kill for and it had mechanics that people 'really' wanted to engage with - even if there wasn't much to do with them initially. Most other projects (especially the ones that fail to generate much interest from the outset) never see that kind of success and have a much harder time committing to long-term support.

As for where things go for Nightingale from here, honestly, having seen the latest dev bit and played through the new update on test, I'm not terribly optimistic about the future at the moment. The Nightingale city content certainly feels like a race to the end of the project and I get the impression that they don't have a clear idea where things are going from here - but they also haven't said anything about the early access period wrapping up anytime soon so... who knows what the next priority will be.

Most dev studios don't say they are ending till the literal end, but usually when they start talking about literal end game stuff it means they are stopping.

[Ramstar]

A lot of theories here…

In the end it’s their company, their game, their choice - not ours. They can’t keep developing the game until you specifically are happy with the end result…(if that is even what’s happening) because some people are just never happy.

[info]

it's really all trolls, it seems.... nobody who actually watched the video could have these views
you won't get anyone to come to "your game" with making these fake news posts in the hopes that you fool some people who didn't watch the video and rather believe these troll posts

does not work, and never has

[Munnky]

They said they are working on more content still.

[Min/Max]

Have you not watched their developer videos? They have stated multiple times there will be 6 biome cards for the full release, We currently only 3 biomes in Early Access - Forest, Desert, Swamp.

To be honest it sounds like they are still deciding on what do with the upcoming 3 new biomes and what that entails. Introducing new storylines to tie them together with new quests, boss battles, gear, buildings etc

[Foxglovez]

Talk is cheap.

[FullMetalPanic]

I've seen what you're talking about before but every time the dev would release a last "big update" and the game would not longer be marked as Early Access. Nightingale is still is marked as Early Access so....looks like we're not done quite yet.

[weeskwee]

Look, it's not an MMO. For them to take it out of Early Access, it has to technically be a complete game. It doesn't necessarily mean that development is ending because they are finally getting around to "end game" content or wrapping up the storyline.

More content/story chapters could be added later if they are making enough money to continue. You know what doesn't help make money or bring in new players? Doom & gloom posts that the sky is falling when there is zero proof. So if you like the game, maybe don't try to help sink it? Thanks.

[Supay]

Lots of EA games rush when things went bad. However, most EA games announce when they are stopping. Considering they closed down a second studio, which I had no idea why they needed it, might be the end coming soon. The game has gotten just a drizzle of content since it's release. They keep adding small bits every other month, which to me didn't make sense. Listening to player base on steam feels like it was part of the issue. People want content now, and this prevents development of quality content in my opinion. Hopefully they plan on adding some solid new biomes and content in this year with nightingale city out of the way.

No mans sky was sponsored by sony, so that is a different thing. No mans sky has constant updates, but it also constantly expanding to other platforms to help support the updates. They should announce soon what the future has in store for this game.

[info]

Originally posted by weeskwee:

Look, it's not an MMO. For them to take it out of Early Access, it has to technically be a complete game. It doesn't necessarily mean that development is ending because they are finally getting around to "end game" content or wrapping up the storyline.

More content/story chapters could be added later if they are making enough money to continue. You know what doesn't help make money or bring in new players? Doom & gloom posts that the sky is falling when there is zero proof. So if you like the game, maybe don't try to help sink it? Thanks.

they want to sink it. it's the same group of people who have been making these posts since they announced an offline mode.
honestly, at this point, I just assume it's people from some other game or some other company trying to sink this game because they see it as competition, or they *need* to see projects that offer gamers an offline mode to not succeed because "it would set a bad precedent" in the eyes of some megacorp CEO type control freaks.

that's what's happening here.

how on earth is "we've just released a big update" otherwise *any* reason to make a "is the game dying" post? it makes no sense.
any time they do something good, there's some totally organic "outcry" by that group of people that the sky is falling, as you say.
it happens every time.

there is nothing organic or normal about it.

people ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about games is normal. this is far far beyond any reason and logic. people complain when bad things are happening.
only people who hate the project itself complain when good things happen or players get more power -- like the offline mode and the abandonment of live service

[william_es]

Originally posted by info:

honestly, at this point, I just assume it's people from some other game or some other company trying to sink this game because they see it as competition, or they *need* to see projects that offer gamers an offline mode to not succeed because "it would set a bad precedent" in the eyes of some megacorp CEO type control freaks.

There's another couple of explanations.

The people making these doom and gloom predictions have never seen the whole boom/bust cycle after a game releases. There's always a dropoff after games release. There are simply TOO MANY GAMES now. There used to be a few big releases a year. Now it's big releases every single week or month. I've seen that cycle hundreds of times.

There are two groups that don't have that kind of track record. Little kids and the elderly. I believe that some of the doom and gloomers that I've seen recently are quite possibly people in their 70's or 80's who have taken up video games as a new hobby. The vast majority of them are little kids.

The other explanation is sour grapes. Aesop's fable about the fox that loses his tail, so he tries to convince all the other foxes to cut their tails off too. The great thing about aesop's fables is they are ALL about human nature. And that hasn't changed, not in thousands of years. Where am I going with all this aesop's stuff?

Some people who purchased the game feel cheated because this game hasn't turned into something like ark. Which is a ridiculous assumption to make. Very few games reach that status for that long. Most games sink into obscurity. They're butthurt about the money they spent on the game, like it's tens of thousands of dollars or something. Who gets that upset about 20-30 dollars? little kids do. I've spent more on lunch then this game cost the day I bought it. If it entertains me for a few hours, it's done it's job.

Originally posted by info:

people ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about games is normal. this is far far beyond any reason and logic. people complain when bad things are happening.
only people who hate the project itself complain when good things happen or players get more power -- like the offline mode and the abandonment of live service

There's another big trend in forums now, all over. Steam, reddit, etc.

There's a small group of people who seem to be trying to organize some kind of "movement".

They want to get things banned, boycotted, etc. I've seen single usernames trying to do this across over a dozen games simultaneously, that I happen to own here on steam. In each game's forums, they seem to be focusing on DIFFERENT hot button issues. Lots of hyperbole, negative comments, etc. After a while, the name "disappears". They either got their account banned, or they changed it. Doesn't stop them, they just make new ones.

This seems to be some kind of weird hobby for them.