Steel_Wind Talks More about Atari, DLA and the Cancelled Premium Module

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After our article about the chat log, Steel_Wind from DLA has started talking, following the wave of attention and interest on BioWare boards, and confirmed the information:

The substance of the comments you have been reading on Sorceror's Place [spelling original and no link, in contrast with other sites -chev], Warcy , the Vault, 1 and 2 on the BioWare forums are all true.

Well, it's not like anyone thought the people chatting were thinking it up...

Here's how he begins his story:

Without putting too fine a point on it, we were screwed. It was all about rideable horses and E3 spin.

I started blogging what happened more or less as it happened and I have started to post those 3 weeks old entries now. You can read about it here or just choose the Developer's Blogs link to the left on the menu bar and make your way to the blogs.

As you might imagine folks, we are not pleased with Atari. In fact, that would be an understatement of rather significant proportions.

And the blog he mentions is here.

 

A lot of companies are about fearmongering, when they themselves fear, I can hear the dark side anthem in the background right about now.

If they were thinking clearly they would realise that NWN1 being around and healthy will not HURT their sales (of nwn2) it will in fact boost them.
As the slow but inevitable shift from nwn1 to nwn2 would have happened.

They're getting close to being the single most hated , control freak publisher in the world which we already know is INFAMOUS for releasing stuff before it's ready.

I dont think anyone wants to punish obsidian for something that atari did. As a player of PW's it will take quite a period of time for those ones to be implemented in NWN2, so in the mean time PLAYERS will buy NWN2 for the single player game module but then go back to NWN1 to play PW's till they are ready on NWN2. The module makers and PW creators will buy NWN2 at the get-go for the construction and building for the future. This hasnt hurt any sales at all.

With attitudes like they have people ARE WISHING that atari dies the death it deserves and maybe they're right. People will stand in the throneroom of the LE bearded tyrannical devil and be quite happy to stick their blade into the old "beast" as it falls. You can only hope the successor has more scruples.

 

"A lot of companies are about fearmongering, when they themselves fear, I can hear the dark side anthem in the background right about now.

If they were thinking clearly they would realise that NWN1 being around and healthy will not HURT their sales (of nwn2) it will in fact boost them.
As the slow but inevitable shift from nwn1 to nwn2 would have happened." Qoute.

I think this is very true in this case.

Atari/Infogrames probably fear that if NWN1 is about thet wouldn't sell so many copies (or units) as is required for NWN2. (to breake even financially)

What Atari/Infogrames do not realize is the fact that with nwn1 about - they have a solid fanbase which are willing to pay a good price for good game (product): nwn2.

And that they actually can make nwn2 even gettable if they continue supporting (and patching)
nwn 1. Many people unsure about whether or not
to buy i.e. nwn 2 will buy (or try the first one in the series).

The Gothic series did a marvellous job in this regard:
They made the gothic 1 demo available for download - so that people like me could get it.
(and i haven't yet played any of the gothic games).
And what happened: I became convinced that this was a very good game, so I bought it over the internet. And of course, the gothic dev. team, also did it, to create hype and expectation for their upcoming gothic 3 series.

But I hadn't the feeling that they did not just to make money - as I sometimes have with i.e. Atari.

bye