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J.E. Sawyer Speaks on Black Isle Studios Titles

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by NewsPro, Jun 9, 2004.

  1. NewsPro Gems: 30/31
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    (Originally posted by chevalier)

    On the Obsidian Forums, J.E. Sawyer has made a post about Interplay's titles, dividing them between profitable ones and... others. Apparently, everything non-D&D, except for Fallout, belongs among the others. Here's a clip:

    My point is that a large number of IPLY titles failed by a huge margin. Icewind Dale was very profitable. Heart of Winter was also very profitable. Even Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale II were profitable. Remember that IWD2 only took ten months to develop. It really didn't have to sell a large number of units to turn a profit.

    It is also important for people to recognize that cancelled projects are often less damaging than projects that linger on and on for years, then finally get released to poor sales. Combine Jefferson and Van Buren. You're looking at about three years of development, with a fluctuating team size of between 6-25 people. Compare that to Run Like Hell. RLH was in development for about four years, with (as far as I know) a similar team size. It shipped and tanked hard. The cost of development certainly wasn't covered, and the cost of publishing and distribution was just thrown away, since barely any units moved. Jefferson and VB also never had to pay for audio development and voice acting. I am pretty confident that even those two titles combined did not lose anywhere near as much money as RLH.

    Read the whole thing at Obsidian.
     
    NewsPro, Jun 9, 2004
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