D&D 5E So Why Can't 5E Get a Video Game?

[JonnyP71]

I respect your disagreement. I just reaaaallly don't think the 5e table experience would translate to a satisfying single player experience. I think WotC put a lot of effort into making this edition the best one to play face to face with people and don't see how it would track outside of that setting.

I guess this depends on personal preferences and gaming priorities. I'm looking for a strong story - character 'building' is of little or no concern, and fussing with skill/feat optimisation puts me off a game.

 

[Imaro]

Did 4e get a game? It seems made for it and I was looking forward to one but I don't recall anything other than neverwinter. I'd have wanted something a little more tactical like neverwinter nights 2 but with the 4e ruleset. I reckon that would have been sweet.

I don't believe so. I think 4e would have been much harder to implement than it appears at first glance, due to its heavy use of reactions. (Do you query every creature with an appropriate reaction every time the trigger occurs? Seems like that would get old real fast.) Ironic, given the regular comparisons of 4e to a video game.

Actually I believe Neverwinter uses the 4e mechanics, or at least a simplified version of them (it's free to play on Xbox One and Playstation), and combat actually runs quicker and much smoother with a computer than I ever found it to run under a DM with multiple players.

 

[Belltent]

I guess this depends on personal preferences and gaming priorities. I'm looking for a strong story - character 'building' is of little or no concern, and fussing with skill/feat optimisation puts me off a game.

I feel you. I also prefer a good story over all else, but I suppose then my point of contention lies here: "good story" and "wotc dnd game" don't necessarily correlate. The strength of the hypothetical story would have nothing to do with the system, whereas the origin of this topic (as I read it) was "make a video game using this system." To that extent, good story or no, I think 5e would be a bad tabletop system to build a video game system around.

 

[gyor]

Fighters have more options then just attack, they have grapple, shove, different weapon choices and possibly weapon feats like we saw in UA.

Not everything has to have talent trees, many of the best CRPGs don't like NWN2, the goal is to make a genuine D&D 5e, game, not generic RPG.

 

[Jester David]

We DO have a D&D video game. Sword Coast Legends that came out in late 2015.
To have a new video game now, a new company has to get the rights to the game, which is tricky since Digital Extremes might still have them. Failing that they need to negotiate with WotC, which takes time.
Then they need to make the video game, which also takes *gasp* time. Years.

Well there has been another successful Pathfinder KS that has funded, 500k+ and counting for Pathfinder: Kingmaker a SP game based off the AP where you go forth and settle the Stolen Lands. Looks like its Baldurs Gate/ Pillars of Eternity type isometric graphics.

I didn't back it. Because of the LAST Pathfinder KS video game. Which was Pathfinder Online and god awful.

Will this one be better or be akin to SCL? We don't know and will find out in a year!

I started a thread a long time ago about how to get a successful D&D game off the ground. Since WoTC won't drop 40-200 million+ on a AA+ title I would like a Pillars of Eternity type game to be down and would be willing to settle for a modern 2D 16 bit game a'la Phantasy Star III/IV, Shining Force or a modern "16 bit" Stardew Valley type graphics as long as the story/game was fun.

Pillars of Eternity required $1,100,00 to get off the ground in a bare bones fashion. But that was a company that made video games, had made several successful video games, had the staff and infrastructure, and likely had put some work into the game already.

WotC is a collectable card publishing company that dabbles in books, not a video game company. I'd trust them as much to make a video game as I'd trust them to make dog food or kites. Why would I expect them to make a video game?

The problem is that video games are super expensive and D&D and RPGs are niche.
Look at the Pathfinder game you mention: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owlcatgames/pathfinder-kingmaker
They asked for half a million dollars. And they already have a lot of the game architecture done (it's in Alpha) and done by people with a history in gaming. So it's a safe bet. But they only managed to just fund a few days ago, and there's less than 2 weeks left. It's trending towards $851,711 according to Kicktraq:
http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/owlcatgames/pathfinder-kingmaker/
That puts it below Pathfinder Online, that cleared a million:
http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/1675907842/pathfinder-online-a-fantasy-sandbox-mmo/
(That had a dubious surge in funds at the end that suggest someone internally decided to pay the difference.)

Neither are CLOSE to what Pillars of Eternity made.

Funny thing, Obsidian Entertainment was making a Pathfinder game. They got the licence to Pathfinder in 2014. Why don't we have a Pathfinder game by Obsidian. Because the Pillar's Kickstarter did well and then the game reviewed well and sold really, really well. So Obsidian decided they were better off with Pillars 2.

So why don't we have a D&D game? Because it's cheaper and potentially more profitable for game companies to make their own games. Because a successful game doesn't require a licensed name to succeed, AND video game fans have learned to be super wary of licensed properties, which are typically of dubious quality. Because D&D is too small to attract a number of people to qualify as a successful game.

 

[cmad1977]

Did 4e get a game? It seems made for it and I was looking forward to one but I don't recall anything other than neverwinter. I'd have wanted something a little more tactical like neverwinter nights 2 but with the 4e ruleset. I reckon that would have been sweet.

Blizzard developed one. I think it was called 'Realm of Battlecraft' or something.


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[Ralif Redhammer]

I’ve been quite enjoying Neverwinter on the PS4. For a free game, it’s pretty amazing. The only thing I don’t like is that I’m still not at the level that I can check out the seasonal content. One day…

And yes, I would agree that Neverwinter models and runs 4e far more smoothly than I ever could.

I know it’s pretty unlikely, but I’d love to see another Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance.

Actually I believe Neverwinter uses the 4e mechanics, or at least a simplified version of them (it's free to play on Xbox One and Playstation), and combat actually runs quicker and much smoother with a computer than I ever found it to run under a DM with multiple players.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Technically speaking, there has already been a 5e video game, Sword Coast Legends.

Pathinder: Kingmaker is much closer to being a D&D 5E video game than Sword Coast Legends is.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I would like a game that ISN'T an action RPG. But that will never happen. Not just with D&D, but it seems the entire RPG industry is focusing on action RPGs for video games, especially consoles. I would love a turn based 5e D&D video game. Every once in a while there is a rare game like Divinity, but with how the action economy works in D&D, it would almost have to be turn based in order to get that D&D feel. And yet, it seems like most D&D video games insist on being an action RPG which means they have to completely change how the rules and action economies work. And all that does is make the game feel like a different game, and not D&D. Why they don't get that is beyond me. Seems pretty obvious.

 

[Hillsy7]

Pillars of Eternity had some really good mechanical crunch built into it, and a couple of the battles I fought were really intense and tough and just proper adrenaline charged full-bore panic.

I stopped playing it after about 20% of the way through because the semi-real time/autopause feature created pathfinding issues that were SO annoying, it ruined any enjoyment I might've had with the tactical elements. Especially when some of your characters were so squishy, that half a second pause redirecting your tank after he turned to walk the other way to completely swing round the formation.....god it made me so angry!

Also many of the fights were too short to really learn the intricacies of the new classes you had access to. Plus I think the party of 6 might've been a bit too much for hard-core tactics nerds.

Divinity original sin 1 & 2 however I'm SOOOO gonna buy. Only found out about this a few weeks ago. Full turn based, grid based, tactics. The lot. That and Xcom have shown that large scale grid/turn based games have a place in the gaming world, and D&D is designed for this.