Oh dear... bye bye NeverWinter

[Dungeoneer]

Real bummer for WotC and their big crossover marketing campaign. They have the RPG stuff, FB game, and this game all coming out together, oh, and the novels. Now, not so much. Someone is in trouble.

Assuming anyone at WotC are keen or even casual observers of the video game industry, they have to know that games constantly slip their schedules, miss their deadlines, get cancelled entirely or are released with so many bugs that they are nigh unplayable. If they are wise, they planned accordingly.

Video game tie-ins seldom release when they are supposed to!

Peering behind the marketing-speak of the delay announcement, I'm guessing that the game they had was a shambles and whoever picked it up needs a lot more time to beat it into shape.

 

[Moorcrys]

As long as Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is on schedule I'm all good.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Do you count City of Heroes as a Cryptic release? IIRC (it was a while back) it went pretty smooth.

I don't know enough about CoH to know this. But I know it has been a problem since Champions. And a smooth release isn't just about servers crashing at launch. It's also about having enough content for the players to play through, a reasonably well balanced PvP (if the game has it at all). STO was definitely lacking on all accounts here. It was and still is a fun game, and it improved a lot in the past. But this year hasn't been good, and part of that is probably also the fault of the Perfect World acquisiton, or rather the process of the acquisition. I see a good chance that it now can get a lot better than it ever was before, since all signs point to Atari just being a company that dragged Cryptic down as well. But there might be other "risks" on the horizon with Perfect World as the new owner, but even with some of the worst-case (and possibly unjustified) scenarios in mind - sorting out the financial situation is a great boon.

 

[Phaezen]

Assuming anyone at WotC are keen or even casual observers of the video game industry, they have to know that games constantly slip their schedules, miss their deadlines, get cancelled entirely or are released with so many bugs that they are nigh unplayable. If they are wise, they planned accordingly.

At the risk of derailing this thread:

I think by now WotC have enough experience in the pitfalls of software release schedules

 

[Dannager]

As long as Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is on schedule I'm all good.

Yeah, let's be honest: late 2011 is not a good time to release another PC-based RPG. In fact, I'm hard-pressed to think of a worse time.

 

[MrMyth]

Yeah, let's be honest: late 2011 is not a good time to release another PC-based RPG. In fact, I'm hard-pressed to think of a worse time.

Given how long its been since the last D&D CRPG, I'd say anytime later would be a worse time. I know plenty of folks who are awaiting another solid D&D computer game, regardless of what other products may be coming out around the same time.

I mean, I get that they can't really help with the delay, but I can't imagine the delay will help in any tangible way. And will very definitely hurt the crossover association, which is a shame.

 

[AntlerDruid]

As long as Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is on schedule I'm all good.

Yep that is the only video game I care about.....all the D&D video games have been a disappointment to me since Baldur's Gate.

All the Elder Scroll games have been exceptional to me and I continue to play them even 5 years after they are released.