RPG comapnies and videogames - problems?

[SKyOdin]

Part of the problem is that RPG licenses don't really have much to offer to videogames these days. Look at something like City of Heroes. If it had been a licensed Champions game, would it have been better off? Even without an established name behind it, it did fine enough on its own.

Really, videogame makers have two choices:

1) Use a licensed IP for their game, which comes with the risk of legal issues and creative control from the IP holder.

or

2) Create their own IP, which may be licensed out to other people later for profit.

In order for choice one to be worth it, the benefits need to be outweighed by the possibility of the licensed IP drawing in a large pre-existing fan base. Unfortunatly, the fan base of most table-top RPGs is not big enough to make a license really worth it most of the time. It takes a very powerful IP like Star Wars to attract highly skilled videogame developers.

 

[Staffan]

Hm, strange. I didn't think Black Island made Fallout. The style is very different from their recent games.

It was made by Interplay's RPG division, which was renamed Black Isle the year after Fallout was published. And what recent games? The last thing BI made was Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (which I think was an action game with RPG elements, sort of like Gauntlet or Diablo) in 2004. Before that, they made Fallout I and II, Planescape Torment, and the Icewind Dale series, and assisted in making the Baldur's Gate series and Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader (which I never heard about before).

Black Isle was mostly remade in 1998 (when lots of people left to form Troika), and killed off in 2003.

 

[Kaodi]

Speaking of which, I wonder when the first D&D 4th Edition CRPG is going to be announced. It will be likely set in the new Forgotten Realms, I imagine, though I can keep hoping for a proper Eberron CRPG...

I kind of wonder if the new rules (more particularly immediate reactions and interrupts) will preclude real-time games back in favour of turn-based... But then again, Bethesda was fine with changing around the Fallout combat system and VATS to suit their own purposes...

 

[Punnuendo]

Oddly enough, the Champions MMO is currently in production.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Another issue with licensing is that the game developer will often have to get their content approved by the owner of the property. Depending on the property and the owner that can be a painful process involving a lot of reworking of material until it is accepted. In the end it is sometimes the case that rather than leveraging the brand recognition of a licensed property it's less hassle to come up with your own IP and have the freedom to do as you like, especially if you've produced some good games and are able to rely on the brand recognition of your development company itself.

 

[Allister]

Another issue with licensing is that the game developer will often have to get their content approved by the owner of the property. Depending on the property and the owner that can be a painful process involving a lot of reworking of material until it is accepted. In the end it is sometimes the case that rather than leveraging the brand recognition of a licensed property it's less hassle to come up with your own IP and have the freedom to do as you like, especially if you've produced some good games and are able to rely on the brand recognition of your development company itself.

Which is what Bioware has done now.

Now, IP holders approach THEM (the new Star Wars MMO) but you still need a bevy of games to prove yourself to the audience.

I mea, how many people here have played MDK and/or knew about Bioware before BG?

 

[tenkar]

Oddly enough, the Champions MMO is currently in production.

Even odder... by the same company that produced City of Heroes.

 

[deganawida]

Even odder... by the same company that produced City of Heroes.

Ya, who bought out the whole Champions IP. That's one way to avoid licensing issues