SWORD COAST LEGENDS: Xbox and PS4!

Sword Coast Legends will be released for Windows on September 8th, 2015. In new news, there will be versions for the XBox One and Playstation 4 later in the year, also! "We're excited to announce that Sword Coast Legends will now officially release on September 8, 2015, while today's newly announced Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game will become available late 2015."
The full press release reads as follows:

"We've had a clear goal since day one to evoke the classic D&D experience between four players and a Dungeon Master, and to bring back memories of the great D&D games of the past," said Dan Tudge, President of n-Space and Director for Sword Coast Legends. "After we announced and demonstrated Sword Coast Legends to overwhelmingly positive response at GDC, the press, partners, and fans all requested more. They wanted Mac, so we're doing it. They wanted Linux, so we're doing it. They clamored for console... so we circled back and figured out how to do it without compromising our vision for PC gamers. This addition to our existing PC, Mac and Linux versions ensures gamers will be able to have that classic D&D experience whenever, wherever and however they want."

"We love that Sword Coast Legends delivers the authentic D&D experience by letting friends tell great fantasy stories together", said Nathan Stewart, brand director of Dungeons & Dragons. "With Sword Coast Legends being available on so many platforms, it doesn't matter if you game on a couch, at the kitchen table or your desk -- you'll be able to join your party for some glorious D&D dungeon delves."

Sword Coast Legends presents the most true-to-form representation of classic tabletop adventuring ever realized in a cooperative multiplayer video game. The game's highly innovative Dungeon Master Mode introduces players to an entirely new way to play Dungeons & Dragons with a real-time, active and reactive Dungeon Master in cooperative multiplayer sessions and campaigns.

Here are some of Sword Coast Legends features:

• Massive story campaign
• Complex storyline weaving throughout the exotic Forgotten Realms' Sword Coast
• Deep character customization, engrossing party-based gameplay and NPC interaction
• Highly customizable combat and challenging monster encounters
• Campaign creation tools for extended multiplayer adventures
• The latest streamlined fifth edition D&D rules
• Robust post-launch module expansion program
• Epic orchestral soundtrack from composer Inon Zur

Sword Coast Legends is currently available for pre-order from Steam and the PlayStation Store at a limited and discounted price of $34.99. PlayStation 4 pre-orders also include a bonus $10 worth of Warframe™ Platinum in-game currency. Digital Deluxe and Collector's Editions, which include a tome of knowledge, cloth map of the Sword Coast, the official soundtrack, numerous in-game bonuses, starter items and DM abilities, as well as a statue of the powerful demon Belaphoss (Collector's Edition) are also available for pre-order for $59.99 and $239.99, respectively, from SwordCoast.Com.

 

[Kramodlog]

I'm surprise they are releasing it so close to the release of the AP. Won't they cannibalize each other? I thought the whole one campaign world and few books release was about avoiding cannibalization.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm surprise they are releasing it so close to the release of the AP. Won't they cannibalize each other? I thought the whole one campaign world and few books release was about avoiding cannibalization.

Why would a video game and a RPG book cannibalize each other, especially if the initial game plot ties into Rage of Demons?

As to the question of microtransactions:

OF COURSE they will use microtransactions as their revenue model. This is 2015; love it or hate it, that's the market. Myself, I have had positive experiences with Crusader Kings 2 model, allowing me to get the parts of expansions I want, when I want, as impulse buys. Expecting a non-Indie game to not use microtransactions is a losing proposition these days.

 

[Kramodlog]

Why would a video game and a RPG book cannibalize each other, especially if the initial game plot ties into Rage of Demons?

Finite revenues and finite time. Do I buy the AP or the game? Do I play the AP or the game? If I just play one, why buy the other? Plus you know, all of what we have been told about how "too many books hurt D&D". Is it books or more specifically too many products? I always took it has too many products.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Finite revenues and finite time. Do I buy the AP or the game? Do I play the AP or the game? If I just play one, why buy the other? Plus you know, all of what we have been told about how "too many books hurt D&D". Is it books or more specifically too many products? I always took it has too many products.

They aren't the same plot. They're two different stories happening simultaneously around a central theme. Same with the book set to be released about the same time. Each is a separate, but related, adventure. So if you want to see all sides of the story, you have to buy both. Seems pretty smart to me.

 

[TheSwartz]

Why would a video game and a RPG book cannibalize each other, especially if the initial game plot ties into Rage of Demons?

Agreed.

I think part of WotC's strategy is to get D&D 5e into as many different formats as possible. That's why there are MMO tie ins as well as this video game, and then the novels, and dice masters, etc... I'm OK with that. I want them to make plenty of money involving other niches of geekdom, so that they don't try to do the old "let's release 5 D&D splat books a month" strategy...

 

[Kramodlog]

They aren't the same plot. They're two different stories happening simultaneously around a central theme. Same with the book set to be released about the same time. Each is a separate, but related, adventure. So if you want to see all sides of the story, you have to buy both. Seems pretty smart to me.

But producing a campaign book, a splatbook and a AP, that people have to buy, is bad and stupid?

 

[ThirdWizard]

But producing a campaign book, a splatbook and a AP, that people have to buy, is bad and stupid?

In their current model there one RPG book to buy, one CRPG to buy, one MMORPG to "buy", and one novel to buy. Anyone interested in those things can pick up the single item associated with their preferences. This is good because you aren't overwhelming any one particular audience more than another. In other words you aren't saying to the tabletop crowd that they have to buy three products while the video game crowd only has to get one. And, by going for multiple layers of products, each player is free to get only the media interests them. It's actually a pretty brilliant strategy assuming they can pull it all off. (ie As long as Sword Coast is a good game. We'll see.)

 

[Parmandur]

In their current model there one RPG book to buy, one CRPG to buy, one MMORPG to "buy", and one novel to buy. Anyone interested in those things can pick up the single item associated with their preferences. This is good because you aren't overwhelming any one particular audience more than another. In other words you aren't saying to the tabletop crowd that they have to buy three products while the video game crowd only has to get one. And, by going for multiple layers of products, each player is free to get only the media interests them. It's actually a pretty brilliant strategy assuming they can pull it all off. (ie As long as Sword Coast is a good game. We'll see.)

Indeed, the video game doesn't even need to.be all that great for the strategy to work. Neverwinter, by all accounts, is fun yet mediocre and is performing very well. And Salvatore is not precisely Shakespeare, but he is a New York Times best-seller, so must be doing something right.

 

[Parmandur]

But producing a campaign book, a splatbook and a AP, that people have to buy, is bad and stupid?

4 media, 4 audiences, 4 products. There is obviously quite a bit of crossover, but those who are in more than one of those audiences have time and money to burn.

 

[S_Dalsgaard]

I am curious if it will be playable (or rather enjoyable) as single player. I get my social urges more than covered with TRPG, so I don't need more interactions with other people if I can avoid it