Game News inXile developing The Mage's Tale, a VR Bard's Tale spinoff for Oculus, to help fund Bard's Tale IV

[Tacgnol]

So.. I haven't been following up with this. What's wrong with Bards tale?

The project seems to be haemorrhaging money like a sliced artery.

Pretty much the same as all InXile projects.

 

[vivec]

So.. I haven't been following up with this. What's wrong with Bards tale?

The project seems to be haemorrhaging money like a sliced artery.

Pretty much the same as all InXile projects.

Whoa. And here I was, holding my breath .

 

[deuxhero]

Wondered why nobody was naming their totally retro blober The ___'s Tale in tribute to that.

Still it's InExile and will be shit.

 

[fabrulana]

So.. I haven't been following up with this. What's wrong with Bards tale?

The project seems to be haemorrhaging money like a sliced artery.

Pretty much the same as all InXile projects.

Whoa. And here I was, holding my breath .

Don't worry me too. I really hope that most of the posts are wrong... I really look forward playing a Bard's Tale game again, although my feelings are strongly driven by nostalgia.

 

[Sprout]

Don't worry me too. I really hope that most of the posts are wrong... I really look forward playing a Bard's Tale game again, although my feelings are strongly driven by nostalgia.

Both right and wrong, I would guess. They're pretty good at critique and smelling bullshit, but pervasive negativity regardless of the game is pretty common (with few exceptions).

As for the news.. good for them? They managed to land a juicy contract, doesn't seem to bear on the actual game we're interested in otherwise.

 

[DoomIhlVaria]

Isn't the Oculus Rift basically a zombie at this point? My sample size isn't huge, but all the VR gamers I know, including myself, use the Vive. Oculus is only just now catching up to the Vive's room-scale capabilities and controllers. An Oculus exclusive sounds like a good way to not sell any games. I would be genuinely interested in any evidence to the contrary though.

 

[Prime Junta]

I'm really curious about VR. One of these days I'm gonna upgrade my computer to something VR-capable, buy a steering wheel and pedals, and fucking shred the Nordschleife in Assetto Corsa VR.

And then maybe a flight sim. Really used to dig those many, many moons ago.

VR seems made for that sort of thing.

Can't imagine I'd want to play a wizard simulator though. How would that even work?

 

[Fry]

Isn't the Oculus Rift basically a zombie at this point? My sample size isn't huge, but all the VR gamers I know, including myself, use the Vive. Oculus is only just now catching up to the Vive's room-scale capabilities and controllers. An Oculus exclusive sounds like a good way to not sell any games. I would be genuinely interested in any evidence to the contrary though.

Read my previous post. It doesn't seem like Oculus Studios funding comes with a platform exclusive requirement.

Oculus may have to stop selling hardware as a result of their lawsuit with Zenimax, so... that would be bad. But they'll probably work something out. Facebook has a lot of money.

 

[Zed]

Hope the game flops.

 

[thesheeep]

Most games made for VR first are horrible games.
Take the VR (and thus all the bling!) away and all you are left with is a game nobody sane would ever touch otherwise.
Super shallow gameplay elevated by the immersive experience (at least for the moment when VR is a "new thing").

 

[Night Goat]

Of course, continued back catalog sales from our other games, and sales of Torment: Tides of Numenera, which is releasing this Feb. 28th, will continue to flow directly into our projects, allowing us to make them that much bigger and better!

"Buy Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel so we can make Fallout 3!"

 

[MicoSelva]

I follow Brian Fargo on Twitter, and he has been excited about VR since the days of Oculus Rift Kickstarter campaign. I fully expected inXile to just release The Bard's Tale IV on VR platforms, but it seems Old Fox Fargo found a way to profit from this even further. Anyway, not surprising at all.

 

[Schizophrenic monolog]

So this is how this game looks like... 06:50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnNhVTgyjqE

 

[felipepepe]

From the mouth of GabeN:

According to Valve, there are around 1,300 VR apps on Steam right now. The second half of 2016 saw an 86 percent growth in monthly active users (against a small starting point.) The company says that 30 VR apps have made over $250,000 each from Steam. Still, that's a lot of apps making seriously insignificant revenues.

Yup, about 2% of VR games on Steam made over $250k. InXile will surely be swimming in cash once Dungeon Crank Simulator is released.

Friendly reminder that Tim Cain had to beg Fargo not to cancel Fallout, because he was sure that Descent to Undermountain was gonna be the big RPG Interplay needed in 1997...

Also:

STANDING ON THE SHOULDER OF GIANTS!

 

[Infinitron]

He begged Fargo to countermand the cancellation ordered by Interplay's middle management. I've never read anywhere that Fargo personally wanted to cancel Fallout.

 

[Comte]

The Ponzi scheme continues......

 

[felipepepe]

He begged Fargo to countermand the cancellation ordered by Interplay's middle management. I've never read anywhere that Fargo personally wanted to cancel Fallout.

Neither of us know the fine details, but the game was put up for cancellation and Fargo was going to allow that if not for Tim Cain begging him.

I doubt something as big as cancelling a game could happen without approval from higher-ups.

 

[Lurker King]

This is Interplay all over again. Fargo is still a megalomaniac divorced from the constraints of “his” segment.

 

[Ismaul]

This is Interplay all over again.

Yup. Just Fargo thinking that he didn't get into consoles fast enough at Interplay, and that now is his chance to get in on the new tech money by getting into VR fast. VR is the new gold rush.

Torment is nothing but a stepping stone. Use nostalgia to get money and PR, use that to get a publisher. Weaseling 101.

 

[Moink]

Now Double Fine is doing a VR game

Is this some giant VR based conspiracy based around Fig?

 

[DeepOcean]

VR is the new gold rush.

Maybe when the price of the thing fall down and it become more useable and confortable but while it is on prototype stage as it is now... it will be hard to know if the fire will catch on this grass. Resident Evil 7 is a full VR game and only sold half of what Resident Evil 6 sold.

VR will only become a hit when you can use it without feeling and looking like some space astronaut from the future. They need to fix that motion sickness and disorientation too, people are getting nauseated as hell on some games, especially longer and faster ones.

My fear is that on the future, all games will need to be VR capable or a publisher won't be interested on it, can't wait for the new round of popamole gameplay invented to adapt games to this thing limitations.

 

[Schizophrenic monolog]

VR is the new gold rush.

Maybe when the price of the thing fall down and it become more useable and confortable but while it is on prototype stage as it is now... it will be hard to know if the fire will catch on this grass. Resident Evil 7 is a full VR game and only sold half of what Resident Evil 6 sold.

VR will only become a hit when you can use it without feeling and looking like some space astronaut from the future. They need to fix that motion sickness and disorientation too, people are getting nauseated as hell on some games, especially longer and faster ones.

My fear is that on the future, all games will need to be VR capable or a publisher won't be interested on it, can't wait for the new round of popamole gameplay invented to adapt games to this thing limitations.

And don't forget that no VR game, till this date, came up with a solid movement ability.

If you can't walk properly in the world...

 

[Ismaul]

Just you wait.

In a couple of years you'll get articles saying "regular PC gaming is dead, long live VR" on them trendy hipster gaming blogs.

Or "How VR gaming killed our marriage". "We used to be able to talk and see each other while he gamed, now he just lives in another world."

 

[Desert Fish]

This is clearly a transition similar to the one from sidescroller/isometric to 3D rendering in the 90s. But we're still in the early days. Let's hope there will be some net incline this time.

Ah, who am I kidding. The decline never stops.

 

[Desert Fish]

And don't forget that no VR game, till this date, came up with a solid movement ability.

If you can't walk properly in the world...

Yes, this seems to be the biggest hurdle. I don't see how they can solve this short of affordable, compact, omni-directional treadmills. Which I don't expect any time soon.

In the mean-time, MechWarrior, anyone?