Game News Risen 2 -- preorder to get the full game

[Vault Dweller]

It was mentioned on the official forums awhile back that the game sold 100,000 copies in Germany and 200-300,000 copies worldwide.

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/33933/risen/
VGcharts stats are very poor (I know they are never accurate but they can still serve as an indicator):

North America: 0.04m 30.6%
+ Europe: 0.08m 63.3%
+ Rest of the World: 0.01m 6.2%
= Global 0.13m

Commercially, it's a failure no matter how you look at it.

 

[Metro]

Yikes. How on earth did they green light a sequel?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Production cost vs sales. You can't call Risen a commercial failure because it didn't sell a million units. Sure, it might not look as great on charts or to suits who only understand units sold, but you have to factor in the cost to make the game too.

 

[curry]

Yikes. How on earth did they green light a sequel?

And the publisher is small.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Yikes. How on earth did they green light a sequel?

I've heard rumors that DS wanted to make a pirate RPG with fantasy elements to capitalize on the Pirates of the Caribbean success, so after Risen tanked, PB had no choice but to work on the pirate RPG and call it Risen 2, hence the suddenly appeared guns and voodoo.

Then they spent the budget on making it pretty*, accessible**, and console-friendly***.

* "So where did that budget go? Into all these graphic assets that make up the beautiful world of Risen 2!"

** "The beginning of the game seemed overwhelmingly complex for beginners because of all the freedom..."

*** "... what do we need to do to be successful? It would be not a good idea to exclude console players - so we decided to do it on the 360 properly this time, and while we were at it we could do it on PS3 as well.

 

[Metro]

Uh oh...

 

[Gragt]

Heh, now that doesn't sound good at all. I have yet to play the first Risen, but I keep it for the right time given the positive echoes I heard.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Didn't you guys read the Codex interview? That's where the first two quotes are from. Then there were complaints that Risen was too hard and that many players didn't know what to do, where to go, and died easily (there was some talk about making the first island a "no death" zone), subsequent comments about "comfort features" (quest indicators and such) to make the game more welcoming, about the island structure that was supposed to make it easier to do a console port (they said that Risen had a lot of features which consoles hated, so they started developing Risen 2 with consoles in mind from day one) and harder to wander into a dangerous zone.

 

[Kraszu]

Didn't you guys read the Codex interview? That's where the first two quotes are from. Then there were complaints that Risen was too hard and that many players didn't know what to do, where to go, and died easily (there was some talk about making the first island a "no death" zone), subsequent comments about "comfort features" (quest indicators and such) to make the game more welcoming, about the island structure that was supposed to make it easier to do a console port (they said that Risen had a lot of features which consoles hated, so they started developing Risen 2 with consoles in mind from day one) and harder to wander into a dangerous zone.

I didn't see anything about a quest indicator. Island structure is done because of low amount of RAM on consoles true, but with access to enough of them that will not necessary be a problem. They had also said that you will be able to skip the "tutorial" island fast.

 

[Nim]

I mean I get the too hard complaints even if I disagree. But how can players not know where to go in Risen ? It's linear till you meet the first bandit and then he can show you the way to either the bandit camp or harbour town. Ffs you even get another escort for a good chunk of the way to harbour town.

 

[Roguey]

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/33933/risen/
VGcharts stats are very poor (I know they are never accurate but they can still serve as an indicator):

Those are 360 numbers only and Risen had an utterly terrible 360 port. I'd need to see PC numbers before writing it off as a failure.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I didn't see anything about a quest indicator.

http://www.worldofrisen.de/forum/ar...SSID=137dc6132d0b96d2985ebcd47bc25693e9a59394

"Of course, we have an eye out for accessibility as well, but comfort features will be optional." By comfort features, he [Björn Pankratz] means, first of all, quest indicators."

Also, QTEs are in:

"Deep Silver representative FrauS has confirmed in our forums the presence of Quick Time Events in Risen 2.

Ich finde, dass die Piranhas die QTEs sehr clever eingesetzt haben, nämlich an Stellen, wo ich plötzlich in Lebensgefahr bin und dann richtig das Adrenalin hochgeht. Zum Beispiel, wenn ich im Dschungel einen Fluss durchquere und dann taucht aus dem Nichts ein Alligator auf, packt mich mit dem Maul fest und schüttelt mich Dann hab ich regelrecht das Bedürfnis, schnell was Hektisches zu tun und dolle auf die Leertaste zu hauen, damit das Biest mich wieder loslässt. Ist dann für mich genau das Richtige. Sonst krieg ich noch einen Herzinfarkt... "

When an alligator grabs your ass and starts shaking it, hit spacebar as fast as you can to escape mortal danger.

 

[Vault Dweller]

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/33933/risen/
VGcharts stats are very poor (I know they are never accurate but they can still serve as an indicator):

Those are 360 numbers only and Risen had an utterly terrible 360 port. I'd need to see PC numbers before writing it off as a failure.

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/33934/risen/
^ PC stats.

 

[curry]

I didn't see anything about a quest indicator.

By comfort features, he [Björn Pankratz] means, first of all, quest indicators.

Deep Silver representative FrauS has confirmed in our forums the presence of Quick Time Events in Risen 2

I'm officially butthurt

 

[Roguey]

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/33933/risen/
VGcharts stats are very poor (I know they are never accurate but they can still serve as an indicator):

Those are 360 numbers only and Risen had an utterly terrible 360 port. I'd need to see PC numbers before writing it off as a failure.

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/33934/risen/
^ PC stats.

Thanks. That's sad and now I'm curious about why it was such a failure when Divinity 2, a similar title, was able to achieve success with a higher budget (team twice the size and higher development costs in Belgium versus Germany).

 

[Elwro]

10 thousand sales of Risen in Germany in 2011? I don't believe this. The Witcher sold more than that in its home country.

 

[Vault Dweller]

As I posted earlier, "it was mentioned on the official forums awhile back that the game sold 100,000 copies in Germany and 200-300,000 copies worldwide."

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I don't believe this either, as far as I know Gothic has a big fanbase in Germany, and I'm not sure it includes every version of the game, including all of PC retail and PC digital sales.

The development team in the manual of Risen is 20 people, it can't be that expensive a game to make, although that quality voice acting from professional British actors like Andy Serkis cannot come cheap.

 

[Tigranes]

It's pretty well known Risen was made on a very small budget. I think if we're talking 300k-400k in the first two months, that would have made a profit. If the vgchartz numbers are true, then it's still dire, but hey, working from their numbers is like using a random number generator.

 

[Jarpie]

I mean I get the too hard complaints even if I disagree. But how can players not know where to go in Risen ? It's linear till you meet the first bandit and then he can show you the way to either the bandit camp or harbour town. Ffs you even get another escort for a good chunk of the way to harbour town.

Players didn't know where to go because there wasn't bright neon green arrow pointing "GO DIS WAY!", for modern players listening and reading instructions is apparently very hard to do.

 

[Hobo Elf]

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/33933/risen/
VGcharts stats are very poor (I know they are never accurate but they can still serve as an indicator):

Those are 360 numbers only and Risen had an utterly terrible 360 port. I'd need to see PC numbers before writing it off as a failure.

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/33934/risen/
^ PC stats.

Look at the stats. It's only tracking games sold after 2011. What about 2009 and 2010?

 

[made]

As I posted earlier, "it was mentioned on the official forums awhile back that the game sold 100,000 copies in Germany

In the first 10 weeks, and retail only.
http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/risen/news/risen,44535,2311179.html

 

[Achilles]

Stop using VGChartz for PC games, they are wildy inaccurate.

 

[Jasede]

I didn't see anything about a quest indicator.

http://www.worldofrisen.de/forum/ar...SSID=137dc6132d0b96d2985ebcd47bc25693e9a59394

"Of course, we have an eye out for accessibility as well, but comfort features will be optional." By comfort features, he [Björn Pankratz] means, first of all, quest indicators."

Also, QTEs are in:

"Deep Silver representative FrauS has confirmed in our forums the presence of Quick Time Events in Risen 2.

Ich finde, dass die Piranhas die QTEs sehr clever eingesetzt haben, nämlich an Stellen, wo ich plötzlich in Lebensgefahr bin und dann richtig das Adrenalin hochgeht. Zum Beispiel, wenn ich im Dschungel einen Fluss durchquere und dann taucht aus dem Nichts ein Alligator auf, packt mich mit dem Maul fest und schüttelt mich Dann hab ich regelrecht das Bedürfnis, schnell was Hektisches zu tun und dolle auf die Leertaste zu hauen, damit das Biest mich wieder loslässt. Ist dann für mich genau das Richtige. Sonst krieg ich noch einen Herzinfarkt... "

When an alligator grabs your ass and starts shaking it, hit spacebar as fast as you can to escape mortal danger.

Abbreviated translation for you who don't speak the Master Language:

"I think PB used the QTEs rather appropriately: usually whenever the character is in sudden mortal danger. For example, when I cross a river in a jungle and suddenly an alligator pops up and grabs my leg to shake me to death I really do get a sudden need to do something hectic, like hammering the space bar to get the damn thing to let go. I love it! Just like I love dicks in my mouth and semen in my hair."

Edit: I'd imagine the game sold fairly well in Germany.

 

[some guy]

Why? Why are you Vault Dweller informing us about this grim reallity? Do you hate us? Is our hope for a new gothic-type game to much to ask? What does your wife look like?