Company News Bigpoint Acquires Radon Labs

Tags: Drakensang

<p>... and confims Drakensang 3.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Radon Labs, the developer of Drakensang and Drakensang: The River of the Time, has been facing some <a href="http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=43964">financial problems</a> as of late. Now they've been taken over by BigPoint GmbH, the worldwide leader in browser-based video games. Exerpt from the <a href="http://www.bigpoint.net/index.es?action=press&amp;subpage=press_archiv&amp;newsID=293&amp;lang=en" target="_blank">press release</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Hamburg, 1st June, 2010</strong> &ndash; Bigpoint GmbH (http://bigpoint.com), the worldwide leader in browser-based video games, today announced the acquisition of Radon Labs (http://radonlabs.de), an award-winning game development studio that recently filed for bankruptcy due to financial concerns. With this acquisition, Bigpoint gains more than 35 new employees, including Radon Labs Managing Directors Bernd Beyreuther and Andr&eacute; Blechschmidt, who will remain with Bigpoint and direct its newly established Berlin office. <br /><br /> Bigpoint CEO and Founder, Heiko Hubertz, views the deal as an important strategic move for the company, &ldquo;Under Bernd and Andr&eacute;&rsquo;s leadership, Radon Labs became one of Germany&rsquo;s top three development studios. We&rsquo;re excited to add their highly qualified workforce to Bigpoint as we continue to push the limits of what&rsquo;s possible in online gaming. This acquisition is also greater proof that the market continues to consolidate. As such, we plan to purchase additional studios, both in Germany and abroad, to support our long-term growth strategy.&rdquo;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.rpgwatch.com/#15036">RPGWatch</a></p>

Omg.

Somehow I've a very, very bad feeling about the quality of the Drakensang series after this acquisition

In before Drakensang Online: A Browser-Based MMO.

Drakensang 3 confirmed, hell I didn't even notice they had made a second one.

Amazing how those manager parasites "manage" to leach on even though they led the company into bankruptcy.

mondblut said:

In before Drakensang Online: A Browser-Based MMO.

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http://www.dsa-games.de/

Shannow said:

mondblut said:

In before Drakensang Online: A Browser-Based MMO.

Click to expand...

http://www.dsa-games.de/

Click to expand...

Know about these (wanted to mention them actually). But they are single-player, html ports of series released for handhelds about 5-7 years ago. Remember, you can't turn a profit if game doesn't have microtransactions.

Good news after all.
But

We’re excited to add their highly qualified workforce to Bigpoint as we continue to push the limits of what’s possible in online gaming.

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makes me worried if it gets mentioned with drakensang.

Shannow wrote:
mondblut wrote:
In before Drakensang Online: A Browser-Based MMO.

http://www.dsa-games.de/

Click to expand...

100% adaptions from the P&P Soloadventures (choose your own adventure). I liked them as a kid and tried the free one from the site. It was much more entertaining for me than some of the nextgen crpgs. Btw Drakensang 2 has some similarities to this soloadventures besides the rulesystem.

100% adaptions from the P&P Soloadventures (choose your own adventure).

Click to expand...

Say... are these in English too?

Did anyone else read the story title as "Bioware Acquires Radon Labs"?

FeelTheRads said:

100% adaptions from the P&P Soloadventures (choose your own adventure).

Click to expand...

Say... are these in English too?

Click to expand...

Not as far as I know but if you click on the Forum on the side there is an english section. Don´t know why but I can´t access the side at the moment so you have to check the forum for yourself.

EDIT: It works now and they are available in English: http://www.chromatrix.com/html/tde-games.html

Was drakensang 2 better than the first?

Morkar said:

FeelTheRads said:

100% adaptions from the P&P Soloadventures (choose your own adventure).

Click to expand...

Say... are these in English too?

Click to expand...

Not as far as I know but if you click on the Forum on the side there is an english section. Don´t know why but I can´t access the side at the moment so you have to check the forum for yourself.

EDIT: It works now and they are available in English: http://www.chromatrix.com/html/tde-games.html

Click to expand...

Thanks, but I was asking about the original P&P games.

bhlaab said:

Was drakensang 2 better than the first?

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By all accounts and reviews, yes.

I'm still waiting for an english version.

Yes, although not by much.

Fixes some bad design of the first game, most prominently areas becoming inaccessible after completing their main quest - instead now new quests become available as the story progresses, encouraging revisiting old maps. More meaningful skill checks, too.

On the other hand, it introduces questionable design decisions of its own. For example, party selection is very limited. There's 5 npcs in total, one of which dies very early in a painfully predictable mass effect-esque C&C at the beginning, so you're pretty much stuck with the same party for the majority of the time until the endgame when one of the npcs (most likely the one you didn't have in your party until then) is forced on you.

But yeah, overall it doesnt suck.

There was a translation for PnP. Google for The Dark Eye.

Was drakensang 2 better than the first?

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Haven´t played the first one. Drakensang 2 (it´s not translated afaik) has full voice acting, npcs are more alive/talkative (but in a good way, not whining bitches), a bit more complex rules, you can return to older places (and it´s necessary) and as far as i heard less trashmobs and the story is more fastpaced/tighter but not as "epic" as the first one (just an adventurer). [/url]