Why Episodic Gaming Isn't Working

Chexd - 848 days 23 hours ago

I havent read the article but im guessing it simple...every 2 years is hardly episodic. (Half life).

Episodic should be every month in my mind and be very short. Much like a tv show. Not TOO short but short and pay for the whole series. rrp £20 for example..like a dvd.

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Geewhizz - 848 days 22 hours ago

In my opinion the reason it doesnt work is........

next part of this comment available next Monday

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Descendant - 848 days 22 hours ago

I mean none of those games on the list interests me at all. As far as Half-Life goes I believe they take a little too long for a "episodic" game to come out. If they would make new interesting games then I think it would work out more. I mean I would buy a Parasite Eve 3 in episodes.

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gamerriffic - 848 days 22 hours ago

worked, because it was popular...
all those other games listed...
the average gamer.. even the hardcore gamer..
would probably not even hear about it.
theres no real hype surrounding those games.

.. and i remember when Sin came out, it got crap reviews.
episodic content isnt bad, its the games that are..
...afterall.. microsoft did pay 50 million for gta 4's episodic content.

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WafflesID - 848 days 21 hours ago

Seriously, this article has a major flaw. It completely ignores the ONLY game that is TRULY episodic. If episodic gaming follows the lead of Sam and Max then it CAN be a success. But if you follow the Half-Life 2 "episodic" model then it will fail.

Bah. N4G is getting riddled with all these blogs from people who just dont have a clue.

News By Gamers....

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Dragonopolis - 848 days 13 hours ago

This kind of article needs to wait a good 2 to 3 years for the market to mature. I doubt this generation you will see by month releases. For this generation 2-4 times a year would be episodic.

Remember, Next Gen is still new and takes to much resources to do it on a month basis. But Hey, in 5 to 10 years games like Bioshock, Haze, Drake's uncharted, Heaven Sword, (even Lair) will be childs play to create on any system.

But.......... Leave it to Sony and Microsoft to fowl it up with more technology thus having consumers wait 2 to 5 years for promised features.

That's life for a gamer at least.

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a714generation - 848 days 1 hour ago

and that's kind of the point. Things like the ever increasing popularity of digital distribution will give rise to more episodic content, among other things. But for right now, an immature market is creating a mine field of development and distribution pitfalls for any publisher.

One of the questions I'm excited to see answered in the coming years is can this model work--and by work I mean be really, truly successful both critically and financially--outside of a graphically stylized adventure-esque game, like Sam & Max. Something I never thought of before I did some research for this article is the unique hurdles that Half-Life has to overcome because of the focus on bleeding-edge graphics in the shooter camp of gamers, and how that may effect development time tables.

I'm not saying Valve can't/won't overcome some of the setbacks they've faced. But to me, it's an interesting question.

Thanks for your comments guys and gals.

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