ACTIVISION WAS SITTING ATOP ITS NEW CALL OF DUTY EMPIRE, AND RAVEN WAS TO BE ITS SCAFFOLDING
Putting out a Wolfenstein game ought to be the highlight of any developer’s career. It was the making of MachineGames and Gray Matter Interactive, which became the backbone of Treyarch after Return to Castle Wolfenstein—not to mention id Software, whose tribute to a prison-break game launched the FPS genre.
But for Raven Software, it was a disaster. There was nothing wrong with the game, as such: Wolfenstein (2009) is a perfectly serviceable shooter, with an arsenal of impossible weapons built for colorful Nazi evisceration. But it was also a doggedly faithful sequel to Gray Matter’s Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and by that time the b-movie blankness of BJ Blazkowicz seemed terribly old-fashioned. The eight years between the two games had seen Halo, Half-Life 2, and Bioshock—a sea change in the sophistication of first-person adventures. Beyond a surface-level nod to City 17 with a train station opening, Raven had simply failed to learn the lessons of its peers. Wolfenstein shifted a meager 17,000 copies on PC in its first 12 days on sale, and layoffs followed.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 2021-Ausgabe von PC Gamer US Edition.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 2021-Ausgabe von PC Gamer US Edition.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Special Report- Stacked Deck - Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big.
Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big. Four years later, its successor Inkbound’s launch from Early Access was looking more like Sandwich Big.I’m not just saying that because of the mountain of lamb and eggplants I ate while meeting with developer Shiny Shoe over lunch, to feel out what the aftermath of releasing a game looks like in 2024. I mean, have I thought about that sandwich every day since? Yes. But also, the indie team talked frankly about the struggle of luring Monster Train’s audience on board for its next game.
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