Anyone afraid of a sellout?
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Whenever I get super hyped for a promising MMO by a small indie studio which REALLY creates something with all their heart, I can't help but get scared of the inevitable sellout to a bigger publisher.
Had this happen a couple of times over the years. Great games like Fallen Earth, City of Steam and promising ones like Ashes of Creation got sold out by crowdfunded indie studios to big and greedy publishers who either turned the games p2w, dumbed them down, slowly killed them or turned them from an MMO into a battle royale title.
Others, like PoE or Warframe got sold out to Chinese giants (Tencent and Perfect World Co.) but seemingly remained completely independent and intact, so I guess this would be the best case.
Anyone else afraid or probably even hopeful a bigger publisher might pick up this gem?
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I think a lot of us are afraid of this happening. There are many posts here where I have seen messages along the lines of "Fractured has great potential, as long as the devs stay heading in the same direction that they seem to be heading!" Too many of us have been backstabbed again and again by gaming publishers/devs who forget their original game visions and try to just go for the $$. I really hope Prometheus and the rest of the Fractured team stay strong and keep heading towards their original vision!
The last game my guild was supporting was New World, until it became clear that New World's development team was only interested in making the game easier and easier so they could focus on just making sales instead of forming engaging game content. They didn't care about building up and keeping a loyal player-base.
I know the temptation for $$ cash grab can be alluring, but making a great game will yield a greater reward in the long-term! A great example of a trustworthy game development company is CDProjektRed! They stuck to what their vision was of great gameplay/features/ NOT SELLING OUT (no "epic store exclusive") etc. And us gamers love them and trust them to come out with good games! I hope to add Dynamight Studios as the second name on the list of game development studios that I can actually respect and be a loyal customer for!
Please don't join the opposite list like E.A., Activision-Blizzard, etc.!
Going for the cash grab kills long-term MMOs before they even get to start!
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@EXCIDIVM i get your concerns and i think many of us have them.
I would be very sad to see them to get a publisher that litterally castrate them from the game.
This happened to soooo many games, so every Studio is in danger to pick up the wrong one.I just hope - and i think i can speak for the whole community - that Prometheus will get the right contacts and will chose wisely a good publisher.
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We need a STRONG reply here from @Prometheus stating "We will NEVER sellout." or something along those lines.
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Honestly, this is my least concern. Even if they sell it, but the general vibe doesn't change much, I don't really care - as it was the case with ggg (path of exile developer).
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My wish is that this never happens, but it would be worse if the project cannot move forward and close its doors. Of course, the ideal in the event that it happens would be that the game maintains its essence and everything that made it something desired by those of us who are here.
I think the best thing that could happen now for the developers (and us) is to get a new partner who can finance them to increase their human and technological capital but without taking away the control and the ability to decide on the direction of the project.
The most recommended partner in this regard is the community itself. The problem is that nowadays consumers have been deceived on repeated occasions and are increasingly reluctant to invest in this type of project.
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given the past of most mmos or any kind of games in recent years id have to say i assume it will happen at some point. with that said i always hope there is a game that does the right thing and fixes my cynical view of mmos.
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I think that the genre has ahd many promising titles come and go due to this, and I think that we as a whole will worry about this until the game eventually launches. At the moment though it seems like they are heading in the right direction and they look like they will keep moving that way. We can only hope that they will not get that idea with the great community they have built around this game. With it only being in Alpha phase.
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Im honestly more worried about the partnership with Xsolla which is breaking currently plenty of national laws, their own refund policies by witholding a couple millions $ of refunds with soon-to-come class action lawsuit in the US than the devs selling out
I wouldnt be too worried if there was a (at worst) reasonable compromise made in exchange for a lot of extra funding from publishers, which we, as players, can only benefit from. But again, emphasis on "reasonable". There should be an agreed list, between community and devs, of publishers that must be a no-go (my.com, Gameforge, PearlAbyss, NetEase...and similar a-holes and gamekillers, we all know atleast some)
