Lucasarts vs. Telltale, what happens?
So Craig Derrick, the producer of Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, had the following to say about the game:
As well we know that ToMI is TTG's best selling series yet (with only 1 episode out!!) and if I were in their shoes, I would be crazy not to be thinking about season 2 for next year sometime already.
So what happens if, with the great sales of SoMI:SE and ToMI, LucasArts and Telltale are both producing new adventures concurrently? How would it effect pricing? LA, which puts most of its boxed games on store shelves for 40 bucks, vs TTG $35 seasons with DVDs released later, in addition they give discounts constantly (which is sweet). I personally would try to buy both, playing the full length LA release in between chapter releases by TTG, but if I had to choose (economy looking as it does now, I might) I would go with the cheaper and proven TTG version. Unless LucasArts when the Digital route and gave us 20 dollar full games on Steam and XBL...then I would be truly conflicted...
But enough of my rambling, what do you guys think?
If [old and new fans] show up, enjoy the game and want to see more then I think we'll be on the right path to not only do more updates, but all new adventures.
As well we know that ToMI is TTG's best selling series yet (with only 1 episode out!!) and if I were in their shoes, I would be crazy not to be thinking about season 2 for next year sometime already.
So what happens if, with the great sales of SoMI:SE and ToMI, LucasArts and Telltale are both producing new adventures concurrently? How would it effect pricing? LA, which puts most of its boxed games on store shelves for 40 bucks, vs TTG $35 seasons with DVDs released later, in addition they give discounts constantly (which is sweet). I personally would try to buy both, playing the full length LA release in between chapter releases by TTG, but if I had to choose (economy looking as it does now, I might) I would go with the cheaper and proven TTG version. Unless LucasArts when the Digital route and gave us 20 dollar full games on Steam and XBL...then I would be truly conflicted...
But enough of my rambling, what do you guys think?
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That's probably a pretty unlikely situation either way though and I see more episodic adventures from TTG while LA would probably release more "blockbuster" retail games.
Given the circumstances for the foundation of Telltale, I don't think they'll agree to a buyout at any point. I doubt they would really want to see "marketplace realities" rear their ugly head again.
It is to Lucas Art's advantage right now, to let Telltale do the work, and make money off of royalties.
If you read the original post, the quote that I made was from a LucasArts exec.
It really depends. I'm very quickly falling in love with Telltale Games and we've all been burned by LucasArts many times before. So like was stated above, it would make more sense for LucasArts to just trust Telltale games with most of their IPs.
And Pale Man, I agree, but part of me wouldn't be surprised in the least if LucasArts tried to do that.
Would not really be good for the series.
I believe that, I just would like to know where you go that information?
TellTale has shown they have the talent.
Folks at LucasArts may have talent in the adventure game genre as well...but we haven't seen any proof via product.
Thus, I'd rather see Monkey Island in TellTale's hands.
I agree with you there. There is no way both companies could work on the same series, there's no way it would work.
That still doesn't mean there's anyone at LucasArts that's ever made an adventure game. I'm not familiar with Craig Derrick - has he made any adventure games? (And MI:SE doesn't count.)
*sits in a bumper car floating on an ocean of drool paddling to Monkey Island nirvana*
What a load of tosh. How do you think the devs at TellTale got that experience? Were they magically born with it? Of course not, they got it by making games and because they were given the chance to make them when they had little or no experience.
I'd like to have a lab like that myself.
Make no mistake: LucasArts has some new execs in charge and part of their plan is to broaden the portfolio of the company and try to bring back more classic franchises. The company's internal development has been decimated due to their focus exclusively on licensed games, and I think they're looking to change that now.
While Telltale works on Season 1 of TOMI Lucasarts will be releasing more Special Editions of classic games.
If Lucasarts decides to make a new Monkey Island game themselves before Season Two which I really doubt, then maybe they would give Maniac Mansion for Telltales making a Season of.
I'm really hoping Lucasarts surprising us and making a new adventure game, whether of a classic IP or new. But I'm placing my bets that their new stuff will be MI 2 - SE.
Point being: I really don't think that several companies producing the same type of games will effect sales terribly for the other company as long as they don't release it during the same month. If it does end up effecting sales: Good for us, we get better games when competition rises!
As for lucasarts, *crosses fingers for MI:2 SE*
I'm not saying they shouldn't make adventure games. I'm just saying that if they have little experience, MI might be a bit too high for them at the moment (and I insist on the 'at the moment')... the expectations from us fans are just to high.
Besides, I'd rather trust TTG with the MI license.
Yeah, I think there's genuinely a lot of good will in LucasArts to make this sort of game but there's nothing wrong at all with starting small. With projects like Lucidity on XBLA, that seems like a good way to start - small story/art/atmosphere driven games, and they can grow from there. They need to learn to develop their own style nice and slowly because those old franchises very much bear the fingerprints of people like Gilbert, Schafer and Grossman and going for straight up imitation might not be the best starting point.
I wouldn't be surprised if they popped Sam & Max on Steam and perhaps DOTT. I hope they're doing a SE of Maniac Mansion, so I'll be disappointed if that turns up.
Possibly the older Jedi Knight games too.
I've held off playing DoTT again in anticipation of a remake (Along with MI2)
A Grim Fandango remake with higher res texture and a ToMI control scheme would also be amazing.
Personally I think S&M and DoTT look nice enough as they are and as they're already full talkie there's little for them to do. MM on the other hand would benefit from a complete overhaul.
Grim Fandango SE would be awesome, especially if they improved the controls. I imagine that'd be more work than they want though.
Well... Not so much a remake, but an update to make it work properly on todays machines and they could sell it through steam.
As for Monkey Island, I think LA will be content to let TTG run with it. They have plenty of other classic adventure material they can build on if they really do decide to create adventure games again, or they might create a new original adventure game. Creating special editions might keep them busy for a while, anyway.
(And then ScummVM announces that they're going to become compatible with the Steamed remakes.)
Great games, but meh.
I was curious to see how some a bit more advanced filters than the ones used by ScummVM would make the game look
I prefer the original graphics. I find that much too blurry for my taste.
Yeah, I've never seen the appeal of blurring a SCUMM game.
That would be easier to compare if you'd put different versions of the same content beside each other.