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Compensation for unfinished Episodes?

ltolmanltolman
edited March 2011 in Back to the Future
Well I've searched and searched and it came back with nothing what I was looking for. I checked the FAQs, I checked the TellTale FAQs and I used the search tool here for:

Half Life 2
Unfinished Episodes
Price per Episode

Anyways so heres the story. I have no problem paying 24.95 for the full 4-5 Episodes, that isnt why I'm here.

The reason why I'm here is that it occured to me while Episodes are great I think we all can agree that it isnt all that great. The best PRIME example is

Half Life 2


When Half Life 2 announced they were going to do Episodes if they would have said "hey lets charge 60 dollars for 3 episodes" well guess what; Episode 3 has not been released and now people (in theory) would be wanting their 20 dollars back.

Half Life 2 released in 2004
Half Life 2 Episode 1 released in 2006
Episode 2 released in 2007
Episode 3 releases in 2011??? (lol probably not but look at the time frame)


I too have no problem in waiting for all of the episodes to be released before I buy but I was hoping I could play earlier than that.

I'm wondering what TellTale games has in store for those that did pay the 25 dollars and TellTale games does not finish this series (Back to the Future). $25 dollars for 5 Episodes is about 5 dollars each (great price!!!) but are you (telltale) going to compensate the players (customers) if they become unfinished.

OR when will there be an option to pay for each Episode separately (you can even raise the price some; 6.99 per episode)

I seriously try to think positive but in this day and age and with our economy; any gaming company can go close their doors at any time

Fan of Guitar Hero Series? Well not no more; the original company who made the series just went bankrupt about a week ago (and another game I was hoping to try: True Crime)

Id ask my question on Jurassic Park forums too (lol too late, I accidentally did), but I presume if I ask here, TellTale Games may update their true FAQs and perhaps add this to it???

Thanks

Comments

  • doggansdoggans
    edited February 2011
    Telltale has done six seasons and hasn't missed an episode yet, so I wouldn't worry.
  • IcedhopeIcedhope
    edited February 2011
    ltolman wrote: »
    Well I've searched and searched and it came back with nothing what I was looking for. I checked the FAQs, I checked the TellTale FAQs and I used the search tool here for:

    Half Life 2
    Unfinished Episodes
    Price per Episode

    Anyways so heres the story. I have no problem paying 24.95 for the full 4-5 Episodes, that isnt why I'm here.

    The reason why I'm here is that it occured to me while Episodes are great I think we all can agree that it isnt all that great. The best PRIME example is

    Half Life 2


    When Half Life 2 announced they were going to do Episodes if they would have said "hey lets charge 60 dollars for 3 episodes" well guess what; Episode 3 has not been released and now people (in theory) would be wanting their 20 dollars back.

    Half Life 2 released in 2004
    Half Life 2 Episode 1 released in 2006
    Episode 2 released in 2007
    Episode 3 releases in 2011??? (lol probably not but look at the time frame)


    I too have no problem in waiting for all of the episodes to be released before I buy but I was hoping I could play earlier than that.

    I'm wondering what TellTale games has in store for those that did pay the 25 dollars and TellTale games does not finish this series (Back to the Future). $25 dollars for 5 Episodes is about 5 dollars each (great price!!!) but are you (telltale) going to compensate the players (customers) if they become unfinished.

    OR when will there be an option to pay for each Episode separately (you can even raise the price some; 6.99 per episode)

    I seriously try to think positive but in this day and age and with our economy; any gaming company can go close their doors at any time

    Fan of Guitar Hero Series? Well not no more; the original company who made the series just went bankrupt about a week ago (and another game I was hoping to try: True Crime)

    Id ask my question on Jurassic Park forums too (lol too late, I accidentally did), but I presume if I ask here, TellTale Games may update their true FAQs and perhaps add this to it???

    Thanks

    Half life, and telltale episodes have very little resemblance of each other...other than being episodes.

    Telltale makes their games on an episodic format called a season. They release that season with five episodes, that you dl and an episode is release every month, so when you buy the season you know you will be getting the game, because you don't pay for the episode you pay for the season, instead of buying each subsequent episode, like in half life, or penny arcade adventures.
  • IrishmileIrishmile
    edited February 2011
    Yeah they have this thing down.... Its not new for them anymore they know what they are doing..
  • Gman5852Gman5852
    edited February 2011
    Yeah telltale has yet to screw up episodic gaming, its all they have done with the exception of csi and puzzle agent.
    EDIT:But in the unlikeliness that telltale were to screw this up for once, Im sure they would give you a refund, or at the least, in store credit.
  • Rather DashingRather Dashing
    edited February 2011
    In the hypothetical situation, you're screwed out of $20-35. This hypothetical doesn't seem to have much merit if you take precedent into account, especially in the case of Wallace and Gromit which is well known as a financial failure for the company that was still finished. With this in mind, a situation that would cause a purchased season to not be finished would likely also dissolve the company, and no comforting words on any FAQ would matter at that point.
  • IrishmileIrishmile
    edited February 2011
    I would be more upset that there were not going to be anymore TTG games more than losing $$.
  • sirbucketsirbucket
    edited February 2011
    Yeah, they'll finish this. Don't worry about them closing any time soon - they've got 5 new game projects to go in addition to BttF and JP xD

    Also, Guitar Hero and True Crime? Neither were cancelled because of bankruptcy - Activision (the publisher) chose to give up on those to concentrate mainly on Call of Duty and some other franchises.
  • VainamoinenVainamoinen Moderator
    edited February 2011
    That's nice. ;)

    TTG will finish BTTF, of course! The company is in full swing and somehow BTTF managed to be their flagship as of right now.

    I see your problem, nonetheless. Essentially, people have paid for something that doesn't exist at the moment, but long-term TTG fans somehow get used to the idea. TTG delivers the episodes extremely reliably in the announced month.
  • MolokovMolokov
    edited February 2011
    I think the only time they have been 'late' (as in the game was released not in the month they said it was) was for the first episode of SBCG4AP, which was announced as "June" in the trailer but actually was released in mid-July. The only reason for the delay was to squash more bugs!

    I know people have been complaining about some of the bugs in BTTF (and there always will be a few mainly because people's computer systems are so different) but unless the bug stops you from actually completing the episode, then it's not all that critical. There has been a few of those over the years, but not very many.

    If you took a vote on whether you wanted a) more bugs fixed or b) released on time, you'd probably get a split - i.e. some people want it perfect and some people want it NOW. You'll never get both, but they try their best to deliver that!
  • ltolmanltolman
    edited February 2011
    Okay well thank you very much everyone for your thoughts. Thats good to hear that TellTale Games has always kept their word :)
  • FitzoliverJFitzoliverJ
    edited February 2011
    Er. Why does anybody think that BTTF might not be completed anyway?!
  • Sinaz20Sinaz20 Telltale Alumni
    edited March 2011
    I don't have an official reply to what would happen if...

    But you have to realize, we aren't a company winging it as we go.

    We are highly professional. Our deadlines are gospel. If we need more man-hours to complete an episode by our internal deadline, we fire retro rockets in Europe to slow the spin of the Earth or wake up the clones, we're that dedicated.

    We work late nights and weekends for you guys, though the typical model is that we budget every detail of the game before hand. We cut excess before we go into production. We know precisely how long it takes us, and how many of us we need to make an episode of a certain size and complexity.

    Failure is not an option. I imagine it would have to take a calamity of epic proportions to stop a release from us now-a-days.

    This post may contain some hyperbole.
  • Rather DashingRather Dashing
    edited March 2011
    Some hyperbole? More like a greater level of hyperbole than has ever been contained by a single forum post in all of existence, to the point that the bulging mass of the post strains under the weight of the levels of hyperbole, and threatens to rupture and create a hole in the internet, forming a vacuum that will wipe clean the slate of ALL WORLDWIDE INFORMATION NETWORKS.
  • Sinaz20Sinaz20 Telltale Alumni
    edited March 2011
    Rather Dashing wrote: »
    Some hyperbole? More like a greater level of hyperbole than has ever been contained by a single forum post in all of existence, to the point that the bulging mass of the post strains under the weight of the levels of hyperbole, and threatens to rupture and create a hole in the internet, forming a vacuum that will wipe clean the slate of ALL WORLDWIDE INFORMATION NETWORKS.
    The retro-rockets in Europe could be real... you never know.
  • econojoeconojo
    edited March 2011
    Sinaz20 wrote: »

    Failure is not an option. I imagine it would have to take a calamity of epic proportions to stop a release from us now-a-days.

    This post may contain some hyperbole.

    That is good to hear! So we can expect Episode 3 on March...?


    Lack of pie usually is enough of a calamity for me. I never finish projects on time.
  • Rather DashingRather Dashing
    edited March 2011
    True, but obtaining and maintaining retro rockets with enough force to slow the spin of the earth does seem a bit out of Telltale's usual budget constraints, and it seems like the option might have some negative effects. On the other hand, it worked for Superman.
  • Sinaz20Sinaz20 Telltale Alumni
    edited March 2011
    Rather Dashing wrote: »
    True, but obtaining and maintaining retro rockets with enough force to slow the spin of the earth does seem a bit out of Telltale's usual budget constraints, and it seems like the option might have some negative effects. On the other hand, it worked for Superman.

    Oh yeah... Superman. I wonder if he'll work for scale.
  • RAnthonyMahanRAnthonyMahan
    edited March 2011
    I can understand you being skeptical of the idea of episodic gaming since the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the term is Half-Life and the seriously-where-the-hell-is-it-Valve Episode Three. Hell, I was skeptical when I was introduced to Telltale for the first time, way back in the Strong Bad days.

    I don't think it's really even fair to call the HL2 Episodes episodic games. Sure, they're shorter and cheaper than normal games, meaning they've got two-thirds of the formula down, but they ignore the whole "each new installment is released quickly" part. Fortunately, Telltale doesn't do that. There's always a new episode every month (though sometimes they skip a month), and with the exception of Bone they've never left a series unfinished.

    Hey...you're buddies with Valve, right, Telltale? Any chance you can teach them how to do episodic gaming right? I mean, next week you'll be releasing your seventh "Episode Three". :p
  • PsychoRavenPsychoRaven
    edited March 2011
    Yup. Telltale actually is a perfect example of Episodic gaming. Others have said they are episodic but they never release on a regular schedule and have a set number of games.

    With Telltale you know what you are getting which is 4 to 6 episodes released in a scheduled timeframe. You also know that each episode will build off the previous episode building up to a "finale" if you will just like you would with a tv show.
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited March 2011
    Even Gabe Newell has said before that "Episode" was probably the wrong word to use for the Half Life 2 Episodes, but what can you do?

    I'd probably be more bugged by the time it's taken for more Half Life content to come out, except that I know that whenever it's out, I'll buy it instantly and (given their track record) enjoy it immensely.

    But whatever, that's neither here nor there, is it?

    This thread seems to have generally run its course. Thanks everyone for jumping to our defense with facts :) As has been said a few times, we have a pretty established track record at this point of shipping our games as close to the announced time as possible, and for most of the studio that's a point of pride. I don't think we'd let ourselves take people's money for a "season pass" if we thought there was any chance we would flake out and not deliver the whole season.
  • TechnomancerTechnomancer
    edited March 2011
    Well Episode 3 was deadlined for March, I remember 2 came out around 19-20th, so we're so close to the end of March and not so much as a peep does cause a little concern. Maybe as a compromise, you could update the front for the next upcoming episodes, be it screens or trailers, idk anything. We're left hangin far too long, here :(
  • Martin McFlyMartin McFly
    edited March 2011
    Have some faith in Telltale. They said it would be released in March so it'll be released in March. I don't understand why everyone's so flustered about the release date. There are still four more eligible days for the release of episode three (28-31). Just relax and hold out for a few more days.
  • JakeJake Telltale Alumni
    edited March 2011
    Technomancer wrote: »
    Well Episode 3 was deadlined for March, I remember 2 came out around 19-20th, so we're so close to the end of March and not so much as a peep does cause a little concern. Maybe as a compromise, you could update the front for the next upcoming episodes, be it screens or trailers, idk anything. We're left hangin far too long, here :(

    I think people will start talking about 3 on the blog and homepage super soon. I promise it exists :) I've seen a lot of the team already working on eps 4 and 5 as well.
  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited March 2011
    Technomancer wrote: »
    Well Episode 3 was deadlined for March, I remember 2 came out around 19-20th, so we're so close to the end of March and not so much as a peep does cause a little concern. Maybe as a compromise, you could update the front for the next upcoming episodes, be it screens or trailers, idk anything. We're left hangin far too long, here :(

    At the end of the latest behind-the-scenes video, it says it'll be on PC and Mac "next week". :)
    Jake wrote: »
    I think people will start talking about 3 on the blog and homepage super soon. I promise it exists :)

    Haha.... I can imagine you scurrying back to the team right now... "sh*t guys, we totally forgot ep 3! Someone should get on that..." :p
  • jweirjweir
    edited March 2011
    Technomancer wrote: »
    Well Episode 3 was deadlined for March, I remember 2 came out around 19-20th, so we're so close to the end of March and not so much as a peep does cause a little concern. Maybe as a compromise, you could update the front for the next upcoming episodes, be it screens or trailers, idk anything. We're left hangin far too long, here :(

    Not so much as a peep? So I guess the fact that they mentioned it would be released next week as well as showing concept art in the Interloper counts for nothing? Also there's that video on GameTrailers.com that shows behind the scenes on the next episode. So yeah, not a peep...
  • Alan JohnsonAlan Johnson
    edited March 2011
    Technomancer wrote: »
    Well Episode 3 was deadlined for March, I remember 2 came out around 19-20th, so we're so close to the end of March and not so much as a peep does cause a little concern. Maybe as a compromise, you could update the front for the next upcoming episodes, be it screens or trailers, idk anything. We're left hangin far too long, here :(

    Have no fear. Back to the Future Episode 3 is coming to PC/Mac next week.

    We have shown some Citizen Brown concept art in The Interloper (Telltale's monthly newsletter), released a behind the scenes video featuring Claudia Wells' return as Jennifer Parker, and have some screenshots to show off really soon. :) I've played through the game and as Jake says, it's real and it's coming.
  • LuigiHannLuigiHann
    edited March 2011
    Did they ever attempt to charge up front for the three Half-Life episodes? I thought those were always a pay-as-you-go situation. I admit I'm not as familiar with it as some people.
  • MolokovMolokov
    edited March 2011
    The latest Interloper (email newsletter) said BTTF:Ep3 is out next Tuesday. Which is Wednesday for those in the +GMT timezones.
  • BlayzeBlayze
    edited March 2011
    Damn it, I want retro rockets too. Then I'd be able to put them to the best use ever--extending my sleep time.
  • Macfly77Macfly77 Moderator
    edited March 2011
    Molokov wrote: »
    The latest Interloper (email newsletter) said BTTF:Ep3 is out next Tuesday. Which is Wednesday for those in the +GMT timezones.
    Actually, the only actual date mentioned in this month's Interloper regarding Back to the Future is the release date for episode 2 on PSN, which is indeed Tuesday, March 29.
    Regarding episode 3, it just says "coming to PC and Mac next week".
  • TechnomancerTechnomancer
    edited March 2011
    jweir wrote: »
    Not so much as a peep? So I guess the fact that they mentioned it would be released next week as well as showing concept art in the Interloper counts for nothing? Also there's that video on GameTrailers.com that shows behind the scenes on the next episode. So yeah, not a peep...
    Ok I read all the replies. I was not aware of that peep, so message received ^_^ i'm good, no worries. I check the page twice a day just to see if I catch it within an hour of Ep 3 being released XD thats just how forward I look to it.

    I gotta admit this one has kept me captivated. I was skeptical at first especially about the art style but its got soul and it feels right as a canonical part of the BTTF universe. I think my only critique is that Marty seems too immature considering the movies (he did get into a wild-west slingoff afterall, that takes the cajones of a man ;D) but its minor overall and I do like it :o
  • OrangeAceOrangeAce
    edited March 2011
    Martin McFly wrote: »
    Have some faith in Telltale. They said it would be released in March so it'll be released in March. I don't understand why everyone's so flustered about the release date. There are still four more eligible days for the release of episode three (28-31). Just relax and hold out for a few more days.

    ^This. The way I see it, the fact that they've taken the entire month of March says that they're taking their time and putting out a quality episode. If I had the option of having a buggy and underdeveloped Episode 3 on March 1st or a polished and story-rich Ep 3 on March 31st, I'd take the latter in a heartbeat.
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