The End of Sam and Max?

Ashton

If this has been asked before, I appoligize, but...

Is there an ultimate ending for hte series planned? No, I'm not asking you to tell me "yes, season 5 eppisode 2" or anything, just wheather at this time TellTale does have an ending planned and there will be a finite # of S+M eppisodes, or wheather the series will continue untill it's no longer financially viable (or other things like TT going bankrupt or soemthing)

Jake

Given that there isn't really any long term arc to the series as a whole (just episode to episode, and an art throughout any given season), I think the current plan is to continue making Sam & Max until we want to stop, or people stop buying them. That doesn't mean there will be one every single year forever (note we're taking a longer break between seasons two and three, for instance), but I don't think there are any plans to end it until people decide its time for it to end, whenever that may be.

Ashton

PRAISE BE TO THE TELLTALE GODS!!!

I was terrified when I saw "THE END" appear after season two (since 75% of the plot was wrapped up in a neat little package, including the possible destruction of S+M's only remaining enimies) It's good to know that, at the very least, there is no end in sight, greatest adventure game series of all time!!!

Dangerzone

yeah... its definately not like lost (where they came out and said the show will end at the end of season 6 in 2010) but on that note it is seeming to become a series that only pops up every now and then with very large breaks between the seasons

but i have seen enough ongoing video game series to know that most don't last more than a decade (and the fact that this series is still well known after a 14 year hiatus is staggering)

by the one decade mark.... most games end (or at least have some end planned (like with ratchet and clank), or the series just gets washed out and it drops off the face of the earth, or they just stop making the games and hope no one notices (EA james bond series), or get to the point that the story has been going on for so long that no one is around who knows/remembers how it ends so they just keep going on and on with it (resident evil), or they get sold to another developer who turns the franchise into a never-ending stream of various unrelated arcade games (crash bandicoot), and some games survive by just only making a game every few years... so that the interest is always high when they make a new title (GTA)

ShaggE

I could see it pulling off around 4-5 seasons before any staleness sets in. (unless TT hits a "Simpsons Stride"... )

Doesn't sound like much, but at 5-6 episodes a season, that's 26 to 29 games we're talking about. That's got to be some kind of record for a niche franchise in an already niche genre.

Ashton

Oh I dont know, Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog have been running for decades (albiet not episodal, unless you want to count the original 1/2/3 of each game) Considering how S+M just wont die (started as a comic, comic ended, became a TV series, series ended became a game, was about to become a nother game, then became the episodal games) I wouldn't be suprised if SOMETHING S+M didn't pop up (even after theTT series ends) for years and years, till Percell dies (or possibly even longer, depending on how many "new gennerations" learn and love S+M)

I'm going to be suprised if any of that happens, but I hope it does. (though personally I'd hate to see (for example) a full-game FPS or racing of S+M --- minigames are good but I for one think it owuld get stale fast)

All-in-all I'm prayiong S+M is the next Mario or Sonic and just never completely dies!

tiger97882

Sonic isn't so much writing driven as... spinning driven.

Ebeeto

The famous words "It's better to burn out than fade away" come to mind...

Making games until nobody buys them doesn't sound very sexy, at all. I imagine a watered out, stale mess of awkward cultural references and recycled jokes in S&M Season 8, with a player base consisting of 20% of the original game audience.

But, I have confidence that TellTale will stop when it's appropriate. It's often pretty obvious when a series starts running on empty and deserves to rest. But then again, nothing says the franchise couldn't be reincarnated another decade or so into the future, after the last episodic game is released.

BUT! There's really no use blabbering about that now, since we've just been through season 2, which was severely awesome, and the end of the series feels like but a fly's irrelevant turd on the windshield of the DeSoto, driving recklessly towards the sunset and towards a stream of mischievous adventures and joyful mayhem.

Can I get an amen?

questionthemajority

Dangerzone wrote: »

yeah... its definately not like lost (where they came out and said the show will end at the end of season 6 in 2010) but on that note it is seeming to become a series that only pops up every now and then with very large breaks between the seasons

but i have seen enough ongoing video game series to know that most don't last more than a decade (and the fact that this series is still well known after a 14 year hiatus is staggering)

by the one decade mark.... most games end (or at least have some end planned (like with ratchet and clank), or the series just gets washed out and it drops off the face of the earth, or they just stop making the games and hope no one notices (EA james bond series), or get to the point that the story has been going on for so long that no one is around who knows/remembers how it ends so they just keep going on and on with it (resident evil), or they get sold to another developer who turns the franchise into a never-ending stream of various unrelated arcade games (crash bandicoot), and some games survive by just only making a game every few years... so that the interest is always high when they make a new title (GTA)

Or they stay wonderful forever (Super Mario Bros.)!

Ashton

I hate to agree with somone saying that the series I so love should end, but you're right, drawing it out would probably water down the love of the franchise, making a comeback a decade later even harder.

I LOVE the way you said that, it's as if Sam himself were speaking to us! Absolutely, AMEN to that!

RyanMon

Not just Mario and Sonic, but there are other games that have been around for a long time and are still popular, like the Star Wars games (gasp! did i just say a bad word?), the Final Fantasy series, the Sims are pretty popular (starting out with sim city etc), Warcraft started in 1994, etc. Going into sports, you got the Madden NFL series, and there are probably a ton of other games I just can't think of right now.

However, I definitely agree that Sam and Max has been quite extraordinary by dying for a while and then coming back strong.

LuigiHann

Ashton wrote: »

including the possible destruction of S+M's only remaining enimies

Hahaha. Sam and Max will never run out of enemies.

delimew

considering they're always making more.

ah, to be young...

loaldnt

wow, a season 3 so! i'm so happy for this. I was sceared when I saw the end of 205.

TrogLlama

You know, this is actually kind of interesting- several people mentioned the series getting old, which seems to me to be an entirely foreign thing to Sam & Max. I attribute this to the large gaps between new releases- they never get old because they're never around long enough to reach that point. With Telltale making episodic games, though, that could very well change. Of course, Telltale has a proven track record and nothing suggests to me that they couldn't at least get a couple more great seasons out without the franchise getting dry.

Ashton

If it's "getting old" because TT takes longer breaks between the seasons, perhaps TT should start releasing 1 epp every 2 months... that spreads it out more, lets people 'get over' it that need to, and may prolong the franchise (and let telltale take more time makign the games, even though 1 month seems to be plenty of time ocnsidering how much humor they cram in in that short period)