Login
register search gameSlave
Wednesday, July 12 2006

Episodic content has no place in the videogame industry  by James B at 21:23

PCXBoxPlaystationNintendo
BBC have a very interesting article up featuring quotes from Mark Rein, vice president of Epic (currently working on Gears of War). Speaking to a conference of game developers, Mr. Rein warned that episodic content has no place in the video games, and could indeed kill-off the PC game industry where gamers cannot run the games they are paying for.

"One of the problems is that you are getting a piece of a game," Mr Rein told the conference.

"You are typically paying $20 for a third of a game and waiting at least six months between episodes. That's a long time.

"When you are watching a TV show it's not that big a deal to wait a week between episodes because you are not paying for it - it's advertising supported."


This is something that a lot of gamers feel strongly about - what's your opinon? Let us know below.
Comments
malis
Posts: 1740
Rank:
Post rank 4 out of 5
12 July 2006 21:25
Have to agree with much of what he says. The comment about Intel and integrated grpahics chips is funny, but also kinda true aswell. More and more PC gamers can't run the games being produced, and this will only increase in problem with dx10 games
Mani
Posts: 6957
Rank:
Post rank 5 out of 5
12 July 2006 21:27
Aye intel either need to get lost or make their integrated gfx MUCH better
Mani
Posts: 6957
Rank:
Post rank 5 out of 5
12 July 2006 21:29
And on the subject of episodic content, I think it will very much depend on the game, SiN emergence was pretty good and tbh didn't feel too short for it's price, a little longer would probably make more sense to me though.
hobgoblin
Posts: 974
Rank:
Post rank 3 out of 5
12 July 2006 21:48
i agree totally
dXter
Posts: 18
Rank:
Post rank 0 out of 5
13 July 2006 05:50
I agree with the episodic content comment. I have neither bought HL2: ep1 nor SiN ep1 as I felt the presentation style is not my type. I would prefer to have play a game that starts and end in one package. I would not like to watch Act 1 in a play and wait a few months to watch Act 2, follow by another few months to watch Act 3. It just kills off the mood.
[HEAD]MarxNL
Posts: 12
Rank:
Post rank 0 out of 5
13 July 2006 11:50
I agree , takes too longs and the kosts are too high.
HL2 epi2 should come soon (prefer a longer gameplay that epi1)
KendoMonkey
Posts: 420
Rank:
Post rank 3 out of 5
13 July 2006 16:01
Is it possible that the success of episodic content could encourage companies to purposefully split games into 2 parts to make more money?

It is rumoured that this is what happened with Kill Bill - that the studio initially suggested the two-way split. Although it's more than debatable whether this happened in this instance, it is nonetheless so plausible that it makes you worry about the games publishers.
Re0sLess
Posts: 2103
Rank:
Post rank 5 out of 5
13 July 2006 17:23
The only good points i can see are:

a. you can deside not to buy ep2,3,etc if ep1 is garbage
b. if the game is sucsessfull thay can add more eps.
hobgoblin
Posts: 974
Rank:
Post rank 3 out of 5
13 July 2006 19:13
hl2 storyline was pants anyhow


Why not register and have your say?