| okr said:
Ah yes, steampunk, of course. I sometimes confuse the two as I like both and they are pretty much the same to me. Maybe that's the main reasons why this game gets so much attention: BTW: New franchises often start with a game that's been in development for years by a comparably small team. That's nothing new. Depending on sales and the decisions made by Bethesda, a sequel could easily be done within two years. It could become Bethesda's Assassin's Creed with a huge team put behind it and rather quick sequels/spinoffs. Time will tell. |
They probably could turn it arround in 2 years but I think that would be quite a streatch for the team. Especially as they seem to like lots of itterative game design. Bethesda could give them the money to staff up into a full AAA team tho. I just think 2.5-3 years is a more realistic dev cycle for this kind of game TBH.
I think a lot of it's popularity is due largely too 2 major factors beyond the game it's self.
The first is the recent trend in the "hardcore gaming" community to complain that everything is a sequel and that there are no new IPs anymore, especially with the recent comments from that EA producer that it's a bad time to launch new IPs. Dishonored is seen as bucking the trend and be something drastically different to the annual sequel churn. Especially in the reviewer community where they play most of the games that come out, something that isn't another military shooter is seen as a breath of fresh air. The advertising arround the game seems to have premoted the idea that it is something special being a new IP and I have seen it mentioned in many interviews etc. Everyone loves an underdog as they say and Dishonored has been perfectly positioned to take advantage of the climate where new IPs are seen as something special and daring.
The seccond is that what was old is new again. In recent years there has been a big trend for the return of retro gaming. Early games are now old enough that older gamers want to relive their nostalgic childhood gaming memories. This showed up in the influx of retro platformers from the indie scene, 8Bit style getting big etc. Now that has moved on to some of the early PC stuff, suddenly (thanks to kickstarter) point & click is suddenly in the (gaming) public eye again (I know they never really went away, especially in Euroupe, but suddenly there is a lot more attention on them) and so are oldschool PC WRPGs with the likes of Wateland 2, Project Eternity etc. I think a lot of reviews are starting to get to the age where the early 3D stuff like Theif and Deus Ex are what a lot of them remember from the good old days, I think that helped out Deus Ex: Human Revolution as well. Dishonored marketing has also pushed the fact that they are bringing back the oldschool freedom and design philosophy of those early games and has played off the fact that have team members that worked on those games. Nostalgia is a powerful thing.
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