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Thread: Deep Silver, a Terrible Publisher?

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    Unhappy Deep Silver, a Terrible Publisher?

    After all the debacle with Deep Silver and Shenmue III (Deep Silver switched the game's PC platform from Steam to Epic Game Store with only five months left before release, changing the platform despite what was promised in the Kickstarter in exchange for extra money from Epic, causing people who want to play on Steam to have to wait another full year after the game's initial PC release to play it.) and Mighty No. 9 (Deep Silver created an advertising campaign which intentionally insulted fans of Japanese anime, many of which had already backed the game.), and even more games, including refusing to give refunds to those who have backed projects after Deep Silver signs "unwitting" developers to be their publisher, I have to wonder: Is Deep Silver a terrible video game publisher? Is their bad behavior malice or is it really incompetence?

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    Welcome to the modern gaming industry. This is now normal behaviour.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gameguy View Post
    Welcome to the modern gaming industry. This is now normal behaviour.
    That's just it, and what NZ17 is doing here is exactly what we need to do as consumers. Do your homework on current releases and trends. NZ17 looked a little more closely at Deep Silver as a company and is noticing a trend. As a consumer, he will likely be more wary of making purchases that these people have their names attached to. It's one of the reasons people like us visit gaming boards like this. Imagine a time where we didn't have the internet and all of us would have pre-ordered a Coleco Chameleon because we would have mostly only had magazines to go by for information.

    On the note of crowdfunding, I think a lot of companies should look at Blooodstained as the right way to do things. Sure it took a while to come out and there are some performance issues in the game, but everone is getting what they were promised, the team has had complete transparency with all issues throughout the whole campaign, and to top it off, the game itself is of the calibur of what was expected...A legitimately good game.

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    Malice, probably not. A mixture of incompetence and apathy, probably. But issues with game-related Kickstarter campaigns certainly aren't limited to them. It's basically every campaign, so it's something systemic to the concept itself, at least in relation to game development.

    Personally, I think the problem with the Mighty No. 9 advertising was that it was try-hard and cringy. Anybody who felt "insulted" by the dumb anime fan joke is taking themselves too seriously in my opinion. And I say this as someone who is an anime fan and chose not to go to prom (and doesn't regret that decision). But I do agree that poking fun at your audience or failing to grasp who even is your audience isn't a wise move. Overreaction or not, if you're in advertising, your first goal should be not to give your customers something to get angry and overreact about in the first place (within reason; obviously there's no pleasing some people, who will come up with something to be pissed about regardless).

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    Quote Originally Posted by mailman187666 View Post
    On the note of crowdfunding, I think a lot of companies should look at Blooodstained as the right way to do things. Sure it took a while to come out and there are some performance issues in the game, but everone is getting what they were promised, the team has had complete transparency with all issues throughout the whole campaign, and to top it off, the game itself is of the calibur of what was expected...A legitimately good game.
    I wouldn't exactly say everyone is getting what they were promised or that there's complete transparency. On top of taking a whopping five years to complete the main game, they cancelled the Wii U, Vita, and Linux versions. The Switch version was hastily thrown together and often is barely above 15fps. Other versions crash and have a variety of other problems. They're issuing a patch to fix some glitches, yet they're already admitted it's a file-breaking patch. You have to either beat the game before installing the patch, hoping that the bugs won't prevent you in doing so, or restart the game from scratch after you've got the patch. And they only shared that info on Discord, hiding it from all the other backers and those who have bought the game after release. There are also backer rewards that won't be shipped for an indefinite amount of time, and DLC that was advertised as being backer-exclusive no longer is, on top of not being available at launch.

    So while it's not the biggest disaster of a game Kickstarter, it still wasn't a total success and had a whole slew of issues.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Aussie2B View Post
    So while it's not the biggest disaster of a game Kickstarter, it still wasn't a total success and had a whole slew of issues.
    Other than the discontinued versions, and some of the glitches, I would say it is a success. The file breaking patch actually was shared on a couple of other channels other than discord. I found it in an official facebook post and an e-mail, as well as it being reported on a couple gaming news outlets. As far as transparency, they actually have told us everything that they are/were going to be doing whether it is something we wanted to hear (updating graphics, release dates) or not (glitches needing to be fixed, cancelled console versions). I am a backer and have not felt regret any step of the way. I am sure there are many people who do not share my sentiment, but I got what I paid for (2 copies of the game, and my name in the credits). The extra bonuses would have been nice to have on launch day, but I am in no rush, as I didn't spend any crazy money on the kickstarter either. As such, I realize I may not be in the same boat as others.

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    I was a slacker backer, backing it through Fangamer after the Kickstarter campaign was over. But since I backed for a Vita copy, I ended up getting a refund.

    The news about the file-breaking patch was first only on Discord. Word will trickle out of course, but people shouldn't have to rely on fans, journalists, and visiting social media accounts to get info they should be getting directly from the publisher. Especially something that's time-sensitive like this. Most people don't want to waste their time sinking multiple hours into a game only to have to restart from scratch. The sooner they learn about the patch, the better. At the least, the publisher should've immediately put an update on the Kickstarter campaign page, but instead, they let several days pass between them sharing the news on Discord and then sharing it on the Kickstarter page.

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    ah yeah, see I got mine the day before release day and had already dug into the game. I downloaded the patch 1.02 the next day and had to start a new game a day after that, so not much was lost for me. I will admit that I am a super optimist when it comes to games (and movies, music etc.) so I may be a little less vocal about the bad aspects of something and more vocal about the things I enjoy about them. I guess overall I am super happy about my one and only kickstarter I've ever put money on NOT being a disaster (or worse, vaporwear) so that may be why some of the things you mentioned above aren't much of a concern to me, but I understand why others may be displeased.

    Back to the topic about Deep Silver specifically, I may need to do more homework on them to really grasp what their shortcomings have been. Never really followed much of the kickstarters for MN9 or Shenmue III. I guess that's why I started going on about Bloodstained, as that is my only experience with comparable crowdfunding.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mailman187666 View Post
    That's just it, and what NZ17 is doing here is exactly what we need to do as consumers. Do your homework on current releases and trends. NZ17 looked a little more closely at Deep Silver as a company and is noticing a trend. As a consumer, he will likely be more wary of making purchases that these people have their names attached to. It's one of the reasons people like us visit gaming boards like this.
    The way Deep Silver is acting is not unique, pretty much every major studio operates the same way. Almost every studio currently has crunch time and treats their employees like garbage. Even ignoring how they treat employees and just focusing on how they treat consumers, plenty of other companies are doing the same or worse like publishing crowdfunded games on Epic after previously promising a Steam release. As I've said, welcome to the modern gaming industry. If you truly want to avoid supporting publishers like these then you'd basically be avoiding buying modern games.

    I actually said in another thread that I don't buy games where I don't support certain policies or actions of the developers or publishers, and I got criticized for not blindly supporting the game industry.

    Quote Originally Posted by mailman187666 View Post
    Imagine a time where we didn't have the internet and all of us would have pre-ordered a Coleco Chameleon because we would have mostly only had magazines to go by for information.
    So when a magazine gives information on a system that didn't have any games available, or even a functional prototype, from a company with no prior consoles in the industry, consumers would have pre-ordered that without any hesitation?

    Quote Originally Posted by mailman187666 View Post
    On the note of crowdfunding, I think a lot of companies should look at Blooodstained as the right way to do things. Sure it took a while to come out and there are some performance issues in the game, but everone is getting what they were promised, the team has had complete transparency with all issues throughout the whole campaign, and to top it off, the game itself is of the calibur of what was expected...A legitimately good game.
    I find a lot of companies are abusing the whole concept of crowdfunding games. It's meant to help get things made that would otherwise not be possible(usually to help get a fully designed product manufactured as manufacturing costs are a large barrier), but a lot of games getting funding this way are from large studios, just seeming to choose this as a way of saving themselves cash or avoiding risks that are basically a part of the industry. If they make a game and it ends up lousy they might not recoup their costs once reviews come out, better be safe and just have consumers fund it in advance so they'll be the ones screwed over instead.

    It's like finding out a panhandler makes more money a year than a lot of people with actual full time jobs.

    I prefer waiting for something to be finished and released to the public, hearing reviews about it, then deciding on purchasing or not. I don't get hyped much for things that aren't finished yet. And as for crowdfunding, if a consumer is taking the risk on backing something that might end up as junk, then they should get a percentage of the profit if it turns out successful. That's how investing is supposed to work. These games aren't released for free to the public after they're finished, even though the staff was already paid for their work by the consumers in advance. They're just profiting off other peoples money.

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    I'll get to Deep Silver in a bit, but I first to say that the Bloodstained release is a piece of shit and IGA can go fuck himself alongside the likes of assholes like Yu Suzuki and Keiji Inafune who use their popularity to fuck people out of millions of dollars to release a half assed games and pocket as much money as they can.

    IGA couldn't wait to get as much money as he possibly could from this Kickstarter, proof by the fact that the backer names of everyone who spent $100 or more weren't even added into the fucking game until patch 1.02. They offered a physical copy on the FIRST DAY OF THE KICKSTARTER. There is nothing in the entirety of the Kickstarter that states the content wouldn't be on disc except for the "digital only prequel." So hey, let's fuck everyone over who backed the game for a physical copy, they don't include the names of the Kickstarter backers, and then IGA holds back the extra content FOR TWO FUCKING WEEKS, that's it, to, in his words, hype up the game about free DLC. Requesting a refund on this shitty fucking project didn't do a damn thing as they refused every single refund outside of those who requested the Vita and Wii U versions. I haven't even bothered to play the fucking game because despite backing this piece of shit, I got it a whole four days after everyone who didn't back it is able to just purchase it day one. Everyone who backed the game in the US didn't get the DIGITAL VERSION until the 19th, three days after the games release. It's like fuck all the people who backed this piece of shit game, let's get as much fucking money as possible. Since the Switch release is even less playable than the unplayable pieces of shit on the PS4 and XBO, let's delay it so we get the best possible word of mouth as we can and sucker anyone who's interested in the Switch version to pick it up. The Switch version also won't hurt the sales of the PS4 and XBO version by their negative feedback.

    So yeah. Because of this bullshit release, I'm never backing anything else and I'd be fine if I heard that IGA got murdered in the next couple of weeks. Wouldn't disturb me in the slightest. Okay, that's actually a joke, but still going to leave the comment here because I'm wondering what that sensitive girl Bojay is going to say. Anyways, that asshole's(IGA's) intentions are quite clear.

    //

    As for Deep Silver, this company has been shit for as long as I can remember. Now they've released nothing but trash until they were able to publish Dead Island, a game I purchased on the PS3... which is near unplayable. The framerate is so bad, that it often hits 0fps, the screen tearing is constant. It's a solid game, but the game was developed by Techland for the 360 and then ported over to the PS3. But who gives a fuck how good the port is, as long as they can get the money, doesn't matter if it's playable or unplayable.

    But what happens next? At one point I played Sacred 2 and bought the Gold Edition on PC because the game instantly became my favorite Diablo clone of all time. Ascaron Entertainment were developing Sacred 3 for a few years. I was really hyped to play the game. Then Deep Silver bought the studio, they then closed the studio and kept their IP. They released this piece of shit game called Sacred Citadel, or what I call Sacred Shitadel. They later released a game called Sacred 3 to sucker everyone who was a fan of Sacred into buying it. They actually initially gave Sacred 3 a release date and then released it a few weeks earlier, probably in hopes for as few reviews to get out there as possible.

    Now, Nordic Games is another publisher that releases games that play like shit and by games that play like shit, I'm actually talking about the fact that they get the rights to publish or have some amazing development teams working for them after buying a few developers from THQ, but every single game they release has unbelievable bugs, framerate issues, screen tearing, etc. How the fuck does This is the Police have frame drops from hell on the PS4 during gameplay? Titan Quest has framerate issues when nothing is even happening, while it often goes into the single digits. It's embarassing that a title that released in the mid 2000s runs this poorly. I could go on for days with good games that are released with this company that are near unplayable.

    The reason why I mention THQ Nordic, is because Deep Silver's parent company Koch Media was purchased by THQ Nordic and now both of these shitty publishers are under a single umbrella. Deep Silver, THQ Nordic, whatever they want to call themselves. Change your name all you want, you're still the biggest piece of shit publisher in the industry.
    Last edited by kupomogli; 06-29-2019 at 04:28 AM.
    Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gameguy View Post
    So when a magazine gives information on a system that didn't have any games available, or even a functional prototype, from a company with no prior consoles in the industry, consumers would have pre-ordered that without any hesitation?
    I probably should have used some kind of wacky face emoji or something (I know it's 2019), because this is obviously not what I meant. I used the Chameleon as an exagerated example (and the example as a whole was a bit exagerated).

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