Maybe they wanted to make sure. It could have reached a 9:1 digital sales ratio.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Darrell Gallagher is leaving Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics gets new studio heads
- Thread starter Quentyn
- Start date
Maybe they wanted to make sure. It could have reached a 9:1 digital sales ratio.
Stilton Disco
Member
I bloody well hope he was pushed out for being the guy behind the deal, because if not, if this has nothing whatsoever to do with that utter balls up, then that means the person/people behind that insanity are still there.
Yeah, plus there was bad press about this entire exclusivity affair going back more than a year now. There was always bad mojo in the air, and there's no doubt that a low selling forecast pushed him to "quit".
Bear Force One
Banned
He'll be officially on the MS payroll soon if his past actions show us anything.
thekiddfran
Member
Wasn't the MS Tomb raider deal announced E3 2014 when he was still head?
neogaffer1
Banned
the conspiracy is strong with posters in this thread
gamescom 2014
the theories here aren't very convincing when you guys are bringing straight up wrong info to the table.
gamescom 2014
the theories here aren't very convincing when you guys are bringing straight up wrong info to the table.
Ohhhh boy
This is a great read in hindsight now.
http://kotaku.com/people-are-pissed-that-tomb-raider-is-an-xbox-exclusive-1620094498
But yeah, conspiracies or not, it's certainly fair to ask if this was related to the clusterfuck that has emerged from this ill fated deal.
http://kotaku.com/people-are-pissed-that-tomb-raider-is-an-xbox-exclusive-1620094498
But yeah, conspiracies or not, it's certainly fair to ask if this was related to the clusterfuck that has emerged from this ill fated deal.
Infernostew
Member
Hmm...
NeuAscension
Banned
Hope these guys first decision is to reboot Legacy of Kain series.
As an executive its usally 3-6 months or so, but you can do what happend to Hideo and go on Gardening leave, where your employed still but do not go into work, this is so you can't leave and just join a competitor.
so looking at the timeline, low pre-orders, fan backlash, I could see him being out to graze for awhile while the new guys settlel in before he is "let go"
funkystudent
Member
Part of me wonders if the poor handling of Tomb Raider has them looking at new ideas. A 3rd Tomb Raider game isnt going to be the one that finally sells a bunch after the baggage this reboot as built up.
Not sure Legacy of Kain carries a lot of weight outside of very hardcore circles but they have teased that one now and again. Maybe they are tossing ideas at the wall.
I'm sure the conspiracies are flowing like fine wine at a wedding...
... But I don't think it's unreasonable.
For practically one year straight, the Tomb Raider deal has been met with vitriol and extremely harsh backlash. For months and months on end, every time Crystal Dynamics even tried to talk about the game, the conversation was derailed by the deal and by upset fans. That negative cloud has been hanging over the game non-stop and it STILL is hanging over the game.
There's no doubt Darrell Gallagher was involved in the deal, and we know Square Enix was getting extremely nervous about it many months ago when pre-order numbers were, well, not great.
Even if he wasn't "fired", per se, after over a year of non-stop negativity and backlash, I'd want to leave too. I wouldn't want to be in that environment. I wouldn't want to work day in and out where the fans of my franchise responded daily, to everything, with hate and bitterness.
Now, whether that's their own fault is another matter entirely, but I know that I'd want to wash my hands of the whole thing after that, and I certainly wouldn't look forward to another year of that harassment either.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if MS doesn't have a cozy office for him lined up either. The way he talked them up earlier this year sounded more like a marriage proposal than a game pitch.
Game Informer Interview
... But I don't think it's unreasonable.
For practically one year straight, the Tomb Raider deal has been met with vitriol and extremely harsh backlash. For months and months on end, every time Crystal Dynamics even tried to talk about the game, the conversation was derailed by the deal and by upset fans. That negative cloud has been hanging over the game non-stop and it STILL is hanging over the game.
There's no doubt Darrell Gallagher was involved in the deal, and we know Square Enix was getting extremely nervous about it many months ago when pre-order numbers were, well, not great.
Even if he wasn't "fired", per se, after over a year of non-stop negativity and backlash, I'd want to leave too. I wouldn't want to be in that environment. I wouldn't want to work day in and out where the fans of my franchise responded daily, to everything, with hate and bitterness.
Now, whether that's their own fault is another matter entirely, but I know that I'd want to wash my hands of the whole thing after that, and I certainly wouldn't look forward to another year of that harassment either.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if MS doesn't have a cozy office for him lined up either. The way he talked them up earlier this year sounded more like a marriage proposal than a game pitch.
Game Informer Interview
Fredrik
Member
Let's wait for the other versions to appear before declaring it a sales failure. Check the OT, most people that has actually played the game think it's fantastic and much much better than TR2013, and with every new version it's going to get a new boost with positive feedback, it may not be on any monthly sales top list but I bet it's going to keep selling okay for a long time just because of the actual quality of the game. I'm currently going for a 100% play-through and right now I'd easily say it's one of my favorite games of the year, I won't be surprised if it's seen on the GOTY lists of PC and PS4 owners next year. Sad to see someone lose the job because of a strange exclusivity deal when the game is still great.
That's very optimistic, but I don't think it's realistic.
Being a great game helps, for sure, but it also has to offset all the bad publicity and bad PR that has plagued it for well over a year.
There were many great, GREAT games that just never found an audience. Okami never became the breakout hit it should have, even on the two most popular platforms of the decade. Psychonauts certainly didn't sell as good as it should have. There's a reason we're still waiting around for Beyond Good & Evil 2 while there have been over 20 Assassin's Creed games, sequels, spin-offs, and tie-ins instead.
I'm sure the game will sell "solid" on PC and PS4, both from brand and quality... but selling "solid" is not going to put any smiles on the face of Square Enix's investors. They're the same people who were disappointed the last game "only" sold 3.4 million in one month.
Even if that's unreasonable, it isn't unreasonable to expect better sales from what was once a flagship, reliable series whose very worst games still managed to sell millions and rank high on the charts (I still can't believe Angel of Darkness was a #1 seller...).
Releasing over a year late on PS4, during an even more crowded PS4 holiday season, against even stiffer competition, is going to be almost insurmountable unless they package in an FF7 demo or something else to get people hyped.
Raging Spaniard
If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
I have friends who have worked at that studio that werent fans of its leadership, things like people being in the same positions for a long time without salary bumps or promotions (but added responsibilities)
Hopefully this is a step towards fixing that shit
Hopefully this is a step towards fixing that shit
BruceLeeRoy
Banned
Yeah this seems noteworthy.
He did a fantastic job with the new TR games, so I wish him success in his future endeavors.
Not going to happen, but I wish he was starting a new studio and partnering with MS for a Perfect Dark reboot as a third-person action adventure. He definitely has the experience to do it and it would be great to see that franchise return.
Not going to happen, but I wish he was starting a new studio and partnering with MS for a Perfect Dark reboot as a third-person action adventure. He definitely has the experience to do it and it would be great to see that franchise return.
Isn't CD working on a new IP/Another game?
lol
sure guys
gaming_noob
Member
I like this idea. Tweet Spencer so he can have conversations
kruis
Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Ehm ... Gallagher was without a doubt responsible for this deal with Microsoft since he's Square Enix' Head of Western Studios. His idea must have been to avoid a clash between RotTR and Uncharted 4 in Q4 2015, so he said yes to making the new TR game an temporary exclusive for Microsoft. That was a bad idea, because Xbox One sales are lagging, in particularly in Europe where the series has its biggest fanbase. It also pissed off fans so badly that there was a never ending stream of negative reactions to everything the SE PR released on the Internet. At that point it was already clear this was a bad decision that could affect sales.
And then Uncharted 4 was delayed to 2015, so the whole exclusivity deal hadn't been necessary after all. If the game had been released for all platforms in Q4 2015 as intended, there would have been one single PR campaing for the game without all the negativity. With the good reviews RotTR has received, the game would probably sell as well as the previous game in the series.
It's clear that the game has already underperformed saleswise on the Xbox One. Now it will launch on the PC next in Q1 2015 and on the PS4 at some later date. It's to be expected that PS4 sales will suffer. SE can't sell the PS4 version at full price in October 2016 when the both the Xbox One and PC version will be for sale for $20-30 at that time. The only way this could work is a Special Edition with all DLC included but even that won't feel like a good deal for a year old game to most customers. And let's not forget that SE won't spend a lot of money on a second or third PR campaign next year. It will be low key compared to the combined MS-SE campaign for RotTR last month. With all the new games coming out in Q4 2016 Rise of the Tomb Raider will not get a lot of attention from the press and public, no doubt about. This will have serious repercussions for total sales of RotTR, I wouldn't be surprised if total sales for RotTR will be half of what the previous game did - and all because of a completely bungled business deal. This will costs SE millions and millions of dollars and could jeopardize both Crystal Dynamics and the Tomb Raider franchise.
I'm not surprised at all Gallagher isn't working at SE anymore.
Not so sure. When was the last time we heard of the Xbox team hiring a new creative director or investing in a new studio? I know Mojang was early this year, but other than that I can't remember any big hires or investments on the gaming side of of things within MS.
Steverulez
Member
MS spent $2.5bn on Mojang last year, went on a new studio opening period between Team Dakota, Lift London, MGS Vancouver (Black Tusk -> The Coalition) and MGS Victoria to ramp up for this gen, obviously not all of those worked out particularly well.
Also they got in people like Joe Staten and Casey Hudson, i'd say they were doing alright for hires, although Darrell seems more like manager/publishing side guy than a developer
BabyFaceKillah
Member
Yeah! I remember that. IIRC, not all of them are/were dedicated for game development.
Steverulez
Member
They all were intended for games of some sort originally, different sizes and flavours though.
Team Dakota released Project Spark, MGS Vancouver new IP now Gears, Lift London were on mobile stuff with some plan to be on console (assuming their website was right which I don't doubt) but appear to be on Hololens now, no idea if there is anything else going on.
Im pretty sure MS Victoria were looking at a range of game stuff as well as possibly assisting on Forza Motorsport 5 (per a new studio set-up by ex-members) and some Hololens stuff. I think they were trying to work out what their plan was when they were shut down.
Thank you for the reminder, but what about more recently like this year? It seems they're focused on more second party deals than in house studio investments.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Steverulez
Member
There was a strategy game studio job listing which was name dropped by Kudo in March but they've not said anything outside of that.
They seem quite happy with signing developers up and forming partnerships.
That would be extremely shady.
Lol.
You'd need more information before it could be "safe".
Bolivar687
Banned
Bookmarked.
Well CD will probably need either Sony or ms to bankroll tr3 after what is looking like an epic drop in sales between tr1 and tr2. The ps4 and PC future releases won't reverse the sales trend.
I just hope CD can continue to make games after this debacle.
It would more likely be a PS4/PC release where a majority of the sales have traditionally come from so... Yeah...
LordBaztion
Member
Usually people leaves their position after the job is done.
Square Enix killed all their medium to large budget new IPs from the West and Japan a while back.
The only stuff that remains is stuff like Setsuna where it looks like a downloadable game on the scale of Child of Light.
StrongBlackVine
Banned
His job as an executive and head of a studio was done?
With Drake taking a long vacation I am all in on Lara improving as my potential fix. But I would definitely be down to this for sure.
CrimsonEclipse
Member
It already has....sad.