Sunday, January 31, 2016

Episodic Epidemic

Telltale has done a great job with their brand of games - creating a niche genre that delivers in excellent storytelling. Multiplayer and Mobile have conflated the market and one component of games that has probably dropped off as a result has been the story/plot…so it was good to see Telltale interject their “narrative device” starting with the Walking Dead license. The Chapter delivery mechanism was also unique and interesting - you had cliffhangers and also a new and refreshing pricing model. 

Its the latter that’s the problem - now, developers are quick to adopt the new pricing model to compete with their mobile brethren and will tweak the model so they can maximize how much they can scourge the buyer without blowback. 

Square’s Final Fantasy VII remake will adopt this episodic release model - the original game encompassed 3 discs…how much chapters will this massive game be? How much will Square stretch it out? Chapter 1 might release in 2016, Chapter 64 can release in 2018…Prologue can release in 2020, DLC can release in 2022...


It’s EASY to see developers exploiting this model and milking the consumer as much as possible.  

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