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Linux Port of Disciples 2 Announced
bobz writes "Happypenguin is reporting that Linux Game Publishing has announced the next game they'll port to Linux will be Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy a turn-based strategy game that was well-reviewed but not terribly successful commercially. /me breathes a sigh of relief that it's not another first-person shooter."
Port 69, the Linux Port of Discipline.... mmmm.
Good to hear they're up to 2.0, I hear that version 1 had some nasty bugs.
Wah!
OK, from the slashdot article:
Posted by michael, written by bobz.
From the happy penguin article:
In IRC today, evil genius Michael Simms... , this article was written by bobz.
I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine? I was wondering why a non-profitable game being ported to a market that has never been marketable (linux ported games) was a frontpage slashdot article. Now I know.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Product Title Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy
Available
LanguagesEnglish
Suggested Retail
Price£30.00
Product Description
Disciples II: Dark Prophecy returns gamers to the magical realm of the Sacred Lands where four races - the Empire, the Mountain Clans, the Legions of the Damned and the Undead Hordes - continue the battle for the destiny of their Gods. A decade after the First Great War, the final prophecy continues to unfold. Deep within the crevices of the Sacred Lands, the Chosen One has emerged, fated to bring salvation to some and destruction to others. Braced with renewed faith and newfound conviction, each race must once again take up the sword for the sake of their people and the glory of their God.
Disciples 2: Dark Prophecy comes in a DVD-style case on a single CD-Rom
Current Status:
Agreement signed, no development yet.
Minimum RequirementsCurrently unknown
Prerelease InformationRelease Date is currently not announced
... but is this the right approach?
I'm a gamer, I'll admit, and I love seeing the great new games that come to market. And even moreso, I love it when these games work in Linux. Currently, I can get nearly every game I want to play to work in Linux. For the ones that don't, I wait patiently...
However, I wish I could say the same for my friends - lots of them are thoroughly intrigued by the idea of Linux, and really want to switch to only Linux - but lack of support for newer games hold them back. I can certainly get what I want to play to work, but when my friends ask "But will Battlefield 1942 work?" I have to say "No." I think that work has to begin on either porting massively popular games, or convincing more devlopers to develop for Linux (although I am happy with progress so far!).
As a side issue - wouldn't it be in LGP's best interest to work on porting games that are more comercially successful? I know that there's more to it than just getting people to switch to Linux, but I'd like to ensure that they can stay in business too!
Illegitimi non Carborundum.
The way that it could be profitable would be if the costs were low. Even if they only sell a few thousand copies, if the porting license and porting labor are cheap then it can be profitable. A more popular game might be less profitable, if the license if expensive or the effort high.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Well the game is very simalar to "Hero's of Might and Magic". And I believe that did pretty well on Linux. I know I bought a copy.
Hi,
I'm currently working a 3D version of Freecraft, which in turn is a 3D version of Warcraft.
It is comming along quite nicely, and if anyone would like to give a hand with the models or coding or anything, you would be welcome.
See a kinda old screenshot at http://130.88.226.154/snap4.png
The game is progressing very quickly - trees are in now, units expected with a week, etc.
Anyway, message me through slashdot or email or anything.
Maybe you don't play Linux games, but a lot of use that frequently visit linuxgames.com are excited about this. I suspected that this was the game thay they'd release when they hinted that the title was three words and a number, and frankly, I am pleased by this announcement.
It might not be the most successful Windows game, but it is a fabulous strategy title. Check out reviews if you are not sure. Typically, this game has been given straight 9+ scores.
Michael Simms of LGP has some great ideas. Plus, he realizes that many higher profile games for Linux just aren't practical right now. Licensing costs are just too high for many newer games. Trying to license the next big PC game (if the development house would even let them publish it) would spell certain doom for LGP. Look at Loki. It wasn't all about the fact that their sales weren't up to par. They chose some expensive titles to publish *before* they had a steady cash flow. They started with Eric's Ultimate Solitaire (bad choice for a platform that has a million free card games) but was a good choice because it was cheap. LGP is doing what they need to do... Starting small (Majesty Gold is coming soon, and Mindrover has been re-released) and working up. Big Windows game companies just don't notice them yet... But they are making ties with a few.
They are playing it SMART. Regardless of how well it sells, D2:DP (DP - I love saying that) is a good choice because it is cheap for them. They also have their own retail channel through tuxgames.com (though they consider it a seperate company with a different budget and income), but this is going to be the key for their survival, when Linux games *do* become more practical.
wouldn't it be in LGP's best interest to work on porting games that are more comercially successful?
.com boom?) of buying rights to less successful games. They're going to be much cheaper, and thus require much fewer sales to recoup the costs of. With the dearth of Linux games, users are going to buy the game if it interests them whether or not it's a big-name title. For example, I never would have heard of Disciples if I was still using Windows. But because I use Linux and I crave HOMM-like gameplay, I'll be buying the only new game in that genre, namely Disciples 2. What's the point? To make money. Not a ton of money, but to make money. If LGP can profit off of Disciples, then they can afford to do another game. Maybe a bigger-name game. Each game they can profit off of grows not only themselves but the Linux game market. With a slow, conservative approach they have a much better chance of being successfull than if they bought a $300,000 game, lost $1 mill, then went bankrupt.
Short answer: No.
Long answer: A game that is commercially successful is going to cost more to get a license for. Loki apparently payed several hundred thousand dollars for the rights to some of their games. Unsurprisingly, the immature Linux gaming market wasn't large enough for them to recoup their costs. That, along with mismanagement, is what buried Loki. LGP, not wanting to go bankrupt, is taking the much more conservative business model (remember that, from before the
The reason you think work has to begin on porting massively popular games seems to be because of a common, but incorrect line of thinking: That Linux has to become a major desktop success right now. It doesn't. Modest, sustainable growth in Linux gaming is the correct method, and the one that will work. Maybe the size of the market will reach a critical mass and be able to grow much more rapidly, but trying to force that day to come sooner by over-reaching is a recipe for failure. LGP learned this lesson from Loki, and I think they learned the right one.
The enemies of Democracy are
I don't even see it that way. I'm pretty small time. Plus I'm not speaking in the context of a large (Mid/small) company. I think more TINY. :-) Anyway, if I were to start another business (first one failed, fsck!), I would think more small time. For instance. If I sell 1000 copies of a game at $20/game, thats $20,000. If I coded that myself and had little to no over head, I'd be happy with that. Now lets take 'a few thousand coppies'. Lets up the price to $25.00 and say 3000 copies. Thats $75,000. I'd definately be happy with that. :-) Of course, this is only speaking in terms of theory. Real world numbers tend to be a bit more jagged. Anyway. Thats my opinion.
Can all fish swim?
This port isn't being marketed to gamers. PC Gamers run Windows.
That was the problem with Loki. They went for the AAA+ games, paid huge money for the porting rights, and then released the Linux version 6 months behind the Windows version. To add insult to injury they mostly ported games that required high end graphics cards that were barely supported under Linux. That meant higher support costs than the Windows version.
These guys strike me as being far more realistic. They are porting an interesting, but not very popular Windows game, and they waited to port until it was pretty clear that the game was a dud on Windows. Now they port it to Linux, advertise using inexpensive means (like /.'s front page :), and make a modest profit from guys like me whose other gaming alternative is NetHack.
I am not interested in running Windows just so that I can run a game. I don't have the time to deal with the added aggravation of running Windows, but I still like games.