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Tomb Raider Delays Worry Eidos
Thanks to several readers for pointing to a Yahoo/Reuters report discussing the continued delays to Lara Croft: The Angel Of Darkness, the latest in Eidos Interactive's Tomb Raider series. As the article mentions, "Already delayed twice, 'Lara Croft: The Angel of Darkness' is slotted for a release on June 20th. But that's looking less likely.. the game has to be in stores by June 30th in order for the company to recognize sales [estimated to be 1.5 to 2.5 million units] for its current financial year." With rumors of a delay into July for another long-awaited title, Republic: The Revolution, Eidos definitely has cause for financial concern. But of course, gamers will probably forgive and forget if both of these titles turn out well, even after so many delays.
that one day, these idiots pushing games out the door start to understand htat we want finished games, not "sort of, but not really, but only because we said its not a beta" software.
Yes, you hype a game before it comes out, if you hype too early, then people will lose interest, thats the risk you take when you start guessing at completion dates. Push out an early product, you may get more sales because more people are still interested, but they will not be happy with purchasing an unfinished product, and will tell their friends, post ot the net, etc...
Yes, all choices with release dates are a gamble, unless you actually choose a realistic date with padding for safety. Then either hold release once finished until the chosen date, or just release early, giving the people who preordered a nice surprise.
I'll wait for a good, finished game, and I think most others would too. But don't sell me unfinished junk, and expect me to wait for the patch, because I'll have already returned it, and will never look back.
is undergoing final checks to determine if there are any last minute bugs to rectify.
Remember 'The Last Revelation' anyone? Classic bugs like platforms you needed to jump on over bottomless pits, that were actually invisible!
I really hope they get this game right though, but the constant set-backs are not exactly making me confident.
There will be a very funny comic about how noone cares at Penny Arcade tomorrow.
"Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
Yet another illustration of why you shouldn't advertise products that aren't finished.
I honestly don't think that the existance of Eidos depends on these two titles. And I get the feeling that delayed games are common nowadays (and I won't mention that tall, blonde dude that lets god sort them out...).
It may even be better for Eidos: the longer the wait, the more people pre-order a title. And those will get the game before they can read any review. If the game is decent, well, no problem. If not, it is too late for the buyer and the company cashes in.
Loss of reputation? Come on... you buy a game, not a game from a company. If a reputation could really be damaged from a bad game, Sierra would have died after "Outpost" (the only game that made me write a letter to the publisher).
My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
Has anyone really cared about Tomb Raider since the first one? I mean the first one was somewhat original (and even kind of cool if you played the funky Saturn version). Tomb Raider 2 wasn't bad, but it was already going downhill at that point. By the time The Last Revelation came out, most people had a serious hatred or Lara Croft.
Then again, those are more avid gamers, not the casual ones, who seem to enjoy Lara's adventits... I mean adventures. When I heard about Angel of Darkness, I wasn't even mildly interested. Has there been some kind of groundbreaking graphical and gameplay developments that have lifted the series out of the mire?
As to whether it's vital for Eidos, I dunno. Like I said, the casual gamer clearly knows who Lara Croft is, and maybe it's just an easy way to maintain market mindshare. Those who aren't really into games more than fleetingly haven't really heard of things like "Deus Ex".
"But of course, gamers will probably forgive and forget if both of these titles turn out well, even after so many delays."
It'd be nice if that was true, but it's not. The moment you miss a target on an 18 month game development cycle, and don't address the issue, you've set yourself up for failure. Look at Daikatana. They slipped, and ended up having to get a new gaming engine (Quake 2). The results? They had to redo all the maps, QA testing, entity models, etc, just as if they'd started from scratch. The only difference was that they still had wasted all that money on the previous version.
Duke Nukem Forever is in the same situation. Because they were unwilling to release the versions based on the Unreal engine and the Quake engines, they've effectively flushed all the money they spent on those development branches down the toilet.
When you look at it this way, you realize that unless people will pay a couple hundred dollars a copy (or whatever it takes to make up for late shipping), you will be losing money in the long run compared to shipping on time. No game is that good.
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Republic on the other hand, I haven't gotten hands on yet, but it does look to be a very intriguing game. it's certainly a fairly fresh concept. the gameplay will make or break it, but I'm looking forward to it.
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The Tomb Raider games were great, with the exception of Tomb Raider 3. Give the "originality" thing a rest. There haven't been really original games coming out anyways (gee, Wolfenstein 3D, real original). I will agree with you that Eidos has a nasty habit of releasing games -- especially Tomb Raider ones -- before they're really ready, and then never cleaning up their mess. However, the games are still fun, and some of the bugs are actually useful (like the jump-bug).
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
I suspect the reason Eidos is worried is because they wanted to time the release of the game with the new Lara Croft movie in June. Like the Hulk, Spiderman, X-Men, and The Matrix these games get a huge boost in sales based on how close they are tied to the marketing of their movie. They spend millions on tie-ins for the films. Heck, the last Lara Croft movie had a cereal, candy bar and I think even a special edition Hummer...or some other car...I didn't pay too much attention.
when is the new one coing out...i hear the movie is coming out sometime this summer..will the game be out before the movie. I hope this one is a good one..cant wait to check it out
To be honest with you, I'm kind of glad they decided to double check their work and make sure that we get the best product possible. I give kudos to Eidos. I understand that a July launch would doom its key sales targets for this year, but if they could wait until July 28 when the movie "The Cradle of Life" comes out, they could do what the Matrix did and have a big franchise with the game and the movie. Eidos would make a killing cause everyone loves Lara Croft. That would even give them more time to get all the bugs out, improving our gaming experience. We all know it's about dollars and cents but a little loss compared to a big gain could make all the difference. After all, if they are any bugs in the game because it was rushed to market, people will return the game, and Eidos will lose money rather than gain it. Well until Lara get's eaten by a bear or loses her body (pregnancy?) make mines tomb raider.
For all of those that had witness let me give you one of my favorite sayings "Ph34r My M4d Skillz"
I hope they plan on using a new engine for this upcoming release.. the last engine was looking dated by the second game and looked really bad by the last one..
Eidos has always had problems keeping up with dates. I remember I waited almost an extra year for Fighting Force (Ps1) and the game sucked. Acclaim has always had problems with dates (WWF Attitude was delayed like a year and 3 months), Polyphony has... BUt then there's some companies that seem to always get their titles out on time (EASports has never had to delay any of their games more than 10 days past the initial release mark, it's really amazing how they keep up with that deadline, EVERY YEAR).
Mike
Which is why Eidos keeps on making it. People keep on buying it. Lots of them. there's also a dedicated fan-base, as there is for Descent (D2X and D1X have been made to allow older versions of Descent to use OpenGL).
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
Lara Storms Store Shelves This Weekend!
Flourescent (adj): smelling like ground wheat.
Yeah, because you know that the last ones have done so horribly for Eidos, they were just bleeding money after those. Now another Tomb Raider movie on the other hand... that may well bomb, even though the previews look much better than the last one. Still, I'm not wasting six bucks to stare at Angelina's chest for two hours... again. Hed.
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If you get a chance to check out the Screen shots of Laura she looks a lot like Michael jackson... This scares the crap out of me and will debate the purchase...
Descent never had a particularly large fan-base, yet it was one of the most solid games I've ever played (still play all 3 games).
The question regarding Tomb Raider is, will it be a classic. I think it will. Don't know about all of the sequels, but they're still fun.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
Who ever said Britney Spears doesn't make quality music? Not saying it's the Beethoven of this century (maybe John Williams in that category), but it's good music imo.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
Did the last one even crack the sales charts?