Slashdot Mirror
Sam & Max Sequel Canceled
Pluvius writes "A terse press release from LucasArts, the creator of classic adventure games such as Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island series, reveals that development on Sam & Max: Freelance Police, the planned sequel to Sam & Max Hit the Road, has stopped. Says LucasArts exec Mike Nelson, 'After careful evaluation of current market place realities and underlying economic considerations, we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC.'" The International House Of Mojo fansite has some editorial comments [original URL] on this move, the second Sam & Max game cancellation in recent years, lamenting: "LucasArts has made a gigantic mistake."
*sheds tear*
You just know Tom Servo and Crow are going to kick his ass for cancelling something actually funny.
Me and everyone else I know who played the original were waiting for this with wallets drawn and baited breath. Even though we mostly disagreed with some of their design decisions, we were still prepared to buy the game.
Silly lucasarts. Well, I'm off to write them a letter I suggest you do the same.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
Sam & Max would be my candidate for best adventure game of all time. I think a sequel would do well. I know a bunch of friends who were waiting for this one.
Maybe they could cut costs by releasing it as a console game instead?
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
A lot of people won't agree with me, but the recent graphic adventure games coming from Lucas Arts have been mediocre at best. I don't know if it was their move to 3d or what, but it seems TAXING to get through a game. They seem too easy and lack any fun, after you get through the "introduction phase".
I don't think the market is unwilling to accept another graphic adventure, but rather, unwilling to put up with a boring game.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Now how am I going to kick puffy white mad scientist butt??
Sam & Max 1 was possibly the funniest game I ever played!
Burma?
Anyone else?
I think this is a huge mistake, though very likely this will be a good thing got GA game fans. Another company will probably pick up the theme and do a game. I doubt they will do it better, but this may be the sign that GA games will be coming back. I doubt it is their deathknell.
To be honest I lost faith in Lucasarts after Escape from Monkey Island. But even that, stinking pile of bullocks excrement that it is, is nothing as to this monumentally stupid decision. What a bunch of wankers.
*grabs Big Splintery Stick*
*points at LucasArts' ass*
*inserts stick in ass with sharp, fast motion*
Grim Fandango was greatness, why must we now be denied?
After careful evaluation of current market place realities and underlying economic considerations, we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC.
Read: "George thinks he'll make enough money off of Episode III and the upcoming Star Wars DVD Set. We'll reconsider when he doesn't have pizza grease dribbling down his shirt."
Trolling is a art,
....looking forward to another inane copy protection scheme where I could play dress up with Sam and Max.
i don't think that was healthy for me at that age.
*kicks off high heels*
-m.
LucasArts is making a huge blunder in canceling this project. Is there no way to convince them that what they are doing is a mistake?
:O I think I might cry.
-----.----.-------
I'll
LucasArts cancelled something because it wasn't the right time to milk the most amount of money out of everyone? I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you.
LucasArts also cancelled the sequel to their first Full Throttle game: "Full Throttle: Hell on Wheels", which pissed me off. I was looking forward to that one.
Anymore, if the publisher is LucasArts, I end up thinking, "Nomatter when I buy it, I can guarantee I'm getting soaked. Nevermind."
Damn! I was really looking forward to this.
Sam and Max Hit The Road was a great adventure, with excellent writing and production. It's too bad we'll miss out on a sequel so that another Pod Racer game or somesuch will see the light of day, and our beloved Max won't have a chance to disembowel anyone for our entertainment pleasure.
"Wait a minute...some kid on Slashdot said he and a bunch of his friends wanted to play this game! Who cares what our high-priced marketing team said...let's go ahead and develop the game!"
This is probably a bad omen for the Full Throttle sequel as well. (Funny, I can't find any links to it on the Lucasarts site)
Wasn't there a Full Throttle sequel (Hell on Wheels, IIRC) coming? And then I think it was also canceled. Damn, this sucks.
not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC
Instead, we plan on releasing a text adventure game for the XBox to really confuse some folks. We're sure you'll love the instuction manual on how to type text using your game pad.
People may not play these type of games because they don't exist anymore. People perhaps aren't playing adventure games like Full Throttle that are years old but they also aren't playing FPSs that are years old (let me boot up DOOM II again).
It's a chicken and egg situation. People aren't buying because these games don't exist any more due to the shift in popularity (but mostly hype) to FPSs, RPGs, and sports titles. But knowing that many gamers are older and enjoy games that harken back to earlier times, this game could have been a hit. Could have, but now won't since *POOF* it doesn't exist any more.
God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
Thats really a bad call - i luuuuved Hit the Road with all the silly games and ever funny comments by Max...
But hey - the fist game called for a team of something like 6 animaters - what would LucasArts do now they had to fight the battle of 3D graphics... (heh)
Morten
(who's sig hasn't learned to talk to the world around it)
I'm looking forward to the Sam 'n' Max RPG, Freelance Police of the Old Republic.
Here's a suggestion for Lucas:
Sam & Max Visit Monkey Island.
Now THERE'S a game I would buy!
My dream game would be Lucas & Sierra teaming up and releasing a new Kings Quest series. Hey, if banks can merge why not Video Game makers? (Oh wait, they are merging, just not the right talent I guess.)
Mod +5 Drunk
... hit the trasheap :(
MMORPG's are really hot right now, and we are busy dumping money into SWG. Yeah, we know that there isn't a lot of room in the MMORPG market, not nearly as much room as in the traditional game market, but we have marketting droids to please. We are clueless and think cartoon games are out. Peace out, consumer slugs.
disclaimer: I didn't read the article. I have never played S&M (the video game anyway). Big fan of Monkey Island series though.
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
Perhaps on his new wine?
-calyxa
Decay! Decay! Decay! -Helium
Bastards! All of them!
The Blaster Master Fighting for Truth, Justice, and Evil Pie since 1979
Our server is far too weak to be linked twice from a Slashdot post, but thanks :) Here's what the update said which is now unreadable due to you guys owning our server:
LucasArts Cancels Sam & Max Freelance Police, Resigns Self to Mediocrity
Yep, they've done it. LucasArts has just announced that they've stopped work on Sam & Max 2, saying "After careful evaluation of current market place realities and underlying economic considerations, we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC."
Don't believe that its possible? Here's the official announcement from LucasArts.com. Our best wishes go out to everyone on the Sam & Max 2 team, who are apprently all still going to be kept on at LucasArts.
To us, the decision seems completely absurd, and not just because "we love adventure games," or something. Surely Sam & Max's production was plagued with troubles, but from the sounds of it so is every game project. Everything that came out about Sam & Max seemed golden. The press was drooling over the game. It looked like they had a sequel going on that, unlike some other recent sequels, was actually going ot get it right. But now, out of the blue, its gone. Which really really makes all of us wonder...
"What the Hell is Wrong With LucasArts?"
an editorial by the staff of Mixnmojo
LucasArts has made a gigantic mistake.
There, we've said it. Everyone else is already thinking it, and other people have probably already said it, but now we've said it too. The official Mixnmojo stance on Sam & Max 2 being cancelled is that LucasArts has seriously screwed up, just about as much as possible.
Production has stopped on the last original game --and the only game really-- anyone around here was genuinely interested in seeing. Cancelled. Why? From the sounds of it, the people in the Sales department spent the last three months winding themselves up about how impossible it would be for them to sell a quirky adventure game, eventually just snapped, and cancelled the title. Is that screwed up? Yes, that is screwed up.
LucasArts has made a lot of really bad moves in the last year. RTX Red Rock was allowed to ship. It tanked hard. Who really thought RTX would be marketable, would sell well, would really catch the attention of gamers? Full Throttle 2, despite a constant stream of negative to lukewarm receptions from magazines and fans, was allowed to live on in production far longer than anyone really wanted.
Armed & Dangerous, one of the few truly original gems LucasArts has dealt with in the last five or six years, was rushed out early by the suits, in hopes of grabbing some Christmas shoppers. This was decided despite Christmas being notorious for huge A-list titles like Lord of the Rings hogging the coverage and hype, and for mothers who know nothing about games being the ones doing the shopping. Not surprisingly, Armed & Dangerous had a poor holiday season. Who knows what might have happened if they'd let Planet Moon refine the game for a few months, and released A&D it in the nearly empty February, after everyone had exhausted their Christmas games and was looking for something new?
Recently, they shipped Wrath Unleashed. For more on Wrath, see RTX a few paragraphs up. And finally, today we receive word that Sam & Max Freelance Police has been axed.
Notice a trend here? Correct. Not one of the recent LucasArts bungles mentioned above contained the two magic words, Star Wars. If you give the suits at LucasArts a Star Wars game, they can sell it. Why? Because they don't have to try! No cleverness is needed. That's not to say it doesn't take any work, but for the most part you just need to get the screenshots out, buy a few ads on Gamespot, and tell the press "yep, it's
FWIW, Sierra does have a Leisure Suit Larry sequel coming out this year.
Link HERE. Screenshots and everything.
Perhaps offtopic, but people are complaining about humor-oriented games being MIA. And damn, I miss the Space Quest series.
this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC.
If not this, then what?!?
The genre is dying. And not as much because of less players, but because of less titles released. Young players don't know the tastes, humor, puzzles of Monkey Island style games, they would love them if they saw them - with gfx reaching nowadays standards (at least resolution), but there's no such games. The market is dying.
One thing that could save it would be a few daring, great titles that would shake the game world, attract people, revive the genre, bring profit to the authors. S&M could be one of them.
But it seems, it won't be the case. The time may be actually not appropriate - too late. And it won't be appropriate ever - the genre will die, because "nobody produces because nobody would buy", "nobody buys because nobody knows", "nobody knows because nobody sells or produces".
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
And while Escape From Monkey Island may not have been on par with the other adventure titles, Grim Fandango was most certainly not "mediocre at best."
The days of PC specific titles are gone. With three, count 'em, three home consoles out there, any game that can't be ported (and be profitable) to at least one of the home consoles is gonna be canned. Yeah, you probably could use a controller to play a graphic adventure instead of a mouse, but I'm sure it would get tedious after a while.
I know this is wrong (in more ways than one), but the first thing I thought of when I read the article headline was "Serious Sam and Max Payne?" Props to anyone who can think of some good dialogue between the two.
Adidas To Bring Back Sneakernet
apt-get install finger
This is why Linux users are still virgins
Um, yes. The current market is flooded with adventures.
> underlying economic considerations,
LucasArts is nearly broke and it costs a wagons full of money to develop a current adventure, featuring stunning 2D-graphics and top-of-the-edge anti-aliased text-to-screen synthesisation and multi-single-player no-network support.
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
I am not a fan of adventure games, but I do remember the humor in the original game when watching a friend play it. Even the sequel trailer was funny. This stinks. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Man, I remember playing Sam & Max, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, Tie Fighter, X-wing, Dark Forces, and Full Throttle. I used to rank LucasArts right up there with id, but all the want to do anymore is release crappy starwars tie-ins.
Oh well, at least Syberia 2 is coming out on the 22 of this month. Adventure games are dead, indeed.
I actually wanted to write the same, so here I go:
... this is not happening *whips head* tell me.. tell me this is not happening..
*ahem*:
Nooooooooooooooo!!!
*goes to corner*
*whispers*
Well, I'm off kicking some idiots ass.
Mailtos (from the article):
Randy Breen - Vice President of Development
Mary Bihr - Vice President of Global Publishing
Michael Nelson - Acting President
They passed up doing a Sam and Max game, but they are willing to beat the Star Wars franchise into the ground?
Who do they think they are? Disney?
"Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
Most game publishers don't put out games because they want to release games.
They do it to make money, to drive their customers before them, and hear the lamentations of their wallets.
If Lucasarts or any large publisher could put out a game, virtually guaranteed to be a hit but wouldn't make any money, they probably wouldn't do it. The only reason to do that would be to gain the name recognition.
being inside the system, i can safely and accurately say that the lucas companies do nothing useful
boooooooo, hisssssssss, boooooooooo
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
The code written to date is being sold and folded into the Duke Nukem Forever.
"Where do you keep that gun, Max?"
"None of your damned business, Sam."
"LucasArts has no adventure game, short of making up Star Wars adventure games, that will ever be as marketable as Sam & Max. Not Monkey Island 5, not Day of the Tentacle 2."
DotT was a sequel to Maniac Mansion, so wouldn't it be Maniac Mansion 3 instead?
Actio personalis moritur cum persona. (Dead men don't sue)
"Somebody give the baby Jesus a pacifier; he's bawling."
I regularly report MSN spam to the Hotmail admins.
.. for whatever crappy Star Wars Game they're putting out next. The last good game Lucasarts made was Escape from Monkey Island, and they haven't done a decent Star Wars game in years (KOTOR was a Bioware game), continuing to shoehorn Star Wars into every damn genre, not giving a toss about quality. Still, I suppose they're in synch with the goals of George himself. I can't honestly say this was a surprise, after Full Throttle 2 was cancelled. Lucasarts has such great properties, yet they keep messing them up. I honestly can't think of any business strategy that would explain that.
These are dumb ass executives who don't know the current state of adventure gaming. In recent times there have been good selling adventure games such as Broken Sword 3, Syberia, and The Longest Journey. These adventure games are either sequels or have one coming out real soon. There is a demand for good games and unfortunately Lucasgames is not a company to expect any from.
This is quite sad.... When you get right down to it, advernture games created solid customer bases for both Sierra On-Line and Lucasarts that provided enough support for those companies to experiment and often succeed with FPS and console games. The problem with those sit-down-and-play games is that they are much worse at building customer loyalty. The largest draw that Sierra had, with Half-Life, has been stolen by the overambitious developers at Valve. While a number of Star Wars games are quite good, they've not helped LucasArts in customer loyalty since failing to follow up X-Wing Alliance.... I know of tons of people who would love the X-Wing concept to get a massive update for today's PC hardware.
I do see one bit of logic in what LucasArts is doing, and it's because they probably don't believe that the new game would surpass the original. Just look at the Monkey Island 1 and 2 compared to the rest of the series. However, I believe those flopped largely because of the teams and writers.... Whereas with this Sam & Max, I believe that Michael Stemmle and Steve Purcell were involved in some way.
The graphical adventure on the PC isn't quite dead... not yet.
:)
Perhaps commercially it is - but look how long the text adventure has been dead, and that's got a thriving fan/development community producing some outstanding stuff.. (To learn more about that google around for "Interactive Fiction", "Inform" or "TADS")
And as for graphical adventures - there's some really neat free graphical adventure development systems (SLUDGE Adventure Game Studio) - and of course, if you just want to play the games, there's plenty of those two, including some very polished efforts, such as Out of Order
In short, don't wait for Lucasarts to make the next great adventure - get stuck in and do it yourself!
Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
that the wine has taken effect.
Why aren't there any adventure games made anymore? RPG's just aren't the same. I managed to satisfy my need for new games for a while by playing the old ones I'd never managed to get to, but that field is getting a little thin. I've got Beneath a Steel Sky and Simon the Sorcerer to finish, and I discovered a surprisingly well-done port of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars for the GBA, of all things, that I am now working on. but I've pretty much exhausted Sierra and Lucasarts' backcatalogs.
:P Sure, I buy a lot of other games, but these would be instant sales, with no hesitation. Hell, they'd get at least one free sale with crap as long as they stuck "Space Quest" on it.
I guess my old-timer market is getting dried up, and nobody wants to make games for me now that I have the money to buy them.
Why do they think people don't like adventures? Did no one pay attention to Myst?
Anyway, anybody got any obscure adventure game suggestions that I might not have played?
I just want to put in my two cents as well. I'm sad that they cancelled it, I was definitely lined up to pick up the game as soon as it came out.
/tips one to the old days of adventure games. :(
When Full Throttle 2 was cancelled I wasn't as disappointed, because I got the feeling the game was going in the wrong direction. But Sam and Max 2 seems to be heading in the right one.
Of course, now we'll never know.
WHAT THE FUCK. LucasArts just lost at least one long time customer. You have finally gone too far, guys. I can ignore your long list of awful Star Wars games forever, as long as you occasionally produce something worthwhile. Now you're cancelling S&M2? The only game of yours I've been looking forwards to since Grim Fandango? Nice knowing you.
And the screenshots looked *so* promising.
I was looking forward to playing another Sam & Max game. I have been gearing up for it by playing the original using scummvm. I loved those point and click games of that era, King's Quest, Quest for Glory, Sam & Max, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, among others. Not everyone wants to play the latest shoot 'em up (just how many WWII FPS can there be?) While I am a fan of the FPS, it is variety that is the spice of life, as well as gaming. How many of us were sick of the FPS until No One Lives Forever came out?
I hate sigs.
LucasArts has gone too far. I'm up for a full-scale riot.
The sad thing is, for all people claim about Lucas being a cash-greedy man with no care for his fans, he just shot down two huge cash cows.
I saw the writing on the wall.
Jawadali> Full Throttle 2 was cancelled, but the new Sam and Max isn't.
I'm always right, in the end. ;-)
Belief is the currency of delusion.
This is a huge disappointment, my favorite games have always been adventure games and the Lucasarts ones have always been the cream of the crop. To see this genre fail and falter wounds me. Doubly so, to see the razor sharp barbed wit of Steve Purcell swept under the carpet yet again. Sam & Max is the funniest comic/cartoon/game I've ever read/watched/played and I was waiting, wallet all a-quiver, to buy this one when it hit. Based on the latest stream of crap pouring from the Lucas media group's outlets, I can only presume George has fallen to the Dark Side, and is even now hatching a plan to slip Ewoks into Ep3.
I don't like this heavy trend Lucasarts has made towards console-based game design and development only. Some games were meant to be PC-only - the goofy controls in the latest Monkey Island installment should prove that. Mouse/kb > gamepad for these kind of games. And don't even get me started on FPS and RTS, both are tailor-made for mice. But going for the largest market is the corporately correct thing to do, so I guess us PC gamers will shiver in the cold winter of sterile gaming, brewing up our own indie adventure games like peasants boiling shoes for soup.
At least Syberia seems to have survived to breed another, even if it had to sell it's soul to the art world to do so. I personally found the game beautiful, aesthetically pleasing, and mind-numbingly boring. A sequel I think of with much the same enthusiasm I would have for a new coffee-table book of log-cabin paintings.
Bring back adventure games! Interactive Storytelling is not dead, it's just been forgotten in the back of the Entertainment Media toy chest, along with Reading Books and Playing Board Games. Email Lucasarts(webjedi@lucasarts.com) and rage against the dying of this light with me. Or just flame them. Or whatever, just make a stir to help make this country safe for domesticated animal crimefighters to thrive in once again.
"Not all who wander are lost" -- JRR Tolkien
... you'd wish it was almost April fools again :(
With the ability to order other ships or have complex (sub)missions with critical timing.
Red squadron leader and right hand of the emperor. Yeah!
So I just woke up from a rather pleasant mid afternoon nap to learn that . . . Sam and Max 2 has been cancelled.
This is war, motherfuckers.
I'm going to start copying every new SHITASSMOTHERFUCKING ripoffpieceofshit star wars game you assholes make, leaving said copies wherever they may lose you the most business.
And I advise every other gamer with taste to do the same. Or write these nincompoops a letter. Filled with anthr- ROSEPETALS.
It was fun while it lasted, Lucasarts. Well, it was fun till you released MI4. That game reeked. Come to think of it, it started to get less fun not too long after you released Grim Fandango. You assholes.
I can't release that.
I can't release that.
No, really, I can't release that.
Read my lips:
*I*
*Can't*
*Release*
*That*
Let's do Lucasarts!
Lucasarts, Fucusarts, fucusfarts
fo-fingi fo-fangi fo-fungi
fuuuu-ckas!
Toonstruck is another good graphic adventure game. http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/toonstruck/
Sam and Max, the original, was a joy to play, the characters were perfectly crazy, just thinking of that amazing game makes me smile. The story was excellent and everyone worshipped Lucasarts, the world was good.
Their entire line of games at that time was a showcase to how games should be made. So how can they go wrong so magnificiently wrong with their marketing descisions lately? How can they lose their way?
All 'we' want is the same characters, with the same 2D graphics (be it at 1024 res), the same *excellent* animation and a similarly excellent script. People aren't bored of 2D! 3D looks dated by the time the game goes gold whereas 2D endures. 3D doesn't suit point 'n' clicks (although "Runaway a Road Adventure" is pretty slick, it's 2D sets with 3D(toonish) people, works well but it's no S&M or DOTT) so why not stick to the tried, tested and proved approach of 2D excellence?
Lucasarts had it on a plate, they've got the characters, they've got the talent to produce both exciting and unexpected scripts and the artistic skills to bring them to life.
I saw a Sam and Max cartoon on 'childrens' TV last year, if the characters are judged good enough to appeal to a mass audience such as that plus the legions of Lucasarts fans waiting with baited breath, how can they do anything but not make a profit, along with raising their crumbling image?
Sigh...
--Doobeh
If we can't play God, who will?
I suppose instead they will be focusing on releasing a series of World War II-themed massively-multiplayer first-person shooters -- just what the world needs, right?
That's seriously disappointing. I used to be a video game fanatic in years past, but that has waned steadily ever since the moneymaking trends in gaming have slid rapidly towards exclusively online games, WWII shooters, 3D RTSes, and more of the same-old same-old.
Give me a good old LucasArts adventure game... I'd buy it. I can't be the only one.
If you google for "grim fandango belt problem" there are a couple of pages that address the difficulty. Here is one that might help ya.
Who is this Anonymous Coward character, how does he post so much, and why is he always such a whore?
If it is such a "huge mistake" to cancel this game, why doesn't lucasarts simply "outsource" the rights to make the sequel? In this plan, company X would make the game, sell it, and lucasarts would get %15 profit for doing NOTHING! They can't lose! Plus, they could always have an "up-front" $100,000 licensing fee or something. And also they could stipulate that it is a one-time deal, that they still own 100% of the rights to the game after this one is made.
If Dreamfall is cancelled, then I will seriously flip. Dreamfall is the sequel to The Longest Journey, one of the best adventure games ever. ;)
I regularly report MSN spam to the Hotmail admins.
This would be a GREAT time for an adventure game to be released.
There have been VERY few good graphic adventures out on the PC lately. The best one recently is the new Broken Sword, and that only came out a few months back.
PC Gamers are starved for graphic adventures at the moment.
I wonder if the game they have made so far is not actually that good (I believe the chap who wrote the original no longer works for Lucasarts..., but I might be making that up) so perhaps they are looking for more time, or a reason to cancel.
The last Monkey Island game was not that great either, so perhaps lucasarts are losing their Graphic Adventure magic... I sure hope not.
RM
I have no sig yet I must scream.
Sam & Max fan-GA, anyone?
Now you just need some good artists, writers and voice actors. (Well, there still is the trivial problem of copyrighted characters...)
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
im pretty disgruntled about the canceling, but im also optimistic. im hoping that there will be better games put out with the new time they have. im looking foreward to a decent adventure/rpg because there doesnt seem to be any right now. anyone have any suggestions? i dont ususally play PC games, as i am more of a PS2 fan,and i was looking for something to take my mind off of ICO. ive been at this game for a year now, and it is begining to get rediculous. i refuse to use a strategy guide, but i think i might reconsider. the only thing that keeps me playing is the wonderfully rendered backgrounds and the small ammount of pity i feel for the horny-kid and his mute-girlfriend.
::leon::
When I was working at LucasArts, I bitched about the same thing. My last full project was Monkey 4 and I still laugh heartily when I play that game.
Grim was fantastically received by the critics, but didn't sell very well.
This is the problem LEC always claims is keeping them from making adventure games: fantastic critical acclaim, little monetary recovery.
Personally, I don't understand it, apart from knowing that an adventure game is probably not likely to sell as many copies as KotoR, but it's still worthwhile.
I wish Sierra Online was still making Al Lowe adventures and the like.
Jory
I haven't bought or played a PC (or console) game in almost nine years. I find them to be boring and pointless. However, "Sam & Max Hit the Road" was one of the few games I've ever played that I actually enjoyed (joined only by Abuse, Day of the Tentacle and the original Full Throttle).
For a new "Sam & Max" game, I would have scraped up the pennies off the sidewalk and borrowed my dad's laptop (`cause the new Sam & Max would no doubt be Windows) in order to play.
It's always a good time to release a good game.
I strongly disagree. A lot of good games get BURIED at Christmas time when the market is too saturated with new releases, and you can also kill a game by releasing it too closely to a similar product.
Mythica recently got cancelled for the same reasons. Probably nothing wrong with it, just that there are too many MMORPGs. It may have been the best game ever, but UO, EQ and AC got there first, and the risk of getting buried underneath them was too great.
The PC adventure market is mostly dead. No reason to go into reasons why, but who in their right mind would fund a game in a dead market? Sometimes a game comes along that can surprise everybody, but not that often.
Why doesn't Lucasarts then commission another game company to do this instead of hoarding it to themselves? They could at least assign a producer to oversee the project. This makes no sense to me as it appears that quite a few people are pretty upset about this.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
"Through careful market analysis we have also come to the conclusion that now is the appropriate time to release a non-graphic text based adventure. I am pleased to anounce that we have started work on Sam & Max Meet Zork"
(B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
The biggest problem with single player games is piracy. It's just too easy to get a copy from a friend. No amount of CD keys, game-manual copy protection, or anti-burning technologies will ever work.
With multiplayer games, at least the CD-key is checked against a database of CD-keys before the player can play online. I have no doubt this is why Blizzard's battle.net and Half Life's WON systems have been so successful.
Corporations: your universal scapegoat for all society's ills.
Mr. GF Lucas has about as much hands-on affiliation with LucasArts as does GW Bush with the rest of humanity.
At least when I worked at LEC, George came to visit once in my 2 years...and that was to a company meeting at the nearby Civic Center.
Jory
I was really looking forward to this game. One of the first good games I remember playing when my family had a 486. Not only was it fun but it was also bloody hilarious.
It sure seems like games don't have the quality they use to. Sure, there are good games here and there now, but it seems like back then the majority of games that came out were well worth taking the time to play.
"Hard work never killed anyone." -- Some Dead Guy
we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC Translation: since it's not an FPS, kiddies won't buy it. It's witty, wry, and downright FUNNY. Quick! Yank it! A sad, sad, sign of the times. I played with GLEE the original Sam&Max game ... I guess we've come too far to go back to games being intellectually immersive (RAMA, S&M, etc). :(
Maybe that would cut the costs and allow us to enjoy a sequel to a great game.
See? There are benefits to our Indian overlords!
Corporations: your universal scapegoat for all society's ills.
Son of a BITCH! I didn't see that! Now THAT was a game I was really looking forward to!
Look Lucas, why not spin off a division to do this or give it to someone else to do? What a miserable decision!
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
Hmmm, I wonder if emphasis should be added to the word PC, or perhaps graphical.
.. (cold sweat) perhaps they've been bribed enough by Microsoft to make a graphical adventure exclusive to the XBox.
So either they're planning on making a text adventure for the PC (long live Zork!), or...
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Is there any place to get the original and use something like ScummVM to play it on modern hardware (assuming there is, say, a MacOSX version.. :-)? I used to have it years ago, but I must have tossed a box of stuff as some point. I had The Dig, Full Throttle, and Day of the Tentacle, too. Damn that was good stuff. They are all sadly missing from my boxes of CDs and things. (Well, those and lots of other things on account of moving and not thinking when tossing stuff, I guess.)
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
The trend in recent years has been to edge away from traditional "point and click" adventure games - the modern adventure game is presented in a much more interactive, hands on way, which i have found tends to be a lot more entertaining for the player. while i can't deny i really enjoyed sam and max and grim fandango, the limited freedom of movement and even more limited choices were frustrating. I want to go _there,_ i want to do _this._ While i haven't been following the progress of sam and max i am guessing it would not be too far removed from the old formula (please stop me if i'm wrong here) and there just isn't the market. times have moved on. Beyond good and evil (http://www.beyondgoodandevil.com) is a great example of the present(and future) style of adventure game - a deep and involved story, free to do anything you want, combined with action - creating a much more immersive experience. While not the comedy genius that was sam and max, i can immagine a similar format working well.
Hell, the whole gaming industry is making gigantic mistakes left and right. Less and less original and decent stuff is getting published, while more and more licensed schlock is being shoved down our throats. (Not that all licensed titles are crap, but how many can you name that were decent? No, The Matrix game was crap.)
It's all about the money, now, not about the game. I'm playing fewer video games now and playing more quality strategy board games. And I'm not talking simply about Monopoly and Risk, but very good games like Puerto Rico, Bohnanza, Carcasonne, Settlers of Catan, and others.
Sorry, but unless they have their own marketing data to back this up, it's just the opinion of someone who wanted a Sam and Max game.
--- Ban humanity.
MobyGames, the reference site for everyone, either involved in the game industry, or just in love with games, has its Top Rated Games: All Time Best list, based on game rankings by registered users :
1 Grim Fandango 4.19 (234 votes)
I'm really impressed by the cluelessness of LucasArts' management.2 Curse of Monkey Island, The 4.14 (168 votes)
3 Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge 4.13 (203 votes)
4 Planescape: Torment 4.12 (189 votes)
5 Day of the Tentacle 4.11 (191 votes)
6 Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis 4.10 (231 votes)
7 Secret of Monkey Island, The 4.09 (285 votes)
8 Super Mario 64 4.08 (67 votes)
9 Fallout 4.08 (230 votes)
10 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The 4.07 (64 votes)
Thank you for the addresses. Here is the letter I sent:
To whom it may concern,
As a fan of the original San & Max game, I have looked forward to a sequel for many years. I read the announcement of a planned sequel last year with great excitement. I was disappointed earlier this year when the cancellation of the Full Throttle sequel was announced, but the same announcement seemed to indicate that the cancellation would allow Lucas Arts to concentrate more on its other products, and Sam & Max was mentioned specifically, so I remained silent, and continued to anticipate the Sam & Max sequel.
However, with the latest announcement, it appears that Lucas Arts has lost its desire to innovate, and would rather stick to the same FPS and MMORPG drivel that marks the current industry. Lucas Arts won many a loyal follower, and significant acclaim, for its adventure games. The list of these games is like reading a top ten list for this category. Even Loom was brilliant, though certainly not destined to be an enduring classic. Whoever has decided this gaming genre is dead hasn't been listening to the fans. I can't even count the number of times that RPGs have been declared dead, only to be revived by one game that introduces a whole new generation to their ranks. In fact, Everquest, by far one of the most successful games today - and for the past 3 or so years, is at its core an RPG (hence the "RPG" in "MMORPG"), simply updated and improved with newer technology.
Adventure games have not lost their place in the world. It only takes one company with vision and talent to restore them to the stage - to lead the charge the same way that Command and Conquer started the massive success of RTS games (even though the previous Dune title all but flopped). Your die hard fans had hoped that LucasArts would demonstrate its brilliance and step up to the plate, but apparently mining the Star Wars franchise is all that we can expect from you. Though I am truly disappointed in this step away from leadership and innovation your company has taken, I still hold hope that when the Star Wars franchise has been adequately milked, your management will once again allow the creative talent of your developers to shine, and light the way - no, LEAD the way - into a new golden age of story driven gaming.
Sure, it's harder to create a market, but the created market is also less crowded with competition. And, just by looking at the reaction to this announcement, I have a feeling that you will be receiving a large number of emails expressing disappointment. It is unlikely that you will "un-cancel" a game, even if it can be conclusively demonstrated that the cancellation was a patently bad idea, but I should hope that in a few years, when Lucas Arts is again looking to explore something outside the Star Wars franchise, that Sam & Max will be reconsidered, and the massively under-represented adventure gaming genre can again be catapulted to the glory it deserves. If you still fail to see the importance of this market, there are numerous studies that show that more and more women are starting to play computer games, and so many of the genres that may have fallen from favor can certainly enjoy a new life fueled by this whole new market segment. And since the Adventure genre will stand on its own, just from the older players that still yearn for new and GOOD games of this type, it seems to me that it would be a low risk platform for capturing the female audience.
Thank you for your time in listening to my complaint, and I hope that it inspires you to re-evaluate the direction Lucas Arts has taken regarding this genre.
Oh, was that my outside voice?
This stinks.. I was so anticipating that game to come out.. Where do these execs get their numbers?? We need to figure how they are getting them wrong.. Though it's probably more likely they are wanting a "killer game" and only "killer games" that make GOBS of money and forget about the rest of the gaming community.. ScummVMs success is perfect evidence that there is a demand for these type of games.
After finding a ScummVM emulator for my Sharp Zaurus, digging out my old Sam N Max disks, and completing the thing, I was ready for more! I haven't seen anything good from Lucas since Grim Fandango! What the heck?
i really REALLY hope they will try it another time after some time...
class he-man extends man!
You're probably thinking of Loom, also from LucasArts. There was supposed to be a sequel.
If we can get him to change his mind and release a new Sam And Max game, then the original version of the Star Wars trilogy can be but an irate email poll away! Muwah hah hah!
You must think in Russian.
'Cause if you're successful in creating a fan-made Sam & Max, you're almost sure to get sued by LucasArts when you distribute it.
Yeah, online petitions rarely work. Fuck it, sign anyway. http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi? LACOSAM
Actually, there's still a bunch of people who still play Doom (and related Doom-engine games: Heretic, Hexen, etc.) The engine itself has been open-sourced by id software, and there have been ports made to just about every hardware platform. Also, many of these ports include enhancements, in one way or another.
If a game is good, people will play it, and keep playing it. Games are about fun, not about technology (though they're related to technology). Truth be told, the tech aspect turns me off these days, as it appears often more than not to be just a gimmick. If this trend keeps up, I'll happilly keep playing old-school games like Doom, 80's pinball games, Xmame roms and that kind of stuff rather than pony up the $$ and have to yawn my way through another technology demo.
LucasArts also recently cancelled Full Throttle 2 . (Although good luck confirming it through official channels thanks to an incompetant web site at LucasArts.)
LucasArts has consistently shipped some of the best adventure games ever. The worst adventure games from LucasArts are still fun. They sell at least tolerably well. The most recent Monkey Island game did, I understand, quite well when ported to the PS2, even though it had been available on PC for a year or two at that point. Full Throttle and Sam & Max Hit the Road are two of the most creative adventure games ever; I know I wasn't the only person eagerly anticipating the sequels. (Sequels suck in general, yes, but LucasArts has proven that it's possible to buck the trend by releasing 4 great Monkey Island games.) Adventure gamers have gone from being able to look forward to two great games to zero. Feh. At least we can look forward to Dreamfall and Syberia 2 .
Search 2010 Gen Con events
Actually, it's also vital to use the correct web browser, text editor, and window manager. Vi and Enlightenment work fine (some have reported success with Emacs, but only under Blackbox). However, I've found that versions of Fire{bird,fox} since 0.4 have a disasterous effect on your odds of scoring. I've submitted a bug report, and am waiting with my fingers crossed for version 0.9.
A bit off topic, but I have to get this out.
The adventure genre right now is far from being dead. Good titles are released every few months. I wonder if everybody keeps thinking the adventure genre is dead because Slashdot is US centric or what? The adventure genre is not strong but at least thriving a bit again in the EU...
Recent titles:
- Runaway (*great* 2d point&click)
- Syberia (3d characters in front of 2d backgrounds, point&click)
- The Longest Journey (3d chars / 2d back, point&click)
Upcoming titles:
- Runaway 2
- Syberia 2
- The Westerner
- The Moment of Silence
- The Longest Journey 2 (the only one in this list that might not be a 100% point&click adventure game)
Sorry for the missing links, I'm too lazy right now to search for them. Just google for the names + adventure or something. You'll be surprised.
And these games *do* come out in the US too! You just have to look harder than you'd have to for the latest EA Sports game.
Two Worlds - One Sun [Spirit]
Lucasarts hasn't made a decent in-house game in years. I didn't shed any tears for Full Throttle 2 and I'm not going to for this one either.
is PUSSY
That's right. PUSSY.
These big-shit "executives" are such hot shit when they are laying off the division, or stuffing their pockets with a bonus, or making the "big presentation" in a phone commercial, with their wire rimmed glasses glinting in the flourescence.
But when it comes time to take a real risk, they fold like a pair of threes.
Business, as usual, is totally ass-backwards. The tiny companies, with little capital and even less time, are the ones who are REQUIRED to take risks, because the bloated, fat-assed pussy-staffed corporations won't. Business would NEVER move forward if it weren't for small business and entrepreneurs.
The big companies should be financing the risks, because they can AFFORD TO. That's what CAPITAL IS FOR. But no. Better to hoard the capital and starve the market for better ideas.
Guys who put up their shingle and bet it all on one product are the guys with the huevos to get the job done. Not some buffed-shoes, blow-dryed, acronym-dropping fuck who can't make a fucking decision unless there is someone to blame if it goes wrong.
So, instead of just putting the cards down and CALLING THE FUCKING BET, some bullshit committee has to turn this near sure thing into some half-assed editorial about graphic adventures on the PC.
Well guess what, uppity-fuck. Graphic adventures could buy and sell most other genres four times before Corn Flakes. The second-best selling PC game of all time is a graphic adventure, with over SIX MILLION UNIT SALES. This horseshit attitude is what tried to cancel the Sims and what delayed Everquest for three years while management built a little gazebo of "not my fault" around their ever-widening pock-marked asses. Of course, they were first in line to stuff their pockets when the tall dollars arrived.
They said the Sims wouldn't work. They said Everquest wouldn't work. They said Star Wars would fail. Again and again and again some "executive" says "it'll never work."
Well they were WRONG.
This kind of thing makes me shoe-puking sick.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
If you want to help save Sam and Max 2 (if it's even possible at this point) or just let LucasArts know how big of a mistake they made, so it won't happen again next time:
Sign the online petition at PetitionOnline. http://www.petitiononline.com/LACOSAM/petition.htm l
Also, send e-mail to LucasArts!
pr@lucasarts.comwebjedi@lucasarts.com
Did you even play the games? All of them? Grim Fandango, and Monkey Island 4? They were not hard, and had me laughing my socks off at every oppertunity! I even grew to care about the characters, and the drama ( more so in Grim Fandango) that they endured. These games were terrific, and Lucas Arts should review the decision. I have played Sam and Max hit the road. It was, witout a doubt, hilarious! There were gags hidden into every little thing in the games. There was even a mini-game where you tried to sneak across the border to mexico! I think that the market is definatly ready for a new one, especially in 3D. I wanted to see what they made of the Vortex. I guess now I'll never get that chance....
Marvin knew: "Think of a number, any number..."
the online petition to save this company from making this horrible mistake?
"It's, like, several voices screaming out in terror... and then suddenly silenced." :)
If you've never played the first one and never will... why not read the game read the game?
i suggest searching for a torrent.
...if you've got the original receipts and boxes of course ;)
use isoHunt or maybe novasearch.
I would have bought a copy. And I almost never pay for things.
-makoffee
>Why aren't there any adventure games made anymore?
'Runaway: A Road Adventure' was recently released by GMX Media. I'm yet to try it myself but I have been looking forward to it for some time and it appears to have received good reviews. I was surprised to see no mention of it in replies to this article. Has anyone got any comments about it?
http://www.runaway-game.com
I have two games on my p4 laptop, Galatic Civilations, and the origional Sam'n'Max. I still play it from time to time. There has never been a game that comes close.
Riki
"We're the Freelance Police," said Sam, "and we're in a race against time."
"And we're barefoot, too," added Max.
"Maybe with some divine intervention, the next version of Microsoft's OS will actually be good." - Linus Torvalds
I just wanted to tell you how completely disappointed I am in LucasArts' decision to stop production on the new Sam and Max game. I am a Macintosh user, and I was actually planning on buying a Windows PC, just to play this game.
Well, you've saved me a lot of money, and I can continue to play my scratched SAMNMAX CD-ROM on ScummVM, but I can't help but wonder if LucasArts' will regret this...
Some game players remember when LucasArts were cool, producing hilarious games, and not just a series of boring Star Wars games. Maybe you don't realise, but the new Star Wars films suck, Jar-Jar sucks, and now the DVD release that George has been planning for such a long long time, will also suck.
Please rest assured that until another Sam and Max game is released, I will not buy another product from any Lucas company.
If possible, forward this message to George himself, and maybe HE will put a stop to this lunacy and release that there's money to be made from something other than flogging a dead horse.
Join the Free Software Foundation
The poor sales and marketing for Grim Fandango were a real shame, especially considering the number of top 100 games lists it still resides on.
Hell, while it's facing tougher competition now with games like PoP and Call of Duty out, it would probably still be on my top ten of all time.
But anyway, Sam and Max not happening is a real shame, I was looking forward to it greatly.
Aw, shucks. I think he's right. After careful evaluation, I've decided that this isn't the appropriate time to play a fun game.
I think my sig has something to say about that.
IWARS.
People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
LET I=1
IF I=8000 GOTO DONE
PRINT "FUCK"
LET I=I+1
GOTO START
END
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
This the same Lucas* that released horribly bad movies purporting to be prequels to three of the best ever made?
Maybe someone realized their implementation was gonna suck, and convinced someone who wouldn't otherwise have had a clue.
After Fallout 3 was cancelled I at least had this to look forward. A double blow to the nuts. PC gaming is dead damnit! At least for me it is.
My interest in games waned after their demise.
After hearing about the sequel, I was eagerly awaiting the chance to purchase.
LucasArts just lost out on my money.. I wonder how many more people they are alienating?
I still can't get over why there would be a z-code interpreter (that's Infocom text adventure engine) ported to Gameboy.
h tm l
http://www.inform-fiction.org/zmachine/gameboy.
I guess because "they can," but how would you type with just two buttons?
...from LucasArts? The Sam&Max team is only a small part, isn't it?
:-)
What about all the people that worked on Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, Indy, etc...?
Bringing that people together again (outside LucasArts, naturally) should get us some nice adventures and would essentially put that manager-idiots from LucasArts out of a job
Look, this thing is totally safe! Built it myself, you know. You just press that button like this and then turn that lev
I haven't picked up NPD life-to-date numbers for a few months now but the ones I do have say that Escape From Monkey Island on PS2 had sold through just over 40,000 units (one of which is in my living room). I would not consider that "quite well" although it may have been profitable for them.
I think the biggest problem with these kinds of games is limited shelf space especially for PC titles. Retailers are very risk-averse and it's very hard to get them to carry a title unless they feel really sure it's going to sell fast - whether it's ultimately a good or bad game is largely irrelevant to that equation. It's a shame because it makes the 'sleeper hits' much rarer and as such makes our industry less adventurous (in more ways than one).
Graham
Shall I confront, subdue, and pummel the current marketing manager?
Also, look on Ebay. That's where I got DOTT and Sam&Max cheap. They were Mac versions, but ScummVM running on Win2K and GNU/Linux doesn't care.
Is there a way to play Sam&Max under Linux, say with DosEmu and FreeDOS? Do they sell the old Sam&Max still? Where would I have to search for answers? Thanks.
I just replied to see this Subject heading again.
I am my dog buy multiplayer games. Hell. AI can be advanced, but dumbies teenagers are fun to kill with mi tanks under Battlefield1942. Most people actually buy games to play MP, and Day Of Tentacle games not have multiplay, so you play it, and uninstall... the fun is short. Its sad because TDOT was really fun, and actually games where too serius, lack of some fun twick. I only knowm some fun somewhere in the gamming scene, the Hammy-Bob mods for Half-Life (check www.moddb.com) and dont like :(
Please, coders, make more fun games!
-Woof woof woof!
because they are jewish :)
At a recent brainstorming session (fueled by beer and pizza):
1st Designer: Ok, get this. You've got Sam and Max. They are in... a LAB. Okay, so, Max is chained to Sam, and Max is... UNBREAKABLE.
2nd Designer: Why is Max unbreak-
1st Designer: SHUT up! I'm going somewhere with this... kay, so Max is a super rabbit and can absorb all these different powers from things.
2nd Designer: Yeah! And they've done experiments on Sam so he's like, a darker Sam. Dark Sam!
Marketing Guy: (Opens conference room door) Hey, uh, guys? Just wanted to let you know, we've decided to go ahead and cancel Sam & Max 2.
Designer 2: Shit.
Designer 1: Oh well, let's go work on that new Star Wars FPS.
Instead of mailbombing LA, why not try a different tact. After dumping the multiplayer section of Castle Wolfenstein, the source was thrown around and we've ended up with Enemy Territority - totally free, totally playable
It seems that they've been working on this for some time so the framework is already there. LA would not be releasing some TOP SECRET HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL code as we already have SCUMM VM. There seems to be enough interest in the game, and since this is slashdot i'll assume there are a few programmers out there amongst the rest of the freaks, geeks and weirdo's that roam these halls that would be interested.
Thats got my vote
Morale seems good, considering, although high spirits are just no substitute for eight hundred rounds a minute
Looks like a great game! I'll be there too when it's out =)
Near the start of the game when you first go out side: "Guns...Liqour...Baby Needs"
I really hope "Oh, was that my outside voice?" wasn't in there ;)
This is the sig that says NI (again)
Well, I hate to say this... but this is something we should have all expected.
Especially after the cancellation of Full Throttle 2 and Space Quest 7.
Let's face it... the adventure games we knew and loved as kids (Hell, i learned how to READ playing space quest 1 and 2) are dying.
Why?
Too much thinking involved.
No one wants to spend hours figuring out how to get the get the damn Alluminum Mallard working (a la Sq3)
No, today's gamers are quite happy with
*Approaching Door
*Finding you need Gold Key
*Killing enemies en masse
*Defeat boss to produce gold key
*Killing enemies en masse with a crowbar and a frag grenade
*Defeat boss now guarding previously deserted area around door
*Unlocking door with gold key
*Searching for Red Key upon finding locked door behind previously locked door.
This is just about all that these guys can handle. It's console-itis. (If you can't do it with 6 buttons, it's not worth it.)
Plus, im sure George has a much better idea in mind (Like Sam and Max MMORPG.)
I can't even begin to tell ya how much things like this bother me, Hell... the best games i've seen in YEARS have been FAN/Indie produced games with horrible graphics. (Uplink. Go ahead, try it. If you liked the movie hackers, you'll immediately become addicted.)
I mean, i hate to mention this... but look at Everquest. Everquest has the worst graphics known to man, yet still is one of if not THE most popular game out right now. It's not about 3d cutting edge graphics, just make a game that's fun to play.
Ask any older gamer what they're favorite game is. They're going to say some old game they played when they were kids. Not because of the outstanding 3d graphics (Granted, at the time... a LOT of them were cutting edge..) but because of how much FUN they had playing it!
No one is going to say "This game sucks, but the graphics are great! I wanna play it over and over!"
No. This is the type of game you download off of Kazaa, play it for 20 minutes and delete.
Give them a good game, with shitty graphics (Not stick figures, but for instance Monkey Island 2 style)... and you'll most likely sell more than your goddamned Pod Racer game. (I think im going to hell for playing... let alone MENTIONING this one.)
Take a hint, George. Your sales people are lying to you if they said Sam and Max 2 won't sell.
Oh, and to the sales people in charge of this little blunder... "You fight like a dairy farmer."
Perhaps it is good thing that Sam & Max 2 has been cancelled. Better for it to end this way, than to have the original tarnished by a pisspoor sequel. *cough* Escape from Monkey Island *cough*
The more I think about it, the more I realise I am *glad* that the Xbox won't get the chance to ruin yet another game with so much potential, by lobotomizing it into a cookie-cutter "game" that appeals to the dreaded Casual Gamer.
Before you reply in anger, or mod me down, consider: do you really disagree with me, or are you just ignoring the evidence?
Look at Halo, look at Deus Ex 2, look at Broken Sword 3. These games should have been shining beacons of perfection amid a wash of mediocrity--but instead they are barely distinguishable amongst the rest of the dross that comprises today's market.
It is almost certainly too late for Thief 3. I, for one, sorely hope that a third System Shock game *isn't* on the cards.
"I want a funny game that makes me laugh!"
Ironically, Armed and Dangerous was released from LucasArts just three months ago, and I preordered it because I could tell it was a funny game that would make me laugh. Sure enough, it was funny and made me laugh out loud.
And they sold enough copies over the Xmas season that it is now possible to buy it from gogamer.com for a mere $12.90. I don't know what it is about LucasArts and funny games, but they keep getting burned by them again and again. It is very possible that the commercial failure of Armed and Dangerous is what crushed Sam & Max.
Of course it's the right time to release a sequel! Broken Sword 3 has just revolutionised the industry to adventure games and made it popular again, it's the perfect time to bring out Sam & Max 2!
If LucasArts waits any longer before bringing it out, all the people who played and enjoyed the original will be dead!
Get ready for yet another Star Wars sequal. Introducing the new Star Wars Rebel Jedi Knight Assault of the Old Republic on the Dark Side of the Tatooine Moon Part 5.
Save Sam & Max
List of mails, adresses and petitions to save Sam & Max. Now over 18 000 signatures.
"I tend to think of OS X as Linux with QA and Taste", James Gosling, creator of Java