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Fallout 3 Gets Leaked, Goes Gold
Fallout 3 is due to be released in a few weeks, and Bethesda recently announced that all versions of the game have gone gold. They provided the systems specs for the PC release as well. Unfortunately for them, the Xbox 360 version was leaked onto torrent sites almost three weeks early. Bethesda is "looking into" how the game was distributed. In preparation for the launch, game director Todd Howard spoke at length with Gamasutra about the scope of the project, and the differences from their previous games, such as Oblivion. CrispyGamer recently ran a three-part series detailing their four hours of hands-on time with the game. We've previously looked at some gameplay videos for Fallout 3, and discussed the fact that no mod tools will ship with the game.
Going with Bethesda? Bethesda BOUGHT the Fallout franchise from Interplay (which has gone down the shitter near 100%) 3-4 years ago. In fact, the IP Interplay is using for the Fallout MMO (that they are supposedly working on) had to be licensed from Bethesda to use after the sale of said IP.
Ready means they are ready for the packaging and distribution process. When something goes GOLD doesn't mean, it's ready to be on the shelf the next day. It means it is ready to duplicate CDs, make packaging (luckily the packaging aspect may have a bit of lead time), send to distributors and retailers. Also when GOLD, any online distributing (which may not be available for F3) deals can be finalized. Even if online distribution was an option, there is no way they would break the release date online and step on the retail outlets toes, as most sales still come from brick and mortar locations (or locations that ship physical product to your door).
Better for everyone because it makes them come out with the game sooner!
What boggles my mind is why sit on the game until some arbitrary release date and why not sell it sooner?
I noticed a crapload of games slated for end of oct/begining of nov. Stuff like Fallout 3, gears of war 2, wow: lich king. Who's great idea was it to flood the market at some seemingly random time?
Sell the damn game when it's ready!
Unless it's some marketing ploy that's sold as a "Fire your employees before the game comes out so you can cash in on it's success even better(TM)".
Isn't there some big holiday soon after that where a lot of people spend a lot of money on consumer stuff... Jeese... It is right on the tip of my tung...
The leaked 360 version isn't retail, but is a review copy. The interwebs have given a lot of flack to SEED4ME about their releases.
In fairness, the number of people who actually download and run the Xbox 360 leak will be tiny compared to what the effect would have been with a PC-version leak. Getting pirated games running on a 360 involves the kind of hardware modification that is beyond the level of the average user and, in any event, makes the machine unusable on Xbox Live.
The impact of this leak will be fairly tiny in terms of lost sales. Plot spoilers etc are going to be more of a concern.
bethesda have said the only drm will b something small, like oblivions, i.e. a cd in the drive check
"The space elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing." - Arthur C. Clarke ~1980
Unfortunately for them, the Xbox 360 version was leaked onto torrent sites almost three weeks early. Bethesda is "looking into" how the game was distributed.
Well you see, Bethesda, as a downloader downloads parts of the file, they also upload the parts they have to other downloaders, and so on from peer to peer...
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Parents start shopping for the holiday season starting in late October, early Novemeber. They are more likely to choose to buy the game that is most prominantly displayed. During the holiday rush, dozens of games are release and games don't get to have the massive display for long before it is pushed out by some other game. Therefore, it can be extremely advantagous to wait until the holiday rush has begun to release your game.
Marketing and timing can make a huge difference in a games success, especially for games released for the holiday season. To be fair, I don't think it would matter as much for games such as Fallout 3, it is targeted to an older, already attached audience. If this were a title like LittleBigPlanet (new audience, younger target) for instance, releasing a couple of weeks early could be devastating.
I've played both Fallout 2 and Oblivion and I sincerely hope Fallout 3 will be nothing like Oblivion.
The autoscaling of everything was pretty much the worst thing in O3.
It meant that you could go and beat the Big Bad Guy with a total wimp. It meant that if chose your skills wrong, you'd get slaughtered just by traveling along the main road when you were on a high enough level.
I meant that there was almost no point in exploring. You could search the most remote ruins and only find broken knives if you were on low level and once you had enough levels under your belt, every damn critter dropped stuff worth a fortune.
Lots of side quests? Sure. Your choices make a difference? Oh really...
Sure you could choose if you wanted to join the mage guild or the fighter guild or thief's guild or save the world or just do all of these. None of it mattered except within that quest. Sure you just saved the world, became the top fighter on arena and became the leader of the mage's guild - but when you decide to join the fighter's guild, no one has even heard of you. Hey, if it had been more like 'Oh, you may think you're the big hero, but in here you're a nobody' I'd have been overjoyed but the harsh reality was that all the quests were totally separate.
And did you have actual choices? What if you wanted to be the good guy and actually arrest the notorious thieves guild leader? Nope, as soon as you joined the thief's guild, even your journal assumed you had become a bad guy. And the only options were to complete the quests as a bad guy or to totally ignore them. I've heard one of the last quests even involved a 'traitor' who was basically trying to get the thief's guild leader arrested - and you could not actually leave the room unless you killed him. Choices indeed...
I don't even want to talk about combat except to say that compared to the highly tactical, engaging battles in Fallout 2, Oblivion was just totally boring.
Now Fallout 3 may turn out to be a good game, but after Oblivion I have serious doubts about it.