Piranha Bytes RPB - Interview with Koch Media

Dhruin

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World of Piranha Bytes is pointing out an interview with Koch Media's Martin Metzler at Gaspy's Czech Gothic site, discussing their relationship with Piranha Bytes and the new game. At this early stage not much is revealed, so the discussion centres on various general publishing matters:
It isn't long since Piranha Bytes has left JoWood and you have become their new publisher, it wasn't big surprise. Did you make terms? Will be Piranhas able to finish their work without some time press? And what about cost estimate?
One of the advantages of not being a stock company is that we can release a product (to use a well-known phrase) "when it's done". We will release the game when the Piranha Bytes team and we feel that it's ready. We will not comment about costs for a title.
More information.
 
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"We will release the game when the Piranha Bytes team and we feel that it's ready. We will not comment about costs for a title."

OMG, this is too good to be true! *faints* :)
 
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I got them here, come and get your money.
 
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"We will release the game when the Piranha Bytes team and we feel that it's ready. We will not comment about costs for a title."

OMG, this is too good to be true! *faints* :)

It certainly is. Or have you ever heard of a company saying "To tell you the truth, we're gonna ship the fucker ASAP, regardless of its state"? ;) .
 
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Moriendor
"It certainly is. .........."

So you are saying Koch Media has a reputation for "To tell you the truth, we're gonna ship the fucker ASAP, regardless of its state" as you put it, just like a certian "you know who!" has this reputation? ;)

While I didn't play them, the two games recently they were invovled with (iirc) are ParaWorld and Europa Universalis III and afaik they seem to be getting prasie, unlike a recent release by "you know who!". :)
 
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I think it's more up to PB than Koch to make a great game. I don't think PB would get a better deal elsewhere, so now all that is left to do is for PB to make a game as good as G1 or G2. :)
 
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So you are saying Koch Media has a reputation for "To tell you the truth, we're gonna ship the fucker ASAP, regardless of its state" as you put it, just like a certian "you know who!" has this reputation? ;)

No - I think that this early on in a project things are all about happiness and getting to 100% completion and including all possible features ... then reality sets in. It is the post-reality project management and available resources that determines how things ship.
 
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Ralf from PB said a few weeks ago that they are running on a tight schedule (or "sporty" as he called it in German). The response of that Koch Media guy is the usual, predictable marketing blahblah. There's no way that they are going to let PB work on the game until whenever or otherwise there wouldn't be a "sporty" schedule, right?
But at least PB have taken precautions this time by limiting the scope of the project so maybe they will for once be able to deliver a fairly bug-free result when the project nears completion. Remember that the state of Gothic 3 was not really the fault of "you know who" (as was confirmed by PB repeatedly).
 
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In general, if you let developers work untill they're actually "done", you wouldn't get a product. Most developers are perfectionists, and there's always some tweaking left and some cool, fancy feature to add, hehe.
 
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In general, if you let developers work untill they're actually "done", you wouldn't get a product. Most developers are perfectionists, and there's always some tweaking left and some cool, fancy feature to add, hehe.

That is why I had the emphasis on project management. That is always key in any technical capacity.
 
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In general, if you let developers work untill they're actually "done", you wouldn't get a product. Most developers are perfectionists, and there's always some tweaking left and some cool, fancy feature to add, hehe.

There's also a point (in a healthy project) where release starts to be in sight, and the developers get extremely focused on getting the damn thing out the door. (For one thing, nobody wants to work on the same project for ever.)
 
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There's also a point (in a healthy project) where release starts to be in sight, and the developers get extremely focused on getting the damn thing out the door. (For one thing, nobody wants to work on the same project for ever.)
Yeah, but not so much. I'd have to agree more with Maylander and txa1265.

Marketing creates the product roadmap, motivates the design team from their perspective and makes the call about when to launch the product (with collaboration). In my experience, marketing guys always want to launch early in order to lengthen the window of opportunity to sell the product.
 
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Moriendor
"Remember that the state of Gothic 3 was not really the fault of "you know who" (as was confirmed by PB repeatedly)."

Whew! Glad you didn't say "responsible for the release at the currect state".
Thank god PB took responsiblity for their work, makes them seem almost human, think anyone will take credit for the released canidate? :p

Maylander
"In general, if you let developers work untill they're actually "done", you wouldn't get a product. Most developers are perfectionists....."

I would like to agree with you but I would need an actual example?
Otherwise I can see your comment equally, as some sort PR BS started by pubs as an excuse for them releasing early, for say an upcoming holiday.
It could go either way and probably not a good generallity but certinly possible either way. :)
 
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