Alpha Protocol - More Delay Signs?

I am upset with this possible development. But given the fact that the publisher is Sega, I am not overly shocked…

Why? What's wrong with the delay if the product is not finished yet? If the publisher was someone else like e.g. LucasArts (KotOR 2 anyone?) Obsidian would probably not get this (second) extension but they would pretty much be forced to wrap it up and ship whatever mess they'd be able to slap together.
I think that Obsidian can call themselves very lucky to have such a patient publisher. Given their rather poor track record they should start praying that Bethesda is going to be similarly lenient with FO: New Vegas because otherwise I don't see Obsidian making it in the long run.
KotOR 2 was a poor release, NWN 2 was so-so, and AP has now been delayed for the second time. Most developers would be out of contract work by now. Obsidian really need to nail AP and New Vegas or it'll be game over (unless they get lucky again, of course).

[Disclaimer: All based on the pure assumption that the delay does in fact have anything to do with the quality (or lack thereof) of Alpha Protocol]
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
3,201
Because I am even more worried about Sega's motive for the delay. They aren't exactly that great of a publisher for PC games.

Edit: I am more worried that Sega is forcing the delay because the game isn't what they wanted. Ever since their handling of showing AP at PAX, I got a sense that SEGA is not in agreement with Obsidian's vision of the game.
Also, this doesn't look like your usual bug fix related delays, those delays are usually smaller in their time increments.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
205
I disagree. Retailers make dates up a long way from release but as you get closer, they usually work off official publisher and distie lists/information. When I had my store, I could look directly online at the stock of the distribution centre for Interplay, for example. I'm sure mistakes are made on both sides but Gamestop want to encourage pre-orders - they generally aren't going to move to 8 months out just for the heck of it; it's not good for business.

And why assume New Vegas has any sort of reliable date when we haven't even seen the first screen yet?

I have had a very similar thing happen with gamestop before on another rpg a few years ago so it does happen. (at least with gamestop) Also either Bethesda or Obsidian said Fallout: New Vegas was going to be out next year and I assume that would mean towards the end of the year so next fall.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
1,596
Why? What's wrong with the delay if the product is not finished yet?
Because there may not BE an Alpha Protocol. That's 8 more months of paying the developers with 0 money coming in plus they have to pay for marketing all over again. I would rather have a good, solid game later than a so-so, buggy game right now. But eight months? That's not a fixing-bugs thing, that's a redesign thing. Something major is going to change.
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
A delay of eight months doesn't necessarily mean that they need eight more months of development. Even if they only needed one more month to finish it, they wouldn't release it in the dead zone of December - February, and all the big games that got delayed have been pushed to spring 2010, so they wouldn't want to release it then either. If this turns out to be true, I have a feeling it's a strategic delay, i.e. the game is ready to be released (or close to it), but they figure it will get buried in the holiday rush (which it probably would).
 
Joined
Jun 9, 2009
Messages
57
I think these delays stem from the console version. Because 'release the game patch later' policy do not fit well to the consoles. The delay of Risen and Divinity 2's Xbox 360 versions also show this to us.

Risen xbox 360 wasn't delayed. Only the north american one was. Its coming out on both pc and xbox 360 in europe and the rest of the world on 2 October. The US xbox 360 version was delayed due to some issues with the US retailers . Nothing to do with the game, game has Microsoft certification for both europe and the us.

On alpha protocal the delay doesn't really bother me. Rather have a polished game. I am sure Risen and Dragon Age will keep me occupied for the holiday months.
 
Joined
Feb 5, 2009
Messages
68
Location
Pretoria,South Africa
I have needed to patch several games on my xbox 360 because of problems and others have had patches even though I didn't have problems. That pretty much means the xbox 360 has already went to patching after release.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
1,596
Oh, indeed it has. Patches issued at or near release are quite common on the 360. PC gamers always complain about games being dumbed down for consoles, but console players are now complaining about games being bug-riddled and needing patches, which they see as a reflection of PC development style.
 
Joined
Sep 6, 2009
Messages
884
Location
US
PC development style?

You mean developing games more complicated than a 2d jumpy platform shooter?

Console only games are usually very simple, they don't have sandbox worlds, or inventory systems, or branching dialogues. They're also deployed on unified hardware with a barebones OS that does nothing but support games, which is where most PC bugs come from bad drivers, directx & windows OS.
 
Joined
Mar 2, 2009
Messages
426
Location
Wisconsin
Hey LuckyCarbon ... have you checked out this thing called the '21st century' ... I've heard there are loads of new inventions coming then, perhaps even games beyond the 8-bit stereotype you used ...
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
Yeah, I don't mean to shatter your bubble, but console games do occasionally have inventory systems, sandbox worlds, and branching dialogs. And some of them are even in 3 D!

But I don't want to get in a console vs. PC pissing match. I'm just saying that the PC style of patching after release is being felt now on the consoles as well. I agree that this is due to the greater complexity of developing for the PC market. I'm not trying to start a fight, I'm just saying it's something you see on consoles now. I was backing up with guenthar was saying.
 
Joined
Sep 6, 2009
Messages
884
Location
US
I'm just saying that the PC style of patching after release is being felt now on the consoles as well. .

I remember that from when the first patches for XBOX games started ... I wrote something about how the joy of having downloadable content and a hard disk will ultimately come with a price they don't want to pay ...
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
It does bother some console players, because they think that now it's going to become accepted practice to ship buggy games, knowing that they can be patched later.

Personally, the patches have never bothered me. I am usually grateful for them -- "Oh, you've improved my game, thank you." I suppose that if there was a different patch every week, it might get annoying, but so far the patching is not that frequent.
 
Joined
Sep 6, 2009
Messages
884
Location
US
I just found out something interesting that may mean that the new date is BS. I was going through the coming soon list on Gamestop looking at what is coming out soon and I got to June 1st of next year. They had both Alpha Protocol and Fallout: New Vegas set for the same date for release. This pretty much throws out the creditability of the release date. Also I just checked Amazon.com and it says the release date is October 27th, 2009.

PS. The patches I have had to download on Xbox Live were all for jrpgs and one was necessary to get a game to work.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
1,596
I'm not very interested in Alpha Protocol so it doesn't matter to me much. Though it would be better if the game was released earlier. Anyway if they have problems it's better to wait but if that's due to console version I already hate them ;)
 
Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Messages
730
I'm not very interested in Alpha Protocol so it doesn't matter to me much. Though it would be better if the game was released earlier. Anyway if they have problems it's better to wait but if that's due to console version I already hate them ;)

I honestly believe it is partly due to issues but also due to not getting into the already crowded Q1
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
Back
Top Bottom