Hate to quote myself but I
just read Bigpoint did not even buy the crumbled ruins of Radon Labs, they only hired a few employees and bought the Drakensang-Trademark. Radon Labs on the other hand is being liquidated.
I'd consider that semi-good news actually. The bad part obviously is that Radon Labs is out of the game. This is unfortunate because they were able to produce polished, high quality games that were nicely balanced between an old school appeal and the mainstream while still being commercially viable (at least until recently
). Call me a fanboi but I consider Bernd Beyreuther as a bit of a genius for finding that balance. The guy is gold.
The semi-good news is that if Chromatrix does want to keep on producing DSA/Dark Eye video games they can now freely look for a new studio. The end of Drakensang (as a DSA franchise) does not equal the end of end of DSA video games. I sincerely hope that Chromatrix will find a new reliable partner to launch a new series similar to Drakensang but with (even) more commercial success.
I believe they just need to work on their marketing for future titles (and international releases, of course).
Drakensang marketing was OK but the River of Time was really bad, beginning with the title of the game.
Can you imagine a more boring title? And soooo the riiiiiiver, well, it flooooooowws and there is a lot of tiiiiiiiiime that is passing all alooooong… yeah, *snore* *snore*.
Same with Phileasson's Secret expansion. If you can actually manage to remember the title after reading it for the 47th time then there's still the barrier of spelling or pronouncing it correctly. It's just such a dumb, unnecessary waste of potential.
Oh well, in the end I just hope that Chromatrix makes the best of the situation and that a new video game series will rise from the ashes of Radon Labs and Drakensang. Please make it so, Tsa*!
* DSA goddess of life (and resurrection)