Gothic 4 - JoWooD is Seeking Development Studio!

Gorath

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JoWooD published an advertisement on their homepage. They are accepting applications of development studios interested in working with them on Gothic 4.
JoWooD Productions officially advertises for development of Gothic 4

Liezen, Österreich, May, 23 2007; JoWooD Productions has already been working on the sequel for its most successful and well known RPG brand. After positive planning and concept phase and first promising negotiations with developers, JoWooD Productions officially advertises the development, to give all teams the chance to work on the project. JoWooD is looking for development studios to work on PC and current gen console. To ensure the high performance of this role-playing-game, JoWooD is focusing on the quality of the product as well as the typical and well known gaming style.

If you are interested in development of Gothic 4 please fill out the following documents and return them to
[Email adress and links to Developer Information & NDA removed; Ed.]

(invitation valid until: June, 22 2007)
Yesterday´s Gothic 4 announcement started with:
Liezen, Austria, May 22nd 2007; JoWooD confirms having been in promising negotiatons for the development of Gothic 4 on PC and console with various prospective development studios. [...]
I wonder how these studios feel now. ;)
Sticking to the "well known gaming style" sounds good though.

More information.
 
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Aaaargh! Jowood is solely in charge of G4?! Why hasn't PB responded?

This is terrible news :'(
 
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It's over, Gothic is dead, Long Live Arx 2. I'm wondering why they didn't put "A bug free developer" on their homepage. This whole nonsense about looking for a "bugfree" developer is moronic. You show me a developer that has consistantly put out software that is bugfree and I'll eat my hat. Wait let me rephrase, A developer that has consistantly put out RPG game software that is bugfree and I'll eat my hat.

Don't know why PB hasn't said anything but since their so silent I would guess that Jowood owns the IP and PB can't do much about that.
 
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That bug-free comment by Jowood annoys me. It's just a snarky way of pointing an accusatory finger at PB to explain the bugginess of G3.

Damn publishers! I almost always side with developers :)
 
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If this is true, then no G4 for me. :end: :furious: :thumbsdown:
 
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I would suggest Jowood is actually in serious trouble if they have to post something like this.
 
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Is it 1st of April and I somehow didn't notice? Is this some cruel prank? No? So, Gothic 4 is dead. What about the add-on?

This whole thing is quite a mess, I'm going to wait for all the facts before I comment too much about this.
 
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Maybe PB will find another publisher and make G4 but call it something else to avoid copyright issues with Jowood.

To hell with friggin Jowood...
 
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Is it 1st of April and I somehow didn't notice? Is this some cruel prank? No? So, Gothic 4 is dead. What about the add-on?

Funny, I was just tempted to look at the calender myself, but I fear it is for real. I would hope that PB would at least wrap up whatever progress they've already completed towards a patch and release it.
 
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I don't know how Jowood will go about getting a development studio for G4 that both has a longstanding tradition for high quality as well as making bug free games. Seems that Jowood is living in a sort of ideal world :rolleyes:

Even if they decided to go with say Deep Silver, or Arkane Studios, or Reality Pump or the Russian firm that made STALKER, they woulnd't really get neither a bugfree game nor a game of high quality. I say this because even the Might and Magic game as well as Two Worlds have their fair share of bugs...

And no, sadly :( --- this isn't April Fool's day.... It is for real :(
 
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Wow.. this is sooo wierd!! I don't think I've ever seen a publisher go out and *publicly* advertice for a development studio for a big IP. One thing is asking their various partners if they are interested in the project, another thing is an open invitation. To be honest, it seems a bit childish to me - like they just want to really piss off PB by spitting them in their face.
 
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It's over, Gothic is dead, Long Live Arx 2. I'm wondering why they didn't put "A bug free developer" on their homepage. This whole nonsense about looking for a "bugfree" developer is moronic. You show me a developer that has consistantly put out software that is bugfree and I'll eat my hat. Wait let me rephrase, A developer that has consistantly put out RPG game software that is bugfree and I'll eat my hat.

Don't know why PB hasn't said anything but since their so silent I would guess that Jowood owns the IP and PB can't do much about that.

As for why PB hasn't responded, my private guess it that PB has contacts with a new pubisher for a brandnew IP, but that's just my guess ;)
 
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Jowood has a history of dumping promising small developers:

Wings Simulation: -> Panzer Elite
together with Joowod: -> Panzer Elite Action -> downfall of Wings Simulation


Massive Development: -> Schleichfahrt
together with Joowod: -> Aquanox 1, Aquanox 2 u. Aquanox 3 (3 was never released, but it was nearly finished) -> downfall of Massive Development

Spellforce developer Phenomic was bought by EA
 
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Jowood has a history of dumping promising small developers:

Wings Simulation: -> Panzer Elite
together with Joowod: -> Panzer Elite Action -> downfall of Wings Simulation


Massive Development: -> Schleichfahrt
together with Joowod: -> Aquanox 1, Aquanox 2 u. Aquanox 3 (3 was never released, but it was nearly finished) -> downfall of Massive Development

Spellforce developer Phenomic was bought by EA

Wow..And I thought Atari was the worst of its kind
 
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So G4 is really coming, that is good news, I think. But will it really be G4 or just the name. I mean different develepors, different feelings in game.
I do hope PB still own a part of Gothic brand so that Jowood can't make it without Paying pb a nice amount of money
Also real funny that they say they have promising talks with developers and then trow the job wide open on the internet. I hope this will be the end of Jowood but not the end of PB
 
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Jowood has a history of dumping promising small developers:

Wings Simulation: -> Panzer Elite
together with Joowod: -> Panzer Elite Action -> downfall of Wings Simulation


Massive Development: -> Schleichfahrt
together with Joowod: -> Aquanox 1, Aquanox 2 u. Aquanox 3 (3 was never released, but it was nearly finished) -> downfall of Massive Development

Spellforce developer Phenomic was bought by EA

Also Neon Studios: Legend of Kay and a dozen other console games.

Schleichfahrt was called Archimedian Dynasty outside of Germany, I think.

Furthermore JoWooD kicked out Arx Fatalis too early and as a stealth release directly against NWN.

PB was their last German development partner, not counting undisclosed projects we can´t know about.
 
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That bug-free comment by Jowood annoys me. It's just a snarky way of pointing an accusatory finger at PB to explain the bugginess of G3.

Damn publishers! I almost always side with developers :)

That is how I take it - it reminds me of the political 'commercials' in VtM:Bloodlines "Vote for X, the candidate not accused of ... "

By constantly stressing quality, timeliness and bug-free code delivery, they appear to not only distance themselves from any G3 issues, they create a public image of themselves as the victim.
 
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That is how I take it - it reminds me of the political 'commercials' in VtM:Bloodlines "Vote for X, the candidate not accused of ... "

By constantly stressing quality, timeliness and bug-free code delivery, they appear to not only distance themselves from any G3 issues, they create a public image of themselves as the victim.

Aren't they? The had a contract with PB to deliver this on this day. PB broke the contract and couldn't. So Jowood extend and extend and paid more and more, and 12 months later got a buggy game. Who else could be the victim?

If you started a business and signed a contract with FedEx or Duetch Post to deliver your product to customers, and they kept fucking up and losing it, or delivering way too late, causing the customers to be pissed and call you. What would you tell the customer? Would you accept the blaim or tell them what happened? Would you cut the contract with FedEx or DP, and send out a letter to sutomers explaining what happened and that you took corrective action to make sure it wouldn't happen in the future?

Look at the other threads, customers or would-be-customers are pissed because the game is broke and isn't going to be fixed or not buying the game for the same reason.

I'll apply this to me. I love troika. I love them and their games. I buy them buggy or not. You can blame sierra for arcanum since they sat on it while it got pirated rampantly, but that had nothing to do with the actual state of arcanum and its bugs. I don't blame atari for toee's bugs, and I don't blame activision for BL's bugs. Troika acquired funding with a contract they couldn't fulfil completely. The blame is theirs. They made the games. They agreed to the terms of the contract. I still love them and their games, buggy or no. And a troika game with some bugs is still light years better than any other big devs polished bug free crap, but I'd have to be retarded not to place the blame on the people that made the game that inckuded bugs, the people that accepoted the contract and milestones to get the funding, and the people that couldn't fulfil that contract.
 
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If you started a business and signed a contract with FedEx or Duetch Post to deliver your product to customers, and they kept fucking up and losing it, or delivering way too late, causing the customers to be pissed and call you. What would you tell the customer? Would you accept the blaim or tell them what happened? Would you cut the contract with FedEx or DP, and send out a letter to sutomers explaining what happened and that you took corrective action to make sure it wouldn't happen in the future?

It isn't so simple in most cases - it is more like you have formed a contract to produce a microprocessor. The developer does the design work and all of the physical production of the device, but you get to sign off on the specs, the project plan and the milestone reports and prototypes. Your responsibility is to provide oversight, be completely responsible for ensuring quality and functionality of final product to the original specifications (or modifications as agreed).

By signing off on milestones you become a partner in the progress. By accepting the prototypes you are saying 'this is at the point it is supposed to be', and by releasing the product you are saying that your job of QC is complete.

I am not absolving PB of blame - they are in it up to their eyes! But JoWood is an active publisher wrt Gothic - this is not some 'uh, ok, we'll ship the boxes for you' deal.
 
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RPG's are slowly but surely being massacred with this bug free code crap. You're also destroying your own hobby with this "Lucas Arts" mentality.

Of course we want games to be bug free but development is a complex beast, we're not talking Space Invaders anymore I'm afraid. Major game review sites are marking down "buggy" games harshly without really looking at the merit of the actual games. I'm playing Fallout atm and its got some really bad bugs in it (UK 1.02 version), but the game is excellent and I would still mark it highly. I'm more interested in the game and I'm willing to look over those flaws to play something that interests me - same for Bloodlines, Morrowind, Daggerfall, Ultima's, and a host of others.

Soon all you'll get is GTA like RPG's because well... they got a few less bugs in. Oh and ofc MMO's.
 
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