Banner Saga 2 - We have neglected our community

@GameIndustry they talk to John Watson, technical director behind The Banner Saga 2 who feels they should of crowdfunded the second part of The Banner Saga.

Ultimately, Stoic decided on what amounted to an "almost 180-degree turn" for The Banner Saga 2. "Let's just close the doors, close the curtains, spend our own money and do it our own way, without having to answer to anybody. And that's what we did.

"About halfway through, when the money starts getting tight, we started thinking, 'why the hell didn't we get a Kickstarter?'"

The reason might well be success. The Banner Saga raised far more money from Kickstarter than Stoic had expected, and it went on to sell more copies than expected, too. That money could fund what they wanted for The Banner Saga 2, while also being tangible evidence of a community of people who would be interested in playing the next chapter of the story. Stoic decided to focus on making sure that the next chapter was even better.

"I think we dropped the ball there," Watson admits. "We thought that audience would still just be there. We really neglected our community during the development of Banner Saga 2, because we were focusing on our work. I think that was a mistake. We all agree that was a mistake."

The Banner Saga 2 launched for PC in April 2016, and the mistake was immediately clear. In its first few months on Steam, The Banner Saga 2 sold around a third of what The Banner Saga sold over the same period. When GamesIndustry.biz spoke to Versus Evil, Stoic's publisher, last year, Steve Escalante lamented a massive increase in the number of competing titles on The Banner Saga 2's launch week.

More information.

Is this guy halucinating?
Phone community switched to Pokemon Go, it has nothing with neglecting.

Joxer, If you've got another note in you, I'd sure like to hear you play it.

Originally Posted by screeg
Joxer, If you've got another note in you, I'd sure like to hear you play it.

Classic!

This is the problem with a lot of sequels. As someone who was excited about, bought and was disappointed by the original, I did not buy part 2. A lot of games are able to generate tons of hype, which encourages people to try them, but that doesn't mean that a sequel will do better. Its true there was more competition and if the rpg market for the pc was like it was at the beginning of 2013, I might have bought it. I'm curious to see how well the sequel to Pillars of Eternity and Wasteland do, as those games also had lots of supporters who were dissapointed by them, though I was not.

Originally Posted by forgottenlor
This is the problem with a lot of sequels. As someone who was excited about, bought and was disappointed by the original, I did not buy part 2. A lot of games are able to generate tons of hype, which encourages people to try them, but that doesn't mean that a sequel will do better. Its true there was more competition and if the rpg market for the pc was like it was at the beginning of 2013, I might have bought it. I'm curious to see how well the sequel to Pillars of Eternity and Wasteland do, as those games also had lots of supporters who were dissapointed by them, though I was not.

I felt the same way about Banner Saga. It was my first crowdfunded project and it was okay, it didn't set the world on fire for me or anything. Great graphics and music aside the game didn't do it for me mechanically combat wise and felt insufficiently fleshed out.

I doubt I will buy a Pillars sequel except on heavy discount and more for curiosities sake. I have backed Wasteland 3 because while Wasteland 2 had some rough areas there was some fun stuff in there and the directors cut has shown they are headed in the right direction.

I actually enjoyed the banner saga 2 a lot more than the first one.




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Originally Posted by screeg
Joxer, If you've got another note in you, I'd sure like to hear you play it.

Ok, that gave me a chuckle. At least he didn't dog it for being an MMO.

I agree with the comments above about BS1 being a bit underwhelming which is why I did not buy BS2. I did finish BS1 and it was somewhat enjoyable, but I've had enough of it. Very similar to my feelings about XCOM, Shadowrun, and Blackguards -- games I am glad I played but would not want to play another.

With that said, I often enjoy sequels, but maybe I don't enjoy sequels to turn-based games.

I ended up buy banner saga 2 (yes I like the series) but was pretty pissed off with how they handled the gog release both with communication and other aspect I will not mentioned (in a nut shell i found it scummy).

Originally Posted by Grifman
Ok, that gave me a chuckle. At least he didn't dog it for being an MMO.

Huh? Why would I call phonegame a MMO?
Yea masses do play some phonegames, but putting those in the same basket with "normal" MMOs would be an insult.

Yeah I liked banner saga well enough, but I felt I had enough of it by the end. The reviews of the second made it sound a little better, but still not different enough from the original to make me want to play it.

2 was way worse. much more disjointed, devoid of consequence, shittier story and characters , and character progression .
even the gameplay i felt was worse .. but probably it was kinda the same.
1 lacked choice and consequence on a story level, and 2 was worse at it .. thats the bottom line

Originally Posted by screeg
Joxer, If you've got another note in you, I'd sure like to hear you play it.

Originally Posted by Silver
Classic!

Originally Posted by Grifman
Ok, that gave me a chuckle. At least he didn't dog it for being an MMO.

Nice to see I'm not the only one tiring of it.

I bought both & I hope they still are able to finish the trilogy/wrap up the story. There was more variety in combat this time around; though from a story perspective I thought the whole horse born thing was out of place. It's like they desperately wanted to expand combat & have some new races; but couldn't find a good way to do it. I agree with borcanu above that there did seem to be less consequences than in the first.

Either way, I will still get the 3rd one if they make it & I hope they do.

Originally Posted by Lynchden
I bought both & I hope they still are able to finish the trilogy/wrap up the story. There was more variety in combat this time around; though from a story perspective I thought the whole horse born thing was out of place. It's like they desperately wanted to expand combat & have some new races; but couldn't find a good way to do it. I agree with borcanu above that there did seem to be less consequences than in the first.

Either way, I will still get the 3rd one if they make it & I hope they do.

I agree with you on all points and want to add that the combat actually felt much-improved in my opinion. I think the story was less amenable to change, but I still felt quite connected to the characters.

In brief, I think BS 2 is an improvement on BS 1 and I will likely buy the last one.

Have they said anything about part 3? Because right now it sounds like from a business standpoint they might be better off dropping the series altogether.

http://www.pcgamesn.com/the-banner-s…-banner-saga-3

Stoic say they “have to do” The Banner Saga 3, despite underwhelming sales of part two

Originally Posted by joxer
Huh? Why would I call phonegame a MMO?
Yea masses do play some phonegames, but putting those in the same basket with "normal" MMOs would be an insult.

Because you have called other non-MMO games MMO's, that's why. So why should this be any different?

Originally Posted by Pladio
http://www.pcgamesn.com/the-banner-s…-banner-saga-3

Wow, that's an ass-backwards attitude. Not unlikely it could sink the studio altogether.