Didn't Sin and HL2 put paid to episodic content once and for all?

Originally Posted by steveo_mcg
Didn't Sin and HL2 put paid to episodic content once and for all?

huh?

both failed, one was cancelled after the first "episode" the other takes so long between episodes that they've a cheek to call them episodic, if you had to wait that long between episodes of lost there would be riots.

The way the story is being dragged out on Lost it feels like it is that long!

But then on the other hand, you have episodic successes such as the new Sam & Max games, which show that episodic gaming can work when done properly.

Originally Posted by ChaosDefinesOrder
The way the story is being dragged out on Lost it feels like it is that long!

You mean there is a story? :p

I don't think you can even put sin episodes down as a failure because of episodes - the company was trying to develop what 3? games at the same time and collapsed under it all, Episodes would have had to have been a miracle to have prevented that (As opposed to just decent, which it was).

Sin wasn't a failure because it was episodic, it made episodic content fail.

Penny Arcade will trounce you grumpy old farts

The underlying concept of episodic gaming is still valid, and while the execution so far has been mixed, it's far from dead. Fundamentally, this is still a new concept and developers are trying to figure out how to make it work. I think as time goes on we'll see more and more episodic games because they make sense financially to devs for a number of reasons including:

People are more willing to buy something cheaper, even if they get less value. most people are a whole lot more willing to pay $15 every 6 months than $60 every three years, even though over the course of the three years they will have spent more.

Development is easier. You build an engine once, and then just work on content and story. By the time the first episode comes out you should have dealt with all the compatibility and hardware issues, so you're not re-inventing the wheel with every release.

Expectations are lowered. Look at the huge, hyped blockbuster games of the past year. Crysis was incredible, but didn't quite live up to it's hype. Bioshock was the same. HL2E2 on the other hand, because it was another episoide had lower expectations, which it easily met. I've heard a lot of people complain about Crysis and Bioshock because they failed to live up to expectations, but I haven't heard the same about E2.

All of these argue strongly for episodic content and you can bet studios are listening.