Sega's £100,000,000 investment - a Trojan Horse?

[Jungle Rhino]

I'm sure many of you are aware that Sega has announced a major investment into CA's Horsham operation which is where both Rome 2 Total War and the mysterious Alien game are currently in development.

First of all that is great news for all the CA staff who work there - hooray for job security and all that.

BUT

Any investment - particularly from a multinational corporation - is made with the expectation of a certain level of returns. In short, Sega will want to make 2x,3x, 10x back on the money they are sinking into CA. To me that indicates that Rome 2 is going to have to sell and incredibly large number of units, or be broken down into multiple, ongoing expansions/DLC.

Now I don't actually have a problem with the latter - I'd happily pay twice the price of a regular game for a fully featured Rome2 that kicks bottom. Heck I've sunk about 600hrs into Shogun2 so whatever price they put on it is value to me and I'll pay it.

BUT

The former is what alarms me - Total War has always been a bit of a niche market, and we all know what happens when niche developers who get bought ought by corporations get given a big pile of money with the expectation of it turning into an even bigger pile of money... Bioware being the poster child of past success turning to crushing mediocracy under heavy handed guidance from corporate overlords - Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3.


Now we've already seen this impact CA with their retarded marketing/product strategy - poorly conceived, and priced DLC that is not appealing (FotS clan packs) - not to mention the ridiculous TW:Battles tie in to access the clan DLC.

BUT

So far (well this is a matter of opinion) I don't beleive there has been any drop in quality with respect to the dev side of making the actual games. In fact I think CA are going from strength to strength and that Shogun 2 had been the best Total War to date.

Trouble is with this investment will we now see the traditional stigmas of mega-budget game development trickling into Rome 2 - the dreaded 'streamlined gameplay' & 'accessibility' that has spelled the demise of many beloved franchises?

Personally - I hope not, and I have a lot of confidence that CA can pull through in spite of their new corporate overlords and deliver a smashing game.

[Bergkamp]

They can dumb it down and leave it "accessible" to the masses of simpletons out there as long as they leave it very moddable in the end once it has been milked. That way everyone wins. Sega/CA get their money and at the end of the day the proper fans get the game they wanted.

[TR00PER7]

They can dumb it down and leave it "accessible" to the masses of simpletons out there as long as they leave it very moddable in the end once it has been milked. That way everyone wins. Sega/CA get their money and at the end of the day the proper fans get the game they wanted.

If anything a game being moddable with a cool new beautiful engine that works and looks good is probably the only thing required to be honest.

[BisnessPirate]

Well a nice base game would be useful for the modders so that it then takes less time to make the mods.

[a tw player]

Bit of a paradox what to think really...

With SEGA, erm, "not doing so well" as they used to, CA's Total War is incredibly important to them. An optimistic fan would say this means SEGA won't do anything to harm such a reliable flow of income. A more pessimistic fan might say SEGA will want to "cash in" on the franchise in the short term, sacrificing the long term potential.

Lets wait and see

[Rorarii]

I'm also worried that the "saving private Rorarii" effects might come at the expense of a replayable addictivity but that doesn't need to be the case. lets hope the extra money allows both, and if so then 3 Roman games should be great sellers .. if not then buyers of the first game won't be conned for any following.

CA getting rid of the stupid tech tree (race game), add viewable cities, a Roman legal system, class system etc is the path CA should head down to make Rome2 addictive ..

R

[akkakk]

Bit of a paradox what to think really...

With SEGA, erm, "not doing so well" as they used to, CA's Total War is incredibly important to them. An optimistic fan would say this means SEGA won't do anything to harm such a reliable flow of income. A more pessimistic fan might say SEGA will want to "cash in" on the franchise in the short term, sacrificing the long term potential.

Lets wait and see

hopefully, Sega hoping to make as much money out the TW games as possible means that they will try to anger as few of the original fan-base as possible, hopefully meaning modding and pretty much most of the things we want.

[Lord Baal]

The thing that worries me more it's a rushed development to meet a date. However seeing how they have been working on Rome for a while now (those screen shots are prove of that) and that we have a year ahead of us, with more money and people working on it than ever before inspires me confidence, and this is a game I will pay up to 100 bucks to get if it meet my expectations, and I know at least two or three people that think just like me. And trust me, that's a whole lot of people for a country with a broke economy where we have to fight with tooth and nails to get a few dollars (access to foreign money it's forbidden and controlled) and piracy is so easy and omnipresent that I'm constantly called a moron for buying original games.

[Anna_Gein]

I don't really know what to think.
Bioware example is the very reason why I am concern with the will of CA to attract the mass and become mainstream.
The Old Republic is supposed to be the MMO with the higher budget until today but nobody know where this budget has gone (expect the part for the Star Wars licence)
For now the most important feature of CA is the camera at the shoulder of a soldier and a tactical view from where we won't be able to give any order.
Not truly reassuring.
So I know the game is in early development but it wouldn't have hurt to declare their will to add more depth to the campaign instead of these shiny gadget without real interest.

With the absence of any gold edition for Shogun 2 regrouping the game, FotS and every DLC I can only see a tempest of DLC for Rome 2. All more futile one from another.
So it goes without saying that I won't buy the game at release. I offered my trust to CA with Shogun 2, now I shall received no more lesson from CA.

[DarthRuanek]

I don't really know what to think.
Bioware example is the very reason why I am concern with the will of CA to attract the mass and become mainstream.
The Old Republic is supposed to be the MMO with the higher budget until today but nobody know where this budget has gone (expect the part for the Star Wars licence)
For now the most important feature of CA is the camera at the shoulder of a soldier and a tactical view from where we won't be able to give any order.
Not truly reassuring.
So I know the game is in early development but it wouldn't have hurt to declare their will to add more depth to the campaign instead of these shiny gadget without real interest.

With the absence of any gold edition for Shogun 2 regrouping the game, FotS and every DLC I can only see a tempest of DLC for Rome 2. All more futile one from another.
So it goes without saying that I won't buy the game at release. I offered my trust to CA with Shogun 2, now I shall received no more lesson from CA.

No one knows where the TOR money went? It's not that it isn't a well-developed game. It just wasn't as different from other MMOs as people thought. Full voice-acting, individual story-lines for each class... that isn't cheap.

As for CA and the TW series - from what we've seen a fair amount of work has already been done. The biggest thing a company can do to hurt a game, though, is rush it.

[Anna_Gein]

No one knows where the TOR money went? It's not that it isn't a well-developed game. It just wasn't as different from other MMOs as people thought. Full voice-acting, individual story-lines for each class... that isn't cheap.

As for CA and the TW series - from what we've seen a fair amount of work has already been done. The biggest thing a company can do to hurt a game, though, is rush it.

They weren't even able to show different fleet for the republic and for the empire.
But true I had completely forgotten the Full voice-acting (that cost a lot of money).
I won't develop on the flaw of TOR but you must concede they didn't make the best choices concerning where to spend all the money.
That's what I fear concerning Rome 2.

[atheniandp]

What really amazes me is the fact that 8 years after RTW's release, people are asking for and getting excited about some features that were available in the original game. Come on...

[Lord Baal]

What really amazes me is the fact that 8 years after RTW's release, people are asking for and getting excited about some features that were available in the original game. Come on...

Which features? Because things like seeing your settlement where only in Rome, and never came back.

[Lockcaps]

I wonder if this investment was counted into the budget which was supposed to be 40% bigger than any previous TW-game. If it wasn't, it'd mean Rome2 would be one of the most expensive games ever made.

[DarthRuanek]

It may not have been, at least judging from the fact that apparently it's news. It is going to multiple sources, though (a Alien game and new facilities being part of it as well). I'd guess a lot of it is going towards new facilities, because those are expensive.

[Lockcaps]

Well, even if they split the money by 4(because there are 4 games) it's still a pretty large amount of money - and im betting Rome2 got abit more than the others due to the sheer scale of the game and the fact it's coming up next.

[atheniandp]

Which features? Because things like seeing your settlement where only in Rome, and never came back.

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. They were in the original game and never made it back to the series. Stuff like viewing settlements, full sized cities, siege equipment. This is stuff that we had a while back that is being reintroduced. Sure, it's great to see them back but you'd think that after 8 years they'd be pushing the limits. Remember how groundbreaking RTW previews were? First time anything like it hit the market.

Then again, I don't really care if CA tries to revolutionize all the cosmetic features. If they revolutionize the unseen parts of the game, like AI, mod tools, and diplomacy... well that would be the best!

[Deutschland]

Dont like this development either- why not merge it with assassins ccreed.. That would double the output!

[denisvit]

It's a shame but I think that CA, possibly because of pressure from sega have simply been milking cash from TW, particularly from the start of Shogun 2 (they already started beforehand) with detriment to the game. I personally am not a fan of the idea of releasing extra units which are simply strong enough that you are at a disdvantage if you don't buy them, its illogical for a multiplayer game that needs balance. I'm almost certain Rome 2 will be the most sold TW to date ... it just has to be ... the hype a year or a bit before release is already pretty big, so clearly the title IS going to sell well as it is, but the question lies whether the milking DLC will continue. Unfortunately, I think they will because so many people buy the DLC's

[bobbin]

I'm sure many of you are aware that Sega has announced a major investment into CA's Horsham operation which is where both Rome 2 Total War and the mysterious Alien game are currently in development....

That money is an investment in the whole site, they won't be expecting to make it back from 1 game or even 4, these kind of things deal with the long term. And you can hardly call Total War a niche market, the titles regularly top the game charts and Shogun 2 was the biggest seller on Steam for Q1 2011.