wraggster
January 27th, 2012, 00:20
Big Huge Games, developer of Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning, has admitted that the biggest threat to its fantasy RPG's chance of success is that people are still playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (http://www.edge-online.com/filter/all/tags/1060).
Like Skyrim, Reckoning is a high-fantasy RPG set in a huge open world. Speaking to Eurogamer, lead designer Ian Frazier described Bethesda's offering as "our big competitor" - which is putting it mildly given that Skyrim shipments passed the ten million mark (http://www.edge-online.com/news/skyrim-ships-10-million-breaks-steam-record) last month.
"Frankly, Reckoning is either going to do well enough that we're going to be in a good place or people are going to go: 'Nope, I'm still playing Skyrim, I'm not interested'," he said. "In which case, we're hosed. It's going to be one of those extremes.
"[Skyrim's] a good game. It's got problems. It's not God's gift to gaming, as some are describing it. But a lot of folks are still playing it, and that's one of my biggest concerns.
"It's hundreds of hours of content and it's a high-fantasy world. Are people just going to be bored? Are they just done with high fantasy for a while? I hope not. But that's the big concern at the studio."
Reckoning, then, needs to stand apart from Skyrim somehow. Launching without a variety of technical issues across all platforms (http://www.edge-online.com/news/bethesda-details-skyrim-patch-14)that has left players waiting for fixes more than two months after release would be a start, of course, but Frazier prefers to put emphasis on something that even the most ardent Skyrim fan would admit could be improved.
"The combat - I'll be blunt - is leagues better than Skyrim's," he said. "It's better than pretty much everything in the RPG space. I'm very proud of our combat."
Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning will be released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on February 7 in North America, and February 10 in Europe. A demo is available now on Steam, EA Origin, Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/kingdoms-amalur-dev-wary-skyrim-threat
Like Skyrim, Reckoning is a high-fantasy RPG set in a huge open world. Speaking to Eurogamer, lead designer Ian Frazier described Bethesda's offering as "our big competitor" - which is putting it mildly given that Skyrim shipments passed the ten million mark (http://www.edge-online.com/news/skyrim-ships-10-million-breaks-steam-record) last month.
"Frankly, Reckoning is either going to do well enough that we're going to be in a good place or people are going to go: 'Nope, I'm still playing Skyrim, I'm not interested'," he said. "In which case, we're hosed. It's going to be one of those extremes.
"[Skyrim's] a good game. It's got problems. It's not God's gift to gaming, as some are describing it. But a lot of folks are still playing it, and that's one of my biggest concerns.
"It's hundreds of hours of content and it's a high-fantasy world. Are people just going to be bored? Are they just done with high fantasy for a while? I hope not. But that's the big concern at the studio."
Reckoning, then, needs to stand apart from Skyrim somehow. Launching without a variety of technical issues across all platforms (http://www.edge-online.com/news/bethesda-details-skyrim-patch-14)that has left players waiting for fixes more than two months after release would be a start, of course, but Frazier prefers to put emphasis on something that even the most ardent Skyrim fan would admit could be improved.
"The combat - I'll be blunt - is leagues better than Skyrim's," he said. "It's better than pretty much everything in the RPG space. I'm very proud of our combat."
Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning will be released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on February 7 in North America, and February 10 in Europe. A demo is available now on Steam, EA Origin, Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/kingdoms-amalur-dev-wary-skyrim-threat