It has been a long held belief of mine that publishing companies, such as the world leader, R* should (and often do/did) put out IP releases in a 2 years cycle. Impossible? no.. quite frankly it is absurd we do not have publishers utilizing multiple in-house studios for these purposes already.
Take Bethesda for example, they released FO3 then quite rightly moved on to the next Elder Scrolls, Obsidian (not in-house) was given a contract to make a second tier game. 'Second Tier' in NO WAY means 'second rate'. Simply it is an experimental branch of the IP, using all the same assets as the original.. might I mention these assets are sitting there doing nothing, not making Zenimax any money if they do not have a second tier project already in production. Give the second studio 4 years to make a game.. Obsidian did it with Fallout:New Vegas in under a year. With just a staff of 15 people. remarkable. They had a smaller team.. but used the assets from the main FO3 title.
I don't feel I am explaining the timeline very well so;
2011: Work on Fallout 4 begins
2013: Obsidian gets a commision to develop another Fallout. (fictional)
2015: Fallout 4 is released. work begins on the next Elder Scrolls.
2017: Fallout : Old Orleans is released by Obsidian. (fictional). they are recommissioned.
2019: The next Elder Scrolls is released by Bethesda. They begin work on Fallout 5.(fictional)
2021: A Fallout game by Obsidian or in-house commissioned studio is released.(fictional)
2023: Fallout 5 is released by Bethesda.(fictional)
Simply this is a licence to print money for Zenimax, as long as the games are of the 'usual' high standard.. the fanbase will enjoy the experience, and come back for more.
The years on these assets seem to be rolling by, with it being over 2 years since Bethesda release Fallout 4. As I said.. that's 2 years without them making any 'new' money. Ultimately when a game becomes a gamers 'main game' what they are usually looking for is;
1. plenty of content.
2. an excellent story.
3. excitement with occasional comedy.
When Bethesda released AOC's along with their *two* DLC's as part of the season pass, this was a disappointment to many if not all of the fanbase.. as their reputation in this industry is: plenty of content. I digress..
It is not only Zenimax/Bethesda which should take note of Second Tier releases; oh how the mighty have fallen! R* the first company to set up this approach no longer does this, even though they have by number; 10 Studios, and with the exception of RAGE TG, R* India and R* Lincoln.. I have no idea what they are presently doing.. kicking around the office drinking tea and coffee? I am very surprised Take Two hasn't brought them to task about making IP sequels and second tiers.
Take Two doesn't seem to engage with the fanbase at all, if they did they would see the HUGE demand there is for the original Red Dead Redemption on PC and put R* Leeds on commission for a port to the GTA 5 RAGE Engine. Even a GTA 4 RAGE PC port cleaned up would sell on masse. Not bad for a near decade old game. I would pay £30 for that game.. and I don't say that often about 8 year old games.
There was a guy who spent.. idk 2000h? trying to get an emulator working so he could play Red Dead Redemption on PC. I bet that guy would give you £30 for a RDR port to PC.
I'll go ahead and say what I'm thinking.. Take Two doesn't really 'get' fans. Their understanding of how the market works is more about what is going on in the City than what's in the mind of consumers.
I strongly suspect Zenimax does understand what the consumer is thinking.. but I'm not sure. They couldn't have made a second tier game with another studio and it's 2018 and no announcements yet?? Not even a 'FO is in development' notice?
Second Tier games are pretty much free money, you pay the staff to make the game and using all the assets and engine from the main release, which are already paid for; free money.
This is how Obsidian pulled off getting New Vegas together in under a year, using everything FO3 had, sprucing it up with a few experimental features.. those features which are take it or leave it suggestions for the main release, and cha-ching! ready to go.
All the team at that time, especially Chris Avellone poured their hearts in to New Vegas, and while I support Zenimax for not giving Obsidian *at that time* their bonus, seeing Zenimax/Bethesda were in a huge legal battle with Interplay, the heart wrenching fact of how many layoffs Obsidian had to make due to not getting that bonus *now is the time* to heal some of those wounds.. a regular contract for Fallout, Zenimax and Bethesda owe Obsidian and Chris Avellone that, at the very least. In 2015 Zenimax and Bethesda started making coin on FO from that point forward, knowing they had their IP secure, there was and is good reason to make contrition with Obsidian and Chris Avellone.
Ideally, I would love Zenimax to offer Chris is own Studio, making Fallout Second Tier releases.. maybe even Elder Scrolls Second Tier, helping him hire back the laid off staff.
Having three dedicated studios to pushing out these 2 IPs.. I realize Zenimax also have Zenimax Online, the sister studio of Bethesda, but to my knowledge they do not make single player games, only MMORPG: ESO. .. these 2 IP's re-engage fans and boosts profits using technology.. textures, assets, engine that is relevant in the 2/4 year time window, but once it leaves 4 years, so does the industry standard. So keeping it within a 2 year window, the technology and so game assets are still relevant to consumers. .. I cannot put it better than : free money.
This ingenious system is what fans have been crying out for..
What game studios bank balances..
What shareholders dividends..
have been crying out for.
A system that has high quality assurance while 'production lining' the game IP sequel/franchise.
peace
Dava
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Update: 26/Mar/2018
Thinking more about how easy this would be..
Taking the assets of Fallout 4, primarily Far Harbour DLC, and using them for the swamplands of Louisiana, 'Old Orleans' could be/could have been a particular romping adventure.
With oversized sea creatures, huge Mirelurk Kings like Behemoths. Submerged housing areas with plenty of loot, glowing ones with special abilities, normalized glowing ones (non feral) who can heal other ghouls, but also heal people.. a companion of this type would be great, to have a auto-healer in your party.
Story: we could start in a underwater Vault that the residents have been told that they are 'pressurized' meaning they can never leave the vault, even in wetsuits, and on land the normal air pressure would kill them.
One day a sea creature (think giant octopus) attacks the vault and rips it apart.. one person, the Lone Discoverer survives to 'discover' the truth. He/She sets out to investigate the new world they have been thrown into.. but also, share the truth with other Vault dwellers and free them from the prison of lies told to them by Vault Tec. (Vault-Tec are very much the bad guys in this story.)
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The '4 Year Window'
Not a Hitchcock movie.. but the amount of time before the assets go 'bad' .. past their sell by date.
Graphics card vendors and CPU/Chipset vendors hardware refresh every 4 years or so, this is the window of opportunity to re-use game assets.
The following additions are entirely fictional and are for demonstration purposes ONLY.
2008 : Fallout 3 is released.
2010 : Fallout New Vegas (Asset tied to FO3)
2011: Work on Fallout 4 begins. Fresh Assets.
2013: Obsidian gets a commision to develop another Fallout. (Asset tied to FO4)
2015: Fallout 4 is released. Bethesda begin work on the next Elder Scrolls
2017: Fallout : Old Orleans is released by Obsidian. (Asset tied to FO4)
2019: The next Elder Scrolls is released by Bethesda. They begin work on Fallout 5 (Fresh assets)
2021: Fallout: Europa by Obsidian or an in-house studio is released. (Asset tied to ES6/FO4/FO5)
2023: Fallout 5 is released by Bethesda.
