Game News Divinity: Original Sin has sold 160,000 copies, already approaching profitability

[Paul_cz]

Nice to see success, I hope it will sell at least a million before the year's end. I want them to have a lot of money so they can make a game as detailed and awesome as Divinity OS, but in first or third person with matching production values.

 

[Darkzone]

Ultima III was the first RPG I ever played. You have to look at what else was out there when it came out. I played the shit out of that game as an 8 year old.

You are right, that compared to other games in 1983 Ultima III was a superb RPG (but i don't know how was Wizardry II) . I did only compare Ultima III to Ultima IV and Ultima V, therefore i have stated that it had a low quality.
Garriott admits that he began only to take off as a game designer / storyteller with Ultima IV. So no hard feelings, because i had no intention to diminish Ultima III.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

yeah I never understood the Ultima love, I tried playing the ultima's back in the day and many times sense and its generic and terrible and bloated, if anything it was the hiking sim of its day, the combat was simple and stupid, the graphics were bad and the writing was embarrassing. Then you go to fucking space and hike around other planets and shit, its god awful. Questron was better maybe, but it sucked too. Hope Ultima dies, I don't like to see good developers waste time on it, I don't see the value of paying for the license, what about ultima is unique in any way?

Are you really taking Ultimas 1-3 as representatives of the series?

I tried to play the underworld game and had to stop after the first room or two because the totally fucked perspective was worse than their 2d hiking sim, it was the worst view I have ever seen in a game. Every ultima game I have broken down and tried has been abysmal for one reason or another, I don't understand that franchise at all I guess.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

But i have to admit that Ultima 1-3 had a low quality.

Ultima III was the first RPG I ever played. You have to look at what else was out there when it came out. I played the shit out of that game as an 8 year old.

wizardry, bards tale, wasteland gold box is what I played and enjoyed most, I also played ultima, phantasie and questron and a few others that I did not enjoy as much.

 

[HiddenX]

Well done Larian - I had very high expectations for this game last year during the kickstarter campaign and you haven't dissapoint me. Thanks!

 

[felipepepe]

I doubt it will be Ultima, the Divinity games are already similar, and follow up the Original Sin success is more interesting that simply using the Ultima name without Garriott. I hope it is GURPS or something like that.

 

[HiddenX]

Maybe Drakensang? - the Belgian humor would be fitting.

 

[krist2]

Great news, and I also think Drakensang would fit them nicely. But as others has pointed out, is it needed
to get a license? They have to make an ending to Damian first!

 

[Zed]

Maybe Drakensang? - the Belgian humor would be fitting.

Drakensang is the most boring shitty setting ever. Not a single character, plot-anchor or... THING, that anyone outside its inner circle could name or recognize. They might as well continue their Rivellon/Divinity thing.

They lack the creative writing capacity for anything Black Isle.

I think what Swen would really like to make is an Ultima, or Ultima Underworld game. Obviously not happening now.

Arcanum would be interesting, but it's so very much a Troika product. It would require some Troikans.

Maybe something WotC or White Wolf.

 

[himmy]

I doubt it will be Ultima, the Divinity games are already similar, and follow up the Original Sin success is more interesting that simply using the Ultima name without Garriott. I hope it is GURPS or something like that.

I only mentioned Ultima because of the love Larian expresses for the series with every occasion, and because it would be Kickstarter bait, not because of any other reasons that have been mentioned in the inevitable circlejerk that ensued over the last few pages.

 

[tuluse]

Troikans.

I just wanted to say I really like this word.

 

[Perkel]

Hell if you look at divinity game it does look like Arcanum without its setting.

I think sans art design and grunt work on story quests and characterization Divinity Engine is perfect for Arcanum 2 as it shares its design at its core, same AP based combat (just without shitty real time). Same non class system. What would need to be added to engine would be worldmap system.

 

[Cenobyte]

Maybe Drakensang? - the Belgian humor would be fitting.

Drakensang is the most boring shitty setting ever. Not a single character, plot-anchor or... THING, that anyone outside its inner circle could name or recognize. They might as well continue their Rivellon/Divinity thing.

Drakensang is based on the Dark Eye ruleset and setting. It's a fully-developed PnP campaign setting, similar to the Forgotten Realms. It's also rather light-hearted and in many ways influenced by traditional continental European fairytales, so it fits rather well to Larian's usual game-design approach.

Last but not least, Larian already has some connections to the Dark Eye setting. I think the core team around Swen was originally involved in the development of the Realms of Arkania games (or was it a planned successor to those games? Can't remember right now).

Anyway, it's really good to hear those promising sales figures! Well deserved for Larian!

 

[Tigranes]

Hell if you look at divinity game it does look like Arcanum without its setting.

I think sans art design and grunt work on story quests and characterization Divinity Engine is perfect for Arcanum 2 as it shares its design at its core, same AP based combat (just without shitty real time). Same non class system. What would need to be added to engine would be worldmap system.

Larian could make a very good Arcanum successor if they had even a single decent writer. Otherwise they've got everything they need.

 

[Darkzone]

Well done HiddenX and felipepe. The competition between Codex and Watch has done it's share for D:OS.

I only mentioned Ultima because of the love Larian expresses for the series with every occasion, and because it would be Kickstarter bait,...

And technicaly no other reason has been mentioned.

Drakensang is based on the Dark Eye ruleset and setting. It's a fully-developed PnP campaign setting, similar to the Forgotten Realms.

In germany it is called "Das Schwarze Auge" and was developed because TSR demanded to much money for the D&D license.

 

[Excidium]

Arcanum didn't have a good writer either, the setting just wrote itself with all the fantasy+19th century tropes

 

[Zed]

Hell if you look at divinity game it does look like Arcanum without its setting.

I think sans art design and grunt work on story quests and characterization Divinity Engine is perfect for Arcanum 2 as it shares its design at its core, same AP based combat (just without shitty real time). Same non class system. What would need to be added to engine would be worldmap system.

They would also need a more serious art direction, a day/night system, and no co-op conversation nonsense.

Arcanum didn't have a good writer either, the setting just wrote itself with all the fantasy+19th century tropes

I agree, it wasn't very well-written, but it didn't have as much whimsicalness to cover it up.

 

[Tigranes]

Sorry, but stuff like the Gnome conspiracy and the twin skull mystery are some of the best written quests out there.

 

[Zed]

Sorry, but stuff like the Gnome conspiracy and the twin skull mystery are some of the best written quests out there.

And do you think Larian are capable of writing such quests?

 

[Perkel]

Hell if you look at divinity game it does look like Arcanum without its setting.

I think sans art design and grunt work on story quests and characterization Divinity Engine is perfect for Arcanum 2 as it shares its design at its core, same AP based combat (just without shitty real time). Same non class system. What would need to be added to engine would be worldmap system.

They would also need a more serious art direction, a day/night system, and no co-op conversation nonsense.

Arcanum didn't have a good writer either, the setting just wrote itself with all the fantasy+19th century tropes

I agree, it wasn't very well-written, but it didn't have as much whimsicalness to cover it up.

Day/Night cycle as they said isn't problem in their engine. Remember they didn't create game from scratch and Kickstarter was for polishing game into oblivion adding meanwhile ton of stuff. D/N requires game being written from start with it (as it piles up work for every NPC, moster and so on). I have no doubt D/N will be in sequel. Also i don't see co-op conversation nonsense as problem. Just give personality to other player or NPC. Hell with arcanum being 1 person game with companions it wouldn't even need that.

I agree Arcanum had problems but it is the setting that excelled along with superfun stuff like crafting and shit ton of various broken skills.

 

[Zed]

Also i don't see co-op conversation nonsense as problem. Just give personality to other player or NPC. Hell with arcanum being 1 person game with companions it wouldn't even need that.

For a solo player, it's shit in Divinity and will be shit in any other game as well.

 

[felipepepe]

Last but not least, Larian already has some connections to the Dark Eye setting. I think the core team around Swen was originally involved in the development of the Realms of Arkania games (or was it a planned successor to those games? Can't remember right now).

The Lady, the Mage and the Knight was based on The Dark Eye setting, even being developed together with Attic. But IIRC it was forced upon Larian by the publisher, they had an original setting and ported it to TDE.

 

[Tigranes]

Sorry, but stuff like the Gnome conspiracy and the twin skull mystery are some of the best written quests out there.

And do you think Larian are capable of writing such quests?

I don't, which is my point.

 

[MicoSelva]

Maybe Drakensang? - the Belgian humor would be fitting.

Drakensang is the most boring shitty setting ever. Not a single character, plot-anchor or... THING, that anyone outside its inner circle could name or recognize. They might as well continue their Rivellon/Divinity thing.

Switching from Divinity setting to Drakensang setting (or rather Das Schwarze Auge, because Drakensag name has been sold to some company which runs a shitty browser-based MMO hack'n'slash game) would make absolutely no sense, on any level.

DSA's only strength is its popularity in Germany anyway, which AFAIK is the place where Divinity games always sold the most.

 

[Zeriel]

Or Gothic maybe? If they follow their common pattern about writing that is the closest licence to their "thing" imho. Of course I'll hope (like a fool) for Arcanum.
But since they already got fantasy covered with Divinity, so maybe something sci-fi like Anachronox? Or maybe something totally different like Darksun, Whitewolf, Ravenloft?

Can't believe no one guessed Dragonlance yet. I mean, come on. Obvious choice. Walgrave clearly gave Swen an ultimatum after D:OS release: get Dragonlance or I'm going back to metal, bitches.