Yes, I know, that’s not what I was implying.
What I meant is that it is where James currently works.
So if we imagine a scenario where Sony wanted James to get back to work on Boundless for them, wouldn’t they have to make him a better offer than Larian did with BG3?
Could they make him quit Larian? Or wouldn’t they have to buy the whole of Larian and tell James “ok, you’re back on Boundless, now”?
Admittedly a stupid “what if” scenario, and I was merely spit-balling. I don’t think they would do that (especially as getting the entire studio of Larian just for Boundless sounds like an idiotic waste of money).
But then again, if they don’t have James on board and just buy Boundless from him, have fun making a new team and making them understand how the game works just as well as the original team of people who made it.
I didn’t want to bring Hytale up for the nth time, but I agree that this game has a shot at dethroning Minecraft. We’ll see.
Sony could always buy the Boundless IP from James or whomever owns it and use their own development team.
I would argue it is not necessary for Sony to hire James or any of the prior developers. It might help them as far as understanding the software coding, but it is hardly necessary. They would probably have to negotiate something with Square Enix for the PC publishing rights.
However, I think Sony is only going to buy a game or a studio if it thinks it can make money off of it. It is possible that all the combined revenue streams from the console and the Pc could cover the costs of running the game, but is it enough to justify Sony putting more money into developing the game? I have my doubts. It is my understanding that Sony already provided pre-release funding for Boundless. Unless they made the money back, they probably view the game as non-profitable.
This is where I think they have a unique opportunity to get a good deal now. The money from Spartacus is going to come off subs, and they need to get as many as possible. The costs of running this game is peanuts compared to that larger picture they are looking at. Sony can’t afford at this point to have it flop, or look like it will be a flop.
Getting some more money for further development would be great but the beauty of cutting a deal of this sort right now is, probably isn’t even needed. The game - while we’d obviously love more content, better NPE, ect. - is a complete game ready to go now, and a lot better than some Game Pass stuff. It has what is needed to do want Sony will want - look good at a brief browse to potential subscribers. A sub fee MMO with a $40 retail price tag that has elements of several popular genres combined.
A lot of the people who try won’t stick with it… probably less % than who buy. BUT, that shouldn’t matter much if at all. Those people paid for their sub and it is unlikely many will unsubscribe simply because one game made them go, “Meh.”
As a potential buyer, I even ask myself - why would I want to buy anything more than the bottom tier (which is going to be the equivalent of Plus)? I have GP, I like it. To me, and I think to the bulk, answer that will sell will be twofold… first, top tier will have a lot of old titles from past generations, that is pretty cool. But the other selling point that would work is having a great array of unique stuff, especially stuff not on Xbox. This is why a bunch of indie stuff which individually might not be profitable or not very profitable could combine to, as a package, be very profitable for Sony, in that they’ll sell people on subscribing to the higher tiers.
Hope that this doesn’t happen, but from everything I’ve seen, James has his head screwed on tightly, and is making this team valuable in both the UK dev scene, and on a greater scale with the project that they’re assisting on.
Personally, I can’t see a reason to sell it, as it’s trundling along nicely, doing what it needs to do. He and the company is solvent and probably doing nicely from the BG work. Plus he and the team are wanted, and that’s a really awesome place to be in.
Looking forward to the next steps from this tiny, tiny, tiny, team.
You do understand that Wonderstruck is not working on a contract for Larian (BG3) anymore. While they were at one time, now James and most of the other developers are employees of Larian Studios UK. So the BG3 work has nothing to do with keeping Wonderstruck solvent. As James has said, Larian has nothing to do with Boundless.
Now does this mean that at least the development team has income? Sure it does, they have the income from their salaries with Larian and that is good. Does it mean there is a team dedicated to working fulltime on Boundless after BG3 launches? No it does not. I am sure that Larian will have other work for the developers which I think means Boundless becomes a project that is going to be worked on as project when they have time after work hours.
@MadManMoon Your description of the state of the game and of its parent company is so far out there that if it wasn’t consistent with some of your other posts I’d swear you were trolling.
Honestly, what would have to change to give you a negative outlook on this? What would be the tipping point? Bubonic plague sweeps through the dev studio? EMP device destroys the servers?
Sony’s involvement was the biggest mistake Wonderstruck made.
I love the PS community well enough, and I’m glad they are here, but frankly Boundless is worse off as a game because of the limitations and redesigns imposed on it by Sony and the PS4. So many systems had to be redesigned to be compatible with a dualshock controller that it overtook development of pretty much all future systems. Basic stuff like render distance and artwork had to be scaled back dramatically so that the game worked well with the limitations of ps4. Even server capacity is hamstrung because of it. And forget that promise of API and mod support- that is strictly against the rules for games sold on Sony’s market.
If I could go back in time and do one thing to help Boundless realize its truest potential, I would slap the face of whoever proposed a deal with Sony. Probably James. Sorry James, not sorry.
While true, some aspects of the game had to be scaled back in terms of performance, but if it wasn’t for the PS community, Boundless would have been shut down long ago. There are more PS users than meets the eye and many of them with memorable builds, so it wasn’t a mistake.
I disagree, because mod support alone would have had every bit if not more impact than console. The simple fact that there are so many PS players compared to PC players just reinforces the argument that Sony negatively affects the game. PC players expect a game that is made for PC to have controls designed for M&K.
If Sony never came onto the scene, we may be PC exclusive, but we would have a larger community with a collection of community developed mods and add-ons making the game better and more developed than it ever has been.
You don’t think it could’ve been Square Enix going “ok, we’ll invest in your game / make a deal with you, but your game has to be PS4 compatible”?
It worked?
The game has been in stand by since January 2021. Not sure I’d say “it worked”, on the long run.
Had they been able to make a deal with a company that was more PC focused (like Microsoft? ), they would’ve been better off, and it’s possible we’d be all having fun making mods for the game, adding our own items, blocks and props. THEN the community would be flourishing, for sure. < sigh >
DEFINITELY. All of this “They’re A Small Team” garbage would’ve gone out the window ages ago, because the game’s super-ultra-dedicated fanbase probably would’ve done 90% of the work FOR them.
The amount of furniture the game would have by now… It’s staggering just to think about it.
I am not sure that this is true. Since Square Enix is paying to run the servers, and they only get funding to do this from Steam, in essence the PS4 players do not contribute to the costs to keep the game running. They certainly do contribute funds that helped to run Wonderstruck and the development (when it was happening). At this point, it does not sound like more PS4 players buying gleam club or the game is going to help cover the costs of running the game, unless something happens where contracts between the various parties are changed.
No I do not. The Sony funding was already done when I joined the game in 2017. Square Enix Was not announced as the publisher (which is probably when they provided the funding) until right before the game launched. I think Wonderstruck had already gone through the funs provided by Sony and needed the Square Enix funding to “finish” the game.
There also seems to be some feeling that there are huge amounts of PS4 players versus PC players. I cannot find any empirical evidence to support that theory. The first chart shows all players on non-exo planets and on sovereigns that are public. (this chart takes a while to load) Boundless Crafting
), they would’ve been better off, and it’s possible we’d be all having fun making mods for the game, adding our own items, blocks and props. THEN the community would be flourishing, for sure.
