BAD ROLL

RPG devs blame the temporary death of CRPGs on ‘vibes-based forecasting’ from retailers

Harvey Randall

Veteran developers from RPG specialists like Obsidian and BioWare had an interesting Twitter exchange recently, and collectively reckon that the temporary death of the CRPG in the early 2000s was down to retailer meddling. A conversation between Nathaniel Chapman (a designer at Timberline with former credits at Blizzard and Obsidian) and Josh Sawyer (studio design director at Obsidian) discussed the role that retail giants formerly played in the life and death of game genres: and not with approval. “I completely forgot how big a deal it was for Best Buy/Walmart/etc buyers to see your game, which determined your shelf space and thus your sales,” said Chapman, in response to which Sawyer noted Walmart had been “prudish” about content in the past (while hypocritically clearing the shelves for GTA). ACCORDING TO SAWYER, IT…

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PC Powerplay (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 302

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