Fans hoping to experience the further adventures of Agent Michael Thornton will be sorely disappointed, as Sega West president Mike Hayes reveals that a sub-70 Metacritic average and slow sales rule out the chance for an Alpha Protocol sequel.
Alpha Protocol was a solid action role-playing game, but its more glaring flaws brought it to its knees, netting it a Metacritic review average in the mid-60s on consoles (the PC version scores a little more than 70.) According to Mike Hayes, speaking to CVG, this isn’t enough of a score to warrant a second look at Obsidian’s spy game. After pointing out the game’s low sales, Hayes explains.
“The concept was brilliant, though,” he added. “You know this whole thing with Metacritic where you have to be in the high 70s to mid-80s minimum [to have any success]- well, with RPGs you have got to be in the late 80s. Whilst we had a good game, I don’t think we had a game that had enough to get us to that upper echelon and I think that was the issue.”
Why the difference between RPGs and other genres? Hayes says it’s because role-playing games are such large and involved projects, the investment needed to produce them is that much bigger.
Don’t cry too much for developer Obsidian Entertainment. With Fallout: New Vegas and Dungeon Siege 3 in the works, there won’t be time to mourn.
CloneTrooper
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 7:15 AMBah…
Maybe if you didnt meddle so much Sega, you might have given it a chance.
It was a solid game, sure it wasn’t the prettiest…and it had its quirks…but it had its moments.
Obsidian showed the potential they have with it…they just tend to try and go to far in their scope and it suffers because Publishers seem to want them to rush it and we keep getting unfinished games from them.
*sigh* New Vegas is what I’m pinning my hopes on.
Mr Waffle
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 12:31 PM“and it suffers because Publishers seem to want them to rush it and we keep getting unfinished games from them.”
Considering this is, what, the third time they’ve used that excuse? (KOTOR2, NWN2) I’m kind of sick of hearing it. Hire a better project manager if you can’t handle the time you’re given…
James Mac
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 1:03 PMI wouldn’t exactly say it was rushed either.
It was in development for ages, and they kept sliding the release date.
OT
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 8:49 AMthat sucks i would loved a second helping or at least some really good dlc
TailSwallower
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 9:35 AMThat’s a shame. I was really hoping that they’d have the chance to develop a sequel and really iron out all the kinks from the first.
But really, with Obsidian’s track record there is a very good chance that a sequel would have been just as flawed as the first. I personally loved it, but it simply wasn’t polished enough for your average gamer to be able to enjoy.
Oh well, here’s hoping that Fallout: New Vegas ends up being better (and a better Fallout sequel) than Fallout 3. If anyone can do it, Obsidian can.
Braaains
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 10:04 AMYeah – I think the best scenario would have been for a sequel by a different developer. Somebody who could take the good ideas Obsidian have, but with the technical skills to actually be able to implement them.
The good parts were very, very good. But too much of the execution was just embarassingly poor for a full priced product from a major publisher this far into the hardware cycle.
James Mac
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 1:14 PMBioware?
Jimu_Hsien
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 10:19 AMI must be really lucky and miss the really bad gliches.
The most I’ve seen so far is a stretching neck and that just made me laugh!
Revan
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 10:20 AMI think RPGs really need to be top notch for players to commit to playing 30+ hours on them and to stand out against competition that have 100s of hours of content and huge chunks of DLC.
…And RPG players are more likely to read reviews.
DerangedStoat
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 12:45 PMThis is disappointing really, even though AP wasn’t a great game, I think there was a lot of potential for a second, more polished game, which probably would have done very well (or at least the sales they were aiming for with AP).
Shinji13
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 2:19 PMThe game did let me down on certain aspects however it was a really enjoyable game with some interesting reasons for replay. It’s disappointing Obsidian aren’t going to be able to work out the flaws. Hopefully another developer notices the potential of the Espionage RPG genre and do what Alpha Protocol couldn’t.
Marked
Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 4:21 PMThis just goes to show you how messed up the game industry is, where they have to make a good game according to ratings and reviews that are impossible to score high on unless you buy them out. The game had potential, but no one bothered to optimize it or clean it up nicely, but just because it did poorly doesn’t mean it shouldn’t make a sequel.