S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Franchise Sold To Bethesda?

34 responses to “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Franchise Sold To Bethesda?”

1. 

   Subby

   April 26, 2012 at 1:21 pm

   Imagine the bugs in a potential STALKER 2 if it was published by Bethesda. On a serious note, news on GSC and STALKER has been tragic lately, was a great survival FPS/RPG.

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   1. 

      Blaghman

      April 26, 2012 at 1:23 pm

      I’m curious about whether it would be more, or less glitchy than STALKER.

      Maybe more glitchy, but they’d be more hilarious? Potentially less game breaking, and more “mutant flying sideways into a wall before exploding.”

      Food for thought, anyway.

      Reply
2. 

   Rangerage

   April 26, 2012 at 1:24 pm

   At least the actual stalker team are moving on the make a spiritual successor.
   Shame about Bethesda though, I doubt they’ll do even an okay job at it.

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3. 

   Slek

   April 26, 2012 at 1:24 pm

   I hope that this simply isn’t true. I have absolutely no faith in Bethesda being able to deliver anything that could live up to the original games.

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4. 

   SRG

   April 26, 2012 at 1:25 pm

   I can’t wait to see how much of a vomit-inducing pain inventory management and menu systems would be, and how horrible the collision detection will be.

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   1. 

      Paddy

      April 26, 2012 at 8:11 pm

      I can wait.

      I really, really can.

      Reply
5. 

   Blackwater

   April 26, 2012 at 1:34 pm

   If this is true then there a gonna be a lot of pissed off STALKER fans

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6. 

   jesse

   April 26, 2012 at 1:34 pm

   please, no. no no no.

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7. 

   Toasty Fresh

   April 26, 2012 at 1:44 pm

   Please, yes. Yes yes yes.

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   1. 

      Geregh

      April 26, 2012 at 2:31 pm

      Bethesda’s a fine company in its own right, but the kind of rpgs bethesda makes are very different to STALKER. It’s the square peg – round hole concern, ie will they destroy the overall feel of the game. Mind you this doesn’t matter a bit if they’ve not actually acquired the rights.

      Reply
      1. 

         SenorFreebie

         April 26, 2012 at 2:40 pm

         They’ll probably just make a game called Fallout:STALKER and give some characters in a lamely ported XBOX 360 game fake Slavic accents ‘to provide atmosphere’. Given they outsouce all of their art creation within the USA I don’t actually think Bethesda is capable of anything better.

         Reply
8. 

   Ezkaton

   April 26, 2012 at 1:54 pm

   If GSC stays/stayed at the helm and it was just funded and published by Bethesda, it has the potential to be amazing.

   If Bethesda or somebody else is in control of development… it is most likely doomed.

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9. 

   Cap’n Crunch

   April 26, 2012 at 1:55 pm

   Sigh, this sucks………….. good game in the wrong hands, how can they be so blind

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10. 

    Nick

    April 26, 2012 at 1:58 pm

    So how does this work? Who owns the rights? I read the wiki page and it suggested that it was loosely based on a novella but are those the rights being discussed?

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11. 

    Bangers

    April 26, 2012 at 2:15 pm

    So many people like to complain about Bethesda, but just look how many multi-award winning games they’ve developed recently. Their last three games – Oblivion, Fallout 3 , Skyrim – all won Game Of The Year awards from various publications, with many more nominations. Their game worlds are good enough that people will endure the glitches.

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    1. 

       Toasty Fresh

       April 26, 2012 at 2:32 pm

       Yeah people like to point fingers at Bethesda because of the bugs but bugs haven’t stopped me from putting several hundred hour into each of their games. A S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game made on the Creation engine, with endless modding capabilities? Awesome.

       Reply
       1. 

          SenorFreebie

          April 26, 2012 at 2:46 pm

          As a pseudo insider I can say safely that there is good reason to complain about this transition if it occurs. Bethesda is basically, entirely a programming team with the mentality that art, as a part of a game development company, is redundant. This is the complete opposite philosophy of GSC World and their approach to both technical parts of the pipeline (shaders, exporting, etc.) and asset creation (in-house, directed carefully).

          This is why Skyrim for example has some great post-effects but asset wise is no better then a cheap Dx-9 game on poly surfaces. And that’s all a STALKER game will be with them at the helm. They’ll outsource the art assets to a company that just doesn’t care … keep it standardised in method across all the platforms (consoles) that they will create the game for and they’ll produce great modding tools, NOT because they want people to create content post-release, but because art contractors need independent tools to verify their assets.

          Reply
          1. 

             @Matt_Phipps

             April 26, 2012 at 3:14 pm

             To be blunt, as a Gamer I don’t care how you make the game look amazing.

             If you want to use generic art assets and make them look great with coded effects, great. If you want to spend hours building high poly models, great. As a gamer, all I care about is the end result. Bethesda’s worlds look beautiful. Dragons in Skyrim are great (when not flying backwards). And if you can make a mod system that lets anyone contribute while keeping the same art style, even better.

             But after all that, I will only play a game for an hour or so because it looks awesome. I will only sink 20+ hours into a game if it is FUN, and to spend 100+ hours, the game must truly engage with me.

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             1. 

                Bangers

                April 26, 2012 at 4:08 pm

                All I know is that I played Fallout 3 for a MINIMUM of 300 hours. And I think that game looks great. It may not be technically impressive but the art design and the feel of the world is fantastic. And even with the scope and scale of the game world, it’s still less repetitive than something like Gears Of War.

             2. 

                crane

                April 26, 2012 at 10:17 pm

                As a gamer you may not want graphics but as a human you will always want and need aesthetics. What you really crave from your games are good design and atmosphere, something that needs a dedicated art team to provide. STALKER was never a success because of the graphical power behind the games or even the quality of the gameplay itself. What made STALKER unique and loved enough to have such a passionate and diehard fan base was the unparalleled atmosphere of The Zone. Nothing to date has ever came close to capturing the haunting autumn that was STALKER. Based on what SenorFreebie said and more on what i have observed from Bethesda’s art direction, a STALKER game by Bethesda would most likely fail hard.

                Their failure will not be because of gameplay problems as they will most likely be able to accomplish everything and more than the original GSC team promised us when Shadow of Chernobyl was in development. Instead STALKER 2 will fail because Bethesda lack the artistic direction from the top down to develop a distinctly eastern european game.

                If they want to recreate STALKER’s atmosphere they must at LEAST spend a month or 2 in The Zone of Alienation, and another 5 months in eastern europe living and breathing the culture and reading, watching and listening to the history/mythology/folk tales/ songs from the present all the way into the past. If you want STALKER you must find out what shaped the original team’s world view and perception.

    2. 

       Paddy

       April 26, 2012 at 8:05 pm

       According to that logic, Justin Bieber is a premier vocal artist, and Titanic was one of the greatest movies ever made.

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12. 

    Inquisitorsz

    April 26, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    Wouldn’t this conflict with Fallout?
    Thereby Bethesda essentially buying out the competition…

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    1. 

       Shane

       April 26, 2012 at 2:29 pm

       Buy it to kill it, perhaps.
       So no one else can make another one.

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       1. 

          PiratePete

          April 26, 2012 at 6:29 pm

          I cant imagine any fan of post apocalyptic games thinking, This is my favourite Genre so I’m going to choose one or the other.

          Reply
13. 

    Epherius

    April 26, 2012 at 2:38 pm

    It saddens me to think that such a great concept and game series could (possibly) end in such an undignified manner

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14. 

    Erebus

    April 26, 2012 at 3:08 pm

    There’ll probably be a STALKER inspired armour or a STALKER perk in Fallout 4.

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15. 

    Sam

    April 26, 2012 at 4:13 pm

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I like Bethesda games, but they took a huge turd on the Fallout lore in FO3 and I shudder to think what is stirring in their bowels for STALKER.

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16. 

    Trex

    April 26, 2012 at 4:14 pm

    Am I the only one that felt this series was getting a little stale by the 3rd one. Hopefully Bethesda can bring some freshness to it.

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    1. 

       crane

       April 26, 2012 at 10:19 pm

       you are the only one 😛

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17. 

    ibbers

    April 26, 2012 at 4:18 pm

    fyi, Stalker was based on Roadside Picnic, a Soviet era SF novel by the Stugatsky Brothers (read it). Also inspired Metro 2033 novels. Doubt the Strugatsky’s ever sold the rights to it though. Metro 2033 definitely didnt have to pay to use the concept of Stalker either.

    Reply
18. 

    t1my@h

    April 26, 2012 at 6:17 pm

    I don’t think bethesda have any interest in reviving the STALKER series. IMO they bought the rights to prevent ‘competition’ for fallout and to a lesser extent, rage

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    1. 

       bdc

       April 26, 2012 at 7:01 pm

       What a thoughtful comment this is, because them buying a port apocalyptic worlds gaming license clearly means that no other post apocalyptic games can ever be made by anyone else.

       And gaming companies don’t buy game franchises to stifle competition, there is simply no such way to do that.

       Let me guess, the moon landing was a hoax and flu injections are a way for the government to mind control its citizens.

       Now, if you want to talk about companies doing this in something like the Tech industry, in an area where you can actually patent things and really control the market, then perhaps people will listen, but when you try and accuse a company of attempting to do something which it is so obviously unable to do you just come across like a crazy conspiracy nut.

       Then I write posts like this and come across as a prick, I’m sure neither of us are those things so please think just a little more before you post from now on… ; D

       Reply
19. 

    crane

    April 26, 2012 at 9:28 pm

    get out of here Bethesda

    Reply
20. 

    Barney the Dino-Rawr

    April 27, 2012 at 11:27 pm

    I tell you what, I’ve played my fair share of post-apoc games, the Fallouts, the STALKERs, RAGE, et al,. I didn’t like RAGE, but I always had to split my time between STALKER or Fallout. They were the same genre, but the Wasteland was more for ‘shits ‘n’ giggles’, Hollywood-style post-apocalyptia. I headed to the Zone for real harsh, unforgiving gameplay (Thanks to mods). Now that Bethesda’s bought the STALKER series, I don’t mind that. STALKER 2 was never going to get off the ground with GSC, so with Bethesda owning the rights to it, STALKER 2 may possibly see the light of day, instead of most definitely languishing forever. Looking at the purchase objectively, I can’t really see the ‘buy them to kill them’ argument working here, I mean Fallout was a gateway game to the more hardcore STALKER, and I haven’t stopped buying Fallout games as a result. Plus, Fallout is undoubtedly more popular than STALKER anyway.

    Reply