Shit!

I never get upset by game delays... I'd much rather wait for them to get it right.

Better late than buggy.

I know, but ... those overhead shots! So cool!

It's a cool game. It's so cool that I'd rather wait a few months (I suspect the game will be a Q1 title) and get it the way Chris Taylor wants to ship it, than get it this Christmas and have it be buggy and unfinished.

Yeah, I'm disappointed too. Now we may get DS and NWN shipping within a couple of months of one another.

Maybe they're looking for that little bit of polish that will put it over the top? Although I enjoyed it at E3 quite a bit, I quit after 45 minutes of play not to move on but because I was a bit tired of killing monsters. In Diablo 2, you get that immediate feedback of leveling and getting to assign a skill point. Often that means something brand new you couldn't do before. In DS your skills get better as you use them. Since it's more gradual, it's not quite as cool.

The other thing about Diablo 2 is that you can play a wide variety of characters. It remains to be seen how differently you can develop your character in DS.

Do you think that maybe they pushed it back because it was scheduled to be done in November?. You know, the month that two game consoles are being launched and one of those is going to soak up every bit of Microsoft's manpower to get to market?

I'm sure the added time to finish it will be great and it's likely to still be pretty amazing in 2002. But I can't help buy wonder if this doesn't make better sense to just get it out of the console line of fire so it can be viewed on its own merits in the Spring rather than as just another PC game that everyone is comparing to their new Xbox/Gamecube/PS2.

It also might free up $50 that some PC gamer would have spent on Dungeon Siege for them to get another Xbox first party game. Microsoft has to be expecting a lot of crossover from PCs. The only people I've seen on messageboards that are excited about Xbox are PC gamers. Console gamers are pretty much laughing at it.

--Dave

That's kind of an interesting take on it, Dave. I wonder how right you are...

Personally, I don't mind games getting pushed back a bit. I'd rather wait a little longer and get a really well-polished game.

Another six months in Ultima 9's development life, and it might not be remembered with such contempt today -- heck, it might have been the game that they wanted it to be!!

I think it was a Gas Powered call.

"Do you think that maybe they pushed it back because it was scheduled to be done in November?. "

I don't believe I've ever heard of a developer purposefully missing the Christmas season, console or no console.

I'm all for polish. I love polish. Long polish generally=short troubles. I'll second Murph's take on U9 and the foibles of not polishing a product. Death is easy. Entertainment is hard work!

One thing that's very noticeable with Microsoft is that they have a schedule. They've got products slated for certain months and certain seasons and they often don't let them overlap. You can probably blame the unfinished stuff in Crimson Skies on this very fact.

Just take a look at when Microsoft ships their games. They never let one new game cannibalize sales of another new Microsoft title. It only makes sense to move Dungeon Siege out of harm's way. Now if Chris Taylor came in here and said otherwise, or actually detailed what they're "polishing", I'd have to believe it. But this wouldn't be the first time Microsoft did something like this to meet a particular schedule and avoid competing with itself.
--Dave

I dont know about this game still, yes it looks pretty cool and all, but to me it lacks the character customization of Diablo 2+. If they can add a few more things to it with this delay, hey I'm all for it. But I hope the delay isnt for a XboX release...that would blow my mind up very muchso.

etc

well, microsoft does still plan on having that asheron's call expansion shipping.. erm.. before christmas, right?

i don't think that would be any reason that they'd want to push it back, tho.. 2 totally different games... i'm a huge AC fanboi, but i think i'll be a bigger DS fanboi. :)

- mike - lurk lurk lurk -

Taylor posted on a fan site (PlanetDungeonSiege, maybe?) a whole slew of reasons for the delay. I tend to believe him. I'm sure, though, that Microsoft is not at all unhappy. We have reason to believe based on a few business decisions they made recently, that they were anticipating moving this title to 2002 earlier than the "48 hours ago" that their PR says the decision was made.

In any event, there's no conspiracy, Taylor says the game isn't done to his satisfaction and he wants more time to polish it, and in all likelihood we'll get it Q1 anyhow.

I read the posts. It's cool that they really want to get it right. From the postings though, it really looks like they wouldn't have had it done anyway. Sounds like there's a lot more work to do.

The key is that this doesn't happen if Microsoft doesn't agree to it. I'm sure they're not too concerned that the game won't be out until next year. The speculation about an Xbox version isn't really answered either so maybe that's figuring into this too?

--Dave

Based on Taylors posts, it doesnt seem to have anything to do with an Xbox release. Seems theres lots of bugs and balancing to be fixed. Like i said before, they should just do the Diablo public beta test thing... this might sell it like hotcakes and donuts and coffee...

etc