Peter Molyneux's Godus Goes With Free-to-Play Publisher

[Andy Chalk]

Peter Molyneux's Godus Goes With Free-to-Play Publisher

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Mobile gaming publisher DeNA will "distribute and market" 22 Cans' Godus, but there are questions about how that could impact fans who paid for the game on Kickstarter.

Indie startup 22 Cans confirmed yesterday that the mobile versions of Godus, the recently-Kickstarted [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121197-Molyneuxs-Godus-is-a-Go] god game from the man who gave us Populous, will be published by DeNA, a major player in the mobile game industry that specializes in free-to-play, microtransaction-based games like Rage of Bahamut. "As a global leader in developing and publishing mobile games, DeNA is the ideal partner for us to collaborate with on the launch of Godus," Molyneux said in very standard press-release boilerplate. "Their breadth of expertise working with second and third-party game developers is invaluable as we prepare for the release of Godus on mobile devices."

That's all well and good, and there's no question that DeNA knows its way around the mobile gaming scene, but as Rock, Paper, Shotgun pointed out, the original Godus Kickstarter offered supporters who pledged at least £15 (about $23) "one digital downloadable copy of Godus," with no specification of platform. That becomes potentially very contentious for anyone who backed it specifically for the Android or iOS version of the game, since it now seems likely that it will be free to everyone on those platforms.

Sam at 22 Cans told RPS that the PC version of Godus is a separate thing and not part of the DeNA publishing deal, but couldn't say whether or not the mobile releases will be free-to-play, or even if they'll be playable offline. That opens the door to some potentially awkward speculation that isn't likely to be answered until the details of the deal with DeNA are revealed. There are at least reasonable odds that this kerfuffle is simply a matter of an awkwardly-handled announcement and lingering (perhaps persistent) suspicion of anything Peter Molyneux does, but no matter how it works out, it will almost certainly represent either a major departure for DeNA or a turn to the conventional - and, when it works out, hugely lucrative - F2P market by 22 Cans, a maneuver that will most certainly bring much anger and recrimination from gamers.

Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/05/21/godus-publishing-via-f2p-mobile-distro-pc-unmentioned/#more-153932]


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[The Artificially Prolonged]

You might say this new God game is...

free to pray now.

 

[Krantos]

Ok, someone needs to make a new Meme image with a picture of Molyneux and the words:
"I don't always fund my games through Kickstarter...

But when I do, I make them Free to play with microtransactions anyway."

Do it!

Really Peter? Really?

This is what you left Microsoft for? Go. Just go. No one wants you anymore.

 

[1337mokro]

Ah I can hear the lamentation of thousands of idiots who trusted in Molyneux master of deceit, the forked tongued fox of lies. Let me hear you! Cry Louder! Feed my delight with your sadness!

It is quite funny to see this happen though most likely it is a really dumbed down mobile version that Molyneux decided to put out there to boost the bank a bit. Think all those other iphone games that cost 7$ on PC but are FTP with microtransactions on mobile. Ming you he might not dumb it down at all and just release a free to play version... which still technically means you get what you paid for.

That's the risk of backing a project without enough details about it or one run by Molyneux the acorn illusionist... wow that one was a bit of a stretch.

 

[Angel Molina]

Ok, someone needs to make a new Meme image with a picture of Molyneux and the words:
"I don't always fund my games through Kickstarter...
But when I do, I make them Free to play with microtransactions anyway."

http://www.deviantart.com/download/372984558/peter_memeneux_by_angel_molina-d662cq6.jpg?token=47b2844b92e989e130751f9de718f02578555e5b&ts=1369161939
Done and done.

 

[FEichinger]

fans who paid for the game on Kickstarter

Nobody paid for the game. Some people might believe they did, but that is not what Kickstarter is about. It's not a glorified pre-order platform.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

I would bite my ass off by now, IF I had funded that kickstarter campaign - and trusted Peter just one more time!

Hope this will teach you a lesson.

 

[apollo278]

I thought the whole point of funding a game on kickstarter was that you wouldn't have a publisher.

 

[KelDG]

I thought the whole point of funding a game on kickstarter was that you wouldn't have a publisher.

I was thinking exactly the same thing. Free to play needs do die quickly, it is the worst thing to happen to gaming for a long time.

 

[Monsterfurby]

You might say this new God game is...
free to pray now.

Luckily, I always keep this handy. [http://cow.org/csi/]

Also, I am not as much of an opponent of FtP as many here, but this seems a kind of iffy solution. It sounds a lot like a developer trying to have their indie cake and eat it too and using Kickstarter as sort of a token "look, people want this" ticket into a publisher's hallowed halls. Having gained the publisher's trust, they are not really *obliged* to deliver anything to those who supported the project on Kickstarter and can alter the deal as they wish.

I am not saying that 22 Cans will do that, but Peter Molyneux at the very least once again proves that any sane company would keep that man FAR away from the PR department.

 

[piinyouri]

I remember the good ole days when he gave us those quirky and cute Fable games.

Who is this man?

 

[chozo_hybrid]

I remember the good ole days when he gave us those quirky and cute Fable games.

Who is this man?

Don't forget the first Black and White, that was an interesting title for its time.

 

[Andy Chalk]

fans who paid for the game on Kickstarter

Nobody paid for the game. Some people might believe they did, but that is not what Kickstarter is about. It's not a glorified pre-order platform.

I have to disagree. That's maybe how it started and how it remains by the letter of the law but the truth is that virtually everyone now looks at this first and foremost as a way to buy a game and get some cool extras - a "glorified preorder," as you put it. To pretend it's anything less than that, and more to the point, to think that an awful lot of people who supported this game or that aren't going to be angry when they learn after the fact that it's going to be released free-to-play, is, as Cursedseishi said, very naive.

For the record, none of this has been confirmed by 22 Cans - this is purely an academic discussion at this point.

 

[FEichinger]

fans who paid for the game on Kickstarter

Nobody paid for the game. Some people might believe they did, but that is not what Kickstarter is about. It's not a glorified pre-order platform.

I have to disagree. That's maybe how it started and how it remains by the letter of the law but the truth is that virtually everyone now looks at this first and foremost as a way to buy a game and get some cool extras - a "glorified preorder," as you put it. To pretend it's anything less than that, and more to the point, to think that an awful lot of people who supported this game or that aren't going to be angry when they learn after the fact that it's going to be released free-to-play, is, as Cursedseishi said, very naive.

For the record, none of this has been confirmed by 22 Cans - this is purely an academic discussion at this point.

The only ones to blame for people considering it a preorder platform are these very people, though. It isn't and it shouldn't be. Pretending it is; that is part of the problem to begin with.

 

[1337mokro]

I don't think people quite understand what a publisher is.

They signed a contract that says this publisher can distribute the mobile version of their game. It is different than when you present your game to a publisher to ask for funding to make the game. There is two different scenarios here that can involve a publisher.

They went to kickstarter because most likely no publisher wanted any part in this venture, much like any space game nowadays. They then got the funding and signed a deal for the game's distribution on mobile platforms. The publisher probably takes a cut from each sale and 22cans keeps the IP rights.

So what's the problem here? The fact you got Molyneuxed? Well I guess you just re-learned what most of us did with Black and White