Sword Coast Legends developer n-space has closed up shop

That was quick... they did their money grab then disappeared. Probably because something they claimed would be basically Neverwinter Nights 3 became more like something that was made with Basic D&D rules. At least that was the impression I got from my short time with the game. I had high hopes for it, but then no one liked most of their decisions.

Pretty sad.

Edit: read the post, I'd never heard of n-Space until this game, 21 years? what else did they make?


Last edited by slaapliedje on 3 April 2016 at 2:41 pm UTC

:(

Sad, really sad. I bought Sword Coast Legends on day 1 due to its day 1 Linux support. I liked the game - it wasn't the most optimized Linux port, but it also never crashed on me. I thought it was a pretty good action RPG, not the best that ever was, but definitely still fun to play through - I had no regrets paying full price for it.

I'm one of the few people that liked Sword Coast Legends, so I'm quite sad to hear this. Sadly, studios closing is something that happens constantly in the video game industry (likely almost every industry).

Quoting: slaapliedjeThat was quick... they did their money grab then disappeared.

I think if they'd actually grabbed their money they wouldn't be going bankrupt. The game didn't sell very well but from what I saw of it on the free weekend it wouldn't have been cheap to develop, plus I assume the license would have cost something.

Dumbest thing they did was requiring online registration to play offline during a free weekend. I wonder how anyone's going to play now if the registration servers are all set to disappear?

Quoting: slaapliedjebut then no one liked most of their decisions.

Pretty sad.

Closer to the truth was it was about a 50/50 mix, about half of their player base was fine with the streamlined action RPG gameplay mechanics. But the jeremiads from the 50% that didn't like it were intense and amply posted, for sure.

Quoting: slaapliedjeThat was quick... they did their money grab then disappeared. Probably because something they claimed would be basically Neverwinter Nights 3 became more like something that was made with Basic D&D rules. At least that was the impression I got from my short time with the game. I had high hopes for it, but then no one liked most of their decisions.

Pretty sad.

Edit: read the post, I'd never heard of n-Space until this game, 21 years? what else did they make?

They have a long list of games, more then what some known studios have, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Space#History

Awwwrr :( I wish the best of luck to everyone there

Quoting: GuestOnly real way to succeed is perhaps via what Obisidian do and actually listen to what the PC playerbase wants and it wasn't a streamlined action RPG (I suspect a lot of those 50% who were happy would also be happy with a more traditional in depth RPG).

You are probably right. For my part, I was surprised the reverse of that didn't hold true. Which is me, I totally love the more detailed and in-depth RPGs too. But I was OK with a streamlined version - mainly because it was well done, it had a good flow to the combat and had a real inventory system/item economy. (I don't like it when they streamline inventory completely out - that's too much streamlining.)

I especially thought SCL made a good fit in this current games market, with a resurgence in "old-school" RPGs making a come-back in a big big way, there was room for it. It's not like we're starving for modern takes on "old school" RPGs anymore, Internet crowd funding has revived that genre 110%.

I really think what killed it was the "Oh my god, NWN 3!!" and then it was more of a mix. I only had time to play a bit of the random dungeon generator before the campaign was released, and everything I'd read said the campaign was pretty poor, but then when no one started making modules for it, it's when I couldn't hop on board. I was real close to buying copies for my friends to play too, but didn't.

Wait, they did Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2? Why oh why did they never release that for the PC? The first one was awesome. Most of the games I see listed there are console ports done by other teams?

Anyhow, I always find it rather sad when a D&D licensed game bombs, remember how successful some of the others were, even going back as far as the original SSI Gold Box ones?