PC New Projects?!

[Slag]

I just saw a post that Fun Pimps is hiring and has two new projects in development, but still no recent news on console?

What about those of us that paid for a game in development that was never completed?  What about the money we spent to still not have a complete product, yet you're moving on to other things?  Last I saw, work on the console versions was impossible because of staff workloads, but there's apparently time to start fresh projects... We shouldn't be stuck waiting for the PC version to hit gold, like we're some second class citizens that deserve less than the PC half of the community.  

Yeah, what TTG did to the game sucks.  That's  not our fault, nor our problem.  You own the game again. You are the ones in control.

New projects have no immediate revenue return, they're a long game investment, and you're even hiring staff, throwing money into these projects with no immediate return in sight.  We deserve a real answer.  A REAL timeline.  We deserve to stop being scuffed along.  

 

[Slag]

Also, before those of you say "Console can't even handle the game lulul"

That's because the game needs a lot of optimization, it was rough at best to begin with.  That's not a cause for less dev, it's a cause for more.  There's plenty of games out there rendering higher quality graphics on the same hardware.  It's not that they CAN'T, they're just not.

 

[BFT2020]

TFP are a PC gaming company, not a console gaming company.  Sorry

 

[Slag]

TFP are a PC gaming company, not a console gaming company.  Sorry

Then they never should have fought to re-acquire ownership of the console port from Telltale Games, and let either someone else move in, or it die entirely.  They've sold more than 120,000 copies on console, and CONTINUE to sell this unfinished hot turd.  If they're not going to work on it, pull it off the store and stop taking people's money, because at this point they're legit taking advantage of people with every new sale.

 

[Roland]

I just saw a post that Fun Pimps is hiring and has two new projects in development, but still no recent news on console?

Correct. TFP has two projects planned for the future once they finish 7 Days to Die for the PC platform. They are beginning the process for the one they will release first after 7 Days to Die so that there is not a too long gap of time after the release of 7 Days before the next game's development can start moving at full steam. One of those preliminary exciting steps that you can see from the job description list is a shift to the Unreal Engine for at least one of them.

The only news for console is that after TFP finishes the PC version of the game, they will look into possibly partnering with a new console publisher to bring a new port based on the completed PC game to the next generation of consoles. This news was already given and there has been no change in the status of that announcement, hence there is nothing new to add or take away from that.

Since the port (if it happens) will be outsourced to a studio that ports PC games to console, it doesn't really matter whether TFP starts work on a dozen new projects. You need to somehow grok the truth that TFP is not a console development studio. They only develop for PC.

What about those of us that paid for a game in development that was never completed?  What about the money we spent to still not have a complete product, yet you're moving on to other things?

You are mistaken. The current console version is complete. It is a version of the game based on Alpha 14 from the PC. You may have assumed that it was going to continue to be updated until it was equal to the PC game but that is not the case. There are many games for console that do not get perpetual updates and you always have the same exact game that you paid for on the day you paid for it. This is one of those.

As for moving on....do you really think that game studios don't start the process of planning and prepping for their next project until after they completely finish the one they are on? Nobody is moving on. They are 100% focused on finishing 7 Days to Die but they are also starting to prepare for what will come next. Since they are not a console development studio, making or porting a game to console is not in their line-up.

Last I saw, work on the console versions was impossible because of staff workloads, but there's apparently time to start fresh projects... We shouldn't be stuck waiting for the PC version to hit gold, like we're some second class citizens that deserve less than the PC half of the community.

No....work on the console version was impossible because TFP doesn't develop for consoles. They aren't set up for that nor do they particularly want to do that. It's why they partnered with Telltale Games who hired Iron Galaxy to do the port. So since TFP has never developed for consoles and has no plans to ever develop for consoles they apparently and literally have time to start fresh PC projects-- or at least start the initial steps necessary to starting fresh PC projects once they wrap 7 Days to Die.

If they can negotiate a favorable deal with a new partner to bring a console version to the next gen consoles that is based on the finished game then they will do so. So you aren't really stuck waiting like second class citizens. You are stuck waiting for the PC version that the new console game is supposed to be based upon to be finished so that the new console game can be made.  It would be pretty silly for them to partner NOW with someone and do a port of the finished game before the game is finished. Causality just doesn't work like that.

Yeah, what TTG did to the game sucks.  That's  not our fault, nor our problem.  You own the game again. You are the ones in control.

It's not your fault but it is your problem precisely because you don't have control. We have control and we say there will no longer be any updates or changes made to the original console port. It is finished just the way it is. Quite a few people like it for what it is. Quite a few people have gotten 100s of hours of entertainment for what it is. 

New projects have no immediate revenue return, they're a long game investment, and you're even hiring staff, throwing money into these projects with no immediate return in sight.

That's how awesome these new projects are going to be. TFP is willing to risk earnings on the idea of them because they feel confident they will do at least as well as 7 Days to Die. I wish I could tell you about them. I am personally very excited for these titles and I know that the developers are going to take everything they learned from 7 Days to Die and pour it into these new projects and use many of the ideas that couldn't be done for 7 Days to make their next games true spiritual sequels that are next level.

I expect people will want console ports of these next projects even more than 7 Days to Die....

We deserve a real answer.  A REAL timeline.  We deserve to stop being scuffed along. 

I have been very real in my answers. I'm not sure how more real I could be. There will be no further work done on the current console versions for Xbox1 and PS4. The timeline is: Never. Someday when your grandkids pull out your game system from your attic and dust it off and turn it on and boot up 7 Days to Die, it will play exactly for them on that distant day as it does today for you. There will be no further updates ever.

I wish I could give you a definitive yes or no about a new version based on the finished PC game in the future but I can't. Not trying to scuff you along-- it is just too soon to tell. Here are the two announcements you should watch for:

The PC version of 7 Days to Die has gone gold!

TFP is pleased to announce their partnership with ______________ who will be porting 7 Days to Die to PS5 and Xbox.

Until/If those anounncements are made there will be no further announcements about console 7 Days to Die. And, in the interest of timelines, the first announcement probably won't come until 2022....

 

[Roland]

Then they never should have fought to re-acquire ownership of the console port from Telltale Games, and let either someone else move in, or it die entirely.  They've sold more than 120,000 copies on console, and CONTINUE to sell this unfinished hot turd.  If they're not going to work on it, pull it off the store and stop taking people's money, because at this point they're legit taking advantage of people with every new sale.

They fought to re-acquire ownership of the console port because it is their intellectual property and they wanted control over it. If someone else moved in they would have no say over changes or anything that might be done. That is a pretty scary prospect for a creator of intellectual property.  Regardless of how you personally feel about the game, it is a beloved title for many. You feel that it is unfinished because you are comparing it to the PC version but the game on console is great in its own right. If there were no PC game to compare it to, nobody would feel like it is "unfinished".

They don't have to work on it in order to sell it. The current version was fully approved by Sony and Microsoft. Sony and Microsoft include it in their stores precisely because they have determined that it is a viable game and they are selling it at a price point that they judge people are willing to pay in order to get the entertainment value out of it.

Nobody is being taken advantage of. Would it be nice for additional content? Yes, of course. But there is no obligation to do so. When you pay for a game, you pay for its current state. Period. By your logic, if Nintendo doesn't ever plan to add a new track each year to MarioKart then they should pull it from their store because it is never going to be updated again. Sorry, but there are 1000s of games on console that never see a content update or that change from their originally shipped form.

 

[Slaasher]

I just saw a post that Fun Pimps is hiring and has two new projects in development, but still no recent news on console?

What about those of us that paid for a game in development that was never completed?  What about the money we spent to still not have a complete product, yet you're moving on to other things?

Did they say they were going to stop work on 7 DTD? Just because they have a new idea they've started on doesn't mean they stop  work on this one.

So, to say "they're moving on to other things" is a little bit crazy to me.

Edit: I just read Roland's replies And they all seem reasonable to me.

 

[SylenThunder]

Did they say they were going to stop work on 7 DTD? Just because they have a new idea they've started on doesn't mean they stop  work on this one.

So, to say "they're moving on to other things" is a little bit crazy to me.

No. They're going to finish the PC version of 7DTD. Though they have had plans for their next game for a few years now. The team has increased in size considerably since then, and with 7DTD nearing beta-testing and release soon, they can afford to split a couple of programmers off to start working on the base code for it in the relatively near future without affecting 7DTD development. (They're also hiring BTW, as previously mentioned.)

 

[meganoth]

No. They're going to finish the PC version of 7DTD. Though they have had plans for their next game for a few years now. The team has increased in size considerably since then, and with 7DTD nearing beta-testing and release soon, they can afford to split a couple of programmers off to start working on the base code for it in the relatively near future without affecting 7DTD development. (They're also hiring BTW, as previously mentioned.)

I'm not seeing that they can afford to split of programmers "soon", they have too few of them at the moment. And usually it is designers who start pre-production on new games. I expect Madmole to be one of the first to switch over to a new game.

 

[Roland]

It's all concept art and preliminary modeling and design talk right now. I don't think any programmers are doing anything unless they are secretly doing something as a side project on their own time they hope to pitch later. That has actually happened with 7 Days to Die. Nothing being worked on for the next projects is stealing anyone away from 7 Days to Die and if you look at the new job descriptions they are for people who wouldn't be involved with 7 Days to Die anyway (Unreal Engine has nothing to do with 7 Days to Die). So none of it will slow down or impact this game's development in any way.

 

[meganoth]

It's all concept art and preliminary modeling and design talk right now. I don't think any programmers are doing anything unless they are secretly doing something as a side project on their own time they hope to pitch later. That has actually happened with 7 Days to Die. Nothing being worked on for the next projects is stealing anyone away from 7 Days to Die and if you look at the new job descriptions they are for people who wouldn't be involved with 7 Days to Die anyway (Unreal Engine has nothing to do with 7 Days to Die). So none of it will slow down or impact this game's development in any way.

But if the new people block the coffee machine, 7D2D developer#s time is wasted!!!

(a joke belonging to a different era)

 

[kish123]

I created an account on this forum after buying the game on xbox a few days ago because i'd googled the game & watched a couple youtube videos..  now none of these stated their was a difference in what i was watching and reading about in comparison to what i was paying for so therefore i do believe this to be scamming your customers. 
this was irritation enough not only did i purchase it but so did two of my friends. 

Now the actual reason i made an account here is because after reading the forums i was disturbed by how the forum moderators speak to frustrated customers. an employee of the company or not, you're speaking to paying customers of that game... if you're not a people person, if you're not going to attempt to understand the frustration then maybe you need a different job.

i will honestly never purchase a title that TFP release ever again, you have partitions that your supporters fought for you to take back control of the game, now a year or so later they voice their frustration with you and instead of hearing it, understanding it and apologising they feel this way your moderators across many threads attack customers and attempt to rip apart their statements. 

Genuinely disappointing.  

 

[meganoth]

I created an account on this forum after buying the game on xbox a few days ago because i'd googled the game & watched a couple youtube videos..  now none of these stated their was a difference in what i was watching and reading about in comparison to what i was paying for so therefore i do believe this to be scamming your customers. 
this was irritation enough not only did i purchase it but so did two of my friends. 

This is a valid concern and I don't understand why TFP does not make the effort to change the store pages to make it evident that the console version is a different version than what is available on PC. I can only assume that it isn't easy to do that, unlike Telltale TFP likely has no contacts to Sony and Microsoft at all. Still, they are owner now and there must be a way to update that store page.

On the other hand there are some indications that there is a difference, the version on playstation is from 2016 and telltale is given as publisher. not TFP.  While youtube videos made by TFP are recent and talk about alphas and early access, which would not normally be sold on console (AFAIK). If you are refering to videos made by players, well, TFP obviously can't do anything about that.

Still, the console store pages should have been updated with a warning a long time ago.

Now the actual reason i made an account here is because after reading the forums i was disturbed by how the forum moderators speak to frustrated customers. an employee of the company or not, you're speaking to paying customers of that game... if you're not a people person, if you're not going to attempt to understand the frustration

then maybe you need a different job.

As a moderator my only job is to make sure people obey the forum rules. I'm not an employee of TFP, I don't get payed for this and I am speaking only for myself. Expect me and other moderators on this site to be as friendly or unfriendly as everyone else.

 will honestly never purchase a title that TFP release ever again, you have partitions that your supporters fought for you to take back control of the game, now a year or so later they voice their frustration with you and instead of hearing it, understanding it and apologising they feel this way your moderators across many threads attack customers and attempt to rip apart their statements. 

Genuinely disappointing.  

In my opionion TFP failed at informing console users on the console store pages and I have said this before.

But most frustration and protests from console users comes from the fact that the console version will not be updated and a new version will have to wait for the PC version getting finished, and in my opinion TFP has enough reasons for doing exactly that.

 

[Roland]

i will honestly never purchase a title that TFP release ever again, you have partitions that your supporters fought for you to take back control of the game, now a year or so later they voice their frustration with you and instead of hearing it, understanding it and apologising they feel this way your moderators across many threads attack customers and attempt to rip apart their statements. 

The petitions had zero effect on getting the rights back. Why would Telltale care about petitions when it was going out of business anyway. Those petitions had zero leverage. It was plain old money that got the rights back-- a lot of it.

What you call "ripping apart their statements" is simply us telling you guys the truth-- albeit a truth you don't want to hear. What attacks have we made against anyone? We understand your frustration. I hope you understand ours and TFPs. You must know that what happened is not something any of us wanted or planned. They were caught be surprise as much as anyone. They were working on updating the console version again right up until day the announcement was made. When Iron Galaxy was told they would not get paid for their work, they stopped. Trust me, that there is no customer anywhere who feels any more burned by the fiasco than TFP. 

This particular thread was started by someone incredulous that TFP would start two new PC projects before updating the console version at all. My answer to them is that there was never again going to be an update to the 2016 console version regardless of anything that was going to happen in the future. That's just simple truth.

I do agree that an indication of some kind that the PC version is different from the console version would help to avoid the type of confusion you suffered. Even something as simple as 7 Days to Die (Console Edition) would work.

 

[Roland]

So I inquired about this and what I was told was that Sony and Microsoft have responsibility for the descriptions of what they sell in their store. TFP does not maintain those store pages. The feature descriptions and screenshots that the respective stores provide for the product they sell, would show it to be a different product. If there was a problem, Sony and Microsoft would be in contact with TFP-- but that hasn't happened.

Really, if you think about it, when you buy something from a store that wasn't what you expected, you go back to the store and complain/return/seek refund etc. That communicates to the store that there is a problem when they start getting a lot of similar complaints. Complaining to the artist or creative team can give them feedback that is worthwhile but it isn't going to change the store policies of where you bought the product. Sometimes you are directed to handle problems with the manufacturer. But in this case the manufacturer (publisher) was Telltale. When they went out of business the manufacturing role was never re-filled. No physical cases and discs have been made since Telltale went under. The game is now exclusively sold as a digital download that is handled by those stores.

These complaints that the console version is different than the PC version and should be stated as such on the store page need to be made to Sony and Microsoft who will then decide if a change is warranted. However, if most people are happy with the version they got and don't really care how it compares to a platform they don't play on, then neither Sony nor Microsoft is going to change anything because as far as they know people are satisfied with their purchase.

 

[Thadmagic]

You are mistaken. The current console version is complete. It is a version of the game based on Alpha 14 from the PC. You may have assumed that it was going to continue to be updated until it was equal to the PC game but that is not the case. There are many games for console that do not get perpetual updates and you always have the same exact game that you paid for on the day you paid for it. This is one of those.

complete when it locks up and deletes all your work. if that is your version of complete then i wont spend a dime on your next project. with this i know for certain you dont give a rats rear quarter about your customers. i dont care about major updates just fix the glaring problems in the game or take it off the market.  

 

[Roland]

just fix the glaring problems in the game or take it off the market.

Sorry you’re having issues. Both Sony and Microsoft have approved the software as meeting their standards to sell in their stores and they have really strict standards. 
 

“Complete” was only meant to mean that the console version is a game in its own right and isn’t meant to perfectly mirror the PC version.