There is hope!
alnair
Member Posts: 561
Samuel Potter @bg_sepotter
@TrentOster IF Baldur's Gate were to be auctioned off, and IF the price was one beamdog could afford, even if just barely, would you bid?
Trent Oster @TrentOster
@bg_sepotter we are proposing something along those lines
Sources:
22
Comments
This would be my number one favourite outcome of this situation
- Xzar
Beamdog would need to operate 'under license' from Hasbro. Although I hear that WotC and Beamdog are close, which would pretty much mean that Hasbro would have no qualms.
On the other hand, I think that BG has proven to be capable of generating revenue. As such, I would hope that someone somewhere would see there is money to be made and at least attempt to pick it up.
But then I regularly eat at Milliways, so having ten impossible things with my breakfast cereal is normal for me. Or that's what the pink elephants tell me anyway.
It was a fairly dickish move for atari to enter into contracts without full disclosure while knowing how distressed their company was. From a speculative basis it could be viewed as a bargain in bad faith...especially considering how they are continuing to sell BGEE on steam while prohibiting Beamdog from doing the same.
@Flashheart No worries about the edit.
Hoping for the best
But as I said, I have no perspective whatsoever on the BGEE sales, other than that they were apparently sufficient to justify Overhaul continuing work on BG2EE and hiring a new writer to work on it and other projects (and oh, I have been *busy* these last few weeks) after Dave Gross decided to pursue novel writing full-time.
The opinions expressed here are solely my own yaddayaddayadda.
Nor do I imagine that any work at all would have been done on BG2:EE if they didn't anticipate that they could make money off of it based on the sales of BG:EE. They did say early on after launch that BG:EE was a proof of concept and that the green light wouldn't be given on BG2 unless certain criteria in the way of sales were met for BG:EE. Presumably they were met. QED.
But these are all suppositions on my part.
I think we need to buy you a t-shirt with that disclaimer on it.
Dark times indeed for beamdog.
I cannot imagine the frustration this has been for the developers especially now that they cannot even sell the game. Hopefully the latest hurdle can be jumped but I also feel the need to express my own annoyance, I find myself waiting and hanging around on the forums rather than playing the game. I've already played this game thousands of times back in the past and I had bought this game to play with my friends and other players. I am sick of using Hamachi which does not always work and in some cases cuts off the acess of my internet, Hamachi can be too personal, would be nice to hop onto a server much like how gameranger handles it to see who is playing and asking if you can join.
Ever since the game was announced there has been a mountain to climb or a wait for a new patch, a new feature, or an unexpected delay or deadlines not being met and what annoys me more is the mention of a big new juicy patch then people saying "coming soon" or just the word "Soon" which really means: "Not sure", "Don't Know", "When we have finished it" or "at the end of the of the month/in a couple of months"
getting back to the OP, I don't know what is going to happen but this just seems like another calendar date which is shady and uncertain, its re-release is "coming soon" :P. I don't think I will pre-order Baldurs Gate 2: EE if that title will even be in the works any more. My confidence in Beamdog releasing games relating to Baldur's gate is very low now knowing long waits for fixes and features will be expected and annoying limitations can happen any time even after the game has been released for over a year. I feel slightly fooled by my myself and my nostalgia, the well presented website and forums back when the game was in the works made me expect something that was not delivered and I do not have great expectations only what is said on the tin and event that needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, I am glad I have learnt my lesson.
In an environment like this where I could potentially be perceived as representing someone or thing more than my own idiot self, it's always best to make sure nobody mistakes whatever nonsense I'm babbling for anything but what it is.
So far it isn't on the list of things to be auctioned. If it does get publicly auctioned I'm curious how much it would go for. I might even bid myself if it's low enough.
@TheGreatKhan - I'd chip in some money if it came to that. Wouldn't that be a kick in EA's craw if a consortium of enthusiastic gamers got together and out-bid and then out sold them?
I didn't see BG on the list of stuff they are auctioning but that may mean they didn't consider it important enough to list. However, they may want to keep it since it makes them some money. Judging by the crap they have on their site it is probably one of their top money makers. They would want to try to keep some of their IPs otherwise they would have nothing to make money on when they emerge from bankruptcy protection. I question the need to piss off a developer that is making them money especially in their condition but I don't think the people running Atari are the brightest bulbs on the tree either.
At least that is my theory anyway.
I'd also wouldn't be entirely optimistic about Beamdog acquiring Baldur's Gate itself. From what they've said about money and resources being a real issue when it comes to what they can do with BG:EE regardless of the legal restrictions it doesn't make me feel confident they could raise a viable offer, especially when bigger studios could probably outmatch much of what they could offer. I have to wonder if this talk is due to the same eagerness that made Trent and co. take on BG:EE despite all the legal 'mumbo jumbo' they had to put up with just to do that.