Hooded Horse Inc. reposted this
This is exactly the kind of distorted endless growth/burden of expectations/line must go up perspective that causes so much trouble in the games industry. Manor Lords just sold 250,000 copies in the last month — after selling over 2 million copies in its first 3 weeks — and has a Very Positive review rating of 88% with a median playtime of 8 hours 48 minutes per player (very long for any game, especially a recently released one). Players are happy, the developer is happy, and we as publisher are thrilled beyond belief. And yet here we are — Manor Lords is apparently a “case-study in the pitfalls of Early Access” because the "game has been out for 2.5 months and there have been three fairly small patches" (one of the patch notes being called 'small' here runs over 3,000 words and over 10 single-spaced pages) leading to "CCUs have plummeted since launch" (yes, we didn't maintain the 173,000 concurrent player peak) and the apparently dark reality that some people, after enjoying their purchase of a premium, single-player title, might decide to go on and play another game (The horror! The horror!). Before the release, I had a chat with Manor Lords’ dev. I told him that after release, he was going to hear from all sorts of commenters talking about missed opportunities because he failed to grow as fast as they wanted, and judging the game a failure by some kind of expectation they formed. I told him to ignore all that — to focus on his core vision for the game, and to keep in mind that the Early Access road is long and that he should not feel any sense of pressure from the expectations of others — for both his own health and stress levels over the coming years and for preserving the state of calm and peaceful mind that supports his creative vision. If this industry is to find a more sustainable path forward, we need to move away from takes like the below. Success should not create an ever raising bar of new growth expectations. Not every game should be aimed at becoming some live-service boom or bust. And a release should not begin an ever-accelerating treadmill on which devs are forced to run until their mental or physical health breaks down.
***UPDATED July 9th*** After getting picked up by the games press, this post, and the subsequent response from the publisher, has generated so much heat and hatred (publicly and privately), that I feel compelled to take it down. The excellent team at Hinterland is starting to be impacted by this response, and there's no reason that should be the case. I should have found a better way to frame my original feedback, without referencing a specific game. I apologize to the developer, Slavic Magic, and to the publisher, Hooded Horse Inc., for any negativity this post may have brought to their work -- a game I highly enjoy. I also apologize to all of you for any negativity that ended up in your timelines as a result of my poorly framed comments. Unfortunately, character limits on LI prevent me from adding this apology to the existing post. To avoid the impression that I'm trying avoid accountability for my original words, I've attached a screenshot of the original post in the comments below. Since my original words gave people a different impression, I would like to reassure everyone reading this at I am firmly pro-developer, and anti-crunch. That has always been the case, and that will always be the case. Lastly, I would like to request that any hatred or bad feelings I created through my words should not be directed at the team at Hinterland. I will now put my time and energy into improving my own work, making my own games, leading my own team, and will refrain from commenting on other people's work, or the topic of this thread, any further. Thanks to everyone who reached out privately, either with messages of support, or messages of gentle correction. I appreciate you holding me accountable for my words. Best of luck to the Manor Lords team for their continued success, and as a fan and player, I look forward to continuing to experience the game as it evolves over time, at the developer's preferred pace. Thank you.