We have to remind ourselves, that these days developers tend to be terrified on a thought of releasing something on PC, as it swarms with pirates.

I agree..

There are people who comment to OWI on Twitter, every now and then, that they never knew the game was out on PS4.

But, anyway, I wouldn't be too worried. They still get tons of messages from people wondering what happened to Munch HD for PC, or Stranger HD for Wii U. And I imagine Oddworld will get at least an article on the major game news sites like IGN.

Sure, it would certainly be better if ports were released a month or two after each other but as is video game development I guess...

Also, Void, that probably factored into why they wanted to get for consoles first since Stranger HD - since ol' Stew boy has presented that sort of opinion in the past - but I can't see that it's been a huge factor in the last 6 months of development.

I get asked "when is NnT coming out on [insert console/PC here]" time and time again. And I've always have said, if they have some new info, they'll it share. What's the point keep updating us on things we already know. Best to be patient and wait for any news on there Facebook, Twitter ect.

Personally. I can wait. In fact, I want them to spend as much time as possible porting the game onto PC, So then game will run fantastically. Not to mention big critics such as Totalbiscuit look at a PC port in depth. I don't want to see NnT badly ported to PC, that will break my heart.

I wouldn't say that was the case anymore. At least not as much. Steam brought PC gaming back into the mainstream and made it a lot easier and safer for developers to release games on. Sure pirates still exist and Steam does release some shovel ware now and then, but I highly doubt JAW are "scared" of released NnT to PC because of pirates.

Thank you!

Yeah, CP, we're going to put yours on the fridge. : D

And are you guys still wondering why they're taking so long? Isn't it obvious? This is Oddworld, come on guys, get your shit in gear.

You talk exactly like my friend, Ben Morgan. He's a very pretentious person.

You'd be surprised.

The general belief these days is that if you make a good product, make it easy to obtain, and sell it at the right price, people will be happy to buy it. And those who pirate it after that are invariably those who wouldn't have bought it anyway, so you haven't lost anything.

I've heard this said in both the worlds of music and video games.

I dare beg to differ. Twas the reason, that JAW officially announced. Furthermore, there are people with such negligible mentality, that their foremost desire is not to purchase anything.

*'Twas

*Twat

*Pretentious twat
Well the reason Rockstar still haven't released GTA5 on PC is because they're worried about pirates. Seriously.

I didn't say that devs weren't worried about pirates. Just that they shouldn't be.

EDIT: Of course, they've also got to hit the triptych of 'Good product', 'Easily obtainable' and 'Right price', and maybe Rockstar can't quite commit to all three.

Right place - absolutely, one of the ways for PS4 to advertise themselves. But of course. They are rich, famous and provide you with lots of money in reward for advertising. However, not every person wishes and is able to buy this apparatus. Even after such mental manipulation of making sure that your devoted players buy your game not everyone is capable of this.

Right price - avowedly. If only we did not have to avail ourselves of PS4.

Marvelous gameplay - yes. No abnegation possible.

Maybe it's also because NnT is not at the right price for some consumers. Selling that $30 price tag might be harder if there's a lovely free version online.

I mean you can't say definitively that those who pirated your game wouldn't have bought it anyway. But I can't imagine the numbers being that high.

Also, where did Rockstar say they're afraid of pirates?

Oh, wisdom speaks through Holy Sock!

But it's still not the reason for the 6 month delay.

Can't remember, but it was before the game was released.

Also I disagree with "those who pirated a game wouldn't have bought it anyway". Sometimes when I'm excited enough for a game's release but can't currently afford it, I'll pirate it with the intention of buying it when I get paid.

Yeah, but in that case that’s not a lost sale. The example given was the people who would pirate a game no matter how easily available and affordable it was to buy. There are people who never intend to legitimately purchase a game.

I avow the words of Manco. Absolutely.

But ultimately not buying it at all because you already played the game, completed it and shelling out money after the fact feels kind of ridiculous unless it has a fun multiplayer (GTA V being a good example).

New n Tasty, if it was any other game, would be on my pirate list. Already played it on PS4 and the PC release is taking way too goddamn long. I remember when the original plan was to release it side by side. Then it changed to PS4 exclusive for a month. Then the PC release would come a month later 'because piracy'. And now we're what, 5 months later? Not a shred of info anymore.

But it's Oddworld, and JAW is a small developer, so I'll still buy it. With the added advice to get their shit together PR wise and crawl out of Sony's ass. The dedication to a single platform is starting to get seriously annoying. We'll probably see the PS3 and PS Vita versions long before a PC version is even announced, just watch.

Twas truthful, Havoc. So direly truthful that my eyes were full of tears.

Tis foreseeable, that we shall not be granted the PC version in this quarter of year.

We have been getting updates Havoc, they just haven't had a lot of detail. Last we heard they had a fully playable game that needed optimising across different hardware. That was in October, and they said it would take a few more months from then.

I feel like we're due an update or announcement soon though.

Abandon all hope.

Well I think they're up Sony's ass because Sony has been very enthusiastic about bringing Oddworld onto their console whilst, conversely, Microsoft have been difficult. Which probably only highlights how easy it is to work with Sony. And Oddworld's always been a console series first, and JAW seem like they're more comfortable with console development. So it makes sense that PlayStation are getting more exposure.

I pretty sure they said Stranger HD wouldn't have existed without Sony enthusiastically approving the concept for PS3 considering it's a free update on the PC.

There a fuckin' apostrophe shortage in Norway or something

Stop spamming, Violet Void. This is your final warning.

I knew this was going to happen ... people would lose interest in the game...

They have lost a buy on my part...For the next time in future games will not do the same and benefit a single platform, and besides we do not wait so long without news.

I give you an example: Shovel Knight...In six months they have already released the game on 5 different platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Wii U and 3DS; and in February or March will be available for PS3, PS4 and Vita )...And not worth me the excuse that it is a smaller game.

Why's that not an excuse? Surely THAT's one of the reasons it's taking so long? Because it's a fully fledged 3D game and not a pixel art game.

Going on Oddworlds website in the news section and sees that Munchs oddysee was on the hot topic.... Hurts inside.

Let me give another example: Strider 2014...And this game has similar graphics to NNT...and was released for all platforms simultaneously...

C'mon man...this seems to me a very serious oversight by OWI / JAW other users ... because of exclusive contracts...looking more the money than their fans

Right... which was a game published by Capcom... and company that can afford to dedicate the resources for a multi-plat release.

I mean I don't think a non-simultaneous release is an oversight although, since you're Spanish, I can see what you're getting at. But the idea is that if you have a small team, a limited budget, and you want to get your indie game out for one platform at least it doesn't make sense to sit on it for 6 months whilst you try and finish up the other ports. And it doesn't really make sense to slow down production by focusing on all platforms equally. The game was already way over budget as it was.

I'm sure with a much bigger team and a much bigger budget they could have pulled it off. But it doesn't seem particularly realistic otherwise.

Stewart Gilray had said he'd hoped to get the Vita & PS3 versions out, if not same day release as PS4, very shortly after. And Lorne said months ago that the plan was to wrap up all the ports by 2015. So I gather the intent was there but, again, reality set in. It's not an oversight or a grab for more money or anything.

parkirriVendetta may be right : remember when JAW would do the "Metal Gear Solid" remake at any cost (before learning it was a joke) ? I'm not saying they are greedy, but JAW just don't have what it takes. "New and tasty" was a bad idea to begin with and it's becoming painfully obvious why they planned to do a remake and not a whole new game in the first place.

I don't know. New 'n' Tasty seems like a pretty good idea to get Oddworld out there again if you ask me. It got really positive reviews and the majority of fan reaction seems to be positive. The reason they didn't make a new game, in the first place, is because they couldn't afford to make a new game. And fans voted, on their website, for OWI to remake Abe's Oddysee. If Lorne's to be believed he had no consideration for a remake of the originals, or a return to 2D sidescrolling games, until they got that fan response.

It's all about baby steps. They were able to afford the HD remakes with their digital releases of the originals. With that they were able to afford a remake of Oddysee. And if the ball keeps rolling they'll be able to afford to make a new title - which would require a lot more money than a remake (which already went way over budget).

The inherent problem here is not whether or not JAW can live up to the task. The issue is them making grand promises that can't be met.

For a long time, even before the title was announced, every piece of PR advertised ALL platforms without any sort of distinction. The went on until the deal with Sony was announced, at which point the PC version was 'promised' to arrive a month later.

It's perfectly understandable for a small developer to only be able to work on one title/platform at a time. But it would have been both smart and nice of JAW to communicate that fact and not hype everyone up with false expectations of a simultaneous release.

Something that rubs me the wrong way right now is that, on top of the above, apparently man power was diverted away from the PC release and put on bringing Munch HD to PS Vita. Which is a title that was also promised for PC but never delivered (and recently proclaimed to be very unlikely to ever happen).

Looks to me that JAW considers anything that isn't Playstation a low priority and, should a new Playstation project come along, everything else will simply be put on the backburner.

Currently I expect the PC version of New 'n' Tasty to be done somewhere in the first half of this year. We might see the Xbone version around Christmas. But all the other versions, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them got canceled. If optimizing for a single platform takes this long, god have mercy on the Wii U.

We'll have to see if JAW has what it takes to make an entirely new Oddworld game. But I personally think with a lot of time and effort, plus Lorne contributing, they can do it.

Also New 'N' tasty was never intended as a fully new game in the first place. It was always going to be based on Abe's Oddysee.

No way was it a bad idea. In fact, it was the perfect way to bring back Oddworld. It would of been HUGELY risky to just bring out a new Oddworld game say to an audience where most of it has forgotten what Oddworld is or have never heard of it in the first place.

I certainly don't doubt that they can make a new Oddworld game, I'm just concerned that they can only make it for one platform at a time.

Havoc has hit an important point which too many people make the mistake of - announcing things way before you should then things preventing your promises, projections and intent from coming to fruition.

And when companies, or people, get burned by this they seem to generally go into radio silence - until they can give a concrete release. This is the stage OWI & JAW seem to be in now and it's probably best until they can give us definitive release dates.

Although, in regards to Munch HD Vita, that was something promised years ago and has been in active development for years. I believe Stewart Gilray said a third party developer was handling it but it turned out to be a disaster. I think it's actually been in QA for the past few months so I'm not so sure it's been taking up a lot of their time.

I think, for the foreseeable future, this will be the case. I imagine it's a case of spreading the team too thin and the development cycle taking a lot longer - therefore costing a lot more money.

But, hopefully, the gap between ports will shrink with future titles. If New 'n' Tasty comes out before July for another platform then they're already beating the yearly gap between Stranger HD ports.

Excuse me, but what did JAW has been making so far ? Just a bunch of remakes or HD of the previous Oddworld games. You know why the people liked N'n'T ? It's call nostalgia. For the people who aren't fans, it's just a nice little game ; they don't really care about the rest of the universe. And they know the 3D games of Oddworld aren't as good as AO. So the "we need the AO remake" is just an excuse : AO is still playable in 2014.

You guys are complaining about JAW who doesn't give any news. Like I said earlier :

So the JAW's members coming here was a bad idea to begin with and not very professional because now the question is "where are they ?". To continue on this compagny : Will is the only fan in there. And I'm not blaming JAW's members by saying that just that the "new real oddworld game made by JAW" seems unreachable. And about Lorne : you still trust him after all his shenanigans ? I respect him, he is very skilled to make one believed that the moon is made of green cheese.

Excuse me for my poor english.

You can't just stereotype everyone on the forum. Sure, Some of us here do have high expectations and are very nit-picky. But some of us are just glad that the guys at JAW decided to bring back Oddworld. Me for example, just love how Oddworld is back. Sure I'll critic something I don't like, but applies to literally any form of media.

I'm so glad they did approach it's fans on this forum. It shows that they want to engage with it's audience. If they didn't, the game would of come out, without any fan input and it might of been worst. Who knows? That's the beauty of a indie studio. They aren't closed off from the rest of the world like in big triple A companies. if they can engage with it's audience, why the hell not?

I sometimes do feel for the JAW employees who actually read this forum, Even I get sick of the minor nitpicking. But at the end of the day, we all want the same thing. A great Oddworld game.

Also I'm pretty sure the entire staff of JAW are Oddworld fans. that's why Stewart teamed up with OWI in the first place. It's just you can't get anymore devoted then Wil :)

But your bloody complaint makes no sense, Vlam. They've focused on HD remasters and the remake of AO because that's what they can afford to do. They can't afford to make a totally new product with brand new mechanics etc because it costs too much money. And rather than making some really small games bringing their old library to modern platforms is a much better way for them to raise that money and remain indie. And if fans want a remake of AO, and they can afford to do it, and it might get the franchise back on track to fund a brand new property in the future, why wouldn't they do it?

And producers DO go to forums. Oddworld just hasn't created it's own official fan forum, presumably, because this one exists and they don't want to squander it. And for indie games it's probably more beneficial to get fans involved.

The reason why someone like Matthew gets a response is because he put a lot of thought into his criticism and it's better to engage it than ignore it even if they personally feel some of it was undeserved or unfair. It's the same with the forums. When criticism or questions aren't a load of emotional fan bollocks they'll engage - and they have engaged - with the forums.

Where are they? Probably avoiding not making promises they can't keep. But you can see that people like CrowBarSka or OWI_Alex still view the forums through "Currently Active Users". But fan interaction is going to be more important moving forward rather than now - in which they can only update us on when the ports may be coming out.

Stranger Mobile's ultimate iOS release was announced on the day it came out.

Munch for Vita's release date (after a few false starts) was the same.

:fuzwink:

Innit.

There's no mystery or conspiracy here. Nep saw the game running on PC recently enough to know it wasn't quite ready.