Latest news with #rolePlayingGames
Fast Company
2 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
From flop to franchise: Cyberpunk 2077 is getting a sequel
A video game once synonymous with one of the most disastrous launches in history has not only redeemed itself, but will be getting a proper second act. Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red announced in an earnings call Wednesday that the company is at work on a follow-up to the futuristic role-playing title, which was released in late 2020 and universally criticized for being unfinished, glitchy and at times unplayable. CD Projekt Red said that the conceptual phase is complete and pre-production has begun on the 'next big game set in the Cyberpunk universe,' which it is calling Cyberpunk 2 for now. The company expects the game's development to take four to five years, but that number could shift as the project gets underway. The redemption story is a striking change of fate for Cyberpunk 2077, which not longer ago was doomed to languish in video game lore as one of the greatest failures of all-time. Cyberpunk's skyscraper-high launch expectations For a time, Cyberpunk 2077 appeared destined to become gamer shorthand for a much-hyped game that over-promises and under-delivers to the extreme. The backlash over Cyberpunk 2077' s likely premature launch was so severe that many platforms hosting the game's download began issuing refunds to appease unhappy players, with Sony even going as far as taking the game out of the PlayStation store. At the time of its initial release, hype for Cyberpunk 2077 was sky high. Developer CD Projekt Red was widely lauded for its hit The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a sprawling open world RPG famous for rich narrative storytelling. It didn't help that Cyberpunk 2077's development budget topped $300 million, making it one of the most expensive games ever made. A very expensive makeover Instead of calling Cyberpunk 2077 a flop and moving on, CD Projekt Red kept chipping away at the game, issuing improvements to stabilize its performance, deepen combat and paint richer stories in its glowing Tokyo-esque fictional metropolis, Night City. Cyberpunk 2077 joins only a handful of games including Final Fantasy XIV and No Man's Sky that have completely re-written their own histories after failing spectacularly. For Cyberpunk 2077 and those games alike, the modern model of live-service games – games that evolve and get updates over time, sometimes through paid content – made the comeback stories possible. After their initial missteps, the teams behind all of these games spent years winning back players and rebuilding their communities, earning a lot of respect in the process. Cyberpunk 2077's turnaround wasn't cheap. The company poured north of $100 million in additional resources into the game after its launch, putting out a major 'large-scale' expansion called Phantom Liberty, starring actor Idris Elba, who joined Keanu Reeves on the game's A-list voice acting cast. In its earnings call, CD Projekt Red announced that the expansion has now sold more than 10 million copies. Fast forward four years and the team behind the former failure clawed their reputation back so successfully that Steam's user reviews now rate Cyberpunk 2077 as ' overwhelmingly positive ' – an outcome that would have been impossible to imagine back in the game's dark days.
Forbes
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
An Interview With Jason Carl About The Rebirth Of White Wolf
In 1991, White Wolf Game Studio released Vampire: The Masquerade which took the tabletop gaming world by storm. This game, about vampires hidden in a dark reflection of our modern world, eventually grew to be part of the World of Darkness. Now, World of Darkness has announced a return home by rebranding itself White Wolf once again. This interview has been edited for clarity and combines quotes from multiple interview sessions. "Around eight months ago, I think,' said Jason Carl, Brand Marketing Manager at White Wolf, 'when Marco [Behrmann] World of Darkness is a setting much like our own, except supernatural monsters are real. Vampires engage in bloody political battles in the shadows of the cities while werewolves stalk the countryside fighting a losing battle against the end of world. What launched the game into the imaginations of millions was the chance to play those creatures as they fight to control their monstrous side with their human feelings. 'You are the monster,' said Carl. 'That has been at the core of the World of Darkness ever since its inception. It remains a core today. You are playing in a game of very personal struggle and you're the monster. You're not necessarily the antagonist or the bad guy but you are the monster. That was a revolutionary idea when it came out and it stood the role playing games hobby on its ear. Now, it's not as revolutionary of an idea but the way the World of Darkness presents it and the way in which it invites you to engage with that idea is still unique.' As a mirror to the real world, fans want to know what's going on in their neck of the woods and how to experience it. The original games had a sprawling interconnected metaplot that the current edition moved back into shadow not unlike what happened with IP like Star Wars or Marvel. Moving forward, they want to rebuild World of Darkness in a similar manner by taking stuff from the past that works while also not being afraid to explore new ideas that resonate more with modern day players. 'We've reached a point now where the demand for the IP is so strong and so high and where our players, our fans, our partners are expecting consolidation and centralization of that IP development,' said Carl. 'They want to go to one place to learn who is the Prince of Milan tonight, right? What really happened in Minneapolis/St. Paul when that stuff went down in the Winter's Teeth comic book series? Are the events of Night Road canon? Are those characters available to us to put in a video game? How should we stat them for our tabletop games? All that is perfectly valid. I think our fans and partners should expect that from us. But the best way for us to do it, at least with the maximum efficiency, is to bring it all inhouse and have that IP development run centrally.' The tabletop roleplaying games side of the World of Darkness has been handled recently by Renegade Game Studios. They took over publication of Vampire The Masquerade while also bringing two other classic game lines to life: Hunter: The Reckoning and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. For the time being, the company will still be producing those games with White Wolf as a partner. 'No immediate change,' said Carl. 'There's no reflection on Renegade at all. They've been a fantastic partner with World of Darkness. As a publishing business we need to work more directly with developing tabletop RPGs. The demand for the IP is growing. It's really significant already and it's only growing. We need to do more with it. That means we've got to bring more people on board. We've got to build out our creative team. We have to build out our publishing. We have to build out our distribution. We need to be able to manage that business centrally now top to bottom. What is it the British say? Soup to nuts.' Vampire: The Masquerade: Fifth Edition was released in 2018. Seven years into a gameline is often when publishers consider an undated corebook if not an entirely new edition. As White Wolf settles into its new role as steward of the World of Darkness, there are lots of ways the company could go. 'We're going to bring on more people into the core team inside the White Wolf organization,' said Carl. 'we're going to take a really thorough look at the environment. We're going to pay a lot of attention to what our TTRPG players and storytellers are telling us that they want. I do see the interest in a combined set of V5 or condensed set of V5 books that combine all the recent changes, all the updates that are in the Players Guide, all the new information across a number of source books. It makes sense that we should at least look at consolidating some of that material in a different format. Maybe they're different. Maybe they're prestige versions. Maybe they're softcover versions. Maybe they're PDF and soft cover together with a hardcover omnibus that follows later. I don't think that we've made any decision about that yet. We owe it to our players and our storytellers to listen to what they're telling us about that. And if it's possible and it makes sense for the business, that's exactly what we should give them.' The first game published under the revived banner of White Wolf will be the long awaited Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 video game currently slated for an October 2025 release.
Forbes
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Surreal Role Playing Game Invisible Sun Expands Via Crowdfunding
In the world of Invisible Sun, the real worlds is false and the game world is real. Fantasy is an important part of games like Dungeons and Dragons. Mix a little magic with other genres and you get amazing games like Shadowrun and the World of Darkness. Invisible Sun from Monte Cook Games asks: what if our world was the fantasy? The answers to this question are usually revealed to those who buy the game's Black Cube which offers one of the most unique presentations of a role playing game on the market. It's part escape room mystery, part puzzle box, part escape room mystery and part role playing game. Rather than offering a classic heroic zero to hero narrative, Invisible Sun offers a surreal dreamscape with powerful characters to tell stories about very, very strange magic. The Black Cube has been around since 2018 but Monte Cook Games has taken two new expansions of Invisible Sun to crowdfunding. Invisible Sun: Indigo offers a brand new way to get into the game for people who might not want the power of the Black Cube dominating their gaming library. Electric Sun offers an expansion to the world including new powers, new threats and a storyline. According to the game, players are vislae, powerful magic users who came to our world seeking shelter in a mundane life. They've reawakened to the Acuality, the world where magic is real, and are drawn back into the intrigues and possibilities of wielding magic again. There's magic in playing role playing games but Invisible Sun contents that it's capital M magic as much as it is creating stories with friends. Many of these stories take place in Satyrine, a vast city where the vislae gather. Though their powers are great, the vislae have far too human motivations and desires. Invisible Sun trusts players with great power from the start to tell dramatic stories about the mysteries of magic, While the Black Cube is impressive, it's tough to keep in print. The company has done multiple crowdfunding projects to get the cube into print only for it to sell out quickly after that. It can also be a bit intimidating for players used to a more conventional style of rules, such as a boxed set or series of books. Invisible Sun: Indigo takes the game back to basics. It's more like a traditional boxed set which contains everything a group needs to play the game. That includes rulebooks, spell cards, handouts and more. The game is reformatted with an eye to be more user friendly by making things easier to print out and photocopy. According to Monte Cook Games, it is not a new edition of the game. Players with the Black Cube will essentilly have the 'collectors edition' of Invisible Sun. Now more people will be able to play with those groups. Fans who are already studying the mysteries of the Actuality will find new ones on the horizon. The Electric Sun offers new ways to customize the game with new magic and new mysteries. There's even a new order of vislae to give players a new way to cast spells. This is a game about magic, and magic never stands still. How do these new ideas shake up the Actuality and the city of Satyrine? It's up to the players to discover these revelations and guide new vislae to a part in their world. Invisible Sun Indigo and The Electric Sun are crowdfunding through June 6th, 2025. Invisible Sun Indigo is currently expected to reach backers in Q1 od 2026. The Electric Sun will follow in Q2 of 2026.
