Dear Esther dev's Rapture No longer coming to PC

Did they even try kickstarter or crowdfunding?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/08/22/dear-esther-devs-rapture-no-longer-coming-to-pc/

Hello, everyone. I come bearing some extremely depressing news. The raptures happening soon, but not to us. Hm, well jeez, when I phrase it that way, it doesnt sound terrible at all. What I mean to say is, Dear Esther developer thechineserooms next non-Amnesia game, the super fascinating Everybodys Gone To The Rapture, is no longer coming to PC at all, for the foreseeable future. Sonys nabbed it for its burgeoning army of indie exclusives, so I guess that means its not allowed to love us anymore. I reached out to thechineserooms Dan Pinchbeck, and he confirmed the bad news.

Truth be told, I went in expecting to come away marking off days on my calendar until a period of timed exclusivity was up, but no such luck. When I asked if everybody who matters you know, PC gamers would eventually go to the rapture, Pinchbeck offered a brief, unfortunate reply: No, itll be a PS4 exclusive.

We dont have the money or production expertise to make this game without help.

Thats a terrible shame, because the Dear Esther successor (aka, the Thur Sesser Detester if you try to say it five times fast) is looking terrifically intriguing. In short, you explore a small town just 60 minutes before some snarling cataclysm leaps from a bush and bites existence in the ankle to death. Various characters spend their final hour in different fashions, and you can either watch them search for peace in the panic or interfere by way of exploration and physical interaction.

I queried further as to why were missing out, and Pinchbeck was refreshingly frank:

So the thinking went like this, he began. We dont have enough money or production expertise to make this game without help. We dont think we can raise enough through Kickstarter or public alpha to make this happen. We could do with production support on a game this scale. Weve always wanted to make a console game. Publishers have bad reputations all too often. Hey, Sony Santa Monica are great though. Weve met them a few times and really like them and their attitude.

Also, PS4 is starting to look very cool as a platform. All eggs thrown into singular basket, Sony Santa Monica contacted, everybody likes each other, lots of love for the project. Long dark night of the soul mulling over implications of shifting across to console. Mix of pragmatism and excitement about the possibilities win out.

But what of thechineserooms loyal supporters on PC who among other things sprinted the first-person walk-n'-talkers sales all the way up to well over 750,000? Pinchbeck and co are perhaps more aware of their fan bases mighty contribution than anyone, and theyre incredibly grateful. But they saw a chance to branch out and create an otherwise impossible project. They couldnt say no.

Dear Esther fans were very much in our thoughts, but enough of us are multi-platform gamers to make this work for us, explained Pinchbeck. And were in this for the long game, so I cant see us not returning to PC, or doing whatever we can to keep that fan base as we owe them a great deal.

But part of that is following our instincts about how we develop and find stability as a studio and this is going to be part of the process. And without sounding like a bought man, the PS4 is genuinely a really, really cool platform, and if people have never bought into console gaming before, this is the time.

Which makes perfect sense given the position thechineseroom is currently in, but still: I was really looking forward to Everybodys Gone To The Rapture. Now my brow is crinkled and my shoulders are slumped. This definitely isnt the end of the world, but it kinda feels like it. Blargh. Well, I guess lets just wistfully sigh as we take a brief glance at what were missing.

I was looking forward to this game, sony is making me get closer to buying a PS4

PC is still the go to system for indies.

And that is why I hate Sony. They always keep the IPs for them.

I hope this means Dear Esther and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs will come to PS4 as well.

I'll still pick them up on Steam but it would be great for other people to experience these titles that don't game on PC.

Consolites begged for indies and exclusives and they finally got 1.blue_hazy_basic

[QUOTE="blue_hazy_basic"]Consolites begged for indies and exclusives and they finally got 1.II_Seraphim_II

dat return serve :P

Seems like a poor excuse. I guess Sony offered them big bucks. clyde46

Welcome to the most trivial (but inevitable) aspects of consoles and publishing rights.  Gotta do something that enhances the value of your brand over others'.

Yeah they sold out, DE sales would have made them more than enough money to fund this game, Sony offered them money, they took it, end of story

Sony offered bigger money, not hard to understand really

We still have Machine for pigs as their PC exclusive. 

[QUOTE="blue_hazy_basic"]Consolites begged for indies and exclusives and they finally got 1.II_Seraphim_II

Ouch. Poor hermits. Always begging but never gettingCapitan_Kid

Ouch. Poor hermits. Always begging but never gettingCapitan_Kid

In otherwords, they don't wanna make money :lol:

Nothing of value was lost. I couldn't even get into playing Dear Esther, but I have heard you could basically just Youtube the game.

Meh...they will crawl back on their belly. Mark my words.

Thatgamecompany made Journey and went bankrupt on PS 3.  

Consolites begged for indies and exclusives and they finally got 1.blue_hazy_basic

and consolites gave PC peasants Dark Souls, which is better than all PC games COMBINED

.freedomfreak

Start begging Hermits

Start begging Hermits

Davekeeh

PS4 gonna flop. Multiplat Station 4

[QUOTE="blue_hazy_basic"]Consolites begged for indies and exclusives and they finally got 1.-Damien-

when consolites gave PC peasants Dark Souls, which is better than all PC games COMBINED

You're stupid, sounds like you don't know a thing about PC gaming.  You must be really hurting that PC is lead platform for Dark Souls 2.  How does it feel that you're getting a port peasant?

Start begging Hermits

Davekeeh

Seems like a poor excuse. I guess Sony offered them big bucks. clyde46

It comes across as all money and money talks and it's bad but sony are doing more than just helping the indie devs out, giving them bigger offices and better tools to work with, and even giving them a couple of staff if needs be, there doing the best to get indie's set up and going and in return to publish on there system first, at the end of the day indie developers are there own people, they have the say so to go with them or not.

[QUOTE="Davekeeh"]

Start begging Hermits

blue_hazy_basic

[QUOTE="blue_hazy_basic"]Consolites begged for indies and exclusives and they finally got 1.II_Seraphim_II

Start begging Hermits

Davekeeh

[QUOTE="Davekeeh"]

Start begging Hermits

DrTrafalgarLaw

No Amnesia on consoles. Start begging peasants.

Meh...they will crawl back on their belly. Mark my words.

Thatgamecompany made Journey and went bankrupt on PS 3.

jhonMalcovich

Way for the devs to shit on the fans who supported them

[QUOTE="jhonMalcovich"]

Meh...they will crawl back on their belly. Mark my words.

Thatgamecompany made Journey and went bankrupt on PS 3.

Mr-Kutaragi

I know nothing about this game.

Way for the devs to shit on the fans who supported them

lostrib

A Machine for Pigs is still coming to PC and it´s a PC exclusive.

Probably we won´t see any PC games from them for a while. But still not a big loss. They couldn´t milk Amensia franchise any longer. 

And there are tons of kickstarter Indie developers who can replace them on horror genre. 

We have Outlast and Among the Sleep to name a few.

[QUOTE="Capitan_Kid"]Ouch. Poor hermits. Always begging but never gettingclyde46

[QUOTE="Mr-Kutaragi"]

[QUOTE="jhonMalcovich"]

Meh...they will crawl back on their belly. Mark my words.

Thatgamecompany made Journey and went bankrupt on PS 3.

clyde46

[QUOTE="clyde46"][QUOTE="Capitan_Kid"]Ouch. Poor hermits. Always begging but never gettingCapitan_Kid

Aleast we will get most of those :lol:

[QUOTE="clyde46"][QUOTE="Capitan_Kid"]Ouch. Poor hermits. Always begging but never gettingCapitan_Kid

[QUOTE="clyde46"][QUOTE="Capitan_Kid"]Ouch. Poor hermits. Always begging but never gettingCapitan_Kid

Consolites beg as well.  Because apparently thinking a game is good and wanting it on your platform=beggin in system wars

[QUOTE="clyde46"][QUOTE="Capitan_Kid"]Ouch. Poor hermits. Always begging but never gettingCapitan_Kid

Someone is mad.

[QUOTE="clyde46"][QUOTE="Mr-Kutaragi"] "When development began, Sony expected the game to be completed in a year, rather than the more than three it finally took.[8] Thatgamecompany always expected needing an extension; according to Hunicke, they believed finishing the game within a year was "unrealistic".[9] Development ended up taking even longer than anticipated, as the team had difficulties paring down their ideas for the game and maintaining efficient communication.[9] Over the course of development the team grew from seven to eighteen people.[6][8] At the end of the second year, when Sony's extension had run out, the game did not spark the emotions in the player that the team wanted. Sony agreed to another one-year extension, but development ultimately exceeded even that.[10]

The stress of the project led to the feeling there was not enough time or money to complete everything the team wished to, which added to the stress and caused arguments about the design of the game. The developers ended up reducing the overtime they spent on the project to avoid burning out, though it meant further delays and risked the company running out of money as the game neared completion. In a speech at the 16th annual D.I.C.E. Awards in 2013, Chen admitted that the company had indeed been driven to bankruptcy in the final months of development, and that some of the developers had gone unpaid at the time.[10] Hunicke described the solution to finally finishing the game as learning to let go of tensions and ideas that could not make it into the game and be "nice to each other."

Journey received critical and commercial success worldwide. After its release, it became the fastest-selling game to date on PlayStation Store in both North America and Europe.[33]"

Please do not cry.Mr-Kutaragi

[QUOTE="Mr-Kutaragi"][QUOTE="clyde46"] And also bankrupted the developers. Please don't cry.clyde46

It even says in his quote that the company had been driven to bankruptcy