Rime was rejected by Microsoft for lack of guns & burly men

VG Leaks has posted documents that appear to have come from Microsoft’s XBLA submission process. The game was initially called Echoes of Siren and was pitched as an Xbox 360, Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7 release. Tequila Works stated that it needed $3 million in partial funding to bring the game to Xbox Live alone, then a further $40,000 for Windows 8.

The game was listed on the document as ‘fully exclusive’ on Xbox formats, and at the time only needed 24 more months before completion. In its pitching form; Tequila Works describes Rime as a, third-person isometric RPG with a “great deal of exploration, crafting, survival and hero defence.” The studio also compared it to Orcs Must Die!

The elevator pitch reads, “Gauntlet meets Minecraft meets Jason and the Argonauts,” and continues, “As the darkest legends go, there is a far-off island where evil spirits inhabit and they are able to terrify the most determined and brave heart. It is now as Ecos; the damned island.

“Not always it was this. At another time a great civilization was developed in it. Their inhabitants bloomed until becoming a lighthouse in the dark. History became legend. Legend became myth. Many looked for the island and its secrets. Now, their bones and empty fortresses remain as a reminder of their imprudence.

[...]Then the Xbox One plans were announced and everything changed. The people at Microsoft say that the game doesn't fit in the strategy of the new console, that they are looking for "connected experiences" and the social factor. Rime didn't fit because it was a single-player game, a very traditional game experience. [...]

Lemmings should fire the current xbox division.
Link & Link

So your title is a lie.

To be honest...that pitch didn't impress me either. I don't know what the game is...who the audience is and three million sounds like quite a bit of an investment on very non mainstream idea.

If they would have added the words "Kinect", "Cloud" and "Zombie" to the design document MS would have jumped on it.

dude your title post is really misleading. where does it say that it rejected it because of lack of guns?

That's a pretty heavy investment for a DL game , though. I think Sony probably would have shot that down too at the time.

If Lems were going to fire their XBox, it would have happened in 2009 or 2010 like me. There's no hope for them, they are like Vault people from Fallout running around a barren wasteland trying to be the savior to all things XBox.

This would have been a good game to pick up, but hey Titanfall was offered to Sony as well before E3 You win some, you lose some.

SONY is a sanctuary for today's developers.

Gamer Focused, Developer Inspired

The PS4™ system focuses on the gamer, ensuring that the very best games and the most immersive experiences are possible on the platform. The PS4™ system enables the greatest game developers in the world to unlock their creativity and push the boundaries of play through a system that is tuned specifically to their needs. The PS4™ system is centered around a powerful custom chip that contains eight x86-64 cores and a state of the art 1.84 TFLOPS graphics processor with 8 GB of ultra-fast GDDR5 unified system memory, easing game creation and increasing the richness of content achievable on the platform. The end result is new games with rich, high-fidelity graphics and deeply immersive experiences.

Well said. Sony cares about gamers everywhere.

Summary of the story

• Indie developer asked Microsoft to front $3 million+ to fund development of a new game.
• Indie developer pitched the game to Microsoft.
• Microsoft was not impressed with the presentation.
• Microsoft did not give the indie developer money.

What's wrong with that?

@shawn30: sony obviously doesnt want to encourage another gen full of cod clones,

Did you read the reason given for rejecting it, that's what's wrong.

They seem to have confused "elevator pitch" with "paragraph full of nonsense that explains nothing"

Nothing. But, cows have to do whatever they can to post at least one new story as to why they do not like the XBox One.

$3 million for an indie game

Yes that's true, Sony is world focused. MS is too American.

@treedoor: Too expensive for Microsoft obviously, Sony seemed to have worked something out with them so all is well :).

If you want this thread to stay open you might want to fix the title.

Microsoft & Sony don't see good games when they see one. Sony pass on Demons Soul, because it was too hard and now they want From Software to developed Demons Soul 2 for them lol.

Yeah remove the guns thing, leave the burly men though.

There's lots of games that don't have guns or burly man on Live, but you wouldn't know that would you.....sheesh...blind fanboys really are ruining Gamespot with their asinine threads....

lmao seriously what are the Xbox division even doing. >__<. It's an indie game it's in the strategy by default.

From the quotes, Microsoft wants to invest in multiplayer games instead of single player games. Can't argue with that strategy with the online infrastructure that they have built and are building. Almost all Microsoft's exclusive games now have multiplayer elements.

People might take your posts seriously if you didn't embellish like a drooling fanboy.

maybe that was the least offending way to avoid saying "No, Deadlight sucked and we have no faith in you! And besides, it looks like a desperate rip-off of a Journey-Ico hybrid."

It's strange they invest in Crimson Dragon & Ryse, both titles created for single player and not online multiplayer. This is just a BIG "**** you!" to indies. They sugarcoat this by "the game doesn't fit in the strategy of the new console".

They can invest $500 million in buying rights to Gears of Bore, a dead, bled out franchise...but not a measly 3 in a new & promising indie game?

Errgh. Both Ryse and Crimson Dragon has multiplayer modes.

lol hey OP if someone came to you asking for 3 million dollars to make a game that is 2 hours long will cost 5 bucks and looks like it belong on a 20 year old system, would you pay them for it?

For an indie game? Nobody would fund that.

But do you work in the game industry ? Do you know how game pitching works ?

You are looking at this pitch from an entirely different standpoint, so saying something like "three million sounds like quite a bit of an investment on very non mainstream idea" really is your opinion, and not that of someone who would be publishing a game or not.

A My Little Pony game with QTEs and hentai porn might not have fit well with their strategy either, would you blame them for rejecting that too? Not every game that is pitched to a publisher is destined to be good, so obviously the presentation didn't impress them too much.

Couple that with the fact that Tequila Works' last game didn't exactly set the world alight, they have every right to be wary. They can't just throw money at every Tom, Dick and Harry that approaches them with any semblance of a video game. They'll fund some and they won't fund others. Would Sony be a white knight if they bankrolled some shitty Segway simulator when MS rejected it?

God, you people are so goddamned obtuse.

Of course, they're going to deny some games that will legitimately turn out good but they can't predict that, just make an informed guess.

Yet kickstarter funds games up to 40 million dollars, like Star Citizen. Look at Sony, apparently they are willing to fund it. Us gamers win if this is the next Zelda. Get rid of that archaic mindset Microsoft still seems to have, to label indies apart from AAA titles. Games are games.

And this is why Sony always delivers the best exclusives. You've got a good home among the PlayStation, Rime.

Yup a mistake that is going to cost them dearly.

So they shot down a pitch... Who cares?

Muh always-online

Muh connected experiences

Muh multiplayer

Microsoft is cancer.

Did you? Because I read both of the articles linked in the OP and, spoiler alert, the thread title is 100% bullshit. That is not mentioned, or even vaguely implied, in any way, in either of the linked articles. TC is trolling.

I think MS is against gays at the Olympics also.

lol

1. Its not an indie game when it needs funding from a publisher.
2. 3 million for an indie game? lol

God sheen's are such idiots.

Are cows dumb? Allowing every developer and their dog to make games for your console cheaply is one thing, but when a developer wants investment of 3m dollars, MS are supposed to just throw the money at them because the cows say so?

Can I just point out the irony with your own low scoring Killzone game that Sony invested a ton in.

Rime looks amazing.

MS missed out. Lems will miss out.

Titanfall was never offered to sony,in fact the deal MS had with EA was based on the fact that they believed the xbox one would be the number 1 console this gen,since the start the game was set for xbox.

lmao lems making excuses on missing out on actual exclusives because Phil Spencer is an idiot.

Best lie ever. Say what people want to hear and you get rewarded, even if your finance is built on a house of cards.

I am usually pro Sony, but cows have to be the worst fanboys ever. Ask yourself this, why in the hell would you fund an indie studio 3million dollars that would most likely sell poorly?

Rime is 2 hours.? Link please.. Do you even know what this game is.?

Yeah because Minecraft cost $100 millions to make..lol

How many millions it has sold on xbox 360.?

I find odd how lemming pretend now that MS doesn't pay for exclusive WTF they have been paying since 2000,how else do you think games like NG,Dead or alive,Oddworld landed on xbox on the first place.?

You people look ridicule,MS has pay for Indies Minecraft say high.

Yeah because a PS1 could move this game,my god some fanboys are just to blind.

http://blog.es.playstation.com/2013/09/03/vuestro-primer-vistazo-a-rime-la-impresionante-aventura-de-ps4/

1-All games need funding,the fact that they ask for 3 million doesn't negate the fact that is an indie game.

2-Some indie games have cost even more,indie refer to the status of the development team,not to the investment the game requires.

No you are...

MS has been trowing money in developers face since 2000,Dead or alive 3 landed on xbox because MS pay,same with NG and oddworld and several other games,on 360 the same Bioshock,Mass Effect,and a truck load of games were xbox time exclusive because MS pay,and they still paying and that is the reason Titanfall isn't on PS4 because they pay,is teh reason why Dead Rising 3 is not on PS4 either or Ryse,those are 3rd party exclusives,a game is a game Minecrafst and Journey proved that long time ago...

Minecarft even beat Halo 4 online numbers after halo was just a month old that popular indie games are,but i forgot that Indies only matter only on xbox brand,funny how the xbox 360 had tons of them and now after treating most developers as dirt MS is basically out of indies and now indies are bad...lol

6 million strong and growing. Awwwww yeahhhh.