Ninja Theory: Enslaved performance prevented team expansion

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Sep 23rd 2011 1:50PM

Every year, critics and fans provide the word-of-mouth support to several games that barely subsist on a whisper of marketing. "Enslaved should have done better," says Tameem Antoniades, head of the game's developer, Ninja Theory. "Right now we should have been doing a sequel and perfecting that sequel and doing what franchises do, which is get better over time."

The comments come from a new issue of Edge (via CVG), and go on to show that the studio's longterm plans were altered by Enslaved's so-so sales. Antoniades reveals that Ninja Theory meant to expand to two teams, but have now remained a "smaller shop" to focus entirely on the Devil May Cry reboot for Capcom.

Though team members had "mentally prepared" themselves for this outcome, Antoniades said in October of last year, it's clear that the game's success had been embedded in the studio's plans for growth. (At least Enslaved wasn't a racing game.)

Since Devil May Cry is a firmly established brand, Ninja Theory's expressive characters may yet find themselves in a hit -- and perhaps even a finely tuned action game.

Source: CVG

Tags: devil-may-cry, dmc-devil-may-cry, enslaved, enslaved-odyssey-to-the-west, microsoft, namco-bandai, playstation, ps3, tameem-antoniades, xbox

Reader Comments (92)

I guess the Devil *glasses* heard their cries.

And here come the downvotes...

@Jay Z
I don't get it.

@Jay Z

Yeah.

Yeah?

Yeah.

@pluupy

They are making the new Devil May Cry.

and

"YEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

@Jay Z There is 99 problems with your joke but your bitch is not one of them(But you really should pick your female dogs poop up).

I had forgotten about this game and always wanted to know what the hype was all about. I just ordered it and will be playing it on tuesday (a bit late, I know)

Thanks for remind me about this game.

@Therion

Enjoy! Great game with excelent graphics, a fun story and fantastic characters!

It's a decent game with a lot of potential but they did this 1992 level design nonsense where there's like 1000 glowing orbs you have to collect for seemingly no reason and it really takes away from the nice cinematic experience they start off with. The main character is also hard to relate to.

I got bored after a few levels and figured I'd play it later and still haven't gotten around to it.

@Therion

I just beat it the other day. One of the best games I've played in a while. Such a shame we will most likely never see a sequel.

@whylekat But it's easy and you'll blow through it in a couple days.

@whylekat
"Great game with excelent graphics, a fun story and fantastic characters!"

And that is exactly the problem, the only thing the game has going for it is graphics,story and characters.

The gameplay element which is most important for many people is almost nonexistent, auto-platforming and press x to win takes no skill.

Enslaved is better watched than "played".

@jsx92

Youve pretty much summed it up. Atleast the beginning, i was taking back by the level design however mid-way through the game showed potential and got better. And im very critical particularly about that sort of nonsense level design.

Id definitely be trying out a sequel if it comes out

I enjoyed Enslaved. I would have loved to see a more perfected sequel. O'well...it isn't like there is a lack of games to play.

@The8bitPlaya

I think that's what's happening with the industry. Too many games means less revenue for each company. That's why if a game doesn't become a hit there's a risk of a studio being shut down.

Word of mouth does work though, I did buy Enslaved. It's sitting on my shelf waiting for me to play it... maybe in a couple of weeks...

@Dante G

What you said reminded me of Psychonauts. That game was amazing. I heard about it "word of mouth." I loved it.

Then almost a year later I open up my EGM and see Psychonauts as the sleeper hit of the year.

It deserved a sequel. :(

I really wanted to like this game, as I did enjoy Heavenly Sword. Unfortunately, the demo left a big pile of 'meh' all over my PS3. The cutscenes looked fantastic, but the gameplay didn't impress me.

I may give it a chance if I go with the game option on Qwickster (God, that feels wrong saying that for some reason.)

Heavenly Sword is amazing. The demo on the other hand was the worst part of the game. Sad fate for an amazing game.

@mattand Same here. I loved Heavenly Sword. Thought the demo of Enslaved was boring.

Wow what jerks.

I paid $10 for Enslaved when Gamestop put it on sale recently. And I can honestly say I regret even spending that little on the game. It was a very average throughout.

@Igor

But I bet you blow $65 on CoD every 6-8 months.

@whylekat I haven't bought a CoD since the original Modern Warfare. Good guess, though ;)

@Igor u are truly obnixious to say that game doesnt deserve your 10 dollars... they put hundreds of hours of work, and millions of dollars into that game.

maybe u didnt enjoy it, but dont act like it wasnt worth 10 dollars.

prick.

@(Unverified) Please. There are all kinds of expensive games that people worked really hard on that aren't worth paying to play because they suck too much. Do you bitch and moan whenever anyone says Duke Nukem Forever isn't worth any money?

@Igor

I hear what you're saying. I thought the game looked very shiny, the acting for the two main characters was decent, but the platforming was simplistic, the combat was fairly shallow, and the story... I mean, I'm sorry, but the big reveal at the end was just insultingly bad. Lazy, ridiculous writing.

Not that this would account for the game's poor performance of course, but still. I'm glad I rented.

@(Unverified)

It wasn't worth $10. If the game was worth $10 gamestop wouldn't have been able to mark it down so low.

As for the hundreds of hours and millions of dollars.. it's time to fire some people because time and money was wasted.

@(Unverified). Unfortunately, commodities -- which Enslaved is -- are not judged by their intent but rather by their final execution. Games are not unique in this respect. To put things in perspective, if it wasn't for the fact that I already it, for ten more dollars I could bought the first Uncharted. A similar but much better game. People make these kind of decisions all the time.

In fact, this article is reporting about a whole group who made the decision that Enslaved wasn't worth their money. I'm not unique in that respect. However, they were smart and used their money to buy other games. Unlike that group, I actually bought the game (ironically after reading Justin's review stating that the game was worth my time and money).

It's becoming increasingly obvious that the boxed retail market isn't the place for unknown IPs and original ideas. Going with XBLA/PSN with a somewhat scaled-down project seems to work far better than shooting for the moon with projects like Enslaved, Child of Eden, and...that weird violent game with all the immature jokes that I can't remember the name of (not Bulletstorm, although I suppose that belongs in this list too).

@Rollins

Oh no the boxed retail market is still a great place for unknown IPs and original ideas ..... just don't go presenting the Boxed retail market with mediocrity and expecting record breaking sales .....

By no means was enslaved bad but it wasn't exactly stellar either.

@Rollins Shadows of the Damned?

I enjoyed Enslaved. Would of loved a sequel...

too bad =( i actually liked Enslaved very much.

If this game didn't look so bad on my Tv I might of considered it. I just couldn't handle the jaggies.

@hyamzy

Standard def television?

Never got around to getting it. Might still pick it up later.

I could see this game going the way of Beyond Good and Evil.
A beloved, entertaining "low-performer", that gets revived several years later as a reboot of some sort. (What happens after HD?)
Some other developer will buy the rights to the game, we will hear whisperings of a sequel for years, complete with a teaser trailer ("meant as a tech demo").
There will be new stories fleshed out by various fan-fiction media, and a new cult status achieved that will inevitably result in message boards full of posts like, "I never played this. Is it any good?", and stuff like "OMFBBQ, it's the best game of last generation. But you probably wouldn't 'get it', anyway."

@JonahStein
And in the reboot, Monkey is a half-demon, half-angel that looks just like the game's Director (looked too lame before).

The game was kind of fun but about halfway through it started getting really monotonous to mash x repeatedly. Kind of a shame since it could have been a lot more interesting.

It's because their games done math the $60 price point to most people.
They make short, single player only games and expect the masses to fork over a bunch of cash.

I have a feeling they knew what they were doing wrong while they were doing it, and just left it so. By the end of the game I'd regretted wasting my time on the vain hopes that my upgrades would turn me into a badass, with nuanced fighting abilities, or that the story would pan out to be something worthy of Andy Serkis's talents.

The only reason I'd like to see a sequel is because UE3 has come a long way since whatever build they shipped Enslaved on.

Here's an idea: If a game is going to be the cornerstone of your vision for expanding a business, you may want to market said title to some capacity. This was a great game that deserved better than what it got and now, instead of getting a great sequel, we're getting a reboot of a game that really needed a naptime.

I really liked Enslaved. The gameplay wasn't perfect but it was fun if not challenging. The art direction was outstanding and the facial animation was ahead of it's time, pushing the boundaries before LA Noire came out. And of course the story and characters were very strong. Just my opinion but I would have loved to have seen this one become a franchise and get better overtime.

I think more people probably rented this than actually bought it.

i think the sales accurately reflected the game quality, decent game - had potential - but ultimately falls flat. If was developed as a more hardcore RPG i would have found it much more appealing. Hack n Slash didnt work for me

It is a shame because Heavenly Sword is in my top 3 games of this generation. It is an amazingly stellar game and I wish more people realized it.

I really wanted to love Enslaved, but I just couldn't stick with it amidst all of the other games I've been wanting to play. I may eventually go back to it, but it just didn't grip me like I had hoped.

I will be eagerly awaiting DMC though :)

Perhaps your product would've performed better had you taken the time to polish it. Or not make the upgrade system a useless collect-a-thon. Or vary the enemy types. Or add some sort of stimulating challenge to the platforming.

Enslaved has a strong art style, great music and a pretty engaging story. The problem is, the part that matters--gameplay--just wasn't up to snuff.

Bad game = bad sales. In this day and age, you have to make a game that has everything is you want it to suceed: graphics, controls, gameplay, content. If it doesn't have all these firmly in place, people aren't going to buy it. And frankly, why should we? I have to spend $60 on a new game, so how do these developers justify buying their game over another's when there isn't enough content to keep my interested? Frankly, the game looked stupid anyway, so I'd say its no big loss if we never hear from this franchise again.

@MW49350

Odd because I thought this game was good. I played through it (and even though it was short) I enjoyed the gameplay, graphics and controls. I didn't have any issues with it. Was it a perfect 10, no. But what is?

I honestly enjoyed it more than other AAA titles. For example, I don't understand why FFXIII sells. Its complete garbage, IMO.

@ReadingRambo Why does FF sell? One word: Otaku.

But more to the point- it doesn't matter if the game had a little fun in it, it doesn't deserve a purchase. Case and point- I have $60 to spend on a game, so do I buy Demon's Souls or Ensalved? One has tons of content, ltos of replayability, etc. The other is over in a few hours and provides little reason to come back. This right here is why nobody bought the game and it didn't deserve to be purchased in the first place: there are just better games out there, so why buy one like this?

this game was average all around. and the ending really stunk

to be honest it felt like it was made for 12 year olds

"At least Enslaved wasn't a racing game." Oh come on joystiq it soon. They lucky they didn't suffer the same fate as bizzare.

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Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Ninja Theory: Enslaved performance prevented team expansion

Reader Comments (92)

Posted: Sep 23rd 2011 1:56PM Jay Z said

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