To begin with, I was never too hot on the idea of episodic content. But with companies like Valve and their distribution method of Steam, short regular episodes of great games such as Half Life 2 didn' t seem like a bad idea in the end. Kind of like a weekly TV episode - except bi-annually.
Certainly it did have its good points:
- We could get a taste of our games sooner rather than later
- Developers could use feedback from the previous episode to change/modify things that players liked/disliked. Thus refining the overall game experience.
- The graphics engine could be kept up to date
- Generally the maximum wait between episodes would be 6 months
- Any system with an internet connection could potentially take advantage of it.
Fast forward to today and what do we have? Hmmm. I' d have to say the word to describe episodic content is " pathetic." Anyone remember Sin Episodes? Boy did that screw up royally. It crashed so fast that many probably never heard of it. But hey, if your game sucks I guess episodic content allows you to cut your losses and leg it much more easily.
But surely a fantastic developer such as Valve could make episodic content work? Looks like they stuffed that up too. We got Half Life 2 in November 2004. Episode 1 came out in June 2006. Episode 2 looks to be headed for an October 2007 release - pending any more ridiculous delays. That' s a minimum of 14 month between episodes for Valve. Nice work Valve! You only went over your schedule by at least 115%! Amazing!
" But wait" you say? " They' re bundling it with Portal and Team Fortress 2!" Yeah well Portal looks to be fun but short and once you finish it you' re probably never going to play it again. Team Fortress 2 looks to be good fun but for a game that' s breaking into a decade long development cycle, it looks to be very limited on release with only two game modes and six maps. The rest will be coming through DLC and no doubt we' ll have to wait a stupidly long time for that too. It' s not like we haven' t seen the rock, paper scissors type gameplay either.
No, Valve is definitely not a developer who could ever stick to a solid episodic content schedule. They' re known for their incredible games and incredibly long development cycles. It seems like Valve is trying to mask their failure and appease their audience by chucking in some extra stuff to make it look like they haven' t completely fucked up their episodic content promises.
Valve cannot do episodic content. 14 months development for 4 hours of gameplay is pathetic. I don' t know about you, but I' d rather wait 3 years for a solid groundbreaking Half-Life 3, than beat around the bush for years on end with a mere Half Life 2.1 (because that
is what we' re getting no matter which way you look at it).
But hey, don' t worry guys. Episode 3 should be just around the corner (Q1 2009).