Do you think the Developers now regret the ps2 exclusivity?

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Andy_bc
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Do you think the Developers now regret the ps2 exclusivity?

Post by Andy_bc »

What if they wouldn't have sold out to Sony at that time? Do you think some of the developers now feel like they should have also released it on the original xbox aswell.
I feel like microsoft is doing hard work in bringing older xbox titles to their new console. They could have added it to their backwards compatibility list if a decent amount of fans reached out to them.

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Arokhs Twin
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Re: Do you think the Developers now regret the ps2 exclusivity?

Post by Arokhs Twin »

To be honest I don't think they did and they didn't have a say in it really anyway. Although Surreal developed Drakan, the rights to the game was with Psygnosis which at the time was an independent publisher. They eventually became part of SCEE some time in the late 90's around the time of the original OOTF launch. They still continued to publish PC games until the PS2 came along and Sony decided that they should not be making PC games anymore and make them for their new all singing - all dancing shiny new console instead. Drakan: TAG was part way through development and Sony did see promise in the title and had Surreal make it for the PS2 only. I could have even been cancelled at this point if Sony did not believe in it.

Surreal themselves would have got a lot of money from this which went towards future projects (Drakan series not one of them) and they eventually became part of Monolith (WB Games) who in turn went bankrupt a couple of years later taking the Surreal team with them. The Drakan series copyright still lies with Sony. I think at one point some of the ex Surreal staff were trying to buy the rights off Sony so they could make Drakan: Online but that never worked out.
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Andy_bc
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Re: Do you think the Developers now regret the ps2 exclusivity?

Post by Andy_bc »

Thanks for this information. I didn‘t know that.

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Arokhs Twin
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Re: Do you think the Developers now regret the ps2 exclusivity?

Post by Arokhs Twin »

I'd like to make a slight correction; Surreal was taken over by Midway games around 2004 which WB games then bought out along with Monolith Productions. They decided to close Midway games and keep the Monolith productions studio merging some Midway assets into Monolith. The ex Surreal Software studio was not one of the assets which got transferred.
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