Seeing this unfold was something. As a software developer myself (though not a game developer, currently), I can definitely sympathize with the plight of devs like Conrad. A lot of people on the outside see a bad or glitchy game and immediately point fingers at the devs, when really the devs are more aware of the issues than anyone and are fighting to get things done right. Bad or unpolished games are, from what I've seen anyway, a result of cooperate politics or business decisions more than incompetent developers. Most people only see the final product, they don't get to see the giant mess in the kitchen.
As a writer I was mortified for him. It would be like if someone published one of my rough drafts to the world and not a draft that has been edited and polished up multiple times
I always just judge the final product anyway, precisely because I can't see what went on in making it, I wasn't there. I find it a bit unfair though how reddit and youtubers and the like always blame publishers and management when a game is bad, but on the other hand when a game is good they ALWAYS praise the devs, and not publishers/management. It's like this weird double standard where developers are never held accountable for anything and can apparently do no wrong. It doesn't take a lot of critical thinking skills to see it.
In recent years it's become increasingly obvious that bad video games and anime are very often the result of executive BSery, crunch and abuse rather than people working on them being bad at their jobs (I'm pretty sure Ex-Arm is an exception because none of the team who worked on it had any experience making anime but Crunchyroll shouldn't have commissioned Visual Flight to make an anime in the first place ("We _totally_ support the anime industry so we're putting our money into a company that doesn't make anime to make an anime instead of an anime studio") so they're the most to blame regardless).
@@steel5897I'm the same way. I don't judge a game based on what happened I judge a game as is. Yeah learning the behind the scenes shenanigans sure does explain it but it doesn't change the fact that the final product is crap. It's still unfair that the dev received some much unnecessary shit though.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but what did Kickstarter have to do with this failure? The game was successfully Kickstarted and the developer delivered on what that Kickstarter promised. This seems to be more a story about the dispute between him and Digerati. I don't really see what the Kickstarter campaign has to do with this debacle.
TLDR: Kickstarter campaign wasn't clear enough (or people didn't read) that it was NOT a "Paper Mario" like game. Backers thought it was (because of the Art Direction) and backed the project. Conrad felt the pressure of that expectation. He went to find a publisher to help financially to add the Paper Mario gameplay. All that butterfly-effected to the current situation. My understanding is that the Kickstarter community, the backers, had the wrong impression it a was a "Paper Mario" like game gameplay-wise (paper mario rpg elements, theater battle scene, etc....) because of the art direction; they backed it because of that, despite no mention of those gameplay aspects described on the project page. It was supposed to simply be a narrative heavy adventure game and the funds asked on Kickstarter reflected that. This misunderstanding from the backers put some pressure on Conrad (add to that a fear for many backers to want a refund if it was revealed it wasn't the game they wanted). The expectation for a Paper Mario like game meant more work, ergo more money needed. The budget they got from the Kickstarter campain wasn't enough. So Conrad went to a publisher that could help. Here came Digerati and gave the supplementary funds to add the "Paper Mario" gameplay. And then stuff went bad following that decision. Conclusion: if that expectation from the kickstater backers never was, no pressure on Conrad who would have done the game he originally imagined, no Digerati, thus the game would still be on the eStores.
Well also the Backers that expected it to have Paper Mario gameplay when it was actually a PM themed puzzle game. I don't think I can point a finger at a single party here since it was mostly what the playstyle was being unclear to the Paper Mario lovers that it wasn't meant to have that playstyle. So many things that compounded one another sent this game over the cliff of failure.
@@PinkAgaricus Apparently, PC version of the game is fine (if you can find a download for that). It's just the console versions that the developer did not approve of. I do think saying Kickstarter backers excepting the game to be a Paper Mario game being the reason why the game got into it's situation is very unfair and clickbaity. I think it's more of an unfortunate and unlucky relationship between the publisher and developer. If it was a different more competent publisher or if Digerati actually finished their work on the console ports, this would have never happened.
We support you Conrad - you've had a bad experience but you've had it early and you can now move forward with your eyes more open to how these things work in the real world. I look forward to your career and wish you the best of success.
I feel so bad for him. He's clearly young and has a ton of talent, but got totally fucked over. I really hope that this experience doesn't turn him away from wanting to continue as a developer.
I had no idea about any of this, I thought the game looked neat so I got it on Steam, I didn't even realize that it no longer had a Steam page anymore!
It seems that creators have been getting screwed since the very beginning of the video game industry. Sorta like EVERY OTHER CREATOR IN ANY OTHER ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS.
Man, with indie games, you have ONE shot to get it right, and if it's DOA, there's a huge chance people will never pick it up. I love No Man's Sky, and I still have friends who refuse to pick it up though it is insanely good now! Feel bad for the dev... A bad port looks bad on him and his work, though the overrecaction to take everything down was kinda bad, professionally.
Yeah it's funny I spoke to the dev who made the lowest rated game on steam with like 100 bad reviews and 1 good one. But he's still making updates to try and fix it.
TBH it's their loss, not the dev's. As long as people keep feeding into the "first impression" BS with their own judgmental behavior, then they will ALWAYS miss out.
@@cyxceven Well it's also the Dev's loss. One thing I have seen with steam reviews is you need to promote and give people the most accurate impression of what they are buying. People Playground is one of the top 5 rated games on steam. Is it a good game? No, you just put a bunch of things in a room and watch it all blow up. But everyone who bought it knew what it was so it gets as good a rating as Portal.
It's kinda amazing how No Man's Sky went from a barren empty game to being so rich with content. My older brother got into it not too long ago and it looks so cool now! I'm honestly impressed, the game managed to redeem itself over the years.
This just makes me sad really. Gatekeeping games sucks. Saying limited run is meaningless since all publication runs are limited to the amount made. And digital is just a license. You don’t even own the game!
Even physical is just a license now basically. If you need that day one update and they pull it from the store you can’t play it. Also I think like BluRay there is an online license check thing and they can pull it. Remember when BluRay players couldn’t play Avatar discs because of a license issue
Most games don't need those day one patches. Online service games aside. Most times I don't even have my PS4 or PS5 connected to the internet when playing games. I don't play online and stick to mostly classic style and single player story games.
Recognized the blurred out cover art since I bought the physical PS4 copy of this, completely unaware of its infamous state, just because it looked like a Paper Mario fan game.
good video, i liked the supplementary parts. we gotta talk more about all these switch publishers marketing their "limited print" games and whats going to happen in the long term to all these obscure titles designed for reselling and collecting
Will be buying. You should do more videos like this. I love collecting. Still upset at myself for not getting the other two .Hack games before they got unreasonable in price.
17:35 Glad I don't have that kind of contract with RUclips for the videos they automatically converted into shorts without my permission (and this was after RUclips automatically gimped the video player on them to have massive black bars, though ItsJustSomeRandomGuy's older Marvel and DC videos got it even worse for some reason as the videos became tiny misaligned squares, though they weren't automatically converted into shorts) so I added to the video names to say that they weren't meant to be shorts
The whole "limited amount" factor was the reason I ordered a copy of this on every console it came out on due to the possible impending law stuff aaand maybe a recall. Cheers for the heads up with that on the Kickscammers Live stream haha, tis the kinda stuff I love having in the collection. Having a story to 'em and such. Seeing a version of the original puzzle idea would have been way cooler honestly, as much as I love Paper Mario. But there's a ton of those style indie games nowadays.
This whole thing bites, honestly, especially since I actually liked The Outbound Ghost myself (more so than the recent Paper Mario: The Origami King). The game may not be "great", but it did welcome me further into indie games and I especially liked its "customization" options, particularly with its "EXP Multiplier" slider which I hope is welcomed more into future games. Either way, I have the digital version myself (until the Switch's eShop closes down, that is) and regardless of whoever is in the wrong, I do hope Digerati cherishes the $25 I gave them because that's all they're getting from me after this whole fiasco. Meanwhile, though I am personally not interested in Conradical Games' upcoming Soul Stalker game, I do wish the dude the best for that project.
Interesting story about this game, kind reminds me the game Ittle Dew 2. Similar thing happened, the developer got a fight with the publisher: Nicalis resulting in de-listing the digital title on consoles except on Steam since the developer re-listed the game again by self-publishing. And the only way to play that game on consoles now is by the Switch version since it was the only one that got a physical release.
@@slopesgameroom Well you can always look into that but let me tell you one thing: You will see maybe a lot of drama, lol!. It mostly because the publisher Nicalis doesn't have a good reputation in the indie's community (I personally hate them by of what they did with the indie game: 90's Arcade Racer). But hey, still it could be a good material for a video.
Great 3DS joke with Mario pointing the handgun at it, it sums up how Nintendo treat their consoles when they are done with them, as you say all console manufacturer have a minimum print size, print run sizes look to be quite a bit smaller these days than the ones in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era. May have to grab a copy just to see what it is like.
Physical copies aside, can anyone explain to me why indie devs need publishers nowadays? Why not self publish on Steam, GOG, Itch, Switch, XBOX and PSN?
From what I've witnessed, it's mostly to alleviate the marketing and promotion part, including community management and social media. Those can be very time consuming for someone who prefers to focus their energy on their game and/or are socially stunted, and can become very costly if one wishes for as many people as possible to know their game exists as quickly as possible - especially if there is no pre-existing public or following to create hype. It can be bothersome. So it's preferably delegated to people, aka publishers, who have the tools and experience for that kind of stuff. In this case though, it was for added financial help as well, due to circumstances.
@@YeppohTube I was gonna say, going with a publisher effectively takes the financial and brand management off the devs + helps get through red tape faster. It just comes at a cost that is at the very least financial, though there is obvious potentially loss of creative freedom. It's the same reason record labels or Film distributors still exist even in the world of online monetization being so accessible. It's all just a matter of personal cost vs. risk assessment. Overall, in this current age I would say you're better off just learning the ins and outs of the market BEFORE you get into development and _then_ doing it solo as best as possible, but I'm also a business major so I'm sure that's much more daunting to people totally green to it all.
I knew about Outbound Ghost but have held off buying it, simply because I've read it plays terribly lol. I have considered picking it up from that speculative angle, but... I rarely end up selling my games so it would probably just take up space tbh! Also Xenoblade Golden Torna got a reprint (or reprints?) In the US at least. Still available for RRP last I checked. I found an AU copy cheap pre owned, but missing the dlc which is annoying.
What is a "Pine Pot" actually? Did Sega ever explain? Love to see you having the sign in almost every video as a SoR fan. 🙂 Thanks for the great review, they're always profound and great fun to watch.
So weird... I thought I watched a video on this whole debacle recently, got me interested in the game, and I thought it was one of yours, but a search back through my history turns up nothing. Anyway, hope things go better for Conrad the next time around.
Slope I bought this day 1 and I thought my eyes were failing me. I even stopped and showed my wife and I was like is this running at like 5fps and just skipping framework altogether? It wasn’t until I got into a battle that I thought it was literally bricking my switch that I completely stopped playing it, didn’t know that it was even patched. I’ll give it another go!
@@slopesgameroom Oh man, So no winning here for us. Might just keep that for collectors purposes and get the ps5 version for playability. Sucks for the consumers more than anything, Good thing about all this is that I’m becoming your RUclips member as we speak, You deserve it man I go back to your content more than anyone else on this site, keep up the great work my boy 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Oh so THAT's what happened to the game.. I played the demo version back then and it was quite fun (beside the wonky frame rate). I was wondering when it will come out. D:
1:50 But aside from Producing Perfection (which is stuck in Vita jail), the original releases of the first three and ReVerse (which being the second remake of the first game will probably be on Steam in the future) they're all on Steam and ReBirth 1, the Senran Kagura crossover, Virtual Stars (who in their right mind would even want this one?) and ReBirth 1 are on various Cloud streaming services like PSNow, Nvidia Shield, Shadow and airgpu so that value is either going to cap out fast, go back down or both.
I gotta ask - did you really set all your games up just for the setting of this video, or are you in process of reorganizing lol.. Great video as always!
Just by the thumbnail alone, I already can tell that this is The Outbound Ghost, and that's what made me watch this because oh boy, what happened with this game was a mess. I never knew the FULL story though, wow, it's even worse than I thought. I own this game digitally on Switch (I bought it BEFORE the devs announced they were pulling out of their publishing deal) It crashed on me numerous times while I was playing, the load times into every single battle is 15+ seconds as was noted in this video, and bad frame rates, among other things. I knew the part where Digerati refused to push the updates that fixed these issues, but that was it. Never knew it went so deep that they pushed the devs to make the game into a Paper Mario RPG, when it was supposed to be an adventure puzzle game? No wonder the game was pretty bad. The bugs were one thing, but the game's story also tanked HARD. Without spoiling too much, the longest chapter in the game has you just backtracking through literally everything and it's very tedious, nothing is resolved, and you're left with a very unsatisfying ending. That being said, the gameplay was pretty good for the most part, but it's still a shame that the game was left released in this state, and not even what was originally intended.
Yeah I don't think he's anywhere nearly as young as 13, but he's definitely quite young. I hope that this experience doesn't deter him from continuing to develop games because he's clearly got a lot of talent.
The first five minutes just feels like one big long ad. 5:35 and then Slope didnt declare the video a paid sponsorship in the upload settings. Going to ruin it for all of us one day.
@@JOBdOut In that case, i apologise, i get a lot of people make up drama that is simply not true. But I assure you the "My video contains paid promotion like a product placement, sponsorship, or endorsement" box is ticked for this video. sorry its not showing folks
I have a question for you Slope. Have you ever heard of a game called Demon's Tier plus? I had a friend pick it up for me and apparently they only made 1200 copies of it. I have number 398.
@Slope's Game Room it most definitely is man. Wanna borrow it? I'll totally send it to you, as long as I can get it back. Possibly with a signature. You're literally the BEST man.
Suspect that my copies of Super Robot Wars V, X, and T for the Switch are the only ones in the entire country. After all none of those games were released outside of Asia..
There is a English translation, but it does at times rather clearly show the fact that it was translated by someone who clearly didn't have English as their first language. Or, most likely, Japanese either..
You live in North Korea or something? Those were readily available to preorder on import sites and still available second hand on SEA sites if you know where to look
I'm going to have OneShot physically here in a month or two! I'm really excited; it's one of my favorite games of all time. My friend got it for me on LimitedRun Games.
Contracts are contracts and should be followed to the letter. However: Digerati breached their contract with Conrad first; their attempt at maximizing profit by minimizing effort and screwing over the original IP Owner shouldn't give them any favors in court. Nevertheless: Conrad made the mistake of feeling justified in breaching his contract with them as a result, and now Digerati is trying to screw him over through technicalities. He should have included a clause that explicitly indicates that any breach of his contract by the company shall render any and all subsequent contracts benefitting Digerati null and void, since it would have discouraged Digerati from pulling the stunts they did or causing them to opt out in the first place. It is very obvious to see that Digerati was looking to screw Conrad over from the moment Nick died and the only advantages they have against him are due to lack of foresight on his part.
I have never heard of these game and I am willing to buy them to support the developer even tho I may not play them. I'm playstation but I do have a Nintendo Switch and an X/One.
ya its down to his emotions screwing himself over . he should have never changed the Name of the game to distance. if its in the contract then its in the contract. this is why kids shouldn't run business as adults. You don't break the contract.
I bought a PS5 copy of this game not long after it debutedand right after heard about the craziness with this game. What a total mess for Conrad, yikes!
This galaxy lamp looks really cool but I don't like such saturated almost artificial colours, I would love to see option with more subtle and natural shades.
I was interested in this game, I almost bought a physical copy for the Switch, but I read that it ran terribly and I wasn't feeling the demo that much. I wasn't aware of the shit show that was unfold.
I fully support going full scorched earth from how the publishers ruined his game. Not sure if this one is gonna go up in price honestly, people tend to want playable games and we'll probably see another pc release soon.
@@RisingRevengeance I bought the game because I love the series but was broke at the time and someone said it was worth a lot so I sold it. Normally not something I do
Publishers really need a reality check, I am tired of them thinking that they have the right to take control of another mans (or woman's) hard work simply because they have money and connections.
Cheers slopes lol. Just pulled the trigger. 23 quid from world of books. I don't even own a bloody switch but I'm keen to expand the missus growing collection. I recently bought her the touryest for her birthday thanks to radical reggies reccomendation. I really do need to delete my RUclips app 🤣
You cannot breach a contract AFTER THE OTHER PARTY ALREADY BREACHED IT. It's been nullified at that point. It was breached by the publisher long before the developer changed the name on the Steam page. Let's do a quick logical breakdown here: I breach a contract. Fifty years later the person I was in the contract with does something that would have breached that fifty year old contract. Are they liable? This one was easy, right, because it's been fifty years and I breached first. But what if it's 50 minutes after I breach it? Doesn't matter. In both instances, fifty minutes or fifty years, the contract was nullified the moment they breached it, for all intents and purposes. You cannot then punish the developer for following the natural progression of "retake ownership" that is legally sanctioned after a breach of contract. Let's swap the target of the contract: I buy a car with cash, pay the full note off, I own it. Contract states dealership will do maintenance every 6 months for free for 2 years. I pull in at month 6 and they keep my car for the next 4 months without fixing or maintaining anything. They refuse to work on it but also refuse to return it to me. I forcibly repossess my car from their lot by using my second set of keys to unlock and drive my car off their front parking lot. Their contract says that's illegal and I'm breaching the contract. It doesn't matter what their contract says. It was nullified the moment they attempted to not follow through on their contractual obligations in a reasonable amount of time. And it's my car.
Digerati is such a fucking trash fire. The only arguments they have are technicalities, and have no other ground to stand on. Cool he's making a horde survival game, though. One of the oldest genres in gaming, and it's been nice seeing a new resurgence
And this is why people are bad. They don't read JACK. It was obvious this was no Paper Mario game. Just because its graphics look like it, doesn't mean it is.
14:13 This might be a holdover from how the American educational system works, where a 70~79% grade is considered a C, or average, and anything below 60% is considered a failure.
WAIT DO YOU GUYS HAVE DIGITAL VIDEO GAME KIOSKS AT THE STORES TO BUY YOUR GAMES?? WE HAVE TO WAIT AN HOUR FOR THE WALMART GUY TO STOP RESTING IN THE BACK TO GET OUR GAMES THAT ARE LOCKED UP BEHIND GLASS.
Seeing this unfold was something. As a software developer myself (though not a game developer, currently), I can definitely sympathize with the plight of devs like Conrad. A lot of people on the outside see a bad or glitchy game and immediately point fingers at the devs, when really the devs are more aware of the issues than anyone and are fighting to get things done right. Bad or unpolished games are, from what I've seen anyway, a result of cooperate politics or business decisions more than incompetent developers. Most people only see the final product, they don't get to see the giant mess in the kitchen.
As a writer I was mortified for him. It would be like if someone published one of my rough drafts to the world and not a draft that has been edited and polished up multiple times
I always just judge the final product anyway, precisely because I can't see what went on in making it, I wasn't there. I find it a bit unfair though how reddit and youtubers and the like always blame publishers and management when a game is bad, but on the other hand when a game is good they ALWAYS praise the devs, and not publishers/management.
It's like this weird double standard where developers are never held accountable for anything and can apparently do no wrong. It doesn't take a lot of critical thinking skills to see it.
In recent years it's become increasingly obvious that bad video games and anime are very often the result of executive BSery, crunch and abuse rather than people working on them being bad at their jobs
(I'm pretty sure Ex-Arm is an exception because none of the team who worked on it had any experience making anime but Crunchyroll shouldn't have commissioned Visual Flight to make an anime in the first place ("We _totally_ support the anime industry so we're putting our money into a company that doesn't make anime to make an anime instead of an anime studio") so they're the most to blame regardless).
Funny how game developers never blame themselves for the actual code and always blame the business instead
@@steel5897I'm the same way. I don't judge a game based on what happened I judge a game as is. Yeah learning the behind the scenes shenanigans sure does explain it but it doesn't change the fact that the final product is crap. It's still unfair that the dev received some much unnecessary shit though.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but what did Kickstarter have to do with this failure? The game was successfully Kickstarted and the developer delivered on what that Kickstarter promised. This seems to be more a story about the dispute between him and Digerati. I don't really see what the Kickstarter campaign has to do with this debacle.
TLDR: Kickstarter campaign wasn't clear enough (or people didn't read) that it was NOT a "Paper Mario" like game. Backers thought it was (because of the Art Direction) and backed the project. Conrad felt the pressure of that expectation. He went to find a publisher to help financially to add the Paper Mario gameplay. All that butterfly-effected to the current situation.
My understanding is that the Kickstarter community, the backers, had the wrong impression it a was a "Paper Mario" like game gameplay-wise (paper mario rpg elements, theater battle scene, etc....) because of the art direction; they backed it because of that, despite no mention of those gameplay aspects described on the project page. It was supposed to simply be a narrative heavy adventure game and the funds asked on Kickstarter reflected that. This misunderstanding from the backers put some pressure on Conrad (add to that a fear for many backers to want a refund if it was revealed it wasn't the game they wanted). The expectation for a Paper Mario like game meant more work, ergo more money needed. The budget they got from the Kickstarter campain wasn't enough. So Conrad went to a publisher that could help. Here came Digerati and gave the supplementary funds to add the "Paper Mario" gameplay. And then stuff went bad following that decision.
Conclusion: if that expectation from the kickstater backers never was, no pressure on Conrad who would have done the game he originally imagined, no Digerati, thus the game would still be on the eStores.
@YeppohTube But even if you go with that, then it would be the fault of the backers pressuring him. It still wouldn't be Kisckstarters' fault.
Clickbait, that about it
Sounds more like the Switch game that Digerati destroyed. 😒
Well also the Backers that expected it to have Paper Mario gameplay when it was actually a PM themed puzzle game. I don't think I can point a finger at a single party here since it was mostly what the playstyle was being unclear to the Paper Mario lovers that it wasn't meant to have that playstyle.
So many things that compounded one another sent this game over the cliff of failure.
@@PinkAgaricus Apparently, PC version of the game is fine (if you can find a download for that). It's just the console versions that the developer did not approve of.
I do think saying Kickstarter backers excepting the game to be a Paper Mario game being the reason why the game got into it's situation is very unfair and clickbaity.
I think it's more of an unfortunate and unlucky relationship between the publisher and developer. If it was a different more competent publisher or if Digerati actually finished their work on the console ports, this would have never happened.
We support you Conrad - you've had a bad experience but you've had it early and you can now move forward with your eyes more open to how these things work in the real world. I look forward to your career and wish you the best of success.
I feel so bad for him. He's clearly young and has a ton of talent, but got totally fucked over. I really hope that this experience doesn't turn him away from wanting to continue as a developer.
I had no idea about any of this, I thought the game looked neat so I got it on Steam, I didn't even realize that it no longer had a Steam page anymore!
Hey i found you again!
It seems that creators have been getting screwed since the very beginning of the video game industry. Sorta like EVERY OTHER CREATOR IN ANY OTHER ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS.
Man that loading time for that unpatched version of the game when you get into a battle is just as bad as YIIK when it wasn't patched.
Man, with indie games, you have ONE shot to get it right, and if it's DOA, there's a huge chance people will never pick it up.
I love No Man's Sky, and I still have friends who refuse to pick it up though it is insanely good now! Feel bad for the dev... A bad port looks bad on him and his work, though the overrecaction to take everything down was kinda bad, professionally.
Yeah it's funny I spoke to the dev who made the lowest rated game on steam with like 100 bad reviews and 1 good one. But he's still making updates to try and fix it.
TBH it's their loss, not the dev's.
As long as people keep feeding into the "first impression" BS with their own judgmental behavior, then they will ALWAYS miss out.
@@cyxceven Well it's also the Dev's loss. One thing I have seen with steam reviews is you need to promote and give people the most accurate impression of what they are buying. People Playground is one of the top 5 rated games on steam. Is it a good game? No, you just put a bunch of things in a room and watch it all blow up. But everyone who bought it knew what it was so it gets as good a rating as Portal.
It's kinda amazing how No Man's Sky went from a barren empty game to being so rich with content. My older brother got into it not too long ago and it looks so cool now! I'm honestly impressed, the game managed to redeem itself over the years.
@@trailersic what game is it?
Digerati has become the Activision of Indie games.
This just makes me sad really. Gatekeeping games sucks. Saying limited run is meaningless since all publication runs are limited to the amount made.
And digital is just a license. You don’t even own the game!
Even physical is just a license now basically. If you need that day one update and they pull it from the store you can’t play it. Also I think like BluRay there is an online license check thing and they can pull it. Remember when BluRay players couldn’t play Avatar discs because of a license issue
Most games don't need those day one patches. Online service games aside. Most times I don't even have my PS4 or PS5 connected to the internet when playing games. I don't play online and stick to mostly classic style and single player story games.
I found a physical copy of Indivisible. I had no idea that it had such a limited run until I saw it online.
Recognized the blurred out cover art since I bought the physical PS4 copy of this, completely unaware of its infamous state, just because it looked like a Paper Mario fan game.
good video, i liked the supplementary parts. we gotta talk more about all these switch publishers marketing their "limited print" games and whats going to happen in the long term to all these obscure titles designed for reselling and collecting
Will be buying. You should do more videos like this. I love collecting. Still upset at myself for not getting the other two .Hack games before they got unreasonable in price.
17:35 Glad I don't have that kind of contract with RUclips for the videos they automatically converted into shorts without my permission (and this was after RUclips automatically gimped the video player on them to have massive black bars, though ItsJustSomeRandomGuy's older Marvel and DC videos got it even worse for some reason as the videos became tiny misaligned squares, though they weren't automatically converted into shorts) so I added to the video names to say that they weren't meant to be shorts
The whole "limited amount" factor was the reason I ordered a copy of this on every console it came out on due to the possible impending law stuff aaand maybe a recall. Cheers for the heads up with that on the Kickscammers Live stream haha, tis the kinda stuff I love having in the collection. Having a story to 'em and such.
Seeing a version of the original puzzle idea would have been way cooler honestly, as much as I love Paper Mario. But there's a ton of those style indie games nowadays.
If you want a GOOD physical only Switch game there is Doinksoft's Demon Throttle. It's not a buggy mess like that either.
I love your channel man. Thanks for the shout out! I was honestly shocked to hear you say my name. Keep up the good work man.
Ahhhh, more than welcome thanks for the support buddy
This whole thing bites, honestly, especially since I actually liked The Outbound Ghost myself (more so than the recent Paper Mario: The Origami King). The game may not be "great", but it did welcome me further into indie games and I especially liked its "customization" options, particularly with its "EXP Multiplier" slider which I hope is welcomed more into future games.
Either way, I have the digital version myself (until the Switch's eShop closes down, that is) and regardless of whoever is in the wrong, I do hope Digerati cherishes the $25 I gave them because that's all they're getting from me after this whole fiasco. Meanwhile, though I am personally not interested in Conradical Games' upcoming Soul Stalker game, I do wish the dude the best for that project.
Interesting story about this game, kind reminds me the game Ittle Dew 2.
Similar thing happened, the developer got a fight with the publisher: Nicalis resulting in de-listing the digital title on consoles except on Steam since the developer re-listed the game again by self-publishing.
And the only way to play that game on consoles now is by the Switch version since it was the only one that got a physical release.
O wow. I did not know about that! This may need to become a video
@@slopesgameroom
Well you can always look into that but let me tell you one thing: You will see maybe a lot of drama, lol!.
It mostly because the publisher Nicalis doesn't have a good reputation in the indie's community (I personally hate them by of what they did with the indie game: 90's Arcade Racer).
But hey, still it could be a good material for a video.
Another thing i am noticing more of is games that are now only code in box not cartridge as on their 1st release.
I was seriously wound up when I accidentally ordered one of those
Reminds me of when I got a pristine used PS4 Godzilla for $14 at Gamestop, then sold it for $150 a year later. 😂
Great 3DS joke with Mario pointing the handgun at it, it sums up how Nintendo treat their consoles when they are done with them, as you say all console manufacturer have a minimum print size, print run sizes look to be quite a bit smaller these days than the ones in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era. May have to grab a copy just to see what it is like.
Genuinely surprised this channel doesn't have subs in the millions
If one party breaks the contract, does the other party still have to adhere to the terms set out.
THAT SWITCH COLLECTION! my god man tats impressive
Ahhhh....now I see why you popped into NSCollectors Subreddit for some info 😉
Hahaha thanks for the help
Physical copies aside, can anyone explain to me why indie devs need publishers nowadays? Why not self publish on Steam, GOG, Itch, Switch, XBOX and PSN?
From what I've witnessed, it's mostly to alleviate the marketing and promotion part, including community management and social media. Those can be very time consuming for someone who prefers to focus their energy on their game and/or are socially stunted, and can become very costly if one wishes for as many people as possible to know their game exists as quickly as possible - especially if there is no pre-existing public or following to create hype. It can be bothersome. So it's preferably delegated to people, aka publishers, who have the tools and experience for that kind of stuff.
In this case though, it was for added financial help as well, due to circumstances.
@@YeppohTube I see
@@YeppohTube I was gonna say, going with a publisher effectively takes the financial and brand management off the devs + helps get through red tape faster. It just comes at a cost that is at the very least financial, though there is obvious potentially loss of creative freedom.
It's the same reason record labels or Film distributors still exist even in the world of online monetization being so accessible. It's all just a matter of personal cost vs. risk assessment.
Overall, in this current age I would say you're better off just learning the ins and outs of the market BEFORE you get into development and _then_ doing it solo as best as possible, but I'm also a business major so I'm sure that's much more daunting to people totally green to it all.
I knew about Outbound Ghost but have held off buying it, simply because I've read it plays terribly lol. I have considered picking it up from that speculative angle, but... I rarely end up selling my games so it would probably just take up space tbh!
Also Xenoblade Golden Torna got a reprint (or reprints?) In the US at least. Still available for RRP last I checked. I found an AU copy cheap pre owned, but missing the dlc which is annoying.
What is a "Pine Pot" actually? Did Sega ever explain? Love to see you having the sign in almost every video as a SoR fan. 🙂 Thanks for the great review, they're always profound and great fun to watch.
So weird... I thought I watched a video on this whole debacle recently, got me interested in the game, and I thought it was one of yours, but a search back through my history turns up nothing.
Anyway, hope things go better for Conrad the next time around.
Slope I bought this day 1 and I thought my eyes were failing me. I even stopped and showed my wife and I was like is this running at like 5fps and just skipping framework altogether? It wasn’t until I got into a battle that I thought it was literally bricking my switch that I completely stopped playing it, didn’t know that it was even patched. I’ll give it another go!
The frame rate is better but the graphics seriously have dropped to the point it's harder to read stuff. I can't decide what's better/worse
@@slopesgameroom Oh man, So no winning here for us. Might just keep that for collectors purposes and get the ps5 version for playability. Sucks for the consumers more than anything, Good thing about all this is that I’m becoming your RUclips member as we speak, You deserve it man I go back to your content more than anyone else on this site, keep up the great work my boy 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I joined now! Do I get a cool badge yet
@@HoT_ToucH
I can see the badge between your name and the "X time ago" posting message so yes :V
@@Gulyus Awesome, glad to be a part of the community, thanks my friend 🌟
Oh so THAT's what happened to the game.. I played the demo version back then and it was quite fun (beside the wonky frame rate). I was wondering when it will come out. D:
Here from the Retro Hour Podcast. Liking the content!
1:50 But aside from Producing Perfection (which is stuck in Vita jail), the original releases of the first three and ReVerse (which being the second remake of the first game will probably be on Steam in the future) they're all on Steam and ReBirth 1, the Senran Kagura crossover, Virtual Stars (who in their right mind would even want this one?) and ReBirth 1 are on various Cloud streaming services like PSNow, Nvidia Shield, Shadow and airgpu so that value is either going to cap out fast, go back down or both.
I gotta ask - did you really set all your games up just for the setting of this video, or are you in process of reorganizing lol.. Great video as always!
I actually set em all up for this video and yes... They kept falling down. It was seriously frustrating lol. I will not be doing it again
@@slopesgameroom my goodness man.. that is sincere dedication!! Bravo 🙌 👏
What pained me after was that I found another 10 or so games in my son's room after filming lol
@@slopesgameroom unacceptable! Re-record it all now!! 😂
@@slopesgameroom and what about that tossed NES cart? Any updates on its condition?
Just by the thumbnail alone, I already can tell that this is The Outbound Ghost, and that's what made me watch this because oh boy, what happened with this game was a mess.
I never knew the FULL story though, wow, it's even worse than I thought.
I own this game digitally on Switch (I bought it BEFORE the devs announced they were pulling out of their publishing deal) It crashed on me numerous times while I was playing, the load times into every single battle is 15+ seconds as was noted in this video, and bad frame rates, among other things. I knew the part where Digerati refused to push the updates that fixed these issues, but that was it. Never knew it went so deep that they pushed the devs to make the game into a Paper Mario RPG, when it was supposed to be an adventure puzzle game? No wonder the game was pretty bad. The bugs were one thing, but the game's story also tanked HARD. Without spoiling too much, the longest chapter in the game has you just backtracking through literally everything and it's very tedious, nothing is resolved, and you're left with a very unsatisfying ending. That being said, the gameplay was pretty good for the most part, but it's still a shame that the game was left released in this state, and not even what was originally intended.
Did not know there was a physical edition of spelunker hd deluxe until I saw it in your video, thank you for that information.
13:53 I timed this on the stopwatch, and by my count that was at least 17 full seconds
Welp, went and got the game. Seems great to me and at 25 bucks I could not say no.
I don't know why you'd trust a 13 year old to be able to make a game and NOT get totally steamrolled and manipulated by their publisher.
I mean, at least it looks like they had a solid contract created to protect themselves.
Is Conrad really that young? Google isn't telling me anything but wow.
what?
He didn't look or sound like 13 years old. He looked maybe 18-20.
Yeah I don't think he's anywhere nearly as young as 13, but he's definitely quite young. I hope that this experience doesn't deter him from continuing to develop games because he's clearly got a lot of talent.
super rare published FAST RMX? COOL!
6:14 there seems to be a audio glitch.
The first five minutes just feels like one big long ad.
5:35 and then Slope didnt declare the video a paid sponsorship in the upload settings. Going to ruin it for all of us one day.
what are you talking about? I just turned my pc on to double check and make sure the "paid sponsorship" box was ticked, and yep, it was
@@slopesgameroom Weird that it doesn’t show the paid sponsorship banner then 🤨
@@slopesgameroom got ads, got no paid partnership annotation
@@JOBdOut In that case, i apologise, i get a lot of people make up drama that is simply not true. But I assure you the "My video contains paid promotion like a product placement, sponsorship, or endorsement" box is ticked for this video. sorry its not showing folks
I have a question for you Slope. Have you ever heard of a game called Demon's Tier plus? I had a friend pick it up for me and apparently they only made 1200 copies of it. I have number 398.
I have not? Is it a switch game
@Slope's Game Room it most definitely is man. Wanna borrow it? I'll totally send it to you, as long as I can get it back. Possibly with a signature. You're literally the BEST man.
Ahhhhh dude, a massive thanks so much. But seriously you don't need to send me these things :P
@@slopesgameroom well either way, the offer still stands.
Thanks for making another great deep dive. Keep up the good work.
Yo! GAL GUN!
Suspect that my copies of Super Robot Wars V, X, and T for the Switch are the only ones in the entire country.
After all none of those games were released outside of Asia..
There is a English translation, but it does at times rather clearly show the fact that it was translated by someone who clearly didn't have English as their first language.
Or, most likely, Japanese either..
You live in North Korea or something? Those were readily available to preorder on import sites and still available second hand on SEA sites if you know where to look
@@luboo1285 Iceland :P
@@lafeelabriel I believe you then lol
The background music on this video slaps
Appreciate that mate, I spend a lot of time mixing up the music for these videos, really appreciate the comment
I'm going to have OneShot physically here in a month or two! I'm really excited; it's one of my favorite games of all time. My friend got it for me on LimitedRun Games.
22:30 You lost me ast "vampires". I'm sick and tired of vampires.
They hate you, too.
@@the-NightStar Must be cause of my radiance.
left uk 6 years ago due pandemic life etc does argos still exist. living in switerland we love swiss francs
I think it still exists in the UK but here in Ireland, they're shuttering all the Argos stores
UUUUUUUGHHHH FAST RMX is absolutely fantastic :) Bring on FZERO Ultra
It's not a switch game but my rarest game is Rule of Rose for PS2.
I've been meaning to play that one of these days - how is it?
That intro with all those juicy games was awesome !
That was a pain to set up lol
@@slopesgameroom the name of the TOTK main theme remix please?
I made it :P
@@slopesgameroom I can only imagine. Great job !
(15:29) Extremely buggy initial release followed by a patch to fix bugs that should've already been fixed prior to release?! Am I seeing that right?
I saw a copy of this for PS5 the other day
My takeaway from this is buy the switch physical now because it’s only going up.
6:17 KSSSSCHHTTT
Game collecting is an infinitely times better investment than NFT
Saw this going on, its sad. The devs got screwwed.
Please follow up when the court decision is made
19:45 Why does she look like a Bond villain?
Grapple dog has a physical copy? I love that game
Contracts are contracts and should be followed to the letter.
However: Digerati breached their contract with Conrad first; their attempt at maximizing profit by minimizing effort and screwing over the original IP Owner shouldn't give them any favors in court.
Nevertheless: Conrad made the mistake of feeling justified in breaching his contract with them as a result, and now Digerati is trying to screw him over through technicalities. He should have included a clause that explicitly indicates that any breach of his contract by the company shall render any and all subsequent contracts benefitting Digerati null and void, since it would have discouraged Digerati from pulling the stunts they did or causing them to opt out in the first place.
It is very obvious to see that Digerati was looking to screw Conrad over from the moment Nick died and the only advantages they have against him are due to lack of foresight on his part.
I have never heard of these game and I am willing to buy them to support the developer even tho I may not play them. I'm playstation but I do have a Nintendo Switch and an X/One.
The North American version is $17.49 right now on Amazon!
So the first like 7 minutes of the video are basically advertisement 🤣
I’m surprised that the outbound ghost is going to rare one day,
ya its down to his emotions screwing himself over . he should have never changed the Name of the game to distance. if its in the contract then its in the contract. this is why kids shouldn't run business as adults.
You don't break the contract.
Conradical announced a new outbound ghost game.
5:30 Ok Eggman
Can confirm: grapple dog rules
It's so hard to ascertain if a game was really a limited edition if there's nothing to support such claim, come to think about it.
What's bromio's take on this botch job? They probably had the most interesting perspective on how they made a cooking mama cookstar sized disaster
glad i bought all of the neptunia games on ps3
Wait, why should one party be bound to a contract that wasn’t held up by the other party? That seems absolutely absurd.
I got that game, but I got rid of it after I heard about the scandal surrounding the game.
It's a shame the developer got fudged up by the distributor/publisher
I bought a PS5 copy of this game not long after it debutedand right after heard about the craziness with this game. What a total mess for Conrad, yikes!
Hey, at the end of the day, conrad made a good game and that's it's own reward.
Are there any updates to this or is everything in court limbo now
This galaxy lamp looks really cool but I don't like such saturated almost artificial colours, I would love to see option with more subtle and natural shades.
From my understanding they are all within Sainsbury's stores now and hold a lot less stock
@@slopesgameroom Thx for info and for doing such a amazing job as a content creator! Sending loads of love from Poland!
I was interested in this game, I almost bought a physical copy for the Switch, but I read that it ran terribly and I wasn't feeling the demo that much. I wasn't aware of the shit show that was unfold.
I fully support going full scorched earth from how the publishers ruined his game.
Not sure if this one is gonna go up in price honestly, people tend to want playable games and we'll probably see another pc release soon.
I sold shantae and the pirates curse limited run switch game for 350 dollars on eBay I paid 30 for it off lr
The river city collectors is shooting up like that
@@slopesgameroom it’s crazy !
Limited run games seem like they are made for scalpers
@@RisingRevengeance I bought the game because I love the series but was broke at the time and someone said it was worth a lot so I sold it. Normally not something I do
@@LostHorizons0 I don't blame you. I'm sure lots of fans do buy their games but I'm also sure a good portion are scalpers.
N++ is the lowest budget game that goes for AAA prices, amazing game though.
I was obsessed with that on the psp (possibly vita)
Publishers really need a reality check, I am tired of them thinking that they have the right to take control of another mans (or woman's) hard work simply because they have money and connections.
If he wins can he self publish the game? Through Steam or something similar?
Cheers slopes lol. Just pulled the trigger. 23 quid from world of books. I don't even own a bloody switch but I'm keen to expand the missus growing collection. I recently bought her the touryest for her birthday thanks to radical reggies reccomendation. I really do need to delete my RUclips app 🤣
Reggie's a good guy
Gigachad Conrad. Let's hope he doesn't have another shitty experience like this again.
You cannot breach a contract AFTER THE OTHER PARTY ALREADY BREACHED IT. It's been nullified at that point. It was breached by the publisher long before the developer changed the name on the Steam page. Let's do a quick logical breakdown here:
I breach a contract. Fifty years later the person I was in the contract with does something that would have breached that fifty year old contract. Are they liable? This one was easy, right, because it's been fifty years and I breached first. But what if it's 50 minutes after I breach it? Doesn't matter. In both instances, fifty minutes or fifty years, the contract was nullified the moment they breached it, for all intents and purposes. You cannot then punish the developer for following the natural progression of "retake ownership" that is legally sanctioned after a breach of contract.
Let's swap the target of the contract: I buy a car with cash, pay the full note off, I own it. Contract states dealership will do maintenance every 6 months for free for 2 years. I pull in at month 6 and they keep my car for the next 4 months without fixing or maintaining anything. They refuse to work on it but also refuse to return it to me. I forcibly repossess my car from their lot by using my second set of keys to unlock and drive my car off their front parking lot. Their contract says that's illegal and I'm breaching the contract.
It doesn't matter what their contract says. It was nullified the moment they attempted to not follow through on their contractual obligations in a reasonable amount of time. And it's my car.
Digerati is such a fucking trash fire. The only arguments they have are technicalities, and have no other ground to stand on.
Cool he's making a horde survival game, though. One of the oldest genres in gaming, and it's been nice seeing a new resurgence
5:30 Get a load of this
Dr. Ivo Slope-botnik Sonic Adventure 1999
And this is why people are bad. They don't read JACK. It was obvious this was no Paper Mario game. Just because its graphics look like it, doesn't mean it is.
14:13 This might be a holdover from how the American educational system works, where a 70~79% grade is considered a C, or average, and anything below 60% is considered a failure.
Torna has been reprinted a couple times. Prices are down to around launch price.
The first 7 minutes are just ads, might as well skip forward.
Conrad should port this to ScummVM and be done with it.
WAIT DO YOU GUYS HAVE DIGITAL VIDEO GAME KIOSKS AT THE STORES TO BUY YOUR GAMES?? WE HAVE TO WAIT AN HOUR FOR THE WALMART GUY TO STOP RESTING IN THE BACK TO GET OUR GAMES THAT ARE LOCKED UP BEHIND GLASS.
I have outbound ghost on my switch as a download….