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SiN Episodes Pretty Much Done

Posted by Zonk on Saturday December 16, @03:55PM
from the it-was-mediocre-while-it-lasted dept.
Kotaku is carrying comments from this week's 'Games for Windows' podcast, where employees from Ritual Entertainment confirm that SiN Episodes is finished. The mini-exodus from the company earlier this month has effectively sunk the studios' ambitious episodic content plan. From the article: "Jeff: Sin Episode 2... Shawn: ...is likely not happening now. A lot of the people from the dev team have left. Jeff: At Ritual? Shawn: Yeah, they've gone elsewhere. They now work for other people. Some of the key people. One of the lead programmers. That's not a good sign."

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[+] SiN Episodes - Emergence Review 198 comments
Along with pale imitations, it seems the destiny of genre-defining games to provoke a reversal in design decisions. The success of 3D platformers has lead to a renaissance in 2D gaming, World of Warcraft has pushed online game designers away from the fantasy genre, and Half-Life 2 has prompted a lot of story-light brainless shooters. It's this last genre that houses SiN Episodes: Emergence. A traditional run and gun First Person Shooter (FPS), SiN is a blood-soaked five hour jaunt you can download from Steam for about twenty bucks. At that price and that length, this Aeon Fluxian gorefest may just be a happy start for the age of episodic content. Read on for my impressions of a good-looking throwback that proves you don't need millions of dollars to make a fun title.
[+] Future of Ritual, Sin Episodes In Question 39 comments
The Escapist blog is reporting that several key employees have left Ritual. With the ongoing episodic title Sin Episodes up in the air, one has to wonder if any additional installments will follow the somewhat tepidly received first entry. From the article: "After five and a half years as the CEO of Ritual, Steve Nix turned up on the official id Software site as the new Director of Business Development. His reasons for leaving Ritual were not made public. Over two months ago on September 16th, Shawn Ketcherside also left Ritual after nearly six years with the company. He was the lead designer on Sin Episodes: Emergence. Today, former QA lead Michael Russell updated his blog with word that he was also looking for a new job. Last week, Russell had made a post calling out poor QA practices at Sony. He claims that the article was not the reason for his leaving the company."
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  • refund!

    (Score:2)
    by Allison Geode (598914) on Saturday December 16, @04:10PM (#17271356)
    since they're not going to complete the game, can i get a refund on the portion i bought? see, this is the problem with episodic content: when they decide to not finish it, people who have been enjoying it up to that point are left in the cold, with an unfinished game and 20 bucks poorer.
  • "Pretty much done"

    (Score:5, Interesting)
    by kmcrober (194430) on Saturday December 16, @04:32PM (#17271518)
    "Pretty much done" can also mean "Close to being completed." As in, "Almost released." Since that's the exact opposite of what the article actually says, maybe the editors should pay a little more attention to detail?
  • Idle Speculation

    (Score:3, Insightful)
    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16, @04:34PM (#17271540)
    Nothing in this story is from the developers, it's just from a podcast with absolutely no true inside knowledge.

    I don't doubt that further Sin episodes aren't happening, but why not wait for an official source before posting a story about it? The official one is probably going to end up with its own story anyway.
  • Summary is wrong -- not confirmed!

    (Score:3, Informative)
    by bigbigbison (104532) on Saturday December 16, @05:16PM (#17271812)
    (http://www.popularculturegaming.com/)
    The summary says, "employees from Ritual Entertainment confirm that SiN Episodes is finished," which it totally untrue. This is just a group of editors from the magazine speculating. Sin Episodes may or may not be canceled, but these guys are just gossiping based on the fact that a lot of people have left Ritual. It might be or it might not be canceled. No one from Ritual has made a comment yet.
  • by Rog7 (182880) on Saturday December 16, @11:59PM (#17274438)
    I don't think Levelord has gone anywhere has he? And AFAIK he's the main holdover from the original SiN. Ritual has had plenty of people part in the past, so this current drama is probably just stirring up FUD dust.

    As long as Levelord is still at Ritual, I have complete faith in good content for SiN episodes.
  • by _Griphin_ (676977) on Sunday December 17, @08:44PM (#17281792)
    I bought Ep. 1, and just like Half Life 2 Episode 1 it never worked. Now with all the lead programmers working for other companies, I now realize why they took off. Yes, there game was CRAP!!!
  • Multiplayer?

    (Score:2)
    by JavaLord (680960) on Monday December 18, @10:22AM (#17286252)
    (Last Journal: Monday May 17, @07:10PM)
    Did they ever get Multiplayer working with SiN episodes? I pretty much played the original SiN just for the multiplayer, and I was waiting for episodes to have multiplayer support before I would buy it.

    The original sin multiplayer, and the expansion pack wages of sin were a great deal of fun. There were a boatload of weapons, like remote controlled rockets and mines, an ion cannon, the standard BFG like nuke gun, and speeder bikes!
  • Re:If it's cancelled...

    (Score:5, Funny)
    by Travoltus (110240) on Saturday December 16, @04:57PM (#17271682)
    (Last Journal: Saturday April 01, @09:51PM)
    [apathetic elitist mode on]
    Who cares about the loss of $20? That's like 4 lattes for me. I lose $20 bills every time I step out of the car. People oughta stop whining about losing $20. This is America, land of the rich, remember?
    [apathetic elitist mode off]
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