(re: re: re: When did the ‘demise’ start?)
> Not many new Adventure games on PC anymore.
This is a very common misconception. It’s just not true.
Adventure games released in the past year:
Syberia
Dark Fall (indy, recently distributed by Dreamcatcher)
Law & Order
CSI
Jazz & Faust
Shadow of Destiny (PC port)
The Omega Stone
Runaway
Post Mortem
Salammbo
Watchmaker
and plenty of others, but these are the ones i can think of off the top of my head.
Upcoming adventures:
Broken Sword 3
Syberia 2
The Longest Journey 2
Law & Order 2
Schizm 2
Dark Fall 2
Full Throttle 2
Sam & Max 2
Uru (online ages of Myst)
among others, I’m sure, but again this is off the top of my head. Plus Jane Jensen’s game and the new Tex Murphy are in development. Not to mention indy (i.e., The Sydney Mystery) and fan games (i.e., Tierra’s King’s Quest 2 remake, the upcoming KQ9).
Okay, here are what I see as the important points.
1) Overall, as many commercial adventure games are being released each year as were released by Sierra each year in the 80s and early 90s (when Sierra dominated the industry). The difference is, now the games are distributed by various companies, not just one.
2) MANY of the upcoming games (all of the ones I listed, actually) are sequels to games that did well last year or did well in the past. A major indication that the genre is on an upswing.
I’m sorry if I’m repeating myself, but I can never pass up an opportunity to dispell the myth that the adventure genre is dead on the PC. It’s not! You might need to look a little harder, because these games tend not to get much shelf space (if any), but they’re easy enough to buy online. It doesn’t even take much research to find out about new adventure releases… just go to one of the news sites devoted to adventures (see links below).
Anyway, I’m very glad to hear that the article won’t be about the “death” of the adventure genre… I could even get into a debate about whether the genre is “sleeping,” but that might be beating a… err… sleeping horse.
🙂 emily