Agony studio reveals its financial problems, cancels unrated version of game

[midian182]

The big picture: Agony looked like it could have been a horror classic, but it turned out to be a massive disappointment. Poor sales have resulted in huge problems for the studio, and led to the cancelation of the game's unrated version.

There was a lot of hype in the run-up to horror game Agony’s release. The Kickstarter-funded title promised a gruesome adventure through the depths of hell, but it was slated by critics and players alike. Not too surprisingly, it appears that sales have been disappointing: Developer Madmind Studio has revealed it is “struggling with financial problems,’ and the uncut version of the game has now been canceled.

Agony’s repetitive gameplay, weak stealth mechanics, and slew of technical problems came as a huge blow to lovers of horror games who were expecting a genre-defining title. But at least PC owners could get the entirely uncut version of the game—the original Agony had to be toned down to get an M-rating from age-rating companies.

Agony: Unrated was set to be a separate title that not only added all the scenes removed from the standard version of the game, but also featured improvements such as high-res textures and models. It was supposed to be available at 99 percent off for current Agony owners, or come as free DLC.

Sadly, the studio has announced that "due to technical and legal reasons, Madmind must cancel the development of Agony Unrated. Part of the team will continue to support Agony on Steam and consoles by publishing new patches."

One of the upcoming fixes includes a “highly refined lighting system,” which, while it should address one of the game’s many problems (it’s often ridiculously dark), is a case of too little, too late for most buyers, many of whom have expressed their anger at the whole situation. If you want a good first-person horror game on the PC, stick with Resident Evil 7.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/75244-agony-studio-reveals-financial-problems-cancels-unrated-version.html

 

[stewi0001]

I take it then that the game was a flop?

 

[davislane1]

I take it then that the game was a flop?

Massively. Turns out, when a company erects red flag after red flag, it usually means something.

 

[MonsterZero]

I watched someone play it for about 20 minutes, its the same sort of repetitive horror scare/stealth to survive game, just with a large shock value.

 

[davislane1]

I watched someone play it for about 20 minutes, its the same sort of repetitive horror scare/stealth to survive game, just with a large shock value.

The tell was when they had three release delays and not one publicly available demo highlighting the game's development success. Literally everything was marketing.

All these folks trying to be Chris Roberts. SMH.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I take it then that the game was a flop?

Massively. Turns out, when a company erects red flag after red flag, it usually means something.

That the communists have taken over?

 

[davislane1]

That the communists have taken over?

Probably explains why this game is starved of content and intrigue. The main antagonist is the Red Goddess.

 

[VitalyT]

Now the game's fans will have no choice but to open their veins and see the extended version of hell first-hand.

Did you guys know that there have been 10 Hellraiser movies? Too many blood-thirsty vampires out there, I guess.

 

[Nocturne]

I played it for a little, and gave the game up due to the overly dark low res visuals combined with terrible human models coupled with glaring shoddy game play mechanics, the stealth part was broken worse than The last thief game, the pay off in shock value was lessened due to the censorship and bad voice acting. A shame really but.

Witchfire
New Metro game
Doom 2
Scorn
Ad infinitum

All look promising in the horror franchise in the upcoming couple years.

 

[Demur]

I was surprised that anyone expected it to be good. Everything about the game's concept was screaming "I'll be mediocre at best" from day one. It gave me a bit of a Hatred vibe; leaning hard against edgy ideas to market itself.

If a developer you've never heard of is promising to turn an entire genre on its head with an instant classic, assume that they're lying through their teeth.

 

[Timonius]

I remember reading about R rated movies grossing less on average than it's PG/PG-13 counterparts for various reasons. The same could probably be said for equivalent game ratings. Unless a studio is proven to deliver greatness it might want to focus on something that can make them money first. This was a gamble and it looks like they lost.

 

[Nocturne]

I remember reading about R rated movies grossing less on average than it's PG/PG-13 counterparts for various reasons. The same could probably be said for equivalent game ratings. Unless a studio is proven to deliver greatness it might want to focus on something that can make them money first. This was a gamble and it looks like they lost.

Deadpool, would like to beg to differ. The problem with an Rrating is the audience that doesn't go to theaters as often as the teenies with too much time on their hands and disposable cash. Also those individuals don't want to be accompanied by adults to a theater to see a Rrated film.

Studios and investers want large returns not minimal returns or taking chances on a flop limiting an audience is basically loosing out on prospective customers thus can be suicide financially. Keep in mind these execs and investors have also damned movies by making producers and directors change the film to their liking rather than what fans or the audience would want that is why they flop, think about the last Mummy movie, it was terrible because Cruise demanded an action fest movie rather than an actual horror film.

 

[ghostf1re]

I watched someone play it for about 20 minutes, its the same sort of repetitive horror scare/stealth to survive game, just with a large shock value.

The tell was when they had three release delays and not one publicly available demo highlighting the game's development success. Literally everything was marketing.

All these folks trying to be Chris Roberts. SMH.

Chris Roberts IMO is one of, if not the biggest con man in the gaming industry. The amount of money that he's gotten to work on Star Citizen and still not deliver after several years is just highway robbery.

 

[davislane1]

Chris Roberts IMO is one of, if not the biggest con man in the gaming industry. The amount of money that he's gotten to work on Star Citizen and still not deliver after several years is just highway robbery.

Roberts strikes me as more of being in way over his head than a proper con man. You can read it on his face when he does events. His wife on the other hand...