28 January 2009
Ferry

Too Human 2 and 3 in danger with Microsoft facing less global demand?

According to a Spaceworks‘ mocap studio, edit suites animation and production facilities profile, Microsoft hired them as part of the huge 80 million dollar budget for the Too Human video game trilogy. Microsoft obviously bet big on the first title and the question is if the 560,000 copies sold worldwide in 2008 are enough to continue development of the series onto Too Human 2 and 3?

Xboxist reports that these sales are “not even close to enough to recoup its massive development costs. [...] At the same time that the game has suffered from sluggish uptake at retail, market conditions and restructuring at Microsoft put the ongoing support of Silicon Knights in doubt.

Last week, Microsoft was forced to announce major job cuts, many of which will affect the PC gaming division. Faced with deteriorating global demand for its products, the company is being forced to trim the fat and drop any project that is not conceivably profitable in the near term. This does not bode well for developers who depend upon Microsoft to fund their projects on the Xbox 360. Unless a sequel is guaranteed to be a sure-fire hit, the purse strings are likely to be very tight at Microsoft, should Dyack and his team need additional funding.”

Considering the assets and engine developed for the first game, you’d imagine a sequel for an already planned-out trilogy to already be underway. But then we looked at news from October 2008, two months after the game’s release, when 26 of the 180 employees were laid-off at Silicon Knights. Silicon Knights president and founder, Dennis Dyack, explained this in a PR statement by saying: “After any big game ships, there is always some attrition. Teams are lean and mean in the beginning, grow toward the end of the project, and then whittle down once the project is finished. To that end, Silicon Knights temporary [sic] laid-off 26 employees today while they ramp up on other projects. [...] Silicon Knights is currently working on several new and exciting games that will be announced to the public in the coming months.” Which makes sense in that it would indicate they are simply still in the planning phases of their next games.

Still, word on the street is that Microsoft was expecting a million-seller, a sure-fire hit. What publisher wouldn’t with millions invested? It seems unlikely Microsoft — who bought exclusivity on the series — is waiting to see if the long-term sales of Too Human can recoup their investment enough to warrant a sequel, so the longer it takes, the more uncertain a Too Human trilogy becomes on Xbox 360. Especially with the already discounted $40 game reportedly being out of print. Then again… Too Human itself was on and off in development for over 10 years! So only time can tell.

9 May 2009 11:36
Josh

I would be extremely sad if 2 and 3 are not made. The first one I thought was a blast. Camera was a bit shaky, and long ass death scene was annoying, but other than that I loved it!!

9 May 2009 23:11
Matthew

I hope they still make 2 and three I love the game! I still play it online as well! Please!!!! make 2 and three I will absolutely buy them!

11 May 2009 21:24
Tom

I think that Too Human is dead. Microsoft only cares about money and could give a scrap about the gamers themselves. Look at Freelancer. Microsoft doesn’t care that the story is decisively unfinished. They care about the bottom line, not weather a franchise is worth rounding out for the sake of the fans that actually enjoy it. My advice…
To Devs… do it on your own and don’t let M$ swindle you into leaving your baby high and dry.
To Gamers… avoid falling in love with a M$ franchise unless you want to ensure you never finish the story.
To Writers…. Don’t “Plan” for sequels unless your FIRST title is a hit. Telling gamers it’s a trilogy then leaving them hanging is definately… “your bad”

13 May 2009 11:26
Alex Maloof

It is very sad i mean it was a great game and even if they just made some new downloadable content or at least raised the level cap i would be happy. However with the economy the way it is right now i wouldnt expect to see any new too human stuff until the conomy picks back up.

16 May 2009 04:53
Benjamin

I agree with Tom

Great example used also Freelancer, was a epic game which a huge fan base, screaming for a sequel. If only Microsoft will listen to its consumers.

Freelancer 2, Too human 2 i someday hope will exist !

18 May 2009 22:34
Corey

Too human is a great game and i would be excited to see 2 and 3 developed, the customization options are soooooo much better than fable and so is the online co-op, i hope that if you can make 2 and 3, that you can make even more armor items and weapons, and make it an open world rpg sort of like fable/world of warcraft so you can see other players characters tho, and 4 player co-op would be a big hit with gamers

15 June 2009 22:17
mike

I really hope we see the next 2 games… I bought mine for 10$ new so i’m not too optomistic. If it;s selling for that cheep, they;ve got issues. Wicked game imho, like mental masturbation. Near instant gratification. Love it! Please PLEASE PLEASE!!!!! make more!!!!!

30 June 2009 10:24
jack

please make two and three the first one was rely good so please make two and three they all redy left a clif hanger at the end of the first game saying that you would go and have to kill loki so if you dont make the second one the clif hanger will be pointless

20 July 2009 11:51
Tony

I’m really looking forward for the next 2 games!!! I pre-ordered the first. I was a little disappointed about not having a bank and no DLC… but overall its been an amazing game overall and look forward to a hopeful trilogy. There is soooo much expansion space with this games its almost endless just like WoW, Diablo, and etc. BTW i agree with jack about the cliff hanger!

18 September 2009 04:54
danny

firstly i would like to say that the game was one of the best i have played, the story line was very good(realy good!!), there were many upgrades and the video grapics were great (the ones where you watch not play). the only thing i didnt like was it was a bit short and the controls were a bit simple like no blocks or diffrent combos, but that can easyly be improved. the reason why the sales were so bad wasnt because of the development of the game or how good it was, but the marketing of it, i only bought because it was cheep and it was christmas presant for my little brother, i had never seen it advertised, only on the ’sale $20′ banner on a ramdom website. so it would have been a good seller i think if the marketing team had done a better job(im angry now because i wanna play 2 and 3 lol)