About a new drakan game

[pumab]

(sorry for my bad english)

Im here to call out the community for a petition about a new Drakan game.

Ive read that "Surreal Software was among the Midway Games assets purchased by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. In 2010, the company was merged into the nearby studio Monolith Productions"

I've spoke with a developer from Shadow or mordor and he told me this:

"The developer rights belong to Monolith, while the publishing rights belong to XDev. Who actually owns these rights now is beyond me.
I suggest getting in contact with both of them and seeing what the result is. "

so my question is , on what site should I start a petition for a drakan game?
I could get a lot of people to sign it , can you guys help me with this ?

and please dont say there was already a petition like this , and nobodey gave a **** we have to do this !

Surreal Software had a very bad marketing for the game, Drakan was the most underplayed ps2 title, and was almost the best game for the console
Im sure a new drakan game with a PS4 or a Steam release could reach out to many people

[Arokhs Twin]

Hi,
I believe the rights to the game still lie with Xdev which is part of SCE which in turn is one of the Sony group of companies. Seem as the publisher owns the 'Drakan' trademark it would probably be them you would have to petition to. Monolith could make another Drakan game and then pass it to SCE for consideration so it's worth talking to them too. Some of Surreal's staff probably work there. I would do what the your contact said and contact both - you are more likely to get a response from Monolith though.

There was a petition to Sony ages back but it didn't make any difference; they make so much money as a company they just don't take notice of public petitions unless it gains millions of signatures (not likely with Drakan) and / or gains massive publicity on multiple gaming sites.

If you want to go further with this I'd see if you can find out if any of the ex Surreal staff work at Monolith (or indeed any other gaming companies) and see if you can get in touch. I know Stuart Denman has set up a couple of companies making mobile and educational software which he is still currently doing. As for the others most seem to have LinkedIN profiles which can be googled for.

[mage150]

Surreal Software had a very bad marketing for the game.

The Surreal Software devs were very gracious. I never would blame them. This was the fault of Sony for poor marketing and lack of PC option with multiplayer. There was a whole community starved for the sequel. There was an active modding community ready to go. On top of that Sony has a bad history with doing the same thing to a large title like Star Was Galaxies. They lacked innovation and tried to stick to existing formulas. They literally killed one of the next most popular MMOs next to World of Warcraft.

Sorry for the rant, I just don't want to blame Surreal. I was but a kid when the game was out. The devs treated little old me with as much time as they could afford so I could mod for the game. Sony is so dumb they would look at Drakan, see it was a loss on paper for the company and pass it on again. This is all despite the fact that a Skyrim remake is back on top. Dragons, swords and armor. But you know, it's Sony. They don't get it.

[De Profundis]

The impression I always got was that Sony purchased Psygnosis for specific titles and Drakan was more or less treated as a contractual obligation they had to fulfil.

The move to PS2 left a lot Drakan fans in the dust and instead of trying to market the game to a new audience, all they really did was slap a demo onto PS Underground and called it a day.

Rather than petition for a sequel, you could always try talking to popular figures like PewDiePie or something to generate interest in the game, if they'll ever do something like that. I dunno.

[Arokhs Twin]

I think Psygnoisis was a sub division of SCEE long before Drakan came along and they made their own games as well as publishing them. As you say when they fully took over the developer / publisher and closed them down any current game franchises they had to oblige to finish regardless if they wanted them or not. This happened early in Drakan:TAG's development and I believe they saw potential in Drakan:TAG (the PC version) - they had just bought out out a major software house and it's trademarks and were wondering how they would best profit from it. Sony were also releasing the then new PS2 console so seeing the potential in Drakan they cancelled the PC version and had Surreal redevelop it exclusively for the PS2 hoping it would be a killer app.

However as you know this didn't happen and poor sales plus the end of Psygnoisis was the nail in the coffin for the series. The rights to the game lie with Xdev which is part of the Sony group of companies.

[De Profundis]

Yes, I forgot that Sony already owned Psygnosis.

The only thing I remember clearly was being very underwhelmed by the advertising. The demo had a lot of positive talk, but where other Sony games around the same time were getting airtime, large banner ads on gaming sites, etc, Drakan had almost nothing. Very little buz outside of the Drakan community.