Xboxist

The Fate of Too Human Sequel Hangs in the Balance

Too Human, the futuristic norse fanatasy RPG from Dennis Dyack and Silicon Knights, was supposed to be the first installment in a three-part trilogy. Now, due to the mediocre performance of the first game and deteriorating market conditions, the fate of the next Too Human sequel literally hangs in the balance, not to put too fine a point on it.

Why is the trilogy in danger? First of all, development costs on the first game far exceeded the revenues that were recuperated when the title finally shipped. The game was originally slated to release as a 4-disc compilation on the Playstation One, to give a sense of how long the title was in development (10 years). During this time, the game racked up development costs that approached those of some big-budget Hollywood movies. Some estimates place the development costs for the first game at around $80 million USD. The title was clearly conceived during a time when big egos and even bigger budgets prevailed, and games could push their way to the top of the sales charts based on hype alone. But when Too Human finally shipped in 2008, it found itself competing against a strong lineup of current-gen games that diluted the impact of this long-awaited release. Too Human ended up selling approximately 560,000 copies worldwide, not even close to enough to recoup its massive development costs.

A screenshot from Too Human by Silicon Knights.

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.

What can save the Too Human franchise? Interestingly, a multiplatform release of the first game might be the only thing that can save the sequels at this point. If PS3 owners can be tempted to give the game a chance, Silicon Knights might be able to double their worldwide sales for the game. Of course, PS3 owners have more and more games to choose from these days and there is no guarantee that they will be tempted by this RPG, even though there isn’t currently anything like it on the system. Furthermore, if Dyack and his team are able to leverage the assets and engine developed for the first game, they might be able to significantly reduce the cost of development for a successor.

At the moment, however, we aren’t optimistic about a second and third installment in the Too Human series. Unless we see some real progress toward a sequel very soon (such as a gameplay trailer or screenshots), we are ready to call this trilogy DOA.