Conspiracy theories on Jurassic Park: TG delay

[Woodsyblue]

Let me preface this by saying that everything in this post is pure speculation. Like all conspiracy theories this could just be the ravings of an utter loon. But hear me out before you rush to judgement. I've spend quite a bit of time pondering the matter and I like to think I'm not a complete idiot, but perhaps that's being a little optimistic

Telltale would have lost a heap of money on the delay, and potentially part of their reputation, so there had to something seriously wrong, seriously game-breaking for them to pull the plug on all the pre-orders. And even more bizarre is that they were ready to release this thing, like really ready. So why would they delay the game until it's completion, rather than just delay the first episode? If the problem was just with the graphics, sound, or action they could have fixed it without needing delay the series until all the episodes were ready. It had to be something that affected the episode structure as a whole.

So what is different about Jurassic Park: The Game? There is the action component, sure, but I don't believe that is what caused the delay. Another big change: this is the first Telltale game in which story choices can affect things that happen in later episodes. Ah, but not quite the first game; in the first Back to the Future episode, Marty has to come up with an alias for himself for 1930's Hill Valley: Harry Callahan, Michael Corleone, etc. People would call you the name you chose, and supposedly in later episodes they would remember it and call you the same name. Now, I say supposedly because this feature didn't seem to work for a lot of people. There were reports that the later episodes would glitch and characters would call Marty the wrong name. I even remember cases where Marty's were being called the wrong name even in the first episode. I believe (speculate) that this feature was partly a test for the upcoming JP game, and if all those complaints in the BttF forums are any indication it wasn't a particularly successful one.

With the first episode of JP steadily approaching, Telltale appeared to have a problem: they weren't sure if the in-game choices would successfully carry over from one episode to the next. In a game where the choices are critical to the story this could be a potential catastrophe. Imagine playing a game where a character dies in the first chapter but is alive in the third without any explanation. So Telltale did the only thing they could do (aside from release a potentially broken game), and that's delay it until they had all the episodes ready so they could make sure the choice system worked and there was no problem with the data carrying over between episodes.

So that's my theory. If you like it or hate it or hate me feel free to comment. Or if you have your own theories on the delay this is the place to share it, and it doesn't necessarily have to be serious. We may never know the real reason behind the delay but there is no reason we can't take a stab at guessing.

[Faceslasher]

Uhh it wasn't their fault, they improved the game so more people would get it. There is no conspiracy, they changed the story and fixed bugs.

End Thread.

[waroftheworlds01]

Wasn't the delay "conspiracy" because they decided to give the 360 version a disc because of some weird issue of haveing it downloadable on XBOX LIVE?

And since they were releasing all episodes on one CD for XBOX they had to finish all the episodes which would not have been finished by the original release date. So instead of releasing episode one on PSN/PC first and waiting till later to get the CD for the xbox going, they decided to just finish all the episodes and release them all at once for all platformes so that no one was left waiting. Also with that extra time they were able to fix some of the bugs in the earlier episodes as well.

Isn't that what happened?

[AndyCullen]

I'm pretty sure it's Obama's fault.

[Flawless02]

I did see on youtube that people are mad about the T-Rex roar which they have fixed, and the graphics. I also seen a preview on youtube when Joe Pinny was showing the preview, when the guy was helping the girl out of the jurassic park jeep, the guy like flew off the jeep sideways, and when T-rex was snapping at the girl she was running around like sonic the hedgehog. But yeah when the guy flew off the jeep, I think I heard Joe Pinny say DOH! and he must of reported that with the TTG team. After that I seen when they delayed it.

And I hear on here that it will be 5 Episodes of the game, and I heard on a different preview that it's gonna be a 4 episode game.

I found the youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtiWYjXdcmQ

[scallenger]

Okay, why is this even still being discussed anymore? The game comes out in just a few days. WHO CARES ANYMORE?! lol. Sorry to sound like a jerk, but really... it's really irrelevant now.

[Woodsyblue]

Originally Posted by Faceslasher

Uhh it wasn't their fault, they improved the game so more people would get it. There is no conspiracy, they changed the story and fixed bugs.

So they delayed the game, gave back everyone's money back and also gave everyone who pre-orded a free game, which could include JP, so more people would get it? That doesn't make sense, the delay would have cost them a fortune, far more than releasing a game with a few problems. If it was just some story changes and bug fixes why did they not just delay the first episode and give people who were unhappy their money back? They could always rewrite story as they go, after all. But they delayed the whole thing, just before they were ready to release it, so there must have been something seriously broken.

[jpark_08]

The game was delay because it needed more work done. Universal probably forced them tp delay until Novemeber so they can market it with the Blu-rays.

[piccobello]

Originally Posted by jpark_08

The game was delay because it needed more work done. Universal probably forced them tp delay until Novemeber so they can market it with the Blu-rays.

Thats my theory as well, especially if you consider that the Blu-ray has Epsiode 1 for free. The marketing put both together

[Sadonicus]

The most likely is a deal with microsoft to get them an exclusive Retail disc for XBox 360 with all episodes before it gets a release on any other platform, so they needed to finish the game first (and thankfully didnt decide to stick with the monthly episode concept for the other platforms wich microsoft probably didnt liked)

Maybe the BluRay release of the films in Oktober could be a reason too.

Its definetly not because "they wanted to make the game better", I dont think that much changed to justify such a long delay, wich also speaks against some serious issues with the game itself!

[Woodsyblue]

Originally Posted by jpark_08

The game was delay because it needed more work done. Universal probably forced them tp delay until Novemeber so they can market it with the Blu-rays.

Originally Posted by piccobello

Thats my theory as well, especially if you consider that the Blu-ray has Epsiode 1 for free. The marketing put both together

It very well could be that simple but that does require a huge lack of foresight on Universial's part. They knew they'd be releasing JP on Blu-ray and they also knew there was a game being made. To turn around after the game was already taking pre-orders and demanding the developer delay the game until the Blu-ray release seems like a really stupid move on their part, if they had any common sense at all they'd have coordinated it all ahead of time and wouldn't need to lose money needlessly.

[RAnthonyMahan]

From what I understand, it's pretty simple:

The original plan was to release the PC version in April and the console version in the fall. Given how Telltale's past attempts at console releases were kind of....spotty, I suppose they decided it was better to finish all the episodes before worrying about ports.

Thing is, Microsoft's pretty strict when it comes to multiplats. Apparently they told Telltale something along the lines of "You either release the Xbox 360 version at the same time as the others, or you don't release it on the 360 at all." It was either delay the PC version or try rushing the console version for an April release (this would also mean dealing with XBLA, which Telltale doesn't seem to plan on ever doing again), and the former was both easier and better in the long run.

That said, I'm sure Telltale's taken advantage of the extra development time to fine-tune the game.

[Woodsyblue]

Originally Posted by RAnthonyMahan

From what I understand, it's pretty simple:

The original plan was to release the PC version in April and the console version in the fall. Given how Telltale's past attempts at console releases were kind of....spotty, I suppose they decided it was better to finish all the episodes before worrying about ports.

Thing is, Microsoft's pretty strict when it comes to multiplats. Apparently they told Telltale something along the lines of "You either release the Xbox 360 version at the same time as the others, or you don't release it on the 360 at all." It was either delay the PC version or try rushing the console version for an April release (this would also mean dealing with XBLA, which Telltale doesn't seem to plan on ever doing again), and the former was both easier and better in the long run.

That said, I'm sure Telltale's taken advantage of the extra development time to fine-tune the game.

That... actually makes perfect sense. And Microsoft have a long, sad history of pulling these kinds of shenanigans. In fact there is even a clause in MS Live agreement that states that if a game isn't released on Xbox before or at the same time as the competition Microsoft have the right to refuse selling that game.

[RaventheBlack]

Originally Posted by Woodsyblue

So they delayed the game, gave back everyone's money back and also gave everyone who pre-orded a free game, which could include JP, so more people would get it? That doesn't make sense, the delay would have cost them a fortune, far more than releasing a game with a few problems. If it was just some story changes and bug fixes why did they not just delay the first episode and give people who were unhappy their money back? They could always rewrite story as they go, after all. But they delayed the whole thing, just before they were ready to release it, so there must have been something seriously broken.

If it was that severe in which they would have given a refund there may have been a glitch or 2 they spotted in the game in which once activated would not allow you to further progress the game such as the game freezing.

They may have also added certain events in chapters 2-4 in which case depend on events in the first chapter and thus had to go back to chapter 1 and add on but would not be able to if they released it as an episodic download at that time,all in all though good came out of it in the end with people getting refunded,bugs fixed,graphics improved,and more gameplay im sure.

[Cyberscribe]

Originally Posted by RaventheBlack

If it was that severe in which they would have given a refund there may have been a glitch or 2 they spotted in the game in which once activated would not allow you to further progress the game such as the game freezing.

They may have also added certain events in chapters 2-4 in which case depend on events in the first chapter and thus had to go back to chapter 1 and add on but would not be able to if they released it as an episodic download at that time,all in all though good came out of it in the end with people getting refunded,bugs fixed,graphics improved,and more gameplay im sure.

My theory is they had part of the story of the game that would have conflicted with the overall story of the movies. I would like to think that some topics that we discussed on this forum were read by the developers and they had elements in the game that totally contradicted the basis of the franchise. So they had 6 months to change this.

[coolsome]

I think Lee Harvey Oswald shot the dinosaurs!

[Irishmile]

They couldn't find Nedry.. Had to go line by line through code... They hated that hacker $#!+