Starbreeze CEO Still Proud of Syndicate Despite Poor Sales

[News Portal]

You might think that after Syndicate's commercial failure, developers Starbreeze and its higher-ups would be ashamed or even angry about their time spent on the game. Nothing could be further from the truth though, as Starbreeze CEO, Mikael Nermark, told EDGE, “I’m still proud of it. To have the courage to reboot the franchise – We knew from the get-go that there was going to be a small but very vocal [group] of gamers and journalists that was going to hate us whatever route we took."

He went on to add: “If we didn’t do an exact copy of the game, they’d hate us. If we did do an exact copy, they’d say we didn’t innovate. They were never ours to win; it was a lost battle from the get-go.”

Source: EDGE Online

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[Unworthy King]

I liked Syndicate. Never played the old ones, but the new one I thoroughly enjoyed.

[vcatkiller]

“If we didn’t do an exact copy of the game, they’d hate us. If we did do an exact copy, they’d say we didn’t innovate. They were never ours to win; it was a lost battle from the get-go.”

Yeah what a dilemma. It would've been awful if you made it an isometric game with enhancements to bring it into the modern age, everybody would just hate it. Like that really terrible XCom: Enemy Unknown. Or that badly done Starcraft 2, that sold really badly. Oh, what were those companies thinking?

Yeah whatever. Go back to living in your dream world.

[James Pinnell]

Syndicate was a perfectly fine FPS, but it largely missed the point of what made the franchise popular in the first place.

[elliotENGi]

I freaking LOVED syndicate. It saddens me that it was a "Commercial failure". One of my favourite sci-fi shooters ever I think. Liked it's style, and the way dubstep kicked in in the first boss battle, was just perfect - It had a great sense of awesome (the game) haha.

[PsychoSmiley]

I got far more enjoyment out of the the multiplayer than the single player campaign. However multiplayer was broken once everybody realised that the healing pulse application was OP and you could steam-roll expert difficulty because you couldn't die and each team member dropped their pulse one at a time giving you a near constant regen buff.

I have my personal vision for a classic 'isometric' game in a post Syndicate Wars world but meh, I'm just an end user.

[a3gis]

hated that the new syndicate was an FPS, but i LOVED the new syndicate - the story dragged on a bit, but the gameplay and aesthetics were great and the MP was awesome fun.

but i still want a 'real' syndicate game

[vcatkiller]

Syndicate was a perfectly fine FPS, but it largely missed the point of what made the franchise popular in the first place.

This is it in a nutshell. To be honest I never played it but most comments here have talked it up. I still think if they called it something else it would've sold by the bucket load. We're taling a game by Starbreeze for crying out loud!

That, and when it was refused classification in Australia I just couldn't be bothered trying to obtain it. No loss...

[Bronze_D]

Or on the other hand with a new IP brand, it may well be ignored at large.

It's difficult to predict how things will go in the market, but it shouldn't have taken a rocket scientist in Starbreeze to figure out that when you say take a popular strategy game, and then turns it into an FPS, that you are already taking a massive departure that risk alienating the original fans.

It's even more so when you fail to recognize the key ingredient of the original game, and try to retain as much of it's strength in transition.

[Ytnim]

Yet people are still clamouring for a Starcraft Ghost that's not happening anytime soon. People are weird, trying to predict what they want is never going to turn out well unless someone's wearing those fancy hindsight glasses.

[realOne]

Syndicate did have its moment of awesomeness just like The Chronicles of Riddick 1 & 2 which were great games.

[SickProphet]

Wasn't this game banned in au?

[Capt.no0b]

I think it was a worthwhile game. I played the original years ago and always wondered what it would be like to play as an agent. I just wished there was a mission where you just had 4 agents and a couple of mini guns. That would've been epic.

[a3gis]

= I just wished there was a mission where you just had 4 agents and a couple of mini guns WITH REGENERATING AMMO. That would've been epic.

^ this, but fixed ;P

[exe3]

Yet people are still clamouring for a Starcraft Ghost that's not happening anytime soon.

Because Starcraft Ghost was a spinoff side project and wasn't intended to be a change in direction for the franchise.

“If we didn’t do an exact copy of the game, they’d hate us. If we did do an exact copy, they’d say we didn’t innovate. They were never ours to win; it was a lost battle from the get-go.”

Yeah what a dilemma. It would've been awful if you made it an isometric game with enhancements to bring it into the modern age, everybody would just hate it. Like that really terrible XCom: Enemy Unknown. Or that badly done Starcraft 2, that sold really badly. Oh, what were those companies thinking?

Yeah whatever. Go back to living in your dream world.

Pretty much this. I'm not saying anything about the game itself as i've neither played it nor the originals but that guys comments were pretty stupid. Somehow a very minor group caused the game to be a financial failure? Ok. They should have started with a new IP as the whole point of using an existing IP is for brand recognition but when you change everything about that IP you p!ss off and alienate those who actually know of the brand in the first place thus defeating the whole point. Meanwhile those who hadn't known of Syndicate before would be treating it like a new IP anyway.