Fallout co-creator Tim Cain hasn't made sequels to his other cult classic RPGs because they didn't sell well: 'You should have bought it'

GamesRPGFallout co-creator Tim Cain hasn’t made sequels to his other cult classic RPGs because they didn’t sell well: ‘You should have bought it’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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“People regularly tell me, ‘Why don’t you make another game like Bloodlines,’ or, ‘Why don’t you make a sequel to Arcanum?'” he says. “They’re like, ‘You made a cult classic.’ And I’m like, ‘The problem is the cult part.’ They didn’t sell well enough for a publisher to go, ‘Oh yeah, we definitely gotta jump on a sequel to that.’ So it’s weird to hear people say to me, in some cases decades later, ‘You should have done another one.’ It’s like, ‘You should have bought it.'”

This was long before the huge indie game development boom and Kickstarter, and Troika’s elaborate RPGs needed the funding publishers provided. And it was just a risky proposition. Its games often reviewed well and got a passionate following, but uneven sales and a reputation for releasing games that featured a lack of polish and lots of bugs must have given the major publishers of the time some doubts.

“I hate to put things so mechanically,” Cain continues, “but sometimes gamers need to put their money where their mouth is. If they don’t like a game, they shouldn’t buy it. If they love a game, they should buy it, and then they’re going to get more of what they want.” He’s adamant that he’s not blaming gamers, though. “I just think the only way to get more of what you want is to buy the things you want and not buy the things you don’t want. Because ultimately, that’s all that people are hearing. If a game comes out and sells a million copies, it’ll probably get a sequel. If a game comes out and sells 50,000 copies, it’s not getting a sequel.”

It’s a miracle that Bloodlines 2 eventually did turn into a tangible project—albeit over a decade later, and without the involvement of the former Troika team. But publisherParadoxlargely seems to be regretting taking the risk. It’s seen a slew of delays since it was first given a release window of 2021, is on its second developer, and has pretty much inspired the publisher to never make an RPG ever again.

Publishers love funding sequels, so when a game doesn’t get one, there’s usually a good reason for it, and normally it’s simply because the original wasn’t popular enough—even if, as was the case with both Arcanum and Bloodlines, they were brilliant.

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