I’ve not gotten around to it yet, but it’s my understanding that Telltale-style superhero sim Dispatch is really rather good. So good that it won the heart of our Fraser Brown, who scored it 89% in his Dispatch review and called it “one of the best superhero TV shows around.” And that’s without all the sex scenes the devs apparently cut. Sic transit gloria mundi.
It’s not just us singing the game’s praises, though (but we are definitely singing them in a cooler way than everyone else). At the time of writing, Dispatch has an enviable Overwhelmingly Positive rating in its Steam reviews, numerous games crit garlands and, probably most significantly for its devs, it’s set to hit its best-case-scenario three-year sales target in, oh, about three months.
That’s per Michael Choung, Dispatch’s executive producer, who told GI.biz that, pre-release, AdHoc Studio had nurtured a dream “bull case” for the game’s sales that it hoped to reach over the game’s entire lifetime (which the studio’s numbers guys put at three years). “We’re on track to do that in three months,” said Choung.
Don’t get him wrong, Choung’s not surprised people like the game—“We were confident people would like it,” he notes, but how much they like it is beyond AdHoc’s wildest expectations. “I think the degree to which it would be successful is something that I certainly didn’t anticipate.”
Much like ye olde Telltale games that Dispatch draws inspiration from, the game followed an episodic release structure. Rather than dumping the whole lot on Steam at once, AdHoc drip-fed players with episodes and only reached its conclusion on November 12. That approach seems to have paid off. Rather than players losing interest after the game’s initial, October 22 episode release, “It’s the opposite,” per creative director Nick Herman.
(Image credit: AdHoc Studio)
Whether the studio should pursue that release cadence was a matter of some internal controversy before the game came out. “Like, should we do it this way? Should we release it all at once?” Choung recalls devs asking each other.“Conventional wisdom told us we absolutely shouldn’t have done what we’ve done… I think it’s absolutely proven itself.” No wonder that sequel’s looking likely.
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