The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

[ddonohu2]

And the file contains the full message?

I simply made a plain text file and pasted this into it:

Code: (Select All)

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.19 (MingW32)

jA0ECQMCOZMp4iR4ULWu0loBVLEt7zgQyTJONONNcynZhdoO0lp2FC6h8/54NRAu
4Xfw/BWV5tCx12mTO20H1TPSgXKRIcinurBqqlZxCU6G7rdTmrHkkh2xQMt1c6Qj
dYp9aHDw05qLwsw=
=c66i
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----

And then renamed it to "message.txt.pgp".

[MegaScience]

Yes. I opened Notepad++, pasted the entire text, then saved it in my SOMASystems folder under that name. When I attempt to Decrypt/Verify, it seems to skip asking me a passphtase and give me the No Data error. I'll try remaking the file in various places.

Edit: Do not make the file with Notepad++. I assume it was a problem where I had Notepad++ set to encode differently (I've had to change encoding before because I'd use Notepad++ to edit wiki pages, but it was turning non-Latin characters into question marks), but default Notepad saves the file fine since it isn't adjusted at all.

[Zgroktar]

I assume that in the end this system lockdown will not be successful and we will surely see something new.

[iBobaFett]

Quick math: there are 8 items in the list and no scroll bar. Time between entry 1 and entry 2 - roughly a week (6 days). If there wouldn't be that lockdown event, we did know everything by November 17 approx. Perhaps it would end with in-game trailer.

With the Playstation Twitter account tweeting about the progress of this at every step, and with the end time seemingly coinciding with the release of the PS4, I'm starting to get a little worried about what that could mean.

Anyone else?

That really shouldn't be worrying you. It just means more people will get to enjoy the game. Seeing as how Frictional has done a phenomenal job supporting all of their past games, I can't imagine SOMA will be the end of that support and overall care for their main customers.

[Mothhive]

Quick math: there are 8 items in the list and no scroll bar. Time between entry 1 and entry 2 - roughly a week (6 days). If there wouldn't be that lockdown event, we did know everything by November 17 approx. Perhaps it would end with in-game trailer.

With the Playstation Twitter account tweeting about the progress of this at every step, and with the end time seemingly coinciding with the release of the PS4, I'm starting to get a little worried about what that could mean.

Anyone else?

That really shouldn't be worrying you. It just means more people will get to enjoy the game. Seeing as how Frictional has done a phenomenal job supporting all of their past games, I can't imagine SOMA will be the end of that support and overall care for their main customers.

Well, it's not beyond the realm of possibility. Frictional are obviously working on something ambitious, and that takes a lot of time and money, so if Sony were to contact them (and at this point it's almost certain they have considering the tweets coming from the Playstation Twitter) and offer them funding in order to make it a PS4 exclusive, or at least a timed exclusive, it would be hard to turn down. So it could come down to a situation where they can make the game they envisioned and slightly annoy their PC fans for the exclusivity period, but ultimately everyone would get to play it, or make cuts and release a lesser game that everyone can play at the same time.

Plus, this sort of thing has happened quite recently with The Chinese Room, who Frictional have worked closely with.

[Zgroktar]

Frictional already made two successful games which probably situated them more than enough to make ends their way, collaborating with Sony is just another step to greatness.
Their situation is far from The Chinese Room who only made one successful short game based on a mod, and one game published by Frictional, in this case The Chinese Room is the only one who needs outside funds to achieve their ambitions.
Frictional would only lose by making a PS4 exclusive, they were doing fine all by themselves all this time, why should they endanger that?

[MegaScience]

We are the adventurers of the ARG. What Frictional does with their production is not our business, at least not at this point. I expect it to be either a PC or Multi-Platform title, but in any case that's not our project.

[Mothhive]

Frictional already made two successful games which probably situated them more than enough to make ends their way, collaborating with Sony is just another step to greatness.
Their situation is far from The Chinese Room who only made one successful short game based on a mod, and one game published by Frictional, in this case The Chinese Room is the only one who needs outside funds to achieve their ambitions.
Frictional would only lose by making a PS4 exclusive, they were doing fine all by themselves all this time, why should they endanger that?

While their situation is different from the Chinese Room, the differences actually make it more likely they would be in a similar situation with money.

The Chinese Room made 2 games, both using existing engines, both very short and with relatively short development times. For their second game they had the support of Frictional for both publishing it, and providing help with development.

Frictional has been developing a new engine for their new project, has been working on this project since Amnesia was released so it's likely to be fairly substantial, have spent time and money publishing and aiding development of AAMFP, and have put together numerous high quality teasers using actors, which I'd imagine is much more costly than some game clips that normally get used in teasers. That's all going to add up, and while Amnesia was a big success for them, the money they made from it would only last so long.

Also, how exactly would Frictional lose out by being a PS4 exclusive. The console market is much larger than the PC gaming market, plus they would have been given monetary incentive by Sony. If it's a timed exclusive, they still eventually get a lot of PC sales as well, as I doubt there will be many people so outraged that they boycott it entirely.

[Zgroktar]

Console market much larger than PC gaming market? Are you serious?

EDIT: Oh, the horror....

[Kreekakon]

Console market much larger than PC gaming market? Are you serious?

EDIT: Oh, the horror....

I'd say they're both probably equally super-large, and both worth investing into.

Although now that I think about it, the console market very well may have a larger general presence, because thinking back to a lot of marketing of games over the past couple years I just vaguely remember games being mainly marketed for XBOX 360, and PS3 more than PC even if they did have a PC version.

Just from my memory though.