No-fantasy RPG Kingdom Come gets PS4, Xbox One nod
UPDATE: Makes over £1.1 million on Kickstarter, dog companion to follow.
UPDATE 20/02/2014: Medieval RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance has ended its Kickstarter campaign with a healthy £1,106,016.
That's enough to secure a dog companion in the game. Rejoice!
ORIGINAL STORY 18/02/2014: No-fantasy RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance will definitely be a PS4 and Xbox One game as well as PC (Windows, Linux) and Mac, developer Warhorse confirmed.
Until now a console release was an aspiration, for political reasons rather than technical.
"While we never doubted our technical ability to do it, we were not sure about the actual publishing and distribution. In the last console generation, it just wasn't possible to have a game on console without an official publisher," wrote Warhorse on Kickstarter.
"In this generation it's going to be different though. We had lot of discussion with both Microsoft and Sony in the past weeks and we are happy to announce that the game concept of Kingdom Come: Deliverance was approved by both Sony and Microsoft for the next-gen platforms (PS4 and Xbox One).
"Both companies are very eager to work with independent developers now"
Warhorse
"Both companies are very eager to work with independent developers now and were really helpful in speeding up the whole process. We were provided with dev kits and will get cracking on the console version right away."
In a Reddit Ask Me Anything, held before the update was posted to Kickstarter, Warhorse executive producer Martin Klima announced that, "We can confirm that the game will be - at least digitally - available on both PS4 and Xbox One (besides Windows, Linux, Mac)."
The studio may be able to self-publish a boxed version of the game, it elaborated on Kickstarter, "or we may need to make a deal with another company to do it".
Back on Reddit, Klima added: "We are aiming for simultaneous release across all platforms. We will know for sure when we get toward the end of the development. Even if the console version is delayed, it will be months, not years."
Early access alpha and beta releases are planned on PC (and later Mac), but they're still not confirmed for console.
"The alpha version access is confirmed for Windows version only," the studio stated. "We are working with other platform holders to see if it could be made available there, but we cannot promise anything yet.
"The beta access will be available on Windows, Linux and Mac at least; it may also be available on consoles but we cannot confirm it yet."
Warhorse's Kingdom Come: Deliverance Kickstarter campaign is almost at an end but has been a tremendous success, raising more than double (currently £846K and climbing fast) the original goal with two days to go.
That means stretch goals (and bear in mind PayPal donations carry on after Kickstarter). At £900K, a Tournament mode will be added, "where you can don any equipment you like, choose your opponent or opponents and enter a medieval Tournament and try to win by authentic rules".
And at £1m... a dog.
"[A] best friend who will follow you everywhere, help you in combat, warn you from danger when you sleep or go hunting with you"
Warhorse
"We thought about it a lot and we all agreed that we would love to have dog in the game as a companion," the studio wrote. "[A] best friend who will follow you everywhere, help you in combat, warn you from danger when you sleep or go hunting with you. If we reach this goal, there will be dogs in the game and you will be able to own one. There will also most likely be dog-related quests."
Sounds Fablelous.
Some other tidbits from Reddit include talk of modding support similar to Skyrim: "Yes," Daniel Vavra answered. "CryEngine with its free SDK is ideal for that."
He also said Kingdom Come: Deliverance will be a similar size to Bethesda's fourth Elder Scrolls game, Oblivion.
"The size of all three Acts together is similar to Oblivion," he said. "You have to realise that we are small developer and in order to make the game possible, we needed to adjust it to our budget - split into three smaller games. But small is very relative term - 30 hours of gameplay is still much more than most games offer today.
"The three Acts that together make Kingdom Come: Deliverance are only separated by short period of time - they are part of one story."
That story, incidentally, is set against the backdrop of, "The struggle over the throne of Holy Roman Empire between two brothers - king Wenzel the Idle, and king of Hungary, Sigismund".
Multiplayer and co-op are a no-no for Act 1, Martin Klima added, but a possibility for later instalments. "I think co-op is a great thing," he said, "but it's definitely not going to be in Act I - we don't plan any multiplayer at all, we want to focus on singleplayer experience."
A live streamed gameplay demo is planned for today. We'll update this story with any further information when we know it.
