Genuine question. Not particularly interested in the little chap myself but I did assume that somewhere within TSW6 there would be a Percy or a Gordon and that, perhaps, he might've even got his own route. So, bearing in mind this was the big reveal only 9 months ago, What happened???
Not even a hint of it on the Direct or Roadmap. I did pop a question in the Q&A but buried now amongst all the other posts. Does look as if it was yet another one hit wonder for DTG, with (apart from the livery pack), no follow on content or an Isle Of Sodor route. Maybe it was just a flop and didn't actually sell as well as they thought.
Probably wasn't as big a success as hoped once the novelty wore off. Kindof expected as such given the severely limited replayability of what we got...
Actually I've just realised that I missed off a bit from my original post which was.......... As none of us really know then, in this instance, humorous & pointless answers are allowed or even encouraged A bit like these; "Perhaps sales Tanked" or re new DLC "Toby or not Toby? That is the question". (I'll get my coat )
Maybe he got too excited over his permission to ignore the speed limits and went too fast and crashed into someone's kitchen whilst they were eating breakfast
Wouldn’t surprise me if Thomas content gets its own announcement separate from the main TSW roadmaps and Direct. The licensor is probably quite specific about the comms on Thomas content, because control is everything to these people. so it may be coming, and only announced nearer to release. Remember too, that whatever else non-TSW related, that was supposed to appear on the Direct, didn’t. Some sort of separate Thomas game? You never know.
So? If it did well they'd do more, Plarail did just Thomas to start with, same with Ertl, Hornby too I think. I don't think any of those companies would've expected Thomas to become such core pillars of any of their business. Whether the initial intention was to do that's kind of irrelevant, if the line sells well you'll go out of your way to expand it even if it wasn't in the cards. Thing is if they were doing nothing and can't say anything they'd do just that, shut up, and not speak a word on it. The fact Jamie's willing to say that there straight up no plans really shoots down this idea.
Well to be fair if it had been done properly with a fully realised Isle Of Sodor route or even scaled down layout, it would have been more appealing. Even a grizzled old curmudgeon like me might have bitten. But a steam outline loco with the physics of a Hornby clockwork engine masquerading on the West Somerset was not the way to go.
Yep we should have gotten an actual steam locomotive not Thomas, and this is coming from a fan of ttte
Honestly for everything it could've been a net gain if they actually had Thomas use the same physics all the other steamers had. Would've been a big boon for everything if he actually forced improvements to the core steam simulation. As is the simplified controls are now seemingly a dead end, they've developed something for the core that really only benefits Thomas content. And by extension have screwed people out the one thing that could've really benefited the non-Thomas crowd. It's silly as well, because outside of sheer cheapness there wasn't any reason both couldn't have been done. Heck, some of the free Trainz mods have proper cab mode support, while still allowing the use of the DCC mode the game provides. I don't see why Thomas in TSW had to be done only as simple model, it would've only boosted the appeal.
Flopped probably (and hopefully). Complete waste of time and resource imo although DTG will no doubt defend it as a valuable way in for new younger players!
Thomas the tank engine and friends, except he is Billy no mates, he must have fallen out with all the other engines. DTG could have done a stand alone product or an off shoot of TSW for Thomas. As it is Thomas is neither done nor left alone, it is like one of those 1 season TV shows on Prime Video. DTG told us Thomas was the best thing since sliced bread and now they have no plans to do any more with him, bread must have blue mold on it? The problem is and I keep saying, DTG keep firing out DLCs and not fixing the bugs and now it has got to a stage where they are scrambling to try and fix bits. DTG is in the process of shipping TSW6 with the disclamer that they havent fixed performance issues that are in the current game, granted DTG are not charging for TSW6 and I give them credit for that, a lot of software companies would sell you a turkey and charge you for the privilege. The passenger system needs to be fixed, there are list of bugs that need to be fixed or ignored, there are problems with sounds on the XBox, PS5 can't use the train touch screens, if we created a bug list, it would be large....so, when does DTG have time to do another Thomas? It might be an idea to get a third party to do a Thomas update, what is rivet doing now?
It was only for the 80th anniversary and was never going to be more than that unfortunately. I know it wasn’t popular here, but it was a great way to get kids involved in train swimming and trains in general. Would’ve been nice to see the rest of the friends added as a DLC with a few more missions.
If we had some proof that it did get a bunch of kids interested in trains and train simming, I might have a more charitable view. But DTG never give out sales numbers or demographics so............
The best thing to come out of the TTTE DLCs was a livery with "LBSC" (London Brighton South Coast Railway) on it! Apart from Victory works cancelled project this is probably the closest I'll get to a Terrier in Stroudley improved engine green If it sold badly this is probably in DTGs mind more evidence that steam doesn't sell
There have been trains in the past that have attempted swimming, but then decided they liked being Submarines way more......
As has been pointed out already, if TTTE was a separate piece of content completely independent of TSW, and included it's own world and map, along with characters, I am of the personal opinion that it would have been reasonably successful. The fact it was released into an established railway simulator game, on the WSR, and went against the grain of most of the anorak players like myself, did not do it any favours. I was certainly one of the people who was, and still is against it being released on the TSW platform. It would certainly have potential and hit the right audience if it was released as it's own game and under its own title.
‘Train swimming?’…lolz Not that we’ll ever find out but it would be interesting to know exactly how many of these younger people stayed interested in TSW after the Thomas novelty wore off. I’ll hazard a guess it was in the tens….
I'd think the same. A lone little blue engine on a screen under thumb stick control on daddy's or big brother's console riding along some alien tracks cannot compare with the real toy nor with the adventures of the TV series. No plans for an immediate follow up DTG said? There are already so many abandoned or orphaned DLC, with every iteration of the game this 'collection' grows and grows ....
Poor Thomas, for many he ruined the Christmas reveals series and now it seems he’s been shoved aside.
The ball is not in DTG's court. They will need to get a license for every bit of TTTE they want to use. Everything I'm guessing per contract will have to be run by TTTE for approval at each step from concept to final product. That's how Disney and other IP owners work. If anything happens wtih Thomas or not, it's up to the TTTE owners. I will say it wasn't implemented well on a kiddie level. The controls, the touchy signals, the vague missions and the bugs were something adults who play TSW were used to, but not kids. Ironically they would have been better off not "dumbing it down" as much and making it closer to existing rail scenarios, even on the WSR. Just swap out the carriage in game and loco on one of those "putting it away" scenarios with Thomas and the lady carriage... Clara? It was just clunky. I'm pretty sure all TTTE care about are the profits. We don't have that, but we have popularity. About 60-65% on Steam. Compare that to 84% for JT's WCMLOS it doesn't sound great, but it's not bad actually. The Dutch line is about 81% Frankfurt is about 74% Southeastern High Speed 73% Cargo Line 4 is about 71% MBTA's latest was about 67% Sand Patch Grade 63% Great Western Express 63% Northern Trans Appenines 60% Fife Circle 57% The E94 pack was about 55% Peak Forest 54% Tees Valley 54% Spirit of Steam 53% Oakville 53% Midland Mainline 53% Clinchfield 47% Cane Creek is about 36% While the rating numbers aren't high, (admittedly the number of reviewers is low overall) it doesn't seem to be a total flop. It's sort of middle of the pack. I'd guess they might give it another go with another DLC.
l agree Isle Of Sodor route with Percy, Gordon and Edward will be the Christmas surprise this year. No l have mentioned it, it probably now won’t happen. My Christmas surprise would be ATS announcing MAC extended to Crewe.
That would have to be at least 4 different routes to link together, but I'd still buy it if it was the quality of normal routes. =-)
Given Mattel's own treatment of the brand at points I frankly don't think their oversight would be any worse than anything DTG deals with for other companies. Considering they thought things like Thomas Wood's unfinished looking models and constantly changing the couplings on the diecast toys every other year were good ideas that wouldn't hurt either of those brands. This I all agree with however, I think a good comparison is making a Top Gear or Grand Tour DLC for a game like Bus or Euro Truck Simulator where you can't have any of the insane stunts or have the Holy Trinity being willies to each other. As much as certain group fixate on the train's basis and what not it's the solid writing and the interesting scenarios that makes them appealing. Honestly if you do a Thomas game and you can't do anything like this- -or can't have the engines talk to each other making snarky quips and insulting each other like this- -you lose a lot of the appeal. In the same way a non-car guy ain't gonna be interested in the thrills of parallel parking and driving though a city in a traffic jam just because they saw a few cars on Top Gear once. The idea that kids were gonna be attracted to TSW just because of Thomas seems no less absurd as the Top Gear example. Add to that the buggy and pricy nature of TSW and I think you've successful alienated off anyone who isn't already a hardcore TSW user. This little sentence actually reminds me of another problem, for all the talk about how popular Thomas is you wouldn't actually know it from the forum. I've only seen one or two people on here who seem to have actual knowledge of the series beyond a passing interest. Yet any attempts to question if TSW was a good fit was met with pushback, ironically often from people without good understanding of the series. Even though again, much of what makes Thomas appealing to so many isn't actually in TSW as noted prior. Why would they if it's middle of the pack? You're ignoring something here, Thomas is the most popular character, no character's gonna do better than he does. Thomas himself may do middling, but that pretty much confirms that even characters like Percy & James aren't gonna do any better. You have question if there's even gonna be enough demand to even finish engines 1 to 7. And if you can't complete those how the hell are you gonna justify doing fan favorites like Duck or the Skarloey engines?
I don’t think the goal was to get kids attracted to TSW as much as getting people who play TSW to have something to share with their kids and get them into the world of trains and train simming so they can play together.
Both but yes. If you already have your kid playing with you on WSR... it's not hard to get them just playing the other scenarios or going onto other locos and routes.... it's a stepping stone you're right. It was nice hearing all the stories from people who were playing TSW with their kids and sharing their love of trains in general. Although, there was also the hope that some "fresh blood" would come into TSW too that weren't already customers and were old enough to buy something =-)
I saw a lot of comments from people who were obviously new to TSW being annoyed at the Thomas DLC not being marketed and sold as a package clearly. They assumed the core would come with the route and DLC. DTG should have bundled the free version of the core game with the route and Thomas..... I saw anger from new players assuming the DLC would allow them to play trains straight away. DTG asking £80 was a bit steep. They should have only asked £40 with the free core game included.
Wait.... Core had to be part of the bundle. Otherwise it wouldn't work. It says it's included in the press release and won't work otherwise. I'm not sure if you can download any DLC without it also downloading TSW core for it to go on. If for example someone just downloaded say a route like Southeastern Highspeed and nothing else.... it would have to download TSW core for it to run. Otherwise you couldn't launch it. They literally DID offer the whole package for $39.99 (dunno what that is in pounds, but it's the same ball park as what you're asking) I'm not sure who was complaining about what in your experience... but they shouldn't have been able to download "just the DLC" and not be able to play the game. It's designed to not allow that to happen. Now... if they expected some other routes to magically appear.... that'd be different. Or if someone downloaded the Thomas-only DLC and not the WSR (meant for people who already own WSR) then they'd be able to "play" just not on the WSR so they'd only see trains in the Training Center. Is that what happened? They downloaded the wrong version, hoping to save $15.00 by downloading the $24.99 "Thomas Only" upgrade for WSR instead of the bundle of WSR and Thomas for $39.99? I can see that happening for a newbie, but it's also clearly spelled out in the press releases. It was honestly a pretty nice deal since you get WSR for half price.
I'll just put this fun little story out there, don't worry, it is related to the current topic, and not just because of Thomas. I've been collecting the new Thomas toys, great items, but distribution has been abysmal. For the first time in years I've actually had to rope in my parents to assist due to how dreadful the whole experience is. Well one of the things me and my mother explained to dad was that I wanted to get a second Classic Thomas. Guy came back with a Classic Gordon instead, even though general designs of the engine are different and the names are right on the packaging! Weirdly when she explained it to him the thing that made it stick of all things was the fact Thomas had weathering, that caught his attention more so than shape, rolling stock, or name! It really needs to be emphasized, if you have experience with something it's hard to comprehend how much that benefits you. If you have little to no experience with something lot of the things we had take for granted might not even help. Heck, if I had to explain the differences I'd probably had never even thought to point out the weathering, because for me that's about point 9 or 10 on how I'd identify the character. You really can't predict how anyone who isn't a hardcore TSW fanatic like we are is gonna process everything. There's probably a million little things none of us would even bat a eye at that would create massive headaches for a parent trying out TSW.
