I was wondering why we have only three regions in TSW2? And of course one new coming (France). Why we don't have for example China? Or we don't have the majestic Russian region? Or even Polish? Although I love german railways and bought almost all german DLC's. They're great in terms of detail and rolling stock, but hey... There are more regions that we could explore.
I make it 5 so far (US, Canada, UK, Germany, France), the sixth confirmed as on the way (Switzerland) and Union Workshop are looking to bring China, but their most recent TSW post was some very early test renders so that is still some way off. Covid isn't going to see that expand much for a while because of travel restrictions so it's not possible to do field research, this might be why they are working a lot on remasters of previous routes as they have much of the research archived.
The reason for that is pretty simple I think: It sells. They try to sell the game to a wide as possible public, not just the dedicated player. People that scroll trough the Steam shop are more likely to buy the game when they see the US, Germany and England than they would if they see for example India, Mexico or Romania. From the money made, you can start making the first DLC's, and going further down the line you can start with the DLC's that are likely to sell less then the initial countries, because fewer people can relate to it. It's pure marketing. Personally, I would love to see some beautiful routes from China, Japan, Eastern Europe or even my own country, but like it's said before in this thread, COVID-19 has grabbed the entire world by the nuts and put travelling to an almost complete standstill, so indeed the fieldwork isn't possible for developers. We'll just need to sit it out and enjoy the DLC's that come out for the time being.
I don't know if this is for Train Simulator 2021 or Train Sim World but someone from Union Workshop posted these on twitter: Looks like Shinkansen cab to me. They've also posted some pictures of passenger areas for Shinkansen and some textures of a Shinkansen, but again these could be for TS Classic - looking at their Weibo posts they haven't answered whether it will be for TSW or Train Simulator 2021, they may not be allowed to say if it is for TSW
That looks like the E5 cab - glad to see that's progressing and I like the BSOD placeholder on the screens. (And I don't know if this is TSW or TS Classic)
Wow that would be amazing. Hopefully that’s for TSW, I would love anything in Japan. You’re correct that if it’s for TSW, they’re probably not allowed to talk about it much, like we saw with Train Sim Germany releasing pics early.
It would bad nice to see routes from other countries like Japan, but DTG have already explained this. They like to reuse some of the assets they already have. When they are developing a route in a familiar country like the UK, US, or Germany, they can reuse some of the assets they already had like trash cans etc. By doing another country, they would need to make hundreds of new assets. Also, with other countries, you need to fully adapt that language into the game. And finally, LICENSING.
I agree. I'd love to see more routes. But as long as the usual UK/US/DE routes keep selling well, I guess it makes sense for them to keep on pumping out the same old routes. The only thing we can do, is stop buying UK/US/DE content, and buy anything outside of these three countries.
So is there no hope then, for routes outside of Europe and North America? It seems like a missed opportunity to me. I wish there was a competitor in Japan or somewhere so we could get some variety. Do they have no railfans in other countries or something? I feel like what they could do is make a whole team for asset creation, which could work to bring new country assets to the game. For example, a lot of Asia is somewhat similar, so once they make the assets, they would unlock a whole new market, and then the main team could develop the individual routes. We’re already seeing a lack of assets in the game. For example, the LGV route has the wrong foliage, and some of the buildings are a bit strange. Let’s not even talk about the lighting. Despite all of this I got a brief look of the route on console and it’s quite a fun route, so even without all of the right assets it can still be fun.
There is Densha De Go on PS4 and coming to Switch, which is a train sim made in Japan and includes real japanese trains and lines - but you can only purchase the game on the Japan PS store or by disc in Japan at the moment, so that makes it pretty expensive to get as you have to pay for shipping from Japan.
I think if they created a team for asset creation, then we could get new routes. I really do like the chinese high speed routes in ts2021 and they would be a blast if they came to tsw2. They say they want to go to different countries so we will just have to wait and see
I'd say the routes that have been coming out have been fairly diverse. Been pretty happy with the UK routes in particular, and even the US routes which while have been kind of iffy quality wise are doing a good job of picking areas different from each other. Just because they're in the same country doesn't mean they aren't or can't be diverse.
That the one unfortunately thing about Japan, they are happy to lend their brand to Japan based games, but for some reason when it comes to Union Workshop and Dovetail, they won't.
That reminds me of a certain western US railroad... I guess licensing laws are tricky internationally. The problem is that DTG refuses to make an unbranded route. But I kind of understand how that may also go against licensing.
Some of the original Densha de Go routes for the PS1 and PS2 would be ideal for TSW, problem DTG have is that their only partner in that part of the world seems to be Union Workshop. personally, I'd like to see Forest Rail ported across to TSW2, albeit maybe with better sounds for the trains and more up to date rolling stock.
Is Densha De Go branded? I have a suspicion it isn't. Neither TSW and TS are localised into Japanese, which is probably the biggest stumbling block, in effect you'd only be licensing for the international market and ignoring the domestic market. I wonder if adding a Japanese translation to the game for the Arosa line release would be a good idea. The Hakone Railway (JP) and Rhaetian Railway (CH) have a twinning agreement and do a lot of cross promotion. RhB even has Japanese safety signage at some stations because of the number of Japanese visitors they get. JR is always going to be tricky with licensing, as the "JR" trademark is split between 9 independent companies from when JNR was broken up in the 1980s. For example if DTG got the "East Japan Railway Company" (aka JR-East) on board, I don't think they'd be able to license the JR logo without the consent of the rest of the group. If you want full branding it might be worth tapping some of the many and varied independent operators, again though you really would need the game to be in Japanese for them to take an interest. MSTS for example used "Odakyu", a private operator serving Western Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture.
The JR logo is different colours for each different company (e.g. JR east is green, JR Central is orange), so I wonder if you would be able to use the JR logo in the specific colour if you had the licence for one company? Either way what does confuse me is that JR have a copyright not only on this but on the literal shape of the bullet trains (as mentioned on Alan Thomson stream last night) - which means it would be difficult for DTG to sell even as a third party in a video game as you can't just make an unbranded shinkansen - even the train shape is copyrighted - so unless they have the license I don't believe DTG can sell it on steam as third party made for TS Classic or TSW. As far as I'm aware Union Workshop have sold all their stuff so far through DTG publishing on steam. So where are Union Workshop going to sell this Shinkansen they are making? Their own personal website? Or have DTG sneaked a licence for JR and asked Union Workshop to make it? Also I'm fairly sure Densha de go has a JR license - it has the JR logo on the trains
Quick Google search says yes . The 0 series seems to be the one to easiest to obtain (Or the most popular) As Railroad Tycoon 3 and Transport Fever 2 both have it in game, also Lima and Model Power both made HO scale models of it.
Oh I stand corrected on that The Japanese companies design their trains in house, then contract the manufacture out to Hitachi, Toshiba, J-TREC etc - sets can even be made up of vehicles from different manufacturers. That's how they have the design rights to them.
Well if Trainz, Railroad Tycoon and some non-japanese model train manufacturers can get a license it doesn't seem outside the realms of possibility for DTG to get a license either. I wish Densha De Go would localise and sell their latest game outside Japan as well though
Here's some footage of Densha De Go for anyone interested. It's sort of a mix between an arcade game and a simulator, but with a bit more features it could definitely compete with TSW 2, especially for the Japanese market. Graphics are decent too. What would need to be changed is giving a fully interactive cab, since you would need access to controls if you don't have a whole room for an arcade machine.
