Dovetail Games Bought By Focus Entertainment

It's a decent one-trick pony, a tad short, landscape isn't too detailled, but the train is nice, I personally like the Marseille-area, and it uses a different signalling system. It's good if you enjoy a short run at very high speeds. I believe it still is the route with the highest top speed in TSW at 320km/h.

 

Well I will be grabbing LGV for the PS5 (already got PC version) and the other routes for TSC.

A shame DTG never made any classic SNCF routes, something diesel, cross country and not LGV.

 

In my opinion, the Route is Fun but gets boring quickly because you always take the same Train from A to B and back. It also offers a couple of Services for Southeastern Highspped.

 

Yes, they could have extended from Marseille toward Toulon and then Nice on a very scenic Riviera route witj both passengers, TGVs but on slow lines and some freight.
Or the slow lines that go along LGV that already exist.

 

TSW has poor sounds, has barren landscapes, empty mainline stations, timetables done by AI in some cases. Questionable physics, and No Editor amongst other things. Not all those issues apply to all routes but in the main are pretty consistent. The excuses that come out are that it's takes ages to develop for but that is not good business practice if the end result is as poorly received as East Mids or Glasgow to Edinburgh. Its no good saying time and time again we will look at this or fix that when in many cases it never get fixes. SoS is absolutely ruined in my eyes by the lack of AI sounds. What's the point in having AI if it has no presence. These things aren't just annoying they are enough to say no more. Uninstall and move on. The reason I am still here on the forums is mainly as I have put TSC back on and at fair expense modded it through 3rd parties. I would not have the vanilla version running though.

DTG seem to be chasing the wow it's a 158/HST/66/Acela crowd who seem more interested in driving a nice looking train than a realistic railway experience as wanted by a fair few of us, let's hope there's a change on the horizon.

 

Thank you I may give it a try as it's free

 

DTG seem to be chasing the wow it's a Electrostar/Javelin/800 crowd
FTFY...

 

I Wonder if the higher ups in Paris Force Entertainment want their Kent UK Dovetail games subsidiary make French routes to satisfy home market or not? If yes then it should satisfy the stockholders on the Paris Stock Exchange assuming Force entertainment is traded there

 

I would not bet on this. They have however spoken of North america expanding pissibilities...

 

Let's hope this makes an end to the triad of countries that routes are being build for. Hopefully they will want to please the new overlords with lots of French routes? Maybe even some Belgian routes.

Also glad the "DTG is UK based so stop asking for anything else than UK routes" argument is now totally moot

 

As I just said in the concurrent TSC thread, they will continue to make routes that bring in the most money, versus the costs, licensing and research complexity. So much as I would like to see it, I don't expect an influx of French, Benelux or anywhere else for that matter routes outside the established territories.

 

That does not make any sense. French or Benelux routes would make lots of money. Probably more than all the UK routes combined

 

Well, they did one and didn’t do another. There’s your sense.

 

What did they build? A TGV test route they build. They never build a proper French route like the German routes.

 

Without the huge sales from console players, it's doubtful that TSW would still be around, at least in its present form.

 

Possibly, but I would remind you that TSC is still going strong and is releasing regular content, and has just recently announced a massive core update and ongoing support into the future. TSC is not available on consoles...

 

I read the annual accounts each year and see how much profit they make and how much they pay out in dividends. The accounts show the all the costs and how much they pay out in wages etc. I haven’t seen the £15 million quoted in an article but if that’s for the last financial year then it matches the previous year’s revenue. There’s no need to guess how much profit they made up to March 2022 because it is in the published accounts. The accounts up to March 2023 will be available later this year. I won’t say here how much profit DTG have made each year that their full accounts have been published because I wouldn’t want anyone to quote them out of context.

 

I think there is a case that had TSW not been released on console to earn a fast buck off arguably "less critical players" , then DTG would have taken much more care over it, to our advantage, as is more the case with TSC.

 

TSC has twice the players on Steam though. (Admittedly, that doesn't include number from Epic)

 

I doubt console players are less critical. Besides, DTG TSC DLC often has questionable quality as well. It's usually the third party content which has a better quality (and yes, that includes Rivet).

 

Would need licenses first. Dtg only have sncf for now. Other operators would require licenses

 

The Marseille to Avignon route is like releasing Würzburg to Fulda with only the ICE3 and without any AI traffic in the stations.
It's a relatively short route with only one train and not much going on. Of course people weren't interested and it didn't sell.
If they did another French route, at the very least there could be an opportunity for the TGV to appear as another train.

 

Console players absolutely aren't less critical. I'm not sure where this misconception has come from that console players will just buy and play anything, regardless of quality. Sometimes it seems to be more the case here, for TSW: well it runs like shite, and it's plagued with the same bugs and other issues it has been for the past 10 years, but I'll keep paying £30 every time a new route launches.

Console players? No, absolutely slate a game (No Man's Sky, Gran Turismo 7, Cyberpunk, for example) very vocally, bad industry press results, and sometimes effect positive change pretty quickly, with free updates.

 

An argument which has never been made, certainly not by anyone sensible. I would love to see more european routes.

 

As if that would happen! Lies, damn lies and statistics, I am sure some would use the figures to show how in decline DTG are to suit their own biased beliefs.

 

That's an interesting tidbit, thank you for correcting me. Is this going to inspire the DTG team to create another French route?
I would be very interested, but LGV didn't catch my eye and there is no other option at the moment.

 

TS1 is still going because of the amount of content available, third parties, and the fact that there’s a public editor for it. TSW can’t beat that. I’m sure if TSW had a public editor things would be a little different.

Also I think it was Sam? a few years ago mentioned that TSW’s playerbase is pretty much split 33% PlayStation, 33% Xbox, and 33% PC (give or take)

The only thing I don’t like about TSW on consoles is addons manager needing to come for PC too, but honestly TSW wouldn’t be where it is today without the console playerbase, and I think it was also mentioned a long time ago (CSX:HH days?) that one of the points of TSW was to have a train simulator on console.

 

Quite a few times this argument was made. Not saying these were sensible people though. I've seen plenty of complains about DTG making anything that's not a UK route.

 

DTG has Data for something like this? That would be really interesting to see although it's probably not possible*.

* For Business reasons so that you don't show your Competition what is particularly well received, I guess.

 

I don't know very much about the financial aspects of this purchase/takeover of DTG. In the end what really matters for us is how it will affect the game.

I will be eternally grateful to MP and his colleagues for bringing TSW to us railfans, but I have to agree with others that the game has either stagnated or reached a plateau, depending on your point of view.

The ball has not moved a whole lot since Sand Patch in terms of quality and gameplay from my vantage point. Apart from CJP and Acela, nothing released since Rush Hour has excited me much. Most of the so-called advances, with the possible exception of the skybox, have been either cosmetic, problematic such as dynamic weather or failures like the eye- adaptation fiasco.

Frankly speaking, the ball is on the 50 yard line, waiting for some " KITA " to move it towards the goal line. If this change accomplishes that and the game gets some new life, it will be a good thing.

I'm also hopeful that the new owners will restore some balance to the game geographically by " returning " to the North American market in a meaningful way. Let's face it, the release of NYT was a low point in this regard.

I'm optimistic about TSW and I'm confident that this change will breathe new life into the game we all cherish.

 

Or to put a positive spin on a dire situation

(I say this whilst not accusing DTG of trying to spin a narrative)

 

I have to disagree. Considering a big portion of their developer capacity goes to fixing console related issues (performance, trophy limit, DLC size limit, audio issues), they could also be better off without consoles. Of course then they would be missing out on console revenue, but also wouldn't need to spend resources on it.

I am not saying they should drop console support, but saying console sales keep the game afloat is probably nonsense.

 

If they'd be better off without consoles, I'm fairly sure DTG would simply be dropping consoles.

Pretty sure being able to sell 200% more copies than a PC-exclusive game is well worth the investment into other issues (which may benefit PC players as well).

I'm convinved that console sales allow DTG to invest more in development. But since neither of us have the numbers, it's pointless to go into details. DTG have the numbers, and based upon those number they've decided to keep consoles.

 

Is there going to be another pointless Console vs PC debate again?

 

I'm getting all misty eyed, recollecting the Spectrum vs Commodore days in the school playground...

EDIT: And I've just this second remembered some fake advertising on the cassette of an issue of Crash magazine, that went along the lines of: "Consoles: computers for idiots who don't know how to use a keyboard", which we'd snigger at, just before we decided to buy games consoles...

 

Speaking of the Benelux routes do you think a combined L36 L37 Brussel Zuid Leuven Luik Aken (Aachen Hbf) can work or not? Eventually merged with Schnellfahrstrecke Köln-Aachen which will force NMBS HLE18 Alstom HLE16 HLR77 7771-7870 HLD 55/57 to be stuck behind a DB Baureihe 187 442 406 ICE3M.

 

Cause of my endless frustrations. What do you mean colour clash is a bad thing?

 

So...with seeing other faboulus IP's under Focus Entertainment and being a big fan of Snow Runner and it's long term support I count this as good news. We also know now why a lot of routes had been released unfinished, having the sales go up to make more profit of the sale to Focus Entertainment.

However, I assume and hope Focus Enternainment will be much wiser for the long term and make something of it.

 

Interesting. If this is the case, I wonder why you guys haven't done more French routes since then? Personally, I enjoy doing a run on the LGV every now and then, but the replayability isn't there in my opinion. Especially when I can hop on TSC and drive the full Marseille-Lyon run.

 

With the lingering scepticism over this acquisition, I have to say again I think it's going to be a positive thing. Too early to say what will happen exactly, but I don't see why it would be a bad thing. Focus Entertainment are a successful publisher with fantastic IP under their belt.

Even though there is justified criticism of the franchise and DTG, I think with Matt retaining a prominent role in TSW, it's in good hands. Despite how things may appear with issues such as those still extant on SOS, for example, Matt is clearly passionate and clearly does feel our same frustrations (I'm not saying this because I know he's reading this thread, honest). I've seen the evidence of this with the fact he made sure save game was fixed, when certain of us complained loudly enough.

Now, with Focus Entertainment leading the franchise, hopefully any blocks will be lifted and/or new investment made to remedy any remaining, lingering, and reoccurring issues that we see.

Hopefully we see routes like SOS returned to, not seemingly abandoned. Hopefully investment in engine development through time and skillset applied to improvements.

And what it needs is a quality model that all third parties and in-house adhere to, so we don't see huge improvements on one route (Niddertalbahn), then regressions on others (MML). Time to standardise, and commit to routes.

 

It’s Planet Coaster on rails…
Also good for a quick blast.
However as I mentioned earlier it would be great to see a SNCF classic route, maybe back in the 80’s or 90’s pre Eurostar. Calais to Amiens via Boulogne including the Maritimes, superb diesel thrash or Lille to Charleville, happy memories sitting up all night in a Corail coach on the 2000 from Calais Maritime to Basel.

 

DTG is still UK based. You do understand that right?

 

It's impossible to know for sure but had DTG gone the same way with TSW as it did with TSC, including producing a player friendly editor for enthusiasts to make their own routes and scenarios etc. and publish them on workshop, then it's possible that it would have equalled or even superseded TSC amongst pc players. For me there's a limit to what can be done with console games compared to pc games because of hardware restrictions, and by going for all options DTG created a bit of a situation where the game became a "jack of all trades and master of none".
They may have signed their own death warrant when they did that, which could explain why Focus are able to buy them out?
It could have been that had they done the above for TSW then they could have compensated for the missing pc players, who are most likely playing TSC, by providing that all important user ability to become part of the simulation, such as with TSC and the Trainz series.

 

But at least every route that has featured an Electrostar and 395 has actually been a super-busy, immersive route with long-term gameplay variation and replayability... unlike more recent routes.

 

Things that would make this sale a good thing.

• Stop adding new features and then discreetly dropping them.
• Add something truly new like rivet did with announcements. A train log in that lights up and we can adjust the volume on is not the massive thing it's made out to be.
• Stop, take stock, reflect and sort out this mess of constantly adding to bug lists.

What happened recently to DTG that

• Brought an epic BML timetable
• Had an excitable Adam refreshing legacy routes
• Gave us dresden route and a taste of real route variety.

This year just seems to be "we would like to but couldn't"

That's not an issue with deva at all, that issues higher up the food chain where cash flow is really hampering route quality.

That's the reason we get crappy Xmas tree routes, it's a money spin.

If you want to money spin it's a train sin, bring more trains, don't just change an ICE stripe from red to green or bring more inclusive liveries. Bring a new train, bring extensions, surely enough people have suggested this right, as to where they'll spend.

Those awful liveries for American trains too, lazy cash grab that people have had to rub the snake oil bottle to sell.

 

Sure but soon they will receive this call "Hello, this is France, we want more money sacreblue! Why haven't you build more French routes? The TGV is in your top 3 most played routes. So simple! Build more TGV's alors"

 

Hmmmmmm
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about 2 years i'll say

 

Again only if they feel there is a demand. In some ways LGV was a proof of concept for high speed and, while as I said I would love to see more from France and Benelux in TSW (and TSC) ask yourself how much French payware there is for TSC or MSTS before it. ISTR for the latter a company called Sylium who made a small number of locomotives and coaching stock, but not much else.