Dovetail Games Bought By Focus Entertainment

Well, they didn't make those games, they published them. But it shows an eye for quality, and/or ensuring the final product is of a high[er] quality [than we've been getting from TSW, overall].

So, they can't improve the game engine or upgrade anything to UE5 themselves (although UE5 won't be an upgrade unless they seriously get a handle on optimisation, DX12, and multi-thread development, for example). UE5 is not the miracle-making version of Unreal Engine some people seem to think it is. What Focus might do is make investments into DTG to enable research into a UE5 version, to see if it's actually worth it for this game, but that investment would likely involve expanding the development team and their skillset, or even bringing in another studio to work with them. Maybe.

 

I'm not sure why the obsession with Unreal 5. It's just a toolbox, and the result is only as good as what use the user makes of the tools. Give me Jimi Hendrix' guitar to play, I'll still be rubbish. As it stands, TSW isn't anywhere close to using the full potential of UE4- why add more complexity, more development time, and more potential for bugs (not to mention instantly making every player's library unusable)?

 

Lets to brutaly honest:

TSW is a total failure as a Simulator.
It might be a good cash cow but nothing more.

TSW is a broken piece of software and everyone should be aware of this. How many more buggy DLCs and still not fixed core issues do you need? Should they break the lighting some more or remove Summer season from Scenario Planer?

 

After futher refection on FOCUS ENTERTAINMENT buying DOVETAIL GAMES.
They both love trains...Ok that fine BUT.
I'm hoping they also love trains that work correctly...Because this needs some serious work to get up to snuff.
Because unless they do.
There going to find themselves sorely disappointed in the end.

If they ever bother to read DTG technical pages.They might just find out what a overwhelming task they just inherited and now are the ones forced to deal with it.Because clearly DTG Can't or Won't or Don't Want to or Never Did Serious Intend to.

One more thing as we have seen suggested elsewhere fixes for TSW2 are not likely unless you buy TSW3.Let's hope F.E.sees what a bad P.R.move this was and not let TSW4 happen unless TSW3 is in order before moving on to TSW4.

 

a total failure, No. Has Issues that can be an absolute pain, Yes.

 

I'm enjoying it and it works. You can't speak for all of us since some of us actually enjoy playing the game.

 

I can't relate with that, TSW3 is actually good but it has some issues that can be painful!

 

Completely disagree.
I enjoy playing the game.
Is it perfect? No definitely not.
Are latest releases to the standard they should be? No.

Despite that I still really enjoy playing it and its my most played game at the moment. Bugs or not.

It just means I'm more wary about buying new content. Especially third party

 

Funny my copy seems to be working!

 

Yeah a total failure I agree that’s why I play the game rarely since its release:

 

Matt won't be leaving DTG anytime soon

 

Maybe there will be some insights this coming week to calm everyone down…

Dovetail streams will be live at 18:00 UTC / 19:00 BST and available on YouTube and Twitch.

Tuesday, April 25th: To be Confirmed.

 

My bet is that's related to the Midland Mainline rather than the Focus Entertainment news.

 

I hope that FE will invest some money to send the devs of DTG to programming school.
We are in 2023.
No multithreading
No dlss
No FSR
Stuttering everywhere
Lighting bugs
Trees bugs
Shadow bugs

Same bugs / lacking features since TSW1

BUT it still a pleasure to read the steam reviews of the last DLCs ahha. Always the same problems but the people continues to buy

 

Smart people see the writing on the wall...

 

Like the rest of DTG's recent releases, it didn't go over well. Basic gameplay mechanic issues overlooked. Another 2 star game by the captains of that sort.

 

When you have take 50% off a 10.00 dlc you truly have reached a new level of desperation.

 

Don’t see any problem with that a sale is a sale there’s no shame to buy it half the price of the base one is already low

 

I like sales to but it's not like it's 9.99 price was a rip off to begin with.

 

DTG didn’t make a mistake at all, stop with this pc master race nonsense

 

[Removed - Alex: Personal Attack]

 

What have you gotten against Matt fanta1682002 . Why do you think it is appropriate to say those things. Have some respect will you.

 

So a sale means developers are desperate? Don't see the logic there. Just because it is cheap doesn't mean there can't be a sale

 

Why?

 

Exactly! and Focus Entertainment have a good track record at making quality AAA IP’s.
The problem is Unreal Engine 4. Dovetail can’t optimise it to the standards of the player base a.k.a frame drops, stutters on routes. This is one of the problems the community moans about the most. If you’ve done any research on UE5 then you’d know it’s a game changer. Why would you not want a route to look more realistic? Bugs will exist no matter what unreal engine they use. It’s down to the developers to address this. Maybe Focus can advise Doverail on where there going wrong.

 

Yeah the future is looking bright. As you say, with Focus on board we are only going to get a better version of TSW, and that’s a good thing.

 

Still wouldn't touch that with your pc.

 

I disagree. I quite enjoy playing TSW, and I haven't been able to find a more enjoyable train simulation game.

 

He will be the first person to moan about the lack of sales. Some people just seem to come on here to moan.

If DTG were giving their entire catalogue away for free certain people would still moan.

 

Maybe it’s just the stream for Peak forest?

 

Why do some have this attitude against the people from DTG? Yes, TSW had moments which weren’t the best, but Matt is doing a good job and I think he’s communicating well with the community

 

I would never say person x should leave a project but let's be real for a moment.
What is the state of TSW? And isn't he the project leader?
Countless core issue.
Still Broken lighting
Broken passenger system
Absolutely laughable scenario planer
Sound issues
Stuttering issues
Buggy DLCs
Buggy DLCs
And more buggy DLCs

In the train sim community more and more people associate TSW with "issues and bugs" and more and more people no longer play it or buy DLCs. That's is not a good state for a project.
But if they make enough money with it everything else possible does not matter anyway.

 

TSW is not a failure and despite my sometimes vocal criticism I wouldn’t also have invested in the PS5 version alongside the PC. It looks (apologies for mild sweaty) bloody spectacular on a 65” TV. What DTG do have at the moment is a quality and production crisis. Whether that’s because talented people have left or unrealistic targets being set by higher management, the customers are unlikely to ever know. What’s needed is the right people being given the time and freedom to do their jobs properly and maybe a little humility alongside. Stop with these high profile releases if you know the product is stuffed with bugs.

 

Of course he doesn't. Player numbers seem to be steadily rising according to https://steamdb.info/app/1944790/charts/



(and yes, before people start complaining about this again; I realize this is only the number on Steam and doesn't include other platforms)

 

Well there is no editor is there?

 

Nothing to add!

 

To be fair, I believe that (on Steam at least) the number of players always increases around a DLC release then falls away until the next one. Given 2023 has seen an avalanche of DLC releases I think you have to look at those numbers in that context.

 

DTG is famous for making high-quality games.

 

It sounds by that statement, that it infers that Focus are not and that is why they have taken DTG onboard!!!

 

Actually, this thread was only intended as information that DTG was taken over by Focus Entertainment. Once again this opportunity was used by some to repeatedly dish out and complain about DTG. The arguments are always the same, nothing constructive comes around. This gets boring over time!

But I'm also of the opinion that too many DLCs have been released in one go lately and that have accumulated in avoidable bugs that have to be repaired again and again afterwards. Maybe FE will bring a little more calm into the development process, since the future and financial basis for DTG is now secured. Slightly longer development times and not such a tight schedule would be justifiable in order to have more time for Q&A testing at the end. Nevertheless, some will not lose their joy in complaining.

 

I agree with Sparmi, let’s just get back to the original purpose of the thread

 

Matt is one of the reasons I stick with this game. It's his passion and his explanations when issues arise that keeps me a customer.

Am I happy about all the outstanding issues? - No. However, whatever gripes we all have with the game, I think we all should refrain from making negative comments about any DTG staff member. I sure if Matt could instantly fix all the issues he would!

 

That escalated quickly.

 

Oh no ! Anyways...
XD

 

The pitchfork welding doom squad are trying to take over the world I swear, convinced if they manage to successfully swamp the forum, they will see that as a win and just scale everything up for a world domination bid.........

 

Wow… this thread really has brought out the worse of the toxic lot on here

 

I really hope you leave this forum

 

Yes that wasn’t nice of him, but maybe we should just stop the personal attacks and let this thread go back to Its original purpose?

 

I still can't really figure out if Focus purchasing DTG is a good or a bad thing, from a customers perspective. I guess it has potential upsides, but also potential downsides, depending on Focus intentions. They made a purchase and they'll want to see profits. No clue what strategy they'll use to achieve that goal.