Frozenbyte: Trine project "a big mess"

By Robert Purchese Published 3 July, 2009

Dev talks pricing, PSN date and XBLA.

Frozenbyte has told Eurogamer that Trine as a project is "a big mess", and that the disparity between prices and the platforms the game is released for are issues the studio will be better prepared to handle next time around.

Developer spokesperson Joel Kinnunen was reacting to fans who are frustrated that Trine will cost twice as much on PC (USD 40 / GBP 20) as on PS3, where the game will be around 20 dollars - Kinnunen didn't want to guess at a GBP or EUR price.

"We are happy with this price point, and we don't think anyone will be disappointed by the PC version or its value for money," he said.

"We would love to have the game sold at the same price point across all platforms and methods, but these things are sometimes unbelievably complex when there's so many partners involved. The same goes for the EUR/USD disparity, it's just out of our hands.

"We never had the same problems in this scale with our Shadowgrounds games so this whole situation caught us by surprise. We'll be better prepared in the future," admitted Kinnunen.

Trine is a side-scrolling platformer based around three heroes with unique skills that must be interchanged to overcome puzzles and scenarios.

"As for the PSN release date, I think your guess is as good as mine," he offered. "It's in the process of going through all the checks and such, so right now I'm not sure how long it's going to take or if we have to do some final fixes. If it gets through OK, then I'm sure the release date will be announced shortly."

There's been confusion over an Xbox Live Arcade version of Trine recently, too. US publisher Atlus confirmed it at E3, but this was later dubbed "speculation" by Frozenbyte. Is it or isn't it coming to XBLA?

"Well do you think we want to do things the easy way? Hah," quipped Kinnunen. "Seriously, we want Trine to be on XBLA but it, too, is out of our hands. We're working with Atlus to make it happen but it depends on so many things again."

"You know, at one point Trine was a PC-only game. That's how it started. We're really happy that it's coming to PSN and if we get it to XBLA, then we're even happier. The problem is that this is not really the optimal way to do a game (or a game launch).

"Trine as a project is a big mess," he rued, "as opposed to Trine as a game, which is pretty sweet. Ultimately it's the game part that really matters and helps us sleep at night, though."

Trine is released on PC next Friday, 10th July, in Europe. And it's very good, as our freshly minted Trine review points out.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (16) 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Triggerhappytel #1 3 years ago

    Sounds like a big cock up, and it probably would have been much smoother had the same publisher been handling it across all three systems.

    I hope it all works out okay for them though, and they get a chance to make more such games in the future.

  • ChaK #2 3 years ago

    that agme was a blast, seriously, but 40€ is too much imho.

    Game can be done in around 5/7h

    edit : which I admit is like a lot a game, priced higher on PC
    Edited by 1 at 03/07/09 @ 14:05

  • brof #3 3 years ago

    too expensive .... I have to pass.

  • Xerx3s #4 3 years ago

    Damn, I really like what I'm seeing but that price tag casts some doubts for me whether to buy it or not. :/

  • dingo75 #5 3 years ago

    No problem!

    We will wait for a Steam weekend deal or Amazon slashing the price!
    Don't be too upset we will handle! Will you though is the question! :p

  • Darren #6 3 years ago

    That's quite surprising that a PC game costs twice as much as a console one, it's usually the other way round in my experience. No wonder people are frustrated, I'm betting they're all PC owners.

  • GlassMoon #7 3 years ago

    Seems a lot of things are out of their hands....

    I'm also gonna be waiting for a price drop on this one.
    Edited by 1 at 03/07/09 @ 16:12

  • Paper #8 3 years ago

    "The same goes for the EUR/USD disparity, it's just out of our hands."

    I highly doubt that's true, unless they sold the rights of the game for PC online distribution which seems quite odd. They don't need a publisher to release the game on Steam and the EUR pricing is entirely in their hands in that case.

    Pretty obvious they're trying to make an extra euro buck on first hit as they're very unsure about ever patching in online co-op which is holding many back.
    Edited by 1 at 03/07/09 @ 17:15

  • 0tus #9 3 years ago

    "Trine is released on PC next Friday, 10th July, in Europe. And it's very good, as our freshly minted Trine review points out."

    It's already available in Steam at least. Price is 29,99€, not 40€ btw.

  • Celdrahil #10 3 years ago

    Will wait for a Steam special deal...

  • tomdominer #11 3 years ago

    Eurogamer are total cunts for using a honest developers comments as a news 'sound bite'. CUNTS.

  • the_mtfr #12 3 years ago

    Claps for the Finnish honesty of Frozenbyte, we'd never hear EA or ActiBlizz say something like that about their games, even if it's the truth.

    Can't wait to see their next project now. And for the price to drop on PC, I want that version. Maybe a Linux version too? Shadowgrounds on Linux is almost in beta I heard.
    Edited by 1 at 03/07/09 @ 21:52

  • ardamillo #13 3 years ago

    This is unfortunate but it also show how arbitrary game prices are at the moment.

  • dacicus #14 3 years ago

    Unfortunately for them, the game is already out in the woods. And the PC pricing, didn't helped much. I'll wait until Steam puts it on a deal week-end...

  • SaberEdge #15 3 years ago

    Higher priced on PC? That is truly unusual. I guess I will be getting this on the PS3.

  • sneetch #16 3 years ago

    All the retailers I've seen seem to thing that the RRP is £30 apart from GAME who apparently didn't "get the memo" about the PC prices, it's 2 quid cheaper than Steam there. Just something to consider if you're planning on getting this.

    http://ww w.game.co.uk/search.aspx?s=trin...