SiN Episodes gets Steam release

By Kristan Reed Published 4 July, 2005

Episodes every 3-4 months.

Ritual Entertainment's long-awaited sequel to SiN is to be released episodically over Valve's Steam digital distribution system, with chapters lasting around six hours each to be released "every three to four months" for around $20 (£11.38) a pop.

Formally known as SiN Episodes (taking place in what's been described as the SiN 2 universe), the first chapter is set to be released on Steam this Winter, but it's not yet known whether the game will also be released in boxed form at some point.

In a rare interview with PC Gamer, Ritual CEO Steve Nix said: "We've been talking to Valve about Steam for about four years now, and we've always wanted to get back to the SiN universe.

"We talked to publishers about doing it, but we never felt able to make the product we wanted to make with the next SiN." That is, until the relative freedom offered by Steam came along; something several developers must be seriously looking into at this point.

The Valve-Ritual relationship is to go even further than that, with SiN Episodes being developed using a tweaked version of the same Source engine that powered the legendary Half-Life 2.

An exclusive eight page cover feature on the game is the main focus for the UK version of PC Gamer (available to subscribers today, and on sale in newsagents soon), and goes into detail regarding the hopes of the team, and some of the core innovations. Check back shortly for an overview of what to expect.

Interestingly, the Ritual feature is followed by an exclusive four page interview with Bill Van Buren, Marc Laidlaw and Bill Fletcher from Valve - the key men behind Half-Life 2.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (42) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • drumbaby #1 7 years ago

    meh

  • JHuxley #2 7 years ago

    £10 for an hour's worth of entertainment? Not likely.

  • Thamuhacha #3 7 years ago

    I think the hyphens mean that each episode will be a six-hour-long one, rather than there being six different hour-long episodes

    Krudster?
    Edited by Thamuhacha at 04/07/05 @ 11:51

  • Wash #4 7 years ago

    Did i miss something, was SiN a good game, cos i played it... and sure as hell dont remember it.

  • krudster #5 7 years ago

    Yes, six hours per episode, just to clarify.

  • JHuxley #6 7 years ago

    "I think the hyphens mean that each episode will be a six-hour-long one, rather than there being six different hour-long episodes"

    Ahh, my mistake. That's pretty decent then. If this uses the HL2 engine to its full potential I might consider it.

  • Hunam85 #7 7 years ago

    Yeah, they could something good with this, gives them time to rest and recouperate inbetween episodes (obviously not too much time) so they dont burn out, which im sure alot of devs have trouble with, but also means they could react to fans, so if they do something in an earlier episode none of us like, they know not to do that again... alltough its not the first episoding game, its the first big budget, i say alot hangs on this project

  • Xerx3s #8 7 years ago

    Meh. Is this another case of "How to make money in the most efficient way without actually having a product"? :(

  • jellyhead #9 7 years ago

    I like the idea, now all i have to do is get Steam to work properly, again.
    £10 for a 1 hour episode though, hmmm maybe not, I'll wait and see what quality, length etc the first couple are before deciding.

    It is the future of distribution it seems.
    / sighs

  • Clive_Dunn #10 7 years ago

    I hope we get a Buck Rodgers style cliff hanger at the end of every episode.

    /dons tights and jets off in firework powered rocket.

  • symmetry #11 7 years ago

    Maybe the text should be changed to 'with episodes to be released "every three to four months", containing about 6 hours of gameplay each'

  • deadlock #12 7 years ago

    I think this is a great idea - I'd love to see Valve themselves do this with the HL2 world as well.

    I like the irony of this story as well. The original SiN was largely ignored because Half Life was released at roughly the same time. It didn't help that Activision rushed it out the door early because of HL's release - presumably because HL had a similar modern-day-to-very-near-future setting, even though the games were very different thematically. It ended up with some show-stopping bugs, insane level load times etc. and even the first level - which was well received as a demo - just didn't grab people.
    Edited by deadlock at 04/07/05 @ 12:34

  • Tomo #13 7 years ago

    I think this could be pretty cool. I like the idea of smaller episodes... there are LOADS of great games already, but the general idea is longer = better. If these are short and sweet, and reasonably priced, it could be excellent.

    I'd say £10 tops tho at the moment.

  • killyourtv #14 7 years ago

    episodic content - NO!!

  • PearOfAnguish #15 7 years ago

    Long awaited is right, some of us are still waiting for the original game to finish loading.

    /inevitable loading time joke
    Edited by PearOfAnguish at 04/07/05 @ 12:47

  • Danj #16 7 years ago

    I smell a ripoff - if this thing is more than about three episodes long, it'll cost more than a "normal" game would at retail. The episode thing is just a gimmick to make them more money :(

  • Tweakmonkey #17 7 years ago

    I liked the SiN demo. I thought it was good in an 80s style action movie type way.

  • deepmenace #18 7 years ago

    i`ll wait for the reviews, if its looks good i`ll buy the first episode.

    if it makes me want to play more i`ll buy the next one, ad infinitum.

    I think its a great idea.....devs cant release shit because every episode sells every following one.

  • groovychainsaw #19 7 years ago

    Danj - it would only make more money if everybody bought every episode - if you didnt like it or feel it was worth paying for, you wouldn't buy the next episode - so they'd have to make each episode special to keep the income flowing - could make for a great game - or could flop horrendously. But its an interesting experiment, if nothing else...
    /realises ive used about ten hyphens
    /goes to punctuation school
    /doesnt learn; much

  • Celeborn #20 7 years ago

    Harks back to the good old days of Shareware style episodic content. If you want more of the game, you pay for more. If you don't like it, well, its only a tenner gone. Much better than paying £40 for a game you turn out not to like.

    And if you do like it, well, then you can pay for more of the same. Whats there not to like about this system!

  • MrWonderstuff #21 7 years ago

    I enjoyed the orginal sin. Will keep beady eye on this one.

    To all those who say "meh". Don't bother posting you sound like a moron.

  • jlaakso #22 7 years ago

    I'm all for episodic content. If you don't like it, you've only spent a budget game's worth on the one episode. However, this could also spawn loads and loads of fluff to fill out episodes without enough punch.

    Isn't .hack on the PS2 released episodically?

  • kangarootoo #23 7 years ago

    @Danj

    "I smell a ripoff - if this thing is more than about three episodes long, it'll cost more than a "normal" game would at retail. The episode thing is just a gimmick to make them more money :("

    You can always stop buying episodes when you've had enough. Thought I can see how you would get trapped into buying mroe episodes in order to finish the game. On the flip side, if it sucks you have only spent £10 to find that out.

  • kangarootoo #24 7 years ago

    " episodic content - NO!!"

    Isn't that what most games are already? This is purely a sales mechanism and I don't see how it should change the content of the game.

    Also, I would expect that eventually they will release the whole thing as one complete game (possibly still only available by download), just to catch those extra sales.

  • abigsmurf #25 7 years ago

    ah so instead of paying £35 for a game you end up playing £50 instead.

    Sorry this is a bad thing that should be opposed. When I buy something I want a complete product, I don't something that I pay £10 for that lasts only slightly longer than a free demo.

    This is just a way of milking us for more money because £10 a time seems cheap, I'd bet you anything 6 hours is an upper limit with quite a few chapters being significantly shorter. Oh look, SiN 2 has some crippling bugs like the first game that make it unplayable, don't worry, this is fixed in the multiplayer map pack 1 which only costs £9.99!

    Seriously, this kind of thing should not be allowed to happen. Do we seriously want our PC's in the future to get filled to the brim with Playonline, Steam and a thousand other proprietry connection agents that may or may not be filled to the brim with spyware where you can only find out what happens next if you pay £10 and if your computer needs a reformat you lose possibly hundreds of pounds of software or a weeks worth of bandwidth at the very least as you re-download content you don't have on DVD?

  • PearOfAnguish #26 7 years ago

    Smurf is right, it should be very strongly opposed. Steam and other online delivery system fulfil the dream of every music, movie and game studio - you don't ever buy anything, you just rent it. Breaking a game up into several parts just means they can charge you more. Not only will you never own a game, you'll have to spend more to play the entire thing.

  • marilena #27 7 years ago

    PearofAnguish, that's a load of nonsense. With Steam you buy Half-Life 2, not rent it. You have all the rights you have with a game distributed via a more traditional medium.

    I'm all for Internet distribution and I don't get the hate for episodic content, like I don't get what some people in this thread mean when they say SiN will be more expensive than a normal game. It's 20$ an episode, wich means 40$ for twelve hours of gaming, a very common length these days.

  • Nikanoru #28 7 years ago

    It's 20$ an episode, wich means 40$ for twelve hours of gaming, a very common length these days.

    Oh, now you're just grasping at straws.

    Here's another one: If I buy a game I don't want to be put on hold for three fucking months waiting to get past a certain point. After two updates, which will last about half a year according to this, and seeing that you've already paid more than full price and you haven't finished your game yet, everybody is going to be fed up and stop buying episodes.

    Along with countless reasons already mentioned. People want a full product. This sucks.

    <a href=http://penny-arcade.com/view.php?date=2005-04-25&res=l>This</a> is something I was reminded of.

    At least the Guild Wars developers have the right idea.

  • Celeborn #29 7 years ago

    Then don't buy it!

    Seriously; if this isn't how you want your games, then fine. You can always at least try it out for the paltry £10, and if the episodic nature of it isn't to your liking in reality (rathar than all your negative opinions of how it will turn out without any proof); then you don't need to continue. Who knows how the episodes will end? They could be self contained rathar than a whole game cut into sections. You just don't know.

    It's not for everyone; but to slam the game as being padded and bug ridden that requires charges to fix the bugs.... well, thats scare mongering based on no proof at all.

    Someone in the industry is trying to be a bit innivotive and offer more choice in how you buy and play games. For gods sake let them have a chance!

  • smelliot #30 7 years ago

    Could be interesting, also quite cheap.

  • Bumbuliuz #31 7 years ago

    It´s a bit too exspensive. So unless they lower the price. Not many people will shell out the cash. Unless there is tons of contents in each episode. Id rather just buy it all like I did with Half-Life 2. At a fair price of course ;)

  • McP #32 7 years ago

    /agrees with Celeborn

  • Tyronne #33 7 years ago

    Sure not gonna pay that kinda cash for bits and pieces,I will wait until its all done and then see if its worth getting.

  • Nikanoru #34 7 years ago

    Celeborn: that's all fine and dandy, but what if this happens to a game that I love? I happen not to care much about Sin, but if they would do this with a new Zelda game (hypothetically), then I'd be properly pissed.

  • deadlock #35 7 years ago

    Some of you guys are talking as if Ritual are going to take a full game and split it into three (or more) parts and then sell each one seperately. I don't think that's their intention at all. My take on it is that each episode will be self-contained but will ultimately describe a broad narrative arc. Hence, you can buy one episode and not miss out on anything or you can buy them all and get a richer play experience. Then again, 'I want it all and I want it now' is the catchphrase of the internet generation.

    Anyway, like I said, I think this is a great idea. It gives Ritual an oppurtunity to explore their world in a way that they probably couldn't have done with a full-fledged, boxed release and it means that anyone who is interested always has something to look forward to.

  • abigsmurf #36 7 years ago

    trouble is I'm not basing it on scare mongering. Do you remember the original SiN? One of the most famously bugged games of all time which had bugs that would prevent a large portion of people finishing the game and required you to download a huge patch at a time were people had to pay by the minute for their 56k connection?

    Then there's the Halo 2 multiplayer map pack (£19.99) I saw advertised in ECW...

    It's no good saying "if you don't like don't buy" because the companies know that as long as they can convince enough people to buy things, eventually you won't have a choice but to buy as everyone will be doing it.

    Case in point : incomplete games rushed out requiring huge patches to fix things that should have been sorted out before release (something which is now happening with console releases thanks to things like xbox live). ISP terms and conditions that state they can chuck you off for no real reason whatsoever (you try and find one without this get out clause). Games and software which even though they're pirated and cracked way before release require you to perform online activation, online games and services which even though you can pay with vouchers force you to input a credit card so they can charge you for an entire year the second a voucher runs out...

    The list goes on of crap things we now have to deal with because people just sat back instead of taking action.

  • Netfreak #37 7 years ago

    Because it runs on Souce engine, I will wait for a few years until Valve fix the damn stutter.

  • Tyronne #38 7 years ago

    It does have to be said that it would be a sin if they didnt have a end of level baddie as in the original which through one hell of a crappy bug which must of appeared in playtesting ,just stood there and did nothing at all while you move around and shot it.

  • ozgamer #39 7 years ago

    I want to play a game not watch a f#$kin' TV series. Just gimme the damn game.

  • mastertigurius #40 7 years ago

    I don't know if I'll bother dealing out money for this...it'd better be good in that case. I don't think it will be a flop, though. On the contrary; it's being released on one of the most popular game-centrals in existence; Steam - therefore it will be available to a very broad audience. One rule of marketing is to always create the need for something (even though it's not there to begin with). Seen all those ads for Pariah on Eurogamer? It made me play through the game, and find out that it was pure crap...I'm just lucky I didn't buy it.
    I say go for it - the zombie masses are at your disposal.

  • Tyronne #41 7 years ago

    Funny thing about pariah was that in all the pre-release blurp it went on about its wonderful narrative and the like.Thing is when I actually got to play the demo all I could think of was `so this is it ?` and `bloody hell this is crap`.

  • BremXJones #42 7 years ago

    I did the episodic thing on my Mod, the Cassandra Project.

    It's an ace idea. Future of videogaming, or something.

    KG