Back in the days of the original Xbox, BioWare treated us to an Xbox exclusive in the form of Jade Empire, but it ended up releasing just a few months before the Xbox 360 - and that may have ultimately prevented it from getting a sequel.
That's what BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk believes at least, telling the My Perfect Console podcast recently (thanks, GamesRadar), that Xbox was responsible for dishing out "absolute moronic advice" to release Jade Empire at the end of the OG generation rather than waiting to make it an Xbox 360 launch title.
Here's a bit of what he had to say:
"Microsoft was like 'no no, you should release it now, right at the end of the cycle, because it's a great time'... it was the worst advice, absolute moronic advice from them, the stupidest thing ever."
Ultimately, Zeschuk believes that his team could have "amped it up" and got the game ready for the Xbox 360 instead, suggesting that it "would have been a way more successful product at the beginning of a cycle than the end".
That's obviously not what happened, and even though Jade Empire proved popular with fans, it clearly didn't do well enough to spark a sequel. At least it's still playable today though - it's backwards compatible on modern consoles!
Do you think Jade Empire should have been held back until the Xbox 360? Tell us down below.
[source open.spotify.com, via gamesradar.com]
Comments 26
Maybe, but getting tired of everyone complaining about something all the time. Go outside and get some fresh air and sun.
I mean, advice is just that, isn't it, advice...
It's not like they had a gun to your head.
Either way, this also highlights how good it is to have cross-gen support these days. You're no longer gated by platform as much as you were back then.
If he told you jumping off a cliff was a good idea would you of agreed aswell??🤷
Sony did the same releasing Puppeteer two months before the PS4 hit store shelves. Suits are always down to make some completely stupid choices & then not take responsibility when the product fails.
Kaloudz wrote:
Xbox 360 was backwards compatible with a ton (over 200) of original Xbox games at launch, including Jade Empire 😁
I dont like the way he talks about our Microsoft. 😡 Microsoft gave them golden key to success and this is how he tries to down talk Microsoft's kindness, I think he has been spending too much time on Sony's cafeteria.
I disagree with his take here, it was probably better to have the og version than a 360 exclusive. The 360 install base would be lower for awhile and the 360 played og discs. It's better to sell the game to both audiences.
For example, waiting to release a switch 2 only game right now would be an awful decision. It will be a long time (likely never) before the switch 2 has the switch 1 install base. Release the switch 1 game now and it will be playable on 2.
The industry has moved on from bad takes like this and cross gen is still a big thing for last gen as we near the end of this generation. I expect cross gen to be huge next gen, we might see some 3 gen releases.
@Kaloudz People love to complain about cross gen but with dev timescales being what they are its here to stay and all considered is probably a good thing given the dimishing returns on graphics anyway.
Its great that people don't have to miss out just because they can't afford to buy the new console day 1.
@Ilyn Exactly. Sure you miss out on the odd game but look at this gen. Practically everything is still available on last gen hardware. You could never say that about OG Xbox (to the next) or Xbox 360 (to the next).
Great game regardless.
Everyone got someone else to blame for all their problems these days... Great game tho
Own up to your ***** and be less of a bitch.
Jade Empire was an amazing game. Hopefully Xbox will just green light a sequel. I'm up for it.
@8thDoctor Titanfall 2 another good example. Let's release it same time as Battlefield game. Really smart.
@BacklogBrad It wouldn’t have taken that long for the 360 to gain an install base… It took the 360 less than 3 years to out sell the original Xbox
The big issue wasn’t the install base… But the fact Microsoft went an announced the 360 a month after it release. That basically had killed any momentum this game had sale wise since most people would had started saving for the 360, and Xbox would had started to see a decline in software sales. Being a launch title for the 360 would have helped long term sales.
@cburg Thank You
I agree this was a super late xbox release but i still liked it at the time, i was playing cod 2 the same year and it looked mind blowing coming from og xbox. Jade empire on 360 could've been huge
I guess that probably was bad advice. But BioWare was certainly plenty good at screwing their own stuff up from the beginning too.
Loved Jade Empire and disappointed they never revisited the series again.
I mean, maybe? But it sure didn't work for Kameo. And Perfect Dark Zero didn't exactly go anywhere. I guess there were a couple of Condemned games, but that fizzled out pretty quickly.
Jade Empire was an ok game. People love to wear the rose colored glasses for this one. I was riding high off of KOTOR and reserved the Special Edition of Jade Empire. Bought it day one, and beat it in a few evenings, and was extremely disappointed. The game wasn't nearly as good as KOTOR, and simultaneously was never going to have the mass appeal that a Star Wars game did. They have no one to blame but their own ridiculous expectations.
i didn't even know the game existed until long into the 360's life. think it had alot more to do with their reach than their release date. plus back then, why would i pick something so unknown over say... SSX, tony hawk games or all the ridiculously good games that kept coming out back to back then.
there is alot of reasons that game didn't perform an it definitely wasn't the release window.
I really enjoyed it back on the original Xbox.
What Bioware should of done is release a new version for the Xbox 360 with achievements. Or Bioware could of released a dual Xbox/Xbox 360 release. And Bioware could of still released new Xbox 360 versions of original Xbox games.
As JE is my favorite BioWare game, it hurts that we never got to see a version built for the 360. Yet kameo (a good game mind you) went from game cube (my gamecube box has footage of it) to 360. In some other universe this is swapped. Although I wonder if the suggestion was made to make room for ME (if it had been pitched by then).
Removed - offensive remarks
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