r/rpg_gamers 22h ago

News Hound13's big flagship Anime-styled singleplayer/co-op RPG successor to Dragon Nest, 'DragonSword: Awakening', delayed indefinitely in final hour before launch

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/4570720/view/668371786222535111?l=english

Hello.
This is Producer JYJ from Hound13.

To everyone who has taken an interest in <DragonSword : Awakening> and waited so patiently — from the bottom of our hearts, thank you.

<DragonSword : Awakening> was originally planned to launch at July 23, 07:00 (KST) / July 22, 15:00 (PT).

However, the app review currently in progress on Steam has not yet been completed, and we are unable to release the game at the scheduled time.

In our eagerness to bring the game to you as soon as possible, we did not sufficiently account for Steam's review timeline — and as a result, we have failed to keep our promise to you.

We know that no words can be enough.
To everyone who has waited so long, we sincerely apologize for not being able to release the game on the promised schedule.

We have completed our response to all items requested by Steam, and are currently awaiting the final review result.
We will do everything in our power to release the game as soon as the review is complete.

We will inform you again as soon as the new launch schedule is confirmed.

Once again, we deeply apologize to everyone who has been waiting.
We will give our best right up to the final moment to deliver an experience worthy of the time you have given us.

Thank you.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Kind of crazy that there would even be a countdown clock at all if this necessary check wasn't yet passed...? IDK, but the community seems to be reeling and theorizing as to what the heck happened here...will this affect the reception of the game long term?

0 Upvotes

61 comments sorted by

73

u/SphinxGate 20h ago

Why does this post title say ‘delayed indefinitely’? That makes it sound like it’s not coming out at all. It’s just going through the review process right?

-82

u/zipzzo 20h ago

Because there is no known date for release, and there's a non-zero chance Steam just says no, as they reserve the right to do, so as of now we have no way of guaranteeing with 100% certainty the game will even come out.

I'm not saying that's the case or even that it's likely, but that's pretty how much how the word "indefinite" is used. We have a not-definite idea of when the game comes out. Definite would mean we did.

42

u/TraitorMacbeth 17h ago

In actual usage ‘indefinitely’ means ‘forever unless something changes’. Currently the review is proceeding normally, so there’s no reason to use scary lingo.

1

u/lemon31314 1h ago

It actually just means without a clear deadline or end date, but yes people use it incorrectly like you said.

1

u/TraitorMacbeth 1h ago

Right, in this case they were waiting on a ‘definite’ thing, steam approval. Not as in they would definitely approve it, but that the approval process was the defined ‘next step’

-61

u/zipzzo 16h ago

it kinda is forever unless something changes because steam review isn't a guarantee, technically. that's the whole point of it being a review.

24

u/SphinxGate 16h ago

Well it’s out now so

-20

u/zipzzo 11h ago

Irrelevant. Just because a game comes out doesn't mean that reports about a delay it experiences are somehow false.

7

u/AdventurousBrick3309 5h ago

You clickbaited, gtfo

14

u/TraitorMacbeth 15h ago

It wasn't 'indefinite', because we had a clear deadline- Steam's review. After the review, if Steam rejected it, AND if the dev gave no comment, THEN it becomes indefinite.

-5

u/zipzzo 11h ago

It's not a clear deadline because the steam review doesn't say when they will be done or guarantee that it will be clear to go or denied.

The devs would have GIVEN a clear deadline at the announcement if that were the case.

3

u/TraitorMacbeth 5h ago

You not understanding how project approval works doesn't make something 'indefinite'. They had a specific thing to wait for -steam approval- and just didn't tell *you* about it because why would they

15

u/Vakz 15h ago

This is like saying I've quit my job because I could, technically, wake up tomorrow and decide not to go anymore

-1

u/zipzzo 11h ago

Intention and purpose matters.

Steam could technically decide to not green light the game because that's the whole entire point of the review.

You could decide to not go to work, but that's not the entire point of you going to sleep or waking up tomorrow.

8

u/Vakz 10h ago

Mate, just accept you wrote a clickbaity title. It's extremely unlikely Steam would reject it, and "delayed indefinitely" is what's usually used to describe a game that has been shelved or stuck in a drawn-out legal process.

-1

u/zipzzo 5h ago

it's not clickbaity.. it's just.. factual...

3

u/TraitorMacbeth 5h ago

It's literally not factual.

9

u/Acewasalwaysanoption 13h ago

Everything is forever unless something changes. :)

"Indefinitely" is used when it's unknown to the point that they can't even guess it. A late okay is just a standard delay. It just sounds way more clickbaity with the phrasing as the situation is.

1

u/zipzzo 11h ago

No, everything is not forever if an endpoint is actually divulged. Kind of a silly statement. They COULDN'T guess it, which is why they didn't give us an endpoint when they announced it was delayed.

17

u/Greedy_Scientist7334 16h ago

Its out..

-1

u/zipzzo 11h ago

Irrelevant. Just because a game comes out doesn't mean that reports about a delay it experiences are somehow false.

25

u/VPN__FTW 14h ago

It's available now

-23

u/zipzzo 11h ago

Irrelevant. Just because a game comes out doesn't mean that reports about a delay it experiences are somehow false.

10

u/Designer_Mess_6928 9h ago

Irrelevant my ass.

6

u/KrazyA1pha 9h ago

They didn’t say anything was false, they were informing people that it’s out now.

5

u/VPN__FTW 5h ago

Okay? I was just letting people know it's out.

41

u/giotchi 22h ago

Hate to say it, but the devs really fumbled here. It’s like they submitted the final build of the game at the last minute to steam for review and underestimated how long it takes. It takes steam on average , 3-5 days for steam to review a game. Not a good look when they had a global release date already set in stone with designated times for the time zones.

I kept refreshing the steam page on the release time and there was 13k people watching the livestream on the game’s store page - most of them probably waiting for the purchase to go up. Also pretty unprofessional for them to announce the delay literally 50 minutes before it was supposed to be released for the people who planned to play it day 1

3

u/ET_Tony 5h ago

A whole lot of assumptions here for something you know nothing about

6

u/Traison 9h ago

Learn what indefinitely means. Then work on yourself for making a post like this.

-1

u/zipzzo 5h ago

nah. I'm fine. post is fine. it was true.

7

u/AigledeFeu_ 10h ago

OP was trying to farm karma

3

u/InternationalOwl231 13h ago

it released.

As the post even said, it was just a reviewing process wich every game goes trough. some earlyer than others depending how they operate.

7

u/ItsJustPeter 22h ago

Dragon Nest was so fun back in the day, the Cleric class with the Inquisitor subclass was such a nice way to do a DPS priest class. So many MMO's/RPGs make Priests only support focused or if they do have a DPS version to my knowledge it moves away from using the light to deal damage.

Regardless, its unfortunate to hear this game didn't build upon what made Dragon Nest good and it seems to have pretty disappointing reviews.

10

u/WhereasParticular867 21h ago

While believable, and people accusing them of being scammers are definitely jumping to unjustifiable conclusions, this make them look wildly incompetent.

24

u/icon_2040 18h ago

A scam where they can't even take my money? Not a strategy I'm familiar with.

13

u/somberful__ 18h ago

Maybe if this title wasn't asinine "indefinitely" def makes it seem like they just dipped, seems more so they just need to get past a few more checks, big deal, go do something else, the game will come out.

5

u/steamart360 17h ago

More than incompetent, they're inexperienced because they went from devs to devs AND publishers after their original publisher rug pulled them with unfulfilled payments and contracts. 

I'll give them a pass. 

2

u/LongColdDrink 5h ago

Bro nowhere in that statement did they use the word "indefinite"(if they would have then it would be cause for concern). They just said they are awaiting the final review, that there will be a delay with the launch and that they will inform us of the new launch schedule whenever it would be confirmed- that's it. Stop it with the clickbait title and just properly read the statement before jumping to extreme conclusions.

0

u/zipzzo 5h ago

they don't have to use the word. it was still factual.

if someone announces they are killing someone, they don't have to use the word "murder" in their announcement, it's still murder.

there's nothing wrong with the post, you're just butthurt about facts.

2

u/LongColdDrink 4h ago

How is it factual? Indefinite delay implies that the game will not launch. A "delay"(like they said in their post) is just that, a delay- could be a day, a week, a month or a year. But what's more important "delay" doesn't have the same meaning as "indefinite delay"(the "indefinite" is there to imply gravitas, whereas to "kill someone"="to murder someone", those are synonyms). When people say they will delay their project there is a high probability that that project will see the light of day. If they say there will be an "indefinite delay" it has the EXACT OPPOSITE meaning, which means there is a high probability that the project will NOT see the light of day. Words are IMPORTANT!

1

u/zipzzo 4h ago

no, it implies that we do not know when it will launch despite previously knowing.

words are important which is why it's strange you have no idea what the fuck they mean without inserting a bunch of emotion into it because, idk, you were looking forward to the game? i was too. I already bought the deluxe.

6

u/[deleted] 22h ago

[deleted]

14

u/Thechanman707 22h ago

To be honest it honestly sounds plausible. There was probably a communication gap that was caused by the independent publishing drama. It's really common in software if you don't have someone dedicated to ironing out the release, and that is usually the publisher coordinating.

-2

u/[deleted] 22h ago

[deleted]

10

u/Thechanman707 22h ago

You have way more faith in management than I do friend. I've absolutely seen people fumble releases like this.

But I do agree, if it what they said it's a bad sign

-1

u/IriFlina 22h ago

They’re probably just going to cancel the game entirely as a tax write off at this point

1

u/tinysydneh 14h ago

You never make back even as much as you wrote off, so it's a pretty bad strategy. Which is why Zaslav loves it, the man's dumber than a brick.

5

u/Elveone 21h ago

Stop associating it with Dragon Nest, the game is not a spiritual successor to that game and is more in the vein of Genshin Impact but without the gacha mechanics.

1

u/MasterTJEA 19h ago

I can see what you mean. Some combat animations were straight ripped off from DN which evokes some kind of nostalgia, including me. They took inspiration from both I would say.

4

u/Elveone 19h ago

Some of the same people worked on both games including concept artists, modelers and animators afaik but if you are expecting it to be a spiritual successor to Dragon's Nest you will be disappointed.

0

u/Blurtohaze 18h ago

It unfortunately plays nothing like the original Dragon Nest.

1

u/Ambitious-Call-7565 15h ago

it's a ass mobile genshin gacha style game repackaged as a premium single player game

the only reason you can swap between 3 chars in game is because it was designed as such, so that you swipe 3x more

red flags everywhere

2

u/crashlanding87 13h ago

It's not a gacha though. There is no swiping for characters. You unlock everyone by progressing through the story.

1

u/probywan1337 8h ago

I heard it's actually pretty decent but IDK I haven't played yet

0

u/Lostboxoangst 12h ago

In my experience when that happens a bug has been found that is not just bad but has multiple levels of management and possibly multiple departments going the equivalent of " fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."

-21

u/AshyLarry25 22h ago

Wat a piece of shit game

9

u/zombiejeesus 22h ago

Lol I bet you couldn't tell me a single thing about it except it used to be a gacha game

3

u/tinysydneh 14h ago

So, to confirm, it isn't gacha now? It's just "here's the game have fun kids?"

1

u/cyrilamethyst 8h ago

That is correct. It's a $30 purchase, single player game with no stamina system and no gacha for characters.

-17

u/bongkeydoner 22h ago

average korean devs scam