CDV US has nothing to do with CDV Germany.
CDV US is or was once a spin-off or a daughter company of CDV Germany.
CDV Germany went out of business - as far as I heard - meanwhile CDV US still exists.

Thanks for your heart-felt update, Lar. It's nice to get an inside peek of the process, instead of just looking at packages in a store. It's nice to know how much the folks at Larian care about what they do, the quality of their work, and amazingly, the opinions of players.

My first 'discovery' of Larian Studios was through the English language release of Divine Divinity (which hubby bought in Australia during military deployment). He was completely involved in the game, and when I finally got my turn with it, I decided it'd be best if we had two legal copies-- that way even when he's out on military duty, we can both play one of our favorite games. I was very impressed with the depth of the Divinity story, and the freedom (having only played a major-titled game at that point) in the game-playing. The humor was the best I've seen. . . ever! I absolutely LOVE the humor in the Divinity games (and I'm American!).

I tried playing Beyond Divinity, but found it not to my liking (I prefer playing "outdoors" as opposed to mostly dungeons). The English voice acting, in my opinion, left much to be desired. Still haven't been able to play the game all the way through.

Then came Divinty 2: Ego Draconis. When I saw this game on the shelf, from my beloved Larian developers, I quite easily decided to pay the US$50 for it instead of 'the other' major dragon game.

I continue to be impressed with the folks at Larian-- you guys are just awesome! You deliver great games, great story-lines, and a fun world in which to delve. It's nice to put aside reality for a little while (like, several hours at a time!) and go into the magical world that a few people put their hearts and creativity into. I am also impressed with the mostly positive 'aura' through these forums. The fact that head Larian workers take time to post and reply to us players is amazing to me. I haven't seen either the positivity or such involvement by the game developers anywhere else.

Thank you all so much for the hard work you do, for sharing with us. I wish to you only the best, and that even in these rough economic (and political) times, you'll come out on top! Keep up the great work, and that positivity which seeps through!

All best,

~~CierraShore

Hey Kein, I fully understand why your so upset. There have always been publisher headaches when it comes to the states. I have more on this in the spoiler tag if you really want to hear what I've got in US publishers.



I highly doubt they want this any more then all of us. I got my hands on a copy of the German version and English hacked it. Still trying to figure out which is a bigger pain in the ass, tacks on a chair or the English hack.

Anyway just hang in there and you'll find yourself up late at night being sleep deprived enjoying the game. I know I'll be up

@Cierrashore - Thank you, always feels good to read posts like this

Re: my optimism - I'm notorious for being overly optimistic Seriously - the only reasons I can foresee at this point for any delay would be issues with the Xbox360 submission, so called strategic publishing issues or some kind of force majeure. I'm currently playing a master candidate for FOV in English, and the Dragon Knight Saga is very close to completion. And yes, I too wished we could come out sooner, very much so actually.

@ Lar_q.

you guys better stick around your the only rpg maker i can stand
i look forward to getting my claws on the saga

Are you guys concerned about the October release in the US being near so many other releases. From what I see, Arcania: Gothic 4, Two Worlds II, Fable III, and Fallout New Vegas are all releasing in October. That is a lot of action RPG competition for a single month. A great and bad month for RPG fans considering it's a lot of great new games but at the same time someones sales are going to get hurt with that much going on.

5th - Enslaved
5th - Two Worlds II
12th - Arcania: Gothic IV
19th - Fallout: New Vegas
19th - Vanquish
19th - Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
26th - Fable III

That's October. Scary.

Just a quick question: does FOV use new tracks of Kirill Pokrovsky?

Yes. Lynn (IIRC) mentioned awhile ago a couple samples would eventually be put on the FoV website, and that Kirill composed a lot more music for D2:ED than they needed.

Well we don't gotta worry about the Castlevania game... that IGA moron has trashed the Castlevania franchise so bad that the hard core fans have renounced the series.

Virumor, I think it was in the one status update about the music to see exact wording. I think he did the same with DD, there are a few released tracks that were never used in game.

Thanks for posting this new update Lar. Always interesting to get an inside view of game development. Hope your time off was relaxing.

Eagerly awaiting the Dragon Knight saga here in the U.S.

Each one by a different publisher, I guess ?

If so, then it's 7 publishers trying to get a piece from the cake - simultaneously.

Now that's what I call "short-sighted" !

I read on another forum that Two Worlds II will come in septembre!

A question to Lar_q about the remastered Dragon Knight Saga (on Xbox - and pc):
I read something about a new option to make enemies easyer to defeat for players who have to much troubles with them (normal versus hard difficulty... and more)...

My question is now:
is it also possible in the remastered version that my hero can be killed(damaged) by a enemy that is a few levels below my hero's level? If so, then the final battle become a little bit more in balance with the rest of the battle before the final battle :).
I hope! So then it will be a challenge to the end of the game and not boring combat anymore! Because from the time I become level 28 (or something like that) killing enemies wasn't fun anymore.


Question two:
Have each kind of enemy a weak spot? and do you think players can find each weak spot by playing the game and/or examinating more close each enemy's do's and don't's ? Just curious!
In DD there is the Skill "Know Creature".

The effect of level difference on damage has been severely reduced. People playing the German Addon can already attest to this.



Just like the player, enemies have 3 resistances (Melee/Ranged/Magic) and some creatures are more resistant to one type of damage than to the other.

Thanks for answering my questions Greever !
Sorry, I mentioned later I better write down: "I have a question for somebody of the Larian Team

Hearing first answer I'm very happy !!

Second answer:
hmmm... I was earlier thinking about the resistances of the enemies ... But not sure this was the only difference, because I had the feeling the "hearing" and "sight" is also different? Or not?

A very interesting update. I'm not convinced that resellers are the main problem, though. Or rather: resellers are a problem, but a perennial one. They're only a significant problem now, because of the economy.

To me, the games market at the moment is really hard, across the board. I don't know any company which hasn't had to tighten its belt several notches in the last year, if it hasn't gone under. Steam's crazy sales earlier this year suggest that even Steam is not having a great time either: slashing prices so much is not a sign of philanthropy!

If D2 were released a few years ago, everyone in Larian would be rolling in fistfuls of cash and snorting powdered diamonds off of nubile dragonettes. Now, though... they're one of the few success stories, and an inspiration and motivation to the rest of us, but not nearly so big a success as they should have been, without a recession.

For most companies I've spoken to, sales are down by about 50% over two years ago. Although theoretically we're "recovering" from the recession, that's the hardest time for most people: they've already gone through whatever safety buffer and savings they had, and they're living hand-to-mouth. Many are behind on paying wages, and employees are only staying on out of loyalty, or despair at finding other jobs. Customers are in the same boat, and are tightening their belts too, cutting down on frivolities like gaming.

For the smaller, self-published indies, the shrinking income has brought other problems. In the US and a few other countries, credit cards are not legally responsible for their own misuse: the retailer is responsible instead, and at any time, the buyer can return the product and make a "chargeback" to take back the money they spent, even a year after buying stuff. With people feeling the bite of the recession, many more people are trying this as a way to get back some of the money they decided they'd spent unwisely: and since the money is already spent by the Indie Devs, a single large chargeback by a previously loyal customer can hit them hard in a pocket that's already only half full.

Chargebacks are rife for online games in particular, where everything they sell is virtual, so "returning" it requires no action from the customer. It's worse with games aimed at children, as the children will often misappropriate their parents' cards, and will generally not understand (or care) about the damage they are doing to the company that gives them so much fun. With money tight, parents are scrutinising their card statements more carefully, and taking away their children's "stolen toys".

But that's just the beginning. PayPal (and I imagine other payment processors, but PayPal's the big one) will freeze your assets for six months, or even permanently, if chargebacks go over 1% of your income. With lowered income and raised chargebacks, this hits many of them. When they're clawing to stay afloat already, suddenly being unable to process payments is the final nail in the coffin for just about any Indie dev.