Alpha Protocol was a game that seemed brilliant in concept. But the actual title, when released, was lambasted by critics. While the game was credited for having a novel and unique concpet, as well as for having a refreshing take on such a tired and fatigued genre, it was generally agreed that the execution was sloppy. To those who were hoping that all these issues of polish and refinement would be addressed in an inevitable Alpha Protocol 2, well, don’t get your hopes up. Sega has clarified that there will be no sequel to the Obsidian-developed spy RPG.
Said Sega West president Mike Hayes:”Let’s speak very commercially; the game hasn’t sold what we’ve expected, therefore we won’t be doing a sequel.
“The concept was brilliant, though,” he added. “You know this whole thing with Metacritic where you have to be in the high 70s to mid-80s minimum [to have any success] – well, with RPGs you have got to be in the late 80s.”
“Let’s speak very commercially; the game hasn’t sold what we’ve expected, therefore we won’t be doing a sequel,” said Hayes.
“The concept was brilliant, though,” he added. “You know this whole thing with Metacritic where you have to be in the high 70s to mid-80s minimum [to have any success] – well, with RPGs you have got to be in the late 80s.
“Whilst we had a good game, I don’t think we had a game that had enough to get us to that upper echelon and I think that was the issue.
“Again, the amount you need to invest to get there is so large because RPGs are naturally big projects. We’ve decided we won’t do a sequel.”
It’s kind of sad. Alpha Protocol was certainly a well intentioned game, and a sequel might have been the title the first one should have been. Guess we’ll never know.
