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Previously shut down PS4 Exclusive F2P Game - The Tomorrow Children, Confirmed to Return, Developer Regains Rights in Rare Deal with Sony

bitbydeath

Member
I can’t wait to jump back into the mines.
Five years after its October 2016 release as a free-to-play game on PS4 and subsequent shutdown 13 months later, The Tomorrow Children is set to return. Q-Games, the Kyoto-based indie developer behind the game, has acquired the rights from publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment, returning the Tomorrow Children IP to creator Dylan Cuthbert and his team.
“I’d like to thank first and foremost the fans of The Tomorrow Children, without whom I would never have had the confidence to keep pursuing this deal,” Cuthbert said in an announcement today. “Our fans are some of the most amazing gamers out there, and every day for the past four years they have kept the dream alive. I think the happiest thing about this decision is imagining the enjoyment those fans will feel as they re-enter the crazy post-apocalyptic neo-soviet world of The Tomorrow Children.
“Secondly I’d like to thank Sony Interactive Entertainment for also working with me to have the IP returned to Q-Games. It has taken a concerted effort by all of us to get to this ultimate step, and I’m full of gratitude to everyone involved in the process.”
Although no release date or platforms were announced, it appears The Tomorrow Children will return in an evolved form, as Cuthbert promised that he is “now tweaking and re-working parts of the game every week”.
In the meantime, Q-Games will be publishing a newsletter with behind-the-scenes updates so that fans can see how development is progressing. Registration for the newsletter is available here.

“I hope everyone follows along and gets involved in this process,” commented Cuthbert. “We plan to make quite a few changes for the better, and give The Tomorrow Children the re-launch it deserves! Come watch the fun!”
 

TVexperto

Member
I tried playing it but had no idea what to do ... happy to give it another try. Also why is it such a "rare" deal?
 

kingkenny76

Member
Arrested Development Tobias GIF
 

McCheese

Member
The art style and music were boss, but technically it was groundbreaking with some crazy cascaded voxel cone tracing and bounce lighting systems that I'm pretty sure haven't been done anywhere other than this, and maybe an early prototype of Dreams. I'm curious what they will opt to do with the extra PS5 power as given the original tech they were likely very CPU-bound before.

If they can flesh out the gameplay onboarding with some tutorials and easy to follow objectives, I could see it doing well; or at least getting a larger cult following than it has now. I heard it had quite a lot of "end game" content that was never achieved due to player dropoff on the original release, so I'm glad to hear it's getting a second chance.

if Dylan reads GAF - Release a fucking soundtrack!
 
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CamHostage

Member
Also why is it such a "rare" deal?

Publishers rarely are able to (or choose to, depending on who you ask is to blame..) give up their IP, even in situations where they have zero interest in further use of them. Just the paperwork of entertaining the idea of transferring a property usually isn't worth the conversation.

The fact that a company like Sony gave a company like Q-Games the time of day is, unfortunately, rare. (However, given Dylan Cuthbert's deep contributions to PlayStation history, including making the PS2 Rubber Ducks demo and the PlayStation 3 OS ribbon graphic and later dynamic themes, he may have had some favors to call in with the right people that a normal studio couldn't get a callback for asking.)
 
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McCheese

Member
Publishers rarely choose to give up their IP, even in situations where they have zero interest in further use of them. Just the paperwork of entertaining the idea of transferring a property usually isn't worth the conversation. The fact that a company like Sony gave a company like Q-Games the time of day is, unfortunately, rare. (However, given Dylan Cuthbert's deep contributions to PlayStation history, including making the PS2 Rubber Ducks demo and the PlayStation 3 OS ribbon graphic and later dynamic themes, he may have had some favors to call in with the right people that a normal studio couldn't get a callback for asking.)

He's connected as fuck, didn't Miyamoto and Cerny both come to Scotland for his wedding? or am I thinking of another gaijin developer..
 

CamHostage

Member
He's connected as fuck, didn't Miyamoto and Cerny both come to Scotland for his wedding? or am I thinking of another gaijin developer..

That's the guy. His history in gaming is fascinating, going back to when his weird little Game Boy project X led Nintendo to hire his company Argonaut Games to help create Star Fox and the Super FX chip.

...That said, the cache of having friends in high places some times can't even buy you a cup of coffee. So it's a nice surprise that this situation worked out, and I wish the best for Tomorrow Children's future.

(Never played it, BTW; always wanted to, love the tech on it, didn't ever really understand the gameplay and don't know if I need a mining/crafting timesuck in my life right now, but I'm into its style and ideas.)

 
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T-Cake

Member
I think this game is better suited to PC so it's likely it will end up there. But I think it had stupid microtransactions for some tickets or something which put me right off it. Hopefully they'll be gone.
 
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