Tunahan_cevik41 wrote: ↑04 May 2022 13:49I know scs software hasn't been interested in hunting unlimited for a long time, but I wish they hadn't ended the series.
I love hunting unlimited, I still have 2 games installed on my computer.
I was very sad that the series ended.
If euro truck continued to develop hunting unlimited with the technology they developed, it could be the most played hunting game in the world
That's just business unfortunately, I look at the context and can absolutely see why they made the decision. By 2009, the year 2010 came out, these games were graphically about on par with a Gen 6 console like the GameCube or PS2, Xbox, the sad reality is, that was deep enough into the lifecycle of the Xbox 360 and PS3, that players from those consoles at large would rather have better graphics in a game that's *almost* as good. It doesn't make as much sense in hindsight now, but keep in mind, this was a PC exclusive series when, at the time, the steep majority of gamers were on consoles.
Making a game for an already limited demographic, on a platform people simply were steering away from at the time anyway just wouldn't have been smart on a business front. In terms of game depth, SCS only took HU as far as they were willing, decided the content present in 2010 was enough, and then the rights (in some way or another) went to ARB Studios, which in retrospect, was probably their only real "mistake".
ARB was a primarily mobile developer, and if you play Hunting Unlimited 2011, the evidence of it really shows, the menusystem and ui in general just *reeks* of that early-era mobile game style, in all honesty, I'm not convinced they didn't want to make it into an iPod Touch game at the time, it had that kind of setup. And it never really felt right to me on PC, people say the game itself is what killed the series, but I'm further on the believe it was ARB Studios that should be the whipping boy for HU's sad demise.
Because yes, the series ended after 2011, but what should shock nobody is that ARB barely even lasted any longer than the series itself, there's not actually an awful lot of info on ARB, they're like Schrodinger's Dev Team, but from what I could gather, it was a very small team, and they pumped out a lot of internet Flash games before shifting to the mobile scene, and there's little evidence of their footprint from after 2012, such a weird... weird choice. And I'm not sure I place more responsibility on SCS for simply giving up on the series, or THQ for trusting such a low-cred developing team for a game they must have perceived as "expendable".
My bet would be on the latter, simply because of THQ's nature, they remind me almost of Alphadream or Ubisoft, a team with serious credit and notoriety but for every good, home-run decision they made, they had 3 baffling ones in the clip, ready to fire out. And it shows in that not even 3 years later, THQ themselves closed their doors and their studios were gobbled up by Sega and Wayforward. Now *technically* THQ does still exist as THQ Nordic but that doesn't go much further than the branding, most of what WAS THQ was laid off, or again, dispersed between the highest bidders. All of that to say, I'm not even sure who (if anybody) quote unquote "owns" the rights to Hunting Unlimited.
That said, I do think SCS could make something *amazing* given today's limits, but I'm discovering part of why *I* want to mod and make content for this game is to refresh what is old and more accessible, and potentially show SCS that there is a fanbase for these games that has been *dying* for a serious contender to Cabela's and such in a modern-day market. I'm not necessarily counting on that playing out, but I feel like they left so much untapped potential within these games, and SCS has always been a pretty open company (part of why I love them), if they see that there is a push to get these games back, I could see them answering the call in some capacity. Even if they remastered 2010 and made a console adaptation with nicer models/textures and a UI makeover, no it wouldn't be the continuation of my dreams, but it'd be *something* to say "we hear you guys, keep chugging away".
That's a very idealist take, I understand the implications of remastering a 13 year old game made with Windows Vista and 7 in mind for Gen 8 and 9 consoles, I don't *expect* that to happen in exact detail, what I mean overall is, I'm going to find a way to make the community show up by any means. I'll try modding, I'll enlist help in making something akin to HU Corner's old website, it's a long term goal of mine to resurrect tournament functionality, but my overall idea is to get a large waft of this community back together, in one place, and maybe have SCS hear us and bare minimum, acknowledge these games. I think given what they've accomplished with, essentially, creating "the" definitive trucking simulator, they could throw a strong enough hat back into the hunting ring, and seriously raise the bar for the games.
Either that or I've been spending way too much time with this game. Either or.
