Frostpunk creators cancel "Project 8" and lay off staff amid concerns that "narrative-driven, story-rich games" don't sell

Came to say the same shit and even rdr2 showed that a good story and mechanics is a hit.

Let's ignore any and all context that might have made BG3 an exception. Famous IP is something the frostpunk devs don't really have. They've got a great start, but 50 plus years of books to pull from, it has none.

That is with an assumption that both games are equally well received. I was actually pretty hyped for frost punk 2 after finishing the first game but was disappointed when the review came in. It was overall considered as a downgrade or not as good as the first game and the ratings show that as well. Same situation with the forest but I think sons of forest will also improve with time but as a patient gamer, I can wait and get a better discount anyway.

My problem is that I'm absolutely not interested in a story driven wannabe city sim. Same issue I had with that space station game. It just turns those games into a puzzle game that you need to solve in order for you to reach its end, but that's absolutely not why I play games like this. I'd be way more interested in Frostpunk if it was an open ended game that focuses more on its building and simulation instead of a story. Be more dynamic and varied. We saw very successful survival based city builders like Banished before. Granted, Banished was also fairly simple, but that was also afaik a one man project - and despite that still managed to gain a lot of popularity and replay value. Of course the community making mods helped with that too.

I think the devs here just fell into the "more of the same" trap with their game.

For BG3 I kinda hope to see some more persistent & dynamic open world stuff too from the modders, now that the mod tools are kinda unlocked to their full potential.