Spec Ops: The Line was a remarkable game, to the point that more than two years after it came out, I don't want to talk about it in any great detail out of fear of spoiling the experience for those who have yet to play it. But it wasn't a sales success and so a sequel isn't going to happen, yet somewhat surprisingly that's just fine with the team at Yager.
It's not that gamers don't want a sequel: In an interview with German website Gamestar , translated by Google and Reddit , the studio "proudly" says that it still receives emails from players who are impressed with the game and want more. But it was a monumental, five-year undertaking that, despite the positive critical response, failed to catch fire with gamers. In fact, Take-Two Interactive cited lower-than-expected sales of Spec Ops: The Line as a major factor behind its first-quarter results for FY2013 coming in below expectations.
That means no sequel, according to Managing Director Timo Ullman, and probably no more military shooters from Yager at all. "If you can't compete with the big ones, the risk is too big," he said. "The market for 'smart' or 'intellectual' games is too niche. Elitist almost."
But while you might expect that to be seen as a disappointing development, the team at Yager isn't overly heartbroken by the prospect of not having to revisit the franchise. "You can imagine what kind of reference material you have to review [for a game like Spec Ops: The Line]," Art Director Mathias Wiese said. "That's not fun. You're happy when you can do something else after that."
Yager's current project, the recently-announced Dreadnought , certainly qualifies as "something else." An "aerial armada action game," it puts players in command of massive airborne warships battling for control of a galaxy in chaos. The studio hopes to have the new game ready for beta testing in early 2015.
