Overdose - Potential leak referencing key game information

[Satoru]

• Has been in development for about 3 years;
• Horror game mini-series divided into episodes (similar to Alan Wake);
• Will be quite intimate and very personal story of one character;
• Was previously developed for the Google Stadia cloud platform, but then the project was bought by Microsoft for its cloud ecosystem;
• Exclusive to Microsoft and its cloud service;
• The entire visual component of the game will be rendered in the cloud - will be quite modest in the visual aspect, slightly falling short of AAA in terms of the variety of scenery, and the scale of the production, but with high-quality animation, materials, effects, and lighting;
• The cost of the game will be from 20 to 40 USD/EUR;
• The main character cannot be directly influenced;
• The principle of gameplay is indirect control, where the player has only an indirect influence on the game, the heroine, the nuances of circumstances, and the environment;
• The player will be able to contact the independently acting and moving the main character in the story, but your communication will be non-verbal;
• The game is a movie, or rather a series, in which the branching of the narrative, both at the micro level and at the macro level, depends on your indirect influence on the world and its characters;
• Can be played both alone and through voting as a multiplayer;
• Character of Margaret Qualley behaves completely independently, obeying circumstances and moving along the storyline, and the player or players through the voting system (in the case of multiplayer) or choice (in the case of a single session) direct her through the environment and encourage them to take some action.

Sauce

I would take this with a grain of salt, but seems so far out there that it may very well be true.

 

[TubzGaming]

So a Semi-On-rails FMV. But in the style of a game, You as the "Player" influence the character with choices you make. With no direct control.
To me its starting to sound a little bit like that game PlayStation released on PS4 where you could play the FMV game with your phones alone or with friends.

 

[Dabaus]

A game where you dont actually need to play it and all you can do is talk about it. He certainty knows the xbox audience.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Confirmed, mate! I lost the source, but I will find him. So, it will be like...Hidden Agenda by Until Dawn creators.

Eh?

Is this guy a known leaker or something?

Nothing here makes any sense for a cloud-only game.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

I hope it's on phones only (no consoles) and that's why Sony didn't want to be involved. It will flop bad on Xcloud.

I read the leak with the naked guy was using Death Stranding assets so the real game won't look like that. Margaret Qualley might not even be there.

 

[Satoru]

I hope it's on phones only (no consoles) and that's why Sony didn't want to be involved. It will flop bad on Xcloud.

I read the leak with the naked guy was using Death Stranding assets so the real game won't look like that. Margaret Qualley might not even be there.

It's a possibility indeed.

 

[Dr Bass]

Eh?

Is this guy a known leaker or something?

Nothing here makes any sense for a cloud-only game.

That's the thing .. what DOES make sense? I can't think of anything that's only possible server side vs a networked client ...

It all sounds kinda like nonsense to me. I could be wrong of course but ... I think there is a reason no one buy Microsoft is jumping on this.

 

[peter42O]

Meh. Haven't completed a Kojima game since MGS 2. Highly unlikely that I ever will again.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

the release should be imminent then.

 

[Kokoloko]

Sounds interesting + its Kojima so Im jealous. Shame its not on PS or non cloud for that matter

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

So it's actually less interactive than something like Detroit Become Human or Until Dawn, and sounds more like TWD Telltale games meets Dragon's Lair. Interesting if not kind of odd; they could actually have some neat mini-mechanics to make interactions very involved even if it's very linear and on-rails, however. Like a way to open locked doors that's actually mechanically consistent throughout the game and more involved than just pressing the 'X' button flashing on the screen to open the door.

However I don't know why it "needs" the cloud to render. I know the footage leaked was low-quality, and the character herself has quite good facial animation range, but as a whole the game doesn't look like anything that couldn't run locally on a Series X. And if it's an otherwise very linear game in structure, I can't imagine any physics or AI calculations required that couldn't be scoped to run on the Series S (just that the game would have a lower framerate and texture settings of course).

There could definitely be things IN the game that leverage the cloud, but the entire game itself is running on the cloud? I just don't see why, other than being content pushing for GamePass subs, because that's the only way you'll be able to play it. And I thought they would eventually try making games "specially" for GamePass, I just didn't think it'd start with Kojima or that it'd be via cloud-only.

Sounds interesting + its Kojima so Im jealous. Shame its not on PS or non cloud for that matter

It does sound pretty neat actually but for me it depends on how involved they can make the interaction mechanics. If it's just sporadic, random button prompts QTE-style and that's the extent of it then I'm not interested. I think these kind of games basically building off the foundation of FMV games, QTEs etc. can work but devs need to get more creative about how to design consistent, substantive mechanics in the game world's interactions.

Like say when you're firing a gun; the act of the character actually running to the gun and picking it up may be out of the player's control, but the mechanics for actually firing the gun (or aiming it) should be more involved than a simple button press, and should work similarly with other guns the player is going to come across during the game. But there's other stuff they could do too, like some involved mechanics for even eating food, maybe you press a button and the character takes a bite and another button makes them chew the food in their mouth, and the speed you press that button actually influences if they eat the food more slowly and savoring the flavor, or hurriedly, and you can see the emotional difference in their facial animation while doing so.

That could bring some really neat interactivity to the game world, but I didn't get any sign of that in the leaked footage. I guess we'll see what's going on once it's officially revealed. I guess while it kind of sucks PS isn't getting the game, PS5 is getting Death Stranding 2, which should be at least as ambitious as the first game and in fact quite a lot more so, and certainly grander scale than whatever Overdose is going to be. But they could both be very unique gaming experiences in their own ways despite one being more smaller-scale (AA scope with AAA graphics, linear interactive adventure sci-fi/horror) and the other going for AAA non-linear open-world action/adventure sci-fi/horror.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

If i could choose between this experimental game and a AAA follow-up to death stranding, im glad I’m getting the latter.

 

[IntentionalPun]

That's the thing .. what DOES make sense? I can't think of anything that's only possible server side vs a networked client ...

It all sounds kinda like nonsense to me. I could be wrong of course but ... I think there is a reason no one buy Microsoft is jumping on this.

Well for one we don’t even know if it’s cloud only or not so we?

But I agree cloud only barely makes sense at all… but you would do something MMO-ish at the very least at a scale that requires LAN speed between clients to really push the idea.

But yeah cloud only is a huge catch 22 because the clients need low latency to play well anyways.

 

[DonFerrari]

Meh. Haven't completed a Kojima game since MGS 2. Highly unlikely that I ever will again.

Same except MGS3 for me, which was amazing.

I’ll check it out I guess but like Death Stranding, my expectations are super low.

 

[ethomaz]

So a Telltale game with perhaps multiplayer voting system?

 

[ksdixon]

So a Semi-On-rails FMV. But in the style of a game, You as the "Player" influence the character with choices you make. With no direct control.
To me its starting to sound a little bit like that game PlayStation released on PS4 where you could play the FMV game with your phones alone or with friends.

Hidden Agenda

Fun game for a drinks night with friends, to start with. Died, no chapter select. Went in different order and got way more info, died in what I assume is final encounter, and no chapter select again. Never played it again.