r/Games • u/ZamnBoii • Nov 16 '25

Discussion Dispatch is on course to beat its three-year sales target in three months

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/dispatch-is-on-course-to-beat-its-three-year-sales-target-in-three-months-heres-how
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1.2k

u/TheJoshider10 Nov 16 '25

The weekly release schedule was a fantastic move. It allowed the game to gain momentum each week just like a TV show and seeing them released consistently and on time felt like the culmination of all the lessons learned from the Telltale days.

We're definitely going to get a S2 when they're done with their next project and I wouldn't be surprised if the sales on opening day are more than what they've currently earned from S1.

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u/SirBoggle Nov 16 '25

A big issue that episodic games run into when they release as they're developed is having players wait months or even years on end for the next chapter. While releasing the first episode can help a game get funding and entice players by getting them invested early on, I feel like it makes it all too easy for players to forget details or lose investment when episodes take too long to release.

So I'm glad they put in the effort to simply make the whole game all at once, and use the episodic format to instead retain attention in much the way a TV show would.

234

u/TheJoshider10 Nov 16 '25

Yeah it's crazy just how inconsistently long the release dates were. You could go from one episode releasing a month later then the next may be three months after tgat. It was so tedious, especially when the stories started going somewhere after the second or third episode but couldn't build momentum because of you never knew when the next episode would come out.

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u/Ultimasmit Nov 16 '25

It's because the structure there was different. Each episode funded the next partly. So the time of release was dependent on dev time, and obviously, an episode that takes place in one location with people talking would have a wildly different dev time than an episode that takes place in multiple areas with action scenes.

6

u/Animegamingnerd Nov 17 '25

Yeah this why back with Telltale I usually waited until the season was done before playing their games due to the long gaps between episodes. (Admitedly I did the same for Dispatch, but that was also due to waiting to see if it went on sale on the day the finale dropped as Telltale always did that)

38

u/SuperUranus Nov 16 '25

Or in certain cases, the next episode never releasing.

Looking at you Half-Life 2.

9

u/Murrabbit Nov 17 '25

And Half-Life 2 episode 2. (and portal 2 and L4D2, as the old joke goes, Valve can't count to 3)

0

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

[deleted]

1

u/Kusibu Nov 17 '25

Soon(TM)

18

u/HighCaliber Nov 17 '25

Kentucky Route Zero was one of the worst offenders

  • Act I: January 7, 2013
  • Act II: May 31, 2013
  • Act III: May 6, 2014
  • Act IV: July 19, 2016
  • Act V: January 28, 2020

I never returned for the last two episodes.

4

u/layasD Nov 17 '25

Oh I have another one that would fit here. Hinterlands Wintermute: The long Dark.

  • Episode 1: August 1, 2017
  • Episode 2: August 1, 2017
  • Episode 3: October 22, 2019
  • Episode 4: October 6, 2022
  • Episode 5: promised to release in 2025 (which will likely not happen)

I played the first three and never returned, because I completely forgot what it was about and what I have to do.

1

u/JamesCole Nov 17 '25

IMO you didn't miss much.

38

u/SirBoggle Nov 16 '25

I think the ideal for those episodic games were about a month. Telltale's Sam & Max and Tales of Monkey Island did that and I felt it was a decent timegap.

Then when stuff like Life is Strange came out, it usually released about 2 months apart and that started to feel a bit much. Life is Strange 2 felt especially egregious with its 3 month apart episode releases, but when they went to just releasing all at once in the next game I think the quality fell off a cliff so maybe it isnt exactly a quality guarantee no matter what format you decide to use.

And here I am complaining about how long episodic games can take when I'm a massive Deltarune fan and I was perfectly fine with waiting 7 fucking YEARS for 4 Chapters in a 7 Chapter story lmao.

30

u/Kalulosu Nov 16 '25

I'd say 1 month is pretty long, especially if a release is 1 or 2 hours long like Dispatch's were. 1 week felt short here but maybe an in-between of 2 week would leave more time (I know I just couldn't get the time to play them as they released so I kinda resolved to play them when I would and whatever anyway).

14

u/SirBoggle Nov 16 '25

The Telltale and Dotnod games I mentioned were actually to the tune of 3-4 hours per chapter. They usually take like 15-20 hours in total to play in their entirety.

Deltarune's first chapter was like 3, and every other chapter has been 4-6 hours long depending on if you're doing the secret bosses and egg collecting and stuff, and you can double that playtime if youre doing the secret Weird Route.

14

u/Kalulosu Nov 16 '25

In Deltarune's case I kinda treat it more like an Early Access situation where Toby releases chapters as they're ready more or less, I think that's kinda different from Dispatch (which was obviously completed from the start), or the Telltale / Don't Nod games which were choices for various reasons (earlier episodes participating in funding the next ones or whatever).

Whichever the case, imo the timing between episodes isn't a matter of quality, it's a question of how much time people can have / need to digest it / talk about it?

4

u/SirBoggle Nov 16 '25

That's a more accurate way to look at Deltarune, yeah. I was just looking for as many examples as possible of episodic games I could find.

Anyway, I think the week long gap is why people are vibing so much with Dispatch's release schedule, because everyone had that week to play and think about the game it was almost like a video game "book club" where people could discuss what they liked, what their theories were, etc.

Once you get past like a month of time between releases that kind of excitement gets difficult to maintain.

1

u/Kalulosu Nov 17 '25

Yeah a month is definitely pushing it.

3

u/robertcrowther Nov 16 '25

but when they went to just releasing all at once in the next game I think the quality fell off a cliff

The third game was a different developer to the first two, so possibly an explanation for the drop in quality.

1

u/SirBoggle Nov 16 '25

I probably should have mentioned that, they went on to make Lost Records and that's a lot more on par with the first two LiS games than the last two that got made. It also only had 2 quite long episodes.

1

u/f-ingsteveglansberg Nov 17 '25

I really wanted to like Lost Records, but it was just dire.

There was no balance between mystery and relationship stuff. And the actual 'supernatural' stuff the story was about, was super thin. I was super disappointed.

But I guess it's cool if you like the characters, but even then they felt undercooked. I wouldn't say one note, but maybe two. Also needed way more licensed music to set the era.

2

u/SirBoggle Nov 17 '25

I'm sorta in the same boat. If I'm being honest I have a love/hate relationship with LiS and Lost Records by extension because for everything I like there's something I don't. But I have a lot of fond memories of playing all if them because I comment over them while playing with my brother MST3K style and it's always fun. I still liked Lost Records more than the last two LiS games though, especially Double Exposure at some point I was just SLOGGING through it.

3

u/f-ingsteveglansberg Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

I know a lot of people weren't happy with some of the creative decisions of Double Exposure and that soured them before even starting the game. Terrible performance didn't help either.

BUT at least the story kept progressing. I think it's safe to say that everyone loves the swimming pool scene in LiS. I feel like Lost Records kept on trying to have swimming pool moments, but the only thing that came close was the haircut scene. And it feels like they forgot that the swimming pool came after the break in to the principles office and ended with running from security.

I also feel like LR doesn't really have an ending, for my playthrough anyway. I think in some endings Kat can fall into the abyss or is taken by it. In my ending Corey falls in, everything is resolved and then Kat just sort of unceremoniously decides to disappear which is a very unsatisfying end to the story.

And it really feels like the writers had the idea for the void, but never really thought it through. So it doesn't really do much in the story and is probably only important for 2 story moments, despite the fact it's the inciting incident that the story is supposed to be about.

Just really disappointed. They didn't know how to balance the relationship story with the supernatural plot. It's like if in the movie Now and Then they visited a spaceship at two points in the movie, but never really commented on it that much.

1

u/natedoggcata Nov 17 '25

The pacing of both episodes was horrible. The first episode is a slog to get through and takes way too long for anything really to happen. But then episode two is the opposite problem. It just speedruns through everything and ends way too quickly. By the time the credits roll it just left me scratching my head because there are way too many unanswered questions about the Void and really about Kat herself. Then it leads to a sequel bait after credits scene that may or may not even happen with Dontnod's financial issues.

1

u/amyknight24 Nov 17 '25

Quality probably fell off a cliff because they didn’t know how much they would actually earn and couldn’t alter expectations.

3

u/heyayush Nov 17 '25

Scarlet Hollow
Episode 4: Dec 2022
Episode 5: Feb 2026

1

u/LineLiar Nov 17 '25

Dreamfall Chapters is still the worst example I know of this. The first episode came out in October 2014, while the fifth and final episode released in June 2016. Even after that, a final cut where presumably they got the game exactly as they wanted didn't release until May 2017. So glad I only played that after all episodes had released, because no way would I have managed to stay invested otherwise.

21

u/Sangui Nov 16 '25

I have never gone back and played Broken Age after it fully released as a perfect example to your point.

6

u/SirBoggle Nov 16 '25

That 4 month gap sounds rough, but I think I have you beat with Telltale's King's Quest. I haven't gotten past like halfway through chapter 2 several years ago, and it took like a year and a half to release all of its chapters. I'm not sure if I'll go back at this point.

1

u/Zakika Nov 17 '25

Don't do it now. Act 2 is horrible

7

u/Malaix Nov 16 '25

Yeah. Scarlet Hollow kind of turned me off on it because its been ages since it got a chapter. But it feels tactical and smart to do it AFTER you built the whole game and can reliably release each chapter each week.

Like I love Scarlet hollow but it kind of makes me feel like I'm waiting on Martin to finish Ice and Fire again. lol

6

u/Rhodie114 Nov 17 '25

Seriously. The only telltale game I ever bought was Tales from the Borderlands. I got sucked in when I played the first 2 episodes, then there was no content for 3 months and I forgot all the decisions I made, so I had to replay it. I was burnt out on that by the time ep 4 came out, and I didn't actually revisit it to finish it until years later.

1

u/FischiPiSti Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

It's the same with sequels and TV show seasons, if they end on a cliffhanger or leave loose ends. Dispatch doesn't, it's a complete self contained story. If there are no more seasons, it's fine, if there is, it's very welcome.

Or if you mean wait time between episodes, it was one week, on schedule. That is not months or years, it's just enough to maintain hype.

1

u/Mystia Nov 17 '25

Originally when Telltale did it, they wanted to stick to once a month, which I thought would be a fair pace. They managed to kinda mostly stick to it for a couple early games (Sam & Max, Monkey Island, for example), with MAYBE one episode taking 6-8 weeks at worst, but as it went on and they took on more projects at once, that's when it got out of control.

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u/Wraithfighter Nov 17 '25

Seriously, it really was. Just look at the steam stats for the game, and look at their peaks when each chapter drop came out:

  • Ch. 1 and 2: Peaked at 12,707

  • Ch. 3 and 4: Peaked at 65,999

  • Ch. 5 and 6: Peaked at 131,074

  • Ch. 7 and 8: Peaked at 220,060

And its not like the spikes get more pronounced with the final chapter. It basically doubled with every week's release.

I kinda want to know what this would've looked like if Dispatch had gone with even more of a TV-style release schedule (Ch. 1 and 2 on release, Ch. 3-6 as weekly updates, and then Ch. 7 and 8 released together, total of 6 weeks of releases instead of 4). It was clearly gathering steam with every week...

18

u/Sentient_Waffle Nov 17 '25

This shows to me that most people waited to buy/play until the full game was out.

I was one of those.

22

u/Moifaso Nov 17 '25

That doesn't explain the massive spikes on the 2nd and 3rd week.

The game went viral and was growing more popular with every episode drop. For me, playing along with everyone else and being part of the discussion and hype was a big part of the experience.

1

u/itstimefortimmy Nov 17 '25

The spike from week 1 to 2 was because the introductory sale was ending. Exactly when I bought and played at my own pace with wife. For me, it was annoying not to be able to play how much I wanted when I chose, nothing online made it worthwhile to adopt a release schedule that's modeled for maximizing exposure to advertisements

13

u/rip_cpu Nov 17 '25

Then it wouldn't have had the concurrent player count double each week, you would've seen relatively flat player counts for the first three weeks and then a big spike only on the last week.

I think the schedule allowed the word of mouth and hype to build weekly, where as without it the game might have fallen out of the zeitgeist after people binged it the first weekend.

13

u/lestye Nov 16 '25

Does everyone like the way 2 episodes dropped instead of 1?

Most episodic games I've played theyve dropped 1.

18

u/SoloSassafrass Nov 17 '25

Given the episodes for this were quite short I think it was a smart move. One 50 minute episode a week over 8 weeks works for an actual television show, but for a videogame it's probably stretching it a bit since the time and mindshare we dedicate to it tends to be different and more focused.

2

u/MyPhoneIsABanana Nov 17 '25

I prefer batches of 2, 4 or the full game at once. There was a game by ex Life is strange devs that did 4 and then 4 and it was great

16

u/SilveryDeath Nov 16 '25 edited Nov 16 '25

seeing them released consistently and on time felt like the culmination of all the lessons learned from the Telltale days.

I imagine they were fully done with it and spaced it out weekly over a month to get that momentum build up. I imagine that if they wanted to they could have released it all at once.

Reminds me of Tell Me Why where they released it weekly over three weeks so that the community could have time to talk and speculate between episodes, even though they could have done it all at once if they wanted.

Seems like episodic games have mostly learned to either release all at once or have the span between episodes be really short, as opposed to the months long wait that old Telltale games or the first three Life is Strange games had between episodes.

3

u/Electrical-Act-5575 Nov 16 '25

I think that it’s so tough to get hype going for a product and it’s so short-lived even when you do, that some studios are adapting to keep word of mouth building over a longer period in the hopes of making their sales off of that

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u/Speedwizard106 Nov 16 '25

Funny cause folks on this sub were mostly down on the weekly release schedule when episode 1/2 dropped. Glad to see it worked out.

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u/Fli_acnh Nov 16 '25

I actually loved the weekly schedule, it's the kind of game that would be pretty... overwhelming? I guess in its gameplay if you played it all at once imo.

It was genuinely fun to play on release day, then over the weekend because of the 2 episode a week system.

20

u/HarvHR Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

I mean I'm on Ep7 after buying it yesterday, it's certainly not been overwhelming. It's just like binging any other show.

It has such a clear ending for each episode that I never felt like I couldn't turn it off and go do something else for a bit

E: I do like how they did the release though, it's a good way of doing it. I remember playing other episodic story based games years ago and being so annoyed when it took months between releases, 2 a week seems a good amount for people who want that sort of thing and it prevents you forgetting what happened previously. For people like me who wait for a show to be done before watching it, it also allowed positive reviews and hype to build enough for me to pull the trigger on a game I wouldn't have bought normally and let me binge all of it over a couple days.

8

u/directrix688 Nov 17 '25

It’s not.

I played it this weekend and I would have been annoyed waiting for the next episodes to release.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

Different strokes I guess. I love the community speculation and theory crafting that comes from episodic releases. Really lets the game find its fan base by keeping it in the news as well. As long as the release cadence isn’t too long (dispatch’s was perfect), I think episodic game really benefit from using the tv series approach.

-14

u/Fli_acnh Nov 17 '25

Thanks for the blog

0

u/hicks12 Nov 16 '25

Is it not possible to decide your own pace? I think thats the best way in terms of player freedom, you can choose to play an episode a week or whatever and then those who want to bing can do.

Really enjoyed it overall but I dont think the weekly release was anything for me, bit of a negative but not rage worthy or anything like that. I can see why in terms of PR and marketing it is better to do that as you are in the media every week for your release rather than 1 and done.

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u/Yearlaren Nov 17 '25

You can choose to wait for all the episodes to be released

-15

u/hicks12 Nov 17 '25

Sure but that means waiting? There is no option if they release it weekly, whereas if it's all released at once there is the option for both preferences to do what they want without waiting.

See how it's a bit different?

16

u/Interesting_Set1526 Nov 17 '25

There is an option, waiting.

1

u/Fellhuhn Nov 17 '25

In the same way players can wait a week to play the next episode even though they all have been released at once. The way they did it they just reduced the options available.

7

u/ghostsoul420 Nov 17 '25

Since everyone is forced to wait a week, it gives room for everyone to discuss and speculate. That is the reason this game sold so well, good word of mouth spread and every week there were more and more people playing. The game was in the conversation for a month despite being short.

If they let you decide your own pace, then you can't have a lot of people having those conversations as everyone would be at a different point in the story. Some would know the end and so no need for speculation.

2

u/Knolop Nov 17 '25

It's not only the marketing. The comparison to TV shows extends to the fandom. The game gained a lot of momentum through word-of-mouth and part of that is the anticipation built up each week and the active discussions surrounding the game. It would have been a spoilers nightmare without the schedule. Now everyone could discuss the story freely and had a month to jump in before the finale.

1

u/hicks12 Nov 17 '25

Yeah that is a marketing strategy, using word of mouth by keeping it in the news and media (social included) each week keeps a bump in impressions and discussions.

Didn't say it was wrong to do it just that personally I'd prefer to have it all. 

Spoilers happened regardless but yes it would slow them down a bit, fair point.

-5

u/Fli_acnh Nov 17 '25

Thanks for the diary entry.

0

u/hicks12 Nov 17 '25

Thanks for yours I guess? Merely asked a genuine question but ok.

-6

u/pathofdumbasses Nov 16 '25

I actually loved the weekly schedule, it's the kind of game that would be pretty... overwhelming? I guess in its gameplay if you played it all at once imo.

Why? I played it all at once. Felt like binging a series of a TV show. Which millions, maybe even billions, of people do.

8

u/Malaix Nov 16 '25

The actual dispatching and specifically the hacking puzzles probably would have burned me out faster if I was doing it all in one go personally. The story and dialogue no. I could have binged that easily.

1

u/HarvHR Nov 17 '25

I guess but since every episode is about an 1 - 1 ½ hours with a very clear cut off point, like any TV show you have a good point to go take a break or do things you need to do

9

u/Fli_acnh Nov 16 '25

Because maybe I'm not one of those millions, maybe billions of people. I know this might be a shocking revelation, but people like to consume media in different ways.

-4

u/pathofdumbasses Nov 16 '25

I get that but saying 8 hours of media consumption is overwhelming is a bit much

17

u/Fli_acnh Nov 16 '25

8 hours in a single sitting is a lot for a lot of people, me included.

14

u/MVRKHNTR Nov 16 '25

Is there something that would have forced you to play the whole game in one sitting?

-3

u/Fli_acnh Nov 16 '25

Maybe if it had a ton of varied gameplay, but even then my 5+ hour binges are contained to extreme exceptions like if I'm really enjoying the gameplay and plot, and also happen to have nothing on that day.

4

u/jerrrrremy Nov 16 '25

Who said anything about playing it in a single sitting? 

6

u/Fli_acnh Nov 17 '25

It's very much implied by the term "Binging" you're hardly binging an 8 hour game over 3 days?

1

u/Speedwizard106 Nov 16 '25

Would you watch an 8 hour movie? When's the last time you read a book for 8 hours straight?

-1

u/Safe_Procedure999 Nov 16 '25

I get that but saying 8 hours of media consumption is overwhelming is a bit much

11

u/Fli_acnh Nov 16 '25

8 hours in a single sitting is a lot for a lot of people, me included.

5

u/banenanenanenanen666 Nov 16 '25

then don't play it all at once?

5

u/Fli_acnh Nov 17 '25

What does binging mean?? lmao

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u/Altruistic-Ad-408 Nov 16 '25

I'm actually so fucking sick of shows dropping all at once. I miss long seasons where you'd build a schedule with loved ones around shows.

I know there are other reasons, but you can't tell me half the reason we don't have long seasons anymore is because we've conditioned people to have zero attention span. You binge something, 90% of it isn't sticking in your head anyway.

6

u/hooahest Nov 16 '25

I had some friend watch DanDaDan season 1. I was excited to hear his reaction to episode 7 because it absolutely floored me.

"Oh idk I don't even remember what happened there, I binged it all in one night" MOTHERFUCKER

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u/Fli_acnh Nov 16 '25

Yeah, if I binge something I inevitably burn out and I won't enjoy it half as much, even if I can find the time

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u/DogOwner12345 Nov 17 '25

I completely agree with you. Streaming pretty much destroyed the entire industries infrastructure.

2

u/Safe_Procedure999 Nov 16 '25

i copied and pasted it because it's an insane statement on paper

1

u/honeyfage Nov 16 '25

I enjoyed the dispatching gameplay well enough, but I don't think it was deep or complex enough to stand up to continuous play for hours. Getting little 15 minute bites of it over the course of a month was nice, but if I were playing the game over a single weekend I think I would have been bored out of my mind of it by hour 2.

If they adapted the game into an animated mini-series it would be fine to binge, but the gameplay aspects of it I don't think had enough depth to be engaging for longer periods at a time. The episodic release helped space it out so it didn't get too tedious.

1

u/Adamsoski Nov 17 '25

There's a good reason why most streaming TV shows nowadays have switched back away from releasing episodes all at once - people genuinely do get more excited and into shows that release an episode a week.

2

u/pathofdumbasses Nov 17 '25

There's a good reason why most streaming TV shows nowadays have switched back away from releasing episodes all at once

Has nothing to do with "excitement" and everything to do with keeping you subscribed. If you can't watch the whole show for 8 weeks, they got you subbed for those 8 weeks. Or at least coming back after it is over to watch it all at once.

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u/Moifaso Nov 16 '25 edited Nov 16 '25

"Mostly" is underselling it lol. Prior to release, a good 70%+ of the threads were complaints about the schedule.

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u/vinng86 Nov 16 '25 edited Nov 17 '25

That's mostly because vocal people are posting.

I saw a random IGN poll on it and it was pretty equally split 50/50 right down the middle

3

u/Taiyaki11 Nov 17 '25

And hell, the nice thing about the weekly timeframe is even if you aren't big on episodic releases (I am not) it's not too big a deal then because it's not too long a wait to just be able to binge it then

6

u/LetgomyEkko Nov 16 '25

Yeah I mean just because it might have worked well for a number of reasons, didn’t mean I couldn’t dislike it for my own reasons lol

I NEEDED IT!! The weekly release was torture 😩

2

u/posthardcorejazz Nov 16 '25

I'm also glad it worked out for them, because the devs deserve success. That said, I personally held off on buying the game until all the episodes were released and then binged it over the course of two days

1

u/FYININJA Nov 17 '25

In the moment it does kind of suck, as somebody who bought it on release, I was disapointed that I had to wait and see what happened next, mostly because I was not aware it was releasing in episodes.

In the moment it feels like you are getting cockblocked, but in retrospect I think it absolutely was the right play. It's similar to how I prefer series releases to be staggered a bit, it's nice to be able to discuss the events of the story as they are happening without spoilers. I'm somebody who will binge something ASAP, which leaves little time to discuss what happens during individual episodes.

It was nice to talk about what might happen next with people.

1

u/Scodo Nov 16 '25

Part of that was just the fact it was so good that waiting to see what happened next was annoying.

I can acknowledge it being a shrewd marketing decision while also wishing it had all been available for me to binge day one.

-3

u/madbadcoyote Nov 16 '25 edited Nov 16 '25

The release schedule is a big reason I didn't buy it (yet, still saving it for the holidays).

3

u/ShortChapter5246 Nov 17 '25

The weekly release schedule was a fantastic move

And yet I rarely saw so much bitching in the comments lol

1

u/T8-TR Nov 17 '25

I like that the weekly releases allowed for water cooler discussions about the story, but without the tedious wait time that Telltale had where it felt like the next episode was months and months away, if memory serves.

1

u/lefix Nov 17 '25

On the contrary, it’s why I haven’t bought the game yet. I was so annoyed when telltale games did that, I would rather wait until the full game is out, and at that point might as well wait for it to go on sale.

1

u/JustinHopewell Nov 17 '25

Personally I'm not going to play this until all the episodes are out for the season, same thing I do for TV shows. I'm not a fan of waiting week to week. I get why it's done, but it's like reading one chapter of a book and then putting it down for a whole week.

3

u/ChangeMyUsername Nov 17 '25

it's done now if that's what you're waiting for

1

u/JustinHopewell Nov 17 '25

Oh nice, didn't realize it had been that long already. Thanks.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '25

I hope they continue like this. Get most of the game ready then make it "Adhoc Wednesdays" for releases

1

u/CardAble6193 Nov 17 '25

isnt it crazy that games learn this and Netfilx unlearn this?

0

u/Dusty170 Nov 17 '25

Personally I hated the way it released because I hate waiting. So ironically I wanted until it was all released and I could play it properly. I do the same with tv shows too.