Congratulations to this man who has just officially joined the ION HAZZIKOSTAS TIER! The prerequisites for reaching the rank of gamedirector that says the complete opposite of what people want to hear!
48% on steam and forums in dumpster fire: The game was well received.
The optimization is disgusting: it’s sad but it doesn’t come from us but from people.
Next step: I think you shouldn’t play demonology warlock!
For a game intended as a “live service” they really are not updating enough to justify their claim. A cash shop that is automatically updating while you’re on holiday vacation from your botched full release isn’t a live service.
Look, I’ve given FatShark wads of cash, but we’re a full month after release and the glaring problems that the community has been citing since pre-order beta are still in the game, the only definitive change to the game has been adding ONE reroll option to the “crafting”… And they have maintained silence since the previous hotfix, it seems. They indicated that support would be on hiatus until 12/27, but it’s been over a week and they seem to be operating as if everything with their game is as it should be instead of a giant wreck that is disappointing people in every aspect EXCEPT the gameplay and setting.
Yeah it’s total BS. I’m one of those few people whose game mostly runs fine, and even I’ve had a crash or two since launch. Magnuson is a pathetic liar, and I don’t feel bad saying that. This isn’t some poor dev doing their best. This is someone with actual control gaslighting us.
He can go f*ck himself.
Which is exactly why FS should be treated like any company that majorly fuked up: with relentless criticism.
People who are always resorting to the muh poor dev sob story are delusional of what’s happening right in front of them. Magnuson is a prime example of FS’ current way of handling things.
Ya. Fvck fatshark. That kind of delusional comments / interview is completely ridiculous.
So out of touch with their playerbase. Heck, even the CMs got nothing to report with the issues we have mentions.
There is honestly no hope. They gonna do whatever they want and puff their chest out thinking they are doing a good job.
90% of the player base and almost dropped of the top 100 within a month. Such a good job you doing TinyTuna. Such a good job.
Machine translation:
Fatshark invests long-term with “Darktide” “It should feel like a live game, where it’s exciting to jump in every time because you never know what’s going to happen,” says Fatshark’s Victor Magnuson.
Swedish developer Fatshark’s latest game “Warhammer: Darktide” has just been released. But the creators are far from finished - and expect to continue adding new content. - It’s a game that just grows and grows, says design manager Victor Magnuson.
“Warhammer 40,000” is a dystopian board game with war, mutants and aliens. The extensive universe painted is the basis of the action game “Warhammer 40,000: Darktide”, which was released for PC at the end of November. The board game has a large and dedicated audience.
- We have always intended to make the game in a way so that not only people who know about it will be interested, says Victor Magnuson at Fatshark.
Demanding collaboration
Like its predecessors, however, cooperation is still the focus when you together with three others shoot monsters en masse. One of the secrets of a so-called co-op shooter is not to offer any shortcuts when it comes to cooperation.
– It’s a legacy we got from (zombie game) “Left for dead”. There are probably a lot of people who don’t really get it when they make a similar game. You have to let the game require you to cooperate. There must be scenarios where you can’t handle yourself, he says
and continues:
- Then there are a hell of a lot of other things that are difficult, such as that there are just enough and complicated enemies for four people to be able to stand next to each other and keep busy, and that it feels like everyone contributes to your survival.
Some childhood diseases
When the game was released, there were some childhood problems, among other things, some have been affected by the game crashing. The creators explain some concerns that it is difficult to develop for PC, where there are a lot of hardware combinations to take into account. A bug that affects half a percent of users may never be detected in the test environment, while it becomes abundantly clear when hundreds of thousands are running the game.
- It’s terrible that some people have to suffer from it, but I don’t know how it would have been solved before, says Victor Magnuson.
“It’s going to be so much fun”
Much has already been fixed through updates, so-called patches. Magnuson highlights that the servers held up to the pressure, something that online games often initially have problems with, and also says that he is satisfied with the response that “Darktide” has received.
The title has also become one of the 2022 blockbusters on the Steam distribution platform.
Fatshark has used the lessons learned from the previous games to build “Darktide” from the ground up with the plan to grow the game. It should be easy to add new courses, classes and other things. It is also possible to do things like turn off the lights on certain courses for all players, forcing them to drive only with flashlights.
– The cool thing about “Darktide” is that we’ve actually built it on so many fronts in a way that it’s possible to add so much exciting and fun stuff. It will be so much fun to develop this game, says Victor Magnuson.
I mean we have seen games pull themselves back from a bad release and darktide certainly could but its important for fatshark to throw the playerbase some incentives. Something to keep us playing.
Core game play isnt the problem, which is a massive bonus, the game is fun but the grind and progression need work, the endgame barely exists and if they want to charge for future operator slots they are just shooting themselves in the foot.
You guys had ONE course of option to save your reputation and it was as simple as being honest about what happened in development and why we received a literal fraction of the product we were advertised. This is genuinely despicable that fatshark would lie so blatantly knowing this game is in a disastrous state and is so universally panned. Fatshark, you are not receiving a dollar from me for the rest of your company’s existence. I don’t even care if you ‘fix’ this mess, this is facetious, dishonest, and shameful behavior. Your poor CMs are forced to do damage control and will have to be for years because of this mess you’ve put yourself in. VT2’s launch was a mess for it’s own reasons but this… this is just too much to forgive at this point. Between the genuine lying and the hyper-monetization this is a complete sham. We’re going to have premium cosmetic ‘seasons’ before we have the advertised features for the ‘full release.’
It’s one thing to have an atrocious launch. It’s an entirely different beast to then turn around and lie to a national news outlet and egregiously misrepresent literally everything going on with this release with willful abandon. I can’t possibly defend that and I am deeply disappointed in you as a company. You should genuinely be ashamed; THIS is the stuff that permanently destroys your reputation.
Call me very lucky but ive crashed in game maybe twice but when i quit the game it crashes. However my friend on his better and beefier rig was crashing 3 times a mission at one point which is ridiculous.
Com’on Fatshark, we went through this already
You give the consummers what they want, they give you money.
If it’s good, they are patient and full of good will.
Otherwise it’s the pitchforks 
PS: I didn’t personally buy this game for the RNG lottery on every action I take outside of a mission.
Always-Online Games as a Service™
Aka, release something unfinished and claim it’ll be awesome soon™.
It’s a disgusting business practice that only becomes more common.
There’s more puff in this piece than an entire factory of sugar puffs.
Are we sure this dude is from our dimension?
Because it sounds like he is talking from a time line/universe where the launch of this game was not horribly botched.
This interview is fascinating to read, further validating the view point that this developer doesn’t care about its players. At first, I was under the impression that perhaps there’s a communication issue via players and developers - maybe community managers aren’t doing a good job of relaying our feedback; hence why some things don’t get listened to, but after reading this; I now understand it’s not the community managers are doing a poor job of relaying information, no, it’s that this developer actually doesn’t like its own fans. The developers detest our guts. They see us as a nuisance. A germ to be abhorred. Indeed! What a shocking truth this interview has beholden me to! My senses are being over stimulated by this revelation of truth and despair! It’s all too delicious!
Let’s start, shall we?
Exhibit A:
“The creators explain some concerns that it is difficult to develop for PC, where there are a lot of hardware combinations to take into account. A bug that affects half a percent of users may never be detected in the test environment, while it becomes abundantly clear when hundreds of thousands are running the game.
…
but I don’t know how it would have been solved before”
The pre-order beta was handled poorly. This is a fact. You can’t argue this. I personally was having awful performance issues which lead to terrible experiences in-game. Fps drops were down to sub 40s then swinging back to 70 fps, sometimes it breaks 100 fps threshold then drops; it’s inconsistent. It was so bad I almost puked a couple of times. See:
The developer response to the performance?
They dedicated a blog to how to optimize PC settings - gee thanks, it’s not like I’ve been PC gaming for years and not know how to look into the config file within the game’s directory in order to tweak the game’s settings. Furthermore they would later release hardware specifications of what is required to run the game. The moment I saw that list I knew something wasn’t right. For Pete’s sake, Darktide requires hardware that most users don’t even have access to. As is clarified in steam’s survey: Steam Hardware & Software Survey
Later responses would downplay the issue or put the blame solely on the consumer.
They’ve received many a report about this and yet refused to delay the release. From Closed Beta to Pre-“Beta”. You should have delayed to address these issues.
Exhibit B:
"Fatshark invests long-term with Darktide
…
It should feel like a live game, where it’s exciting to jump in every time because you never know what’s going to happen”
Oh how easy one can misconstrue this statement. The implication here is focused mainly on the cash shop. They have no content to speak of, except for the cash shop. It’s the only “feature” that is fleshed out, semi-works, and has content in stock for it. Fatshark’s priorities is monetization. This is what live service entails to them. It’s not about delivering content within a timely manner for fans, which has new complete features that serve to enhance the player experience. Consider the following: Darktide didn’t even have a Christmas or New Year event; for a live service game, that’s hilarious. Usually these events are supposed to be prepared in advance, but you know what was prepared with loads of content: cash shop, baby!
Exhibit C:
“Like its predecessors, however, cooperation is still the focus when you together with three others shoot monsters en masse.
…
It’s a legacy we got from (zombie game) Left for dead. There are probably a lot of people who don’t really get it when they make a similar game. You have to let the game require you to cooperate.”
Why is this worth highlighting you ask, because the so called penances are a nice cherry on top to this statement. You’d assume this developer has breached a new undertaking in cooperation that no game has ever reached by the statement; but nay I say, for penances that serve to create an unwelcoming environment for players is not cooperation. Penances that force players to work in anti-team play-style is the antithesis of cooperative play. A weekly quest system that incentivizes people to play on lower difficulties thus ruining the fun of unskilled players is not cooperation. Then there’s the awkward coherency system which is exactly the opposite of fun.
Of course, can’t forget the balance between classes which hurts that whole cooperation design.
Exhibit D:
“Magnuson says that he is satisfied with the response that Darktide has received.”
Yes, having a player base as low as 8k players is satisfactory - not even a full month into release, mind:
Having a 59% overall steam score, which continues to drop, is satisfactory:
As I said in my opening paragraph. They don’t care about us. They made a profit from the simpletons who spent money on the cash shop as well as the sales from the game. That’s what they consider as a success. This is what he’s referring to as satisfactory. Not from us telling them this game is an unfun experience. Not from us exclaiming to them that Darktide is a downgrade to Vermintide. They don’t care about the poor reception this game has been receiving from the community. Darktide is a cynical product blatantly manufactured to reap you of your hard earned monies. They pushed for a holiday release for a reason. They ignored feedback for a reason. They implemented a cash shop on day one of the game’s release despite the technical issues that plagued the game, for a reason. They burned their Vermintide community for a freakin’ reason.
A most cynical, sinister, insidious reason that.
Exhibit E:
My favorite part:
“Fatshark has used the lessons learned from the previous games to build Darktide from the ground up with the plan to grow the game”
Oh really! Tell us more about the incomplete crafting, inability to select missions, inability to customize difficulty to one’s preference, lack of solo host, inability to outfit bots, no scoreboard, no optional game modes such as Chaos Waste, Fortunes of War, or Deeds - I can go on and on.
Conclusion:
Once again I am disappointed in video game journalism. From the embarrassing PC interview to this. Journalism is supposed to be asking the hard hitting questions. Putting these companies to scrutiny. Applying critical analysis processes to the information that a company releases. Instead, video game journalism has been turned into a farce. A marketing tool used to advertise rather than scrutinize. It’s this weakness of being afraid of losing access to pre-release versions in order to get an article out early for clicks. It’s this inherent flaw of being afraid to scrutinize for fear of someone losing their job. All of the above has turned video game journalism into a mockery of affairs.
As for Fatshark, remind yourself why Arrogance is a sin: it blinds you to the truth. Remember, overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.
I’ve heard this several times now, where did this rumor stem from? 
Just wanna know whether it is to be taken seriously in any form…
Dago said it all right here.
People can be very understanding if you own your mistakes and keep working. Heck, anyone who goes through my post history will find a gradual decrease in my willingness to see their side. If there had been big updates, full crafting at a minimum, on a regular basis, you’d see a happier community by far.
Instead sounds like they took a long post-launch vacation?
When you release something unfinished… the first thing on your agenda needs to be FIXING IT.
Classses in darktide dev blog
It’s been brought up by various people on the foeum. Nothing from the devs as far as I’ve seen.
What @scythid quoted is what Fatshark has said about the future classes, and that’s all there is to the quoted post - whether they will charge for new classes, similar to Vt2, or whether they won’t.
this is a disturbing statement, not because of the rest of the context. but that payday 3 could be another darktide
I don’t know if I can find more delusions in this interview or in the one with BL3 Ava’s Writer.