Former Sacred 3 developer apologizes for game, blames poorly-received changes on publisher

Sacred 3 didn't go over particularly well with fans of the franchise, primarily because it doesn't really seem like part of the franchise at all. While the first two games were fairly straight-up action-RPGs, Sacred 3 is more of a Gauntlet -style brawler, with linear hack-and-slash action for up to four players at once. That's not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but it's a real departure for the series; and for that, according to one of the developers who worked on the game, you can thank Deep Silver's marketing department.

Sascha Wagentrotz took to Steam earlier this month to apologize to Sacred fans who "didn't get the game they wanted to have." As a gesture of contrition, he offered up an unused Steam key for the game, but he also made an effort to defend the work of Keen Games, the developer of Sacred 3 and Wagentrotz' former employer.

"I've read a lot of hate against my former employer Keen Games, that they destroyed the franchise (on purpose)," he wrote in his initial post. "All I can say is, that you should not overestimate the power of a developer in a 'work for hire' constellation with a big publisher."

He said there's no "black or white answer" to the question of who was responsible for Sacred 3's design, but then went on to effectively provide one anyway. "The executive producer and creative producer were employed by Deep Silver and they did a good job. But they both had a boss too, the marketing department," he wrote. "The marketing department of Deep Silver was the only one with enough power to change the direction of the franchise."

He also claimed that he wasn't surprised by the "fan outrage," although it ultimately proved even worse than he expected. "Even with this anticipation, some things did hurt pretty hard," he wrote. "For me personally it was Totalbiscuit's WTF, RPS' Wot I Think and the Steam tags of the German Steam store (one tag is "Müll" which means garbage.)"

Wagentrotz drops other bits of information in the thread, including how some of the background combat systems aren't noticeable unless the game is played at the "hard" or "deity" difficulty levels—which the majority of players aren't going to do. The conversation has slowed down a bit but it's still ongoing, and even though it appears that Wagentrotz has dropped out, it still offers an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how Sacred 3 ended up the way it did. Read it in full on Steam .

Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

Latest in Action
The First Berserker: Khazan review - Blade Phantom
How to claim The First Berserker: Khazan pre-order bonus and deluxe edition DLC
gta 6 trailer
Publishers 'don't want to be anywhere near' Grand Theft Auto 6 when it launches: 'It's proving to be very stressful'
An image of a Helldiver from Helldivers 2 shooting at a red dragon from Dungeons & Dragons.
'Ok, so dragon builds are a thing now': galaxy-brained Helldivers 2 player incinerates a bile titan with a hover pack and a flamethrower
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Assassin's Creed Shadows immersive mode - Naoe holding a tanto in her hand as two guards fall to the ground behind her.
Assassin's Creed Shadows' first hotfix addresses stability issues and a photo mode crash
A plastic duck dressed like a circus weightlifter
The 5th highest-rated game on Steam in 2022 is back with a multiplayer sequel
Latest in News
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Otter AI Meeting Agent
As if your work meetings weren't already fun enough, now Otter has a new all-hearing AI agent that remembers everything anyone has said and can join in the discussion