A genuine question; a call to action

Hello, LiS Amino.

I’m pretty active in this fandom, both on this platform and others, and there’s a certain elephant in the room, and has been basically since the announcement and trailers for Double Exposure dropped, and even more since the release, reception and fallout of DE: what now?

Double Exposure divided the fandom, was recieved harshly by critics and the overall fandom, absolutely hated by select groups of the fandom, and reportedly undersold. In spite of it’s ending being obvious sequel bait, the small hope of a reunion with Chloe relegated to a hint of a clue in a ‘next time on’. Since then DeckNine have been mostly quiet and, short of rumours, all the news we have heard hasn’t been promising, necessarily. Layoffs, firings, inter-company drama, verified accusations of a rogue developer hiding racist imagery in an early build of the game. We know that late last year and early this year DeckNine we’re looking for player on the events of DE, and where to go for the future, and we also know that a game was being developed alongside DE, that some believe, given its development title ‘Hydra’ was a potential sequel.

But does any of this matter?

Seriously, does it? Square Enix, the copyright holder for Life is Strange are a fiscally irresponsible company; they have always made up for their shortcomings by selling IPs when the going gets tough, in an attempt to escape their debt and obscenely high operating costs and poor company decisions. Maybe DeckNine will be sold, maybe the IP will be sold and DeckNine will be turned into a mocap studio, or incorporated into a different western studio owned by SE. Maybe there’ll be more layoffs.

These next 1-2 years are essential for Life is Strange, both as a fandom, a community *and* a franchise. I’m going to suggest to you a worst case scenario; DeckNine goes under, any future projects are cancelled or indefinitely delayed, the series goes on ice forever, the canonical end is an unresolved, unpopular entry. You never find out what happens to Max and Chloe, to Alex, to Stephanie, to Safi.

This can be avoided, but it requires action.

Firstly, like, I get it. Protesting sucks, advocating for things sucks, it’s intimidating and can even feel a little embarrassing, but it could also be helpful, in some cases very helpful. Game franchises, game companies have been saved by public interest before, maybe no greater modern example than Telltale, who were bought out after going bankrupt and now still have projects, such as an extremely anticipated sequel to The Wolf Among Us.

So, that question I titled this post with is: do you think this fandom is ready for that?

If, a year from now, months from now, *whenever*, there is a leak or even a public statement or even a *hint* that the franchise could be put on ice, are you ready to fight for it, to campaign for the future of Life is Strange? Are you willing to participate in hashtags on Twitter, to go on Reddit and discuss it on r/lifeistrange and r/pricefield? Are you willing to email Square Enix and say that you want the franchise to continue? If Square let go of the IP are you ready to campaign for a new company to buy it?

Maybe this time in two years this post will be a bit of a joke; maybe a new game is being worked on, maybe it’s even close to being finished now, but maybe it’s not. We have more control than you’d think, games are made for an awaiting audience. The more visible, the more plentiful we are, the better our odds. This franchise is, to many, myself included, too beautiful to let go without a proper sendoff, and we can make sure it doesn’t by being active, by being communicative, by posting your theories online, by celebrating every anniversary, and yes, even interacting with DeckNine on social media.

We can keep this franchise alive, but we have to fight for that.