I wonder how much of WoW's success has to do with landing in an era of video games where playing video games is seen as acceptable.
I think WoW's success was half timing and half design. Everquest was getting old, so I think that crowd was ready for a new MMO. And nothing else was really out at the time (Star Wars Galaxies came a bit after WoW, but it was kind of a mess). And WoW was, in general, designed to be pretty user-friendly when such a thing didn't exist in current MMOs. That sucked a lot of new players into the genre, which in turn ballooned their sales tremendously.
It probably also helped that Everquest 2 was crap :P
WoW was released November 23, 2004 in NA and a few months later in Europe. FFXI was released October 28, 2003 in NA and September 17, 2004 in Europe. It had both time to establish and grow itself in NA and to compete on equal footing in Europe. It managed to sell decently.
For the April–September 2004 financial period, Square Enix saw online gaming, particularly Final Fantasy XI, sales increase by 101 percent and operating profit increase by 230.9 percent.[79] Revenues held steady from subscription services in the summer of 2006; in the fall, however, Square acknowledged that online subscription revenues were "unsatisfactory", despite the steady performance of Final Fantasy XI.[80][81]
In December 2003, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada announced that there were over 200,000 subscribers to Final Fantasy XI, allowing the company to break even and start making a profit.[82] There were between 200,000 and 300,000 active players daily in 2006.[83] As of August 14, 2006 the Xbox 360 version was the sixth most played game on Xbox Live.[84]
Being extremely newbie unfriendly didn't exactly help.
Meanwhile, EVE Online has over 300k players and was first released in May 2003.
I wonder how much of WoW's success has to do with landing in an era of video games where playing video games is seen as something people who are obsessed and willing to pay to spend hours on end doing work.
Fixed
The Sims broke that door down long before WoW ever existed.
Nah. The Sims proved people love playing with virtual dolls and torturing said dolls.
I wonder how much of WoW's success has to do with landing in an era of video games where playing video games is seen as something people who are obsessed and willing to pay to spend hours on end doing work.
Fixed
The Sims broke that door down long before WoW ever existed.
Nah. The Sims proved people love playing with virtual dolls and torturing said dolls.
You didn't take phone calls from people on the verge of tears because their saves were corrupted. This shit was work, son.
A price of 250 dollars isn't an unreasonable guess.
Launch price of the Wii, in US dollars: $249.99
Launch price of the Wii, in yen: ¥25,000
Launch price of the 3DS, in yen: ¥25,000
That addresses the question I asked earlier. That makes me feel better.
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
edited October 2010
I still think the 3DS will be $250 in the US.
Nintendo very well could ship it at $300 and do just fine if only because they have no serious competition, and I'd eat my own cock if Sony busted out the PSP2 all of a sudden and undercut the price of the 3DS, I just don't think they'll go that high.
Airtight made those Crimson Skies games. Shit. All they had to do was reskin the damn things and they'd have another hit.
I just finished it the other day (got it for NZ$20 a few weeks back) and I'd say it failed because it was a really mediocre, unpolished game. How it got to that stage, I don't know. Like you implied, the people at Airtight games have pretty damn good resumes. But what I'm guessing happened is that they were too ambitious (trying to be Uncharted + Crimson Skies) and just didn't have much direction. Hence why the story jumps all over the place, the jetpack-less levels are crap and even the flying missions are pretty dull.
I'm not sure if FFX-2 is a counter to that argument. I've never seen people who were middle of the road with that game; they either fucking love it or fucking hate it.
Edit - What I'm saying is UV may or may not be fabulous.
That's because most of the people that hate it are all pissed there's no angsty melodramatic story. It's just a light hearted, fun game that's surprisingly non-linear.
The Idle Thumbs guys had a great discussion on this, talking about surprise reward or unexpected acknowledgement being way better than just having a list of things to do presented to you up front (there's talk of studies done to support this as well). It all made sense. If achievements were hidden things and actually special & unique, nobody would complain. The current implementation of them in the industry is total shit. Regardless, some people like shit.
You realise developers can already do that, right? They can create hidden trophies/achievements on both the 360 and PS3. But there's absolutely no point in doing so, not when anyone can find the full list after a 2 second google search. And how exactly would Microsoft/Sony police that system anyway? Going through each game and approving them one at a time? That idea is completely unrealistic.
A far better idea is just to give achievements/trophies an actual purpose. Put items (like dynamic themes on the PS3 or avatar items on the 360) up on the respective stores that people can buy using x amount of trophies/achievement points. That's the one thing I like about Ubisoft's uPlay system.
A price of 250 dollars isn't an unreasonable guess.
Launch price of the Wii, in US dollars: $249.99
Launch price of the Wii, in yen: ¥25,000
Launch price of the 3DS, in yen: ¥25,000
That addresses the question I asked earlier. That makes me feel better.
This is misleading. The Wii in America had Wii Sports packed in while in Japan it was just the Wii by itself. ¥25,000 back then converted to like $210 whereas now it's $300. Nintendo can't afford to price it at $300 in America though, $250's the upper limit (and that's only because the PSPGo exists, I'd say $200 was the upper limit if that was never released) but since they've implied they've inflated the cost due to demand, I doubt they'll be losing money at that price.
A price of 250 dollars isn't an unreasonable guess.
Launch price of the Wii, in US dollars: $249.99
Launch price of the Wii, in yen: ¥25,000
Launch price of the 3DS, in yen: ¥25,000
That addresses the question I asked earlier. That makes me feel better.
This is misleading. The Wii in America had Wii Sports packed in while in Japan it was just the Wii by itself. ¥25,000 back then converted to like $210 whereas now it's $300. Nintendo can't afford to price it at $300 in America though, $250's the upper limit (and that's only because the PSPGo exists, I'd say $200 was the upper limit if that was never released) but since they've implied they've inflated the cost due to demand, I doubt they'll be losing money at that price.
Just want to mention again that their most recent system, the DSi XL right now is ¥18,000 but $170USD. $300USD for ¥25,000 is never going to happen
A price of 250 dollars isn't an unreasonable guess.
Launch price of the Wii, in US dollars: $249.99
Launch price of the Wii, in yen: ¥25,000
Launch price of the 3DS, in yen: ¥25,000
That addresses the question I asked earlier. That makes me feel better.
This is misleading. The Wii in America had Wii Sports packed in while in Japan it was just the Wii by itself. ¥25,000 back then converted to like $210 whereas now it's $300. Nintendo can't afford to price it at $300 in America though, $250's the upper limit (and that's only because the PSPGo exists, I'd say $200 was the upper limit if that was never released) but since they've implied they've inflated the cost due to demand, I doubt they'll be losing money at that price.
Just want to mention again that their most recent system, the DSi XL right now is ¥18,000 but $170USD. $300USD for ¥25,000 is never going to happen
I'm a little worried for the UK, myself. When the Wii launched, it was £180 here vs $250. Under the current exchange rate (and with our whopping 17.5% sales tax added) $250 does indeed roughly equal £180. But back then the $:£ ratio was 2:1 - now it's 1:1.6. The DSi XL also launched at £160, and if it was $170 in the US we can expect to see a £240-250 pricepoint for the 3DS. That makes me a little queasy, and could seriously damage the console's early success here - especially since a very large proportion of DS owners here exclusively play 'casual' games and have little interest in the 3D.
This is misleading. The Wii in America had Wii Sports packed in while in Japan it was just the Wii by itself. ¥25,000 back then converted to like $210 whereas now it's $300. Nintendo can't afford to price it at $300 in America though, $250's the upper limit (and that's only because the PSPGo exists, I'd say $200 was the upper limit if that was never released) but since they've implied they've inflated the cost due to demand, I doubt they'll be losing money at that price.
If they've got their fingers on the pulse enough to inflate the price due to demand, then they could just as easily deflate the price due to the widespread backlash (along with every english site and forum hoping and begging for $250).
Which was probably part of the goal all along. If they had just announced $250USD at the same time as the Japanese price, people would be complaining about the price, but if they announce it now, there'll still be gripping, but a lot of people will be relieved it's not $300
A price of 250 dollars isn't an unreasonable guess.
Launch price of the Wii, in US dollars: $249.99
Launch price of the Wii, in yen: ¥25,000
Launch price of the 3DS, in yen: ¥25,000
That addresses the question I asked earlier. That makes me feel better.
This is misleading. The Wii in America had Wii Sports packed in while in Japan it was just the Wii by itself. ¥25,000 back then converted to like $210 whereas now it's $300. Nintendo can't afford to price it at $300 in America though, $250's the upper limit (and that's only because the PSPGo exists, I'd say $200 was the upper limit if that was never released) but since they've implied they've inflated the cost due to demand, I doubt they'll be losing money at that price.
Just want to mention again that their most recent system, the DSi XL right now is ¥18,000 but $170USD. $300USD for ¥25,000 is never going to happen
I'm a little worried for the UK, myself. When the Wii launched, it was £180 here vs $250. Under the current exchange rate (and with our whopping 17.5% sales tax added) $250 does indeed roughly equal £180. But back then the $:£ ratio was 2:1 - now it's 1:1.6. The DSi XL also launched at £160, and if it was $170 in the US we can expect to see a £240-250 pricepoint for the 3DS. That makes me a little queasy, and could seriously damage the console's early success here - especially since a very large proportion of DS owners here exclusively play 'casual' games and have little interest in the 3D.
Bad news, sales tax will be 20% by the time its released
I think WoW's success was half timing and half design. Everquest was getting old, so I think that crowd was ready for a new MMO. And nothing else was really out at the time (Star Wars Galaxies came a bit after WoW, but it was kind of a mess). And WoW was, in general, designed to be pretty user-friendly when such a thing didn't exist in current MMOs. That sucked a lot of new players into the genre, which in turn ballooned their sales tremendously.
I think Dark Age Of Camelot must get a lot of credit for this. They had a lot of innovations like quest items dropping for all etc. But WoW was a far better all rounder.
I think WoW's success was half timing and half design. Everquest was getting old, so I think that crowd was ready for a new MMO. And nothing else was really out at the time (Star Wars Galaxies came a bit after WoW, but it was kind of a mess). And WoW was, in general, designed to be pretty user-friendly when such a thing didn't exist in current MMOs. That sucked a lot of new players into the genre, which in turn ballooned their sales tremendously.
I think Dark Age Of Camelot must get a lot of credit for this. They had a lot of innovations like quest items dropping for all etc. But WoW was a far better all rounder.
Not to mention all the PvP innovations it made. People forget about DAOC, which is too bad. It was a good step between EQ1 and WoW, and definitely helped pave the way for its successors.
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Well it's a good thing making a sequel to Alpha Protocol isn't financially justifiable but exploiting Sonic's back catalog is.
Considering how absolutely awesome AP was, yes, yes this is a bad thing
fixed
But seriously, as stated by an ex employee the Alpha Protocol IP lies by Obsidian. So, SEGA was talking out of their asses. Naturally it will still be hard to get another publisher for such a project but its still on Obsidians side.
Though, they already stated that they are working on a "spirituel successor" so there probably isn't any AP sequel planned for the near future
For years now, Electronic Arts and Steven Spielberg were supposed to have been working on a project called "LMNO" (pronounced "elemental"). We'd long thought it was dead. Now EA has finally confirmed it.
Jake Kazdal, a former EA developer who worked on the game, told the 8-4 podcast "I don't know exactly what was the thing that made it fall apart. I'm sure anybody you ask is gonna tell you something a little bit different, but it didn't end up ever taking off."
"There was some rival game stuff that may or may not have come out of EA that was basically the same thing minus some of the stuff we were doing. There was just a lot of politics."
Electronic Arts then confirmed the game's shutdown to Joystiq, though stressed that the mega-publisher "maintains its relationship with Steven Spielberg".
Spielberg Wii games: 1
Spielberg 360/PS3 games: 0
I had forgotten about that.
Me too. And I'm a little amazed that EA let something with Spielberg's name on it get canned due (possibly) to internal politics, especially after Boom Blox did pretty well.
We thought Dr. Deepak Chopra had done it all, bringing his brand of spirituality and wellness to the world with a shelf-full of best-selling books, and in newspapers, magazines, and on TV. Turns out we were wrong. Dr. Chopra doesn't have a videogame -- and that's an unacceptable problem THQ plans to remedy.
THQ, Chopra, and Curious Pictures announced today a multi-year licensing agreement that gives THQ the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and publish videogames based on the teachings of Dr. Chopra.
"We look forward to translating Dr. Chopra's teachings and practices into a video game that provides gamers with a truly unique and rewarding experience," said Martin Good, executive VP at THQ Kids, Family, Casual Games, and Global Online Services. "THQ continues to expand its casual games portfolio and has grand plans to invigorate the lifestyle category with this game."
Exactly how THQ plans to translate Chopra's message of expelling negative emotions and connecting the mind, body, and spirit remains to be seen -- but the publisher will do so on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii.
"We are excited to take the Deepak Chopra properties to innovative platforms that appeal to a mass market audience," said Curious Pictures Exec Producer Lewis Kofsky. "We are confident THQ will introduce and bring his work to life in ways that will engage his followers and gamers alike in a whole new way."
On the topic of MMOs, it seems like the #1 recipe for success with MMORPGs right now is "being old". The older you are, the more forgiving people were with your bullshit back in the age of slim pickings, the more time you've had to polish your formerly bullshit shit, the harder it is for newer MMORPGs to compete with your five or more years of content and polish, etc etc
Well it's a good thing making a sequel to Alpha Protocol isn't financially justifiable but exploiting Sonic's back catalog is.
Considering how absolutely awesome AP was, yes, yes this is a bad thing
fixed
But seriously, as stated by an ex employee the Alpha Protocol IP lies by Obsidian. So, SEGA was talking out of their asses. Naturally it will still be hard to get another publisher for such a project but its still on Obsidians side.
Though, they already stated that they are working on a "spirituel successor" so there probably isn't any AP sequel planned for the near future
That ex employee is either completely wrong or referring to something else (like Obsidian retaining all the games assets) because this is stated quite openly on the official website:
- removal of monthly hardware unit sales figures
- a shift in the Top 10 software from sku level with unit sales for the Top 5, to Top 10 software at the title level with no unit sales
Whee. Now the console makers have plenty of room to thump their chests even if their hardware is a big floperoo.
GAF's making a good point... this means that people will have no choice but to turn to VG Chartzzz and their made-up numbers.
Edit: I'm guessing this move was made because of pressure from the big three. Especially since in the same move we're going from SKU-specific to all-format figures.
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
That ex employee is either completely wrong or referring to something else (like Obsidian retaining all the games assets) because this is stated quite openly on the official website:
Owner (REGISTRANT) Kabushiki Kaisha Sega DBA Sega Corporation CORPORATION JAPAN 1-2-12 Haneda, Ohta-Ku Tokyo JAPAN 144-8521
As Unco said it doesn't mean they can't release a sequel under a different name, but there won't be Alpha Protocol 2 sitting on the shelves unless Sega OKs it.
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WoW was released November 23, 2004 in NA and a few months later in Europe. FFXI was released October 28, 2003 in NA and September 17, 2004 in Europe. It had both time to establish and grow itself in NA and to compete on equal footing in Europe. It managed to sell decently.
Being extremely newbie unfriendly didn't exactly help.
Meanwhile, EVE Online has over 300k players and was first released in May 2003.
Nah. The Sims proved people love playing with virtual dolls and torturing said dolls.
Launch price of the Wii, in US dollars: $249.99
Launch price of the Wii, in yen: ¥25,000
Launch price of the 3DS, in yen: ¥25,000
You didn't take phone calls from people on the verge of tears because their saves were corrupted. This shit was work, son.
That addresses the question I asked earlier. That makes me feel better.
Nintendo very well could ship it at $300 and do just fine if only because they have no serious competition, and I'd eat my own cock if Sony busted out the PSP2 all of a sudden and undercut the price of the 3DS, I just don't think they'll go that high.
I just finished it the other day (got it for NZ$20 a few weeks back) and I'd say it failed because it was a really mediocre, unpolished game. How it got to that stage, I don't know. Like you implied, the people at Airtight games have pretty damn good resumes. But what I'm guessing happened is that they were too ambitious (trying to be Uncharted + Crimson Skies) and just didn't have much direction. Hence why the story jumps all over the place, the jetpack-less levels are crap and even the flying missions are pretty dull.
That's because most of the people that hate it are all pissed there's no angsty melodramatic story. It's just a light hearted, fun game that's surprisingly non-linear.
You realise developers can already do that, right? They can create hidden trophies/achievements on both the 360 and PS3. But there's absolutely no point in doing so, not when anyone can find the full list after a 2 second google search. And how exactly would Microsoft/Sony police that system anyway? Going through each game and approving them one at a time? That idea is completely unrealistic.
A far better idea is just to give achievements/trophies an actual purpose. Put items (like dynamic themes on the PS3 or avatar items on the 360) up on the respective stores that people can buy using x amount of trophies/achievement points. That's the one thing I like about Ubisoft's uPlay system.
This is misleading. The Wii in America had Wii Sports packed in while in Japan it was just the Wii by itself. ¥25,000 back then converted to like $210 whereas now it's $300. Nintendo can't afford to price it at $300 in America though, $250's the upper limit (and that's only because the PSPGo exists, I'd say $200 was the upper limit if that was never released) but since they've implied they've inflated the cost due to demand, I doubt they'll be losing money at that price.
Just want to mention again that their most recent system, the DSi XL right now is ¥18,000 but $170USD. $300USD for ¥25,000 is never going to happen
I'm a little worried for the UK, myself. When the Wii launched, it was £180 here vs $250. Under the current exchange rate (and with our whopping 17.5% sales tax added) $250 does indeed roughly equal £180. But back then the $:£ ratio was 2:1 - now it's 1:1.6. The DSi XL also launched at £160, and if it was $170 in the US we can expect to see a £240-250 pricepoint for the 3DS. That makes me a little queasy, and could seriously damage the console's early success here - especially since a very large proportion of DS owners here exclusively play 'casual' games and have little interest in the 3D.
If they've got their fingers on the pulse enough to inflate the price due to demand, then they could just as easily deflate the price due to the widespread backlash (along with every english site and forum hoping and begging for $250).
Bad news, sales tax will be 20% by the time its released
I think Dark Age Of Camelot must get a lot of credit for this. They had a lot of innovations like quest items dropping for all etc. But WoW was a far better all rounder.
Not to mention all the PvP innovations it made. People forget about DAOC, which is too bad. It was a good step between EQ1 and WoW, and definitely helped pave the way for its successors.
fixed
But seriously, as stated by an ex employee the Alpha Protocol IP lies by Obsidian. So, SEGA was talking out of their asses. Naturally it will still be hard to get another publisher for such a project but its still on Obsidians side.
Though, they already stated that they are working on a "spirituel successor" so there probably isn't any AP sequel planned for the near future
Me too. And I'm a little amazed that EA let something with Spielberg's name on it get canned due (possibly) to internal politics, especially after Boom Blox did pretty well.
Yeah, I can agree that the series helped awaken the casual audience.
http://www.gamespy.com/articles/112/1127346p1.html
So many publishers are full of stupid this month.
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That ex employee is either completely wrong or referring to something else (like Obsidian retaining all the games assets) because this is stated quite openly on the official website:
That doesn't stop them from making the rumoured spiritual sequel though.
According to GAF, NPD has said they will no longer release monthly numbers.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=409972
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...
FKDSUI adgufevnrehjkjwretbhjrev4wjkahjklfjbgkn
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Looks like cloudeagle was premature about the 'What the HELL' of the day, then.
...
... Fuck you, NPD.
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As if this thread couldn't be sustained by constant sniping over something.
Whee. Now the console makers have plenty of room to thump their chests even if their hardware is a big floperoo.
Goddammit.
I generally come here to find out the stuff that we normally don't make seperate threads for anyways.
Still, we may still get number leaks/gloating companies/and generally all the stuff we're used to anyways.
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Edit: I'm guessing this move was made because of pressure from the big three. Especially since in the same move we're going from SKU-specific to all-format figures.
VG Chartzzzz: "The Kinect sold a million kajillion units!"
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No he pretty clearly referred to the IP
Not to mention he was backed as a ex developer shortly after that by J.E Sawyer who holds a fairly high position in the company.
So if anything didn't massivly change from the time he left to when it came out. Well..
At the moment its probably too unclear to say anything.
Owner (REGISTRANT) Kabushiki Kaisha Sega DBA Sega Corporation CORPORATION JAPAN 1-2-12 Haneda, Ohta-Ku Tokyo JAPAN 144-8521
As Unco said it doesn't mean they can't release a sequel under a different name, but there won't be Alpha Protocol 2 sitting on the shelves unless Sega OKs it.