Word on the streets is that Sony will forego traditional CPU:s altogether and focus on an APU design instead, which could give them some form of back-comp with Cell but it seems unlikely.
?
Quite.
Instead of a Central Processor and a Graphics Processor, they might do a Graphics Processor for general purpose and a Graphics Processor for graphics purpose.
Since the Cell was specifically designed to do a couple of things that a GPU could do so the machine wouldn't need a GPU as good as the competition and still come out on top, there's a bit of logic to this.
More so for maximising the general performance of the design rather than providing backwards compatibility to an exotic CPU, but still.
Alright and in this next scene all the animals have AIDS.
VALVE, EPIC, GEARBOX
All three studios are banned from developing any Destiny or Comet conversions or adaptations.
...........Why? Why is this in there?
Maybe Bungie didn't like Gearbox's job with Halo PC, and Bungie holds a grudge forever?
I don't even know what to say about a contract item that stupid. On the one hand, Activision is plenty stupid enough to imagine some goofy, convoluted situation wherein that would be necessary. On the other, I can't imagine Bungie being dumb enough to want something like that.
Though on the third hand, Bungie did sign a long-term contract with the most crooked company in the industry where said crooks can blow the contract up if Bungie's next game isn't a runaway success. Did Bungie just not hire a legal team at all or what?
this whole 38 studios thing is kind of sad because they put out a game, and it was good! and it sold well! but oh well
Pretty much one of the primary problems with the entire game industry right now. The budgets are so wildly out of hand that "good sales" is simply not good enough; a game has to get stupidly high sales for publishers to be happy. It's phenomenal to me that a game can sell 2 million copies (around 120 million in dollars made) and that's considered mediocre by batshit-crazy publishers (that's an unrelated number to whatever 38 Studios sold; I have no idea how many copies of their last game sold).
Yet if the publishers would think with their brains for two seconds, they'd realize that being able to regularly make profit off of games that "only" sell one or two million copies but don't have massive budgets would actual be a way to make consistent money and grow the company gradually. You know, like the way companies are supposed to work, not this bullshit overnight "make a billion dollars off a franchise or it's a failure!" nonsense.
Ninja Snarl P on
0
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
They could always sell a separate "BC Add-On" plug-in processor attachment. It's highly unlikely, but Sony knows how to do it. They've done it with their laptops before.
HA!
Sony: "BC is so last gen. This gen, it's all about selling an add on to the PS4, called the PS2.5!"
VALVE, EPIC, GEARBOX
All three studios are banned from developing any Destiny or Comet conversions or adaptations.
...........Why? Why is this in there?
Maybe Bungie didn't like Gearbox's job with Halo PC, and Bungie holds a grudge forever?
I don't even know what to say about a contract item that stupid. On the one hand, Activision is plenty stupid enough to imagine some goofy, convoluted situation wherein that would be necessary. On the other, I can't imagine Bungie being dumb enough to want something like that.
Though on the third hand, Bungie did sign a long-term contract with the most crooked company in the industry where said crooks can blow the contract up if Bungie's next game isn't a runaway success. Did Bungie just not hire a legal team at all or what?
I'm sure they did. I'm sure they hired an EXCELLENT legal team with all the money they made on Halo. The thing is, we haven't seen what the competing offers from other companies were. They may have been even worse.
We also don't know what bungies reaction to this contract was. They may have seen it and thought it was an acceptable risk/reward situation.
0
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
edited May 2012
I have a hard time believing that Activision offered Bungie the best contract. A very hard time.
I think it's much more likely that Bungie didn't want to downgrade from what they had at Microsoft and were blinded by a moneyhat. Especially since Bungie wanted to leave Microsoft so they could "do their own thing" again... and jumped right into the arms of Activision, who now has them slated for a decade-long franchise run. That's some incredible free-willed spirit right there.
Personally, I wouldn't deal with Activision unless they paid in advance.
this whole 38 studios thing is kind of sad because they put out a game, and it was good! and it sold well! but oh well
Pretty much one of the primary problems with the entire game industry right now. The budgets are so wildly out of hand that "good sales" is simply not good enough; a game has to get stupidly high sales for publishers to be happy. It's phenomenal to me that a game can sell 2 million copies (around 120 million in dollars made) and that's considered mediocre by batshit-crazy publishers (that's an unrelated number to whatever 38 Studios sold; I have no idea how many copies of their last game sold).
Yet if the publishers would think with their brains for two seconds, they'd realize that being able to regularly make profit off of games that "only" sell one or two million copies but don't have massive budgets would actual be a way to make consistent money and grow the company gradually. You know, like the way companies are supposed to work, not this bullshit overnight "make a billion dollars off a franchise or it's a failure!" nonsense.
Atlus is a company I can think of that doesn't work that way. they only do small niche releases yet they seem to stay in business.
There's lots of companies that work with reasonable budgets. However, when you're a company with hundreds of millions already you're probably going to aim for high budget projects.
this whole 38 studios thing is kind of sad because they put out a game, and it was good! and it sold well! but oh well
Pretty much one of the primary problems with the entire game industry right now. The budgets are so wildly out of hand that "good sales" is simply not good enough; a game has to get stupidly high sales for publishers to be happy. It's phenomenal to me that a game can sell 2 million copies (around 120 million in dollars made) and that's considered mediocre by batshit-crazy publishers (that's an unrelated number to whatever 38 Studios sold; I have no idea how many copies of their last game sold).
Yet if the publishers would think with their brains for two seconds, they'd realize that being able to regularly make profit off of games that "only" sell one or two million copies but don't have massive budgets would actual be a way to make consistent money and grow the company gradually. You know, like the way companies are supposed to work, not this bullshit overnight "make a billion dollars off a franchise or it's a failure!" nonsense.
Gamasutra already noticed that, because publishers are increasingly putting out only OMG TEH HUEG games, most people are making less money.
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
0
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
The games they're making right now? They're HUGE Caroline! HUGE!
There's lots of companies that work with reasonable budgets. However, when you're a company with hundreds of millions already you're probably going to aim for high budget projects.
Yes. Thankfully there are companies like Atlus and Kalypso that have their own place in the market.
38 Studios' problem wasn't the game they just released anyway. It was the MMO and what appears to be bad money management.
this whole 38 studios thing is kind of sad because they put out a game, and it was good! and it sold well! but oh well
Pretty much one of the primary problems with the entire game industry right now. The budgets are so wildly out of hand that "good sales" is simply not good enough; a game has to get stupidly high sales for publishers to be happy. It's phenomenal to me that a game can sell 2 million copies (around 120 million in dollars made) and that's considered mediocre by batshit-crazy publishers (that's an unrelated number to whatever 38 Studios sold; I have no idea how many copies of their last game sold).
Yet if the publishers would think with their brains for two seconds, they'd realize that being able to regularly make profit off of games that "only" sell one or two million copies but don't have massive budgets would actual be a way to make consistent money and grow the company gradually. You know, like the way companies are supposed to work, not this bullshit overnight "make a billion dollars off a franchise or it's a failure!" nonsense.
Atlus is a company I can think of that doesn't work that way. they only do small niche releases yet they seem to stay in business.
That's because Atlus is content making money at all, as opposed to the WE NEED TO GET RICH OFF A SINGLE PRODUCT mentality dominating the industry. Again, I blame goddamn fucking investors in the stock market.
0
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
Personally, I wouldn't deal with Activision unless they paid in advance.
And had a very hands-off agreement in the game development process.
Do you have any idea how much clout you need to carry to make them agree to that? Approximately this much.
Well yeah, that's basically my point. Activision would never pay up front, just like they would never keep their useless hands off of a product.
I was basically saying, in a roundabout fashion, that I simply wouldn't work for Activision. The company is such trash that it's simply not worth the risk and the inevitable screwing-over you'll get.
Bungie would've been a lot better off developing on their own and just getting somebody like Microsoft or EA to publish for them. They'd still have to put with some bullshit, but at least the Activision reaper wouldn't be hanging over their head.
If there's any luck in the world, Relic will ditch THQ before that shit dies and, I dunno, join up with EA or someone.
Their games are always super profitable (Space Marine excluded) and fuck this gay earth if they go under before making Homeworld 3.
Super profitable relative to costs I would say. Which is the problem. When a few games broke sales records and started selling in the 10's and 20's of millions, every major freaking publisher set that as their goal as if it were the most natural thing in the world, that the only option is go big or go home, as stupid an idea as it is. "They're getting those numbers so why aren't we getting those numbers?"
Also, IIRC Company of Heroes didn't do so well either. But then a large part of that I always felt was simply overshooting its system specs. Given the cult following and hype build up surrounding it, I'd be surprised if CoH2 wasn't a really successful title.
subedii on
0
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
edited May 2012
I'm hoping this next console generation will help calm down publishers going hysterical for ridiculous sales targets. If every game on every system gets a DD counterpart, even if it's 6-12 months after the initial release of the physical version, and those games go for decent (used-competitive) prices as time goes by, then the "legs" that publishers whine about getting killed by used sales should come back in a big way. Even to somebody who isn't tech-savvy, having to choose between driving somewhere to get a beat-up used copy of an old game or paying 10-15 bucks to get the DD version without leaving home wouldn't be a hard choice.
Of course, that assumes the next generation of console online infrastructure won't have the stupid bullshit this one did.
If there's any luck in the world, Relic will ditch THQ before that shit dies and, I dunno, join up with EA or someone.
Their games are always super profitable (Space Marine excluded) and fuck this gay earth if they go under before making Homeworld 3.
Super profitable relative to costs I would say. Which is the problem. When a few games broke sales records and started selling in the 10's and 20's of millions, every major freaking publisher set that as their goal as if it were the most natural thing in the world, that the only option is go big or go home, as stupid an idea as it is. "They're getting those numbers so why aren't we getting those numbers?"
Also, IIRC Company of Heroes didn't do so well either. But then a large part of that I always felt was simply overshooting its system specs. Given the cult following and hype build up surrounding it, I'd be surprised if CoH2 wasn't a really successful title.
Even if its sales were low, well relatively low, they were good for an RTS, the game brought an awful lot of prestige to THQ. It's one of the highest rated games ever, on any platform in any genre. It's been more well received by critics than any Halo game. That has huge financial benefit in other areas, especially with investors and that side of things.
You know, ideally you make a game that sells a bajillion copies. And it's a bonus if the game is also good. But if your game doesn't sell well, you'd better make it be super fucking incredible. Because it will slowly sell forever, and raise the profile of the developer.
That's why we all know about Double Fine, despite their games all being atrociously bad sellers. They make good games. It all comes around.
I'm hoping this next console generation will help calm down publishers going hysterical for ridiculous sales targets. If every game on every system gets a DD counterpart, even if it's 6-12 months after the initial release of the physical version, and those games go for decent (used-competitive) prices as time goes by, then the "legs" that publishers whine about getting killed by used sales should come back in a big way. Even to somebody who isn't tech-savvy, having to choose between driving somewhere to get a beat-up used copy of an old game or paying 10-15 bucks to get the DD version without leaving home wouldn't be a hard choice.
Of course, that assumes the next generation of console online infrastructure won't have the stupid bullshit this one did.
Very much agree with this. Digital releases on consoles should be standardized next gen, with regular sales like XBLA has. More regular price-drops as well.
Hah, DD and 'regular price drops' that reflect actual market prices. Sure, that'll happen. Also, I hear all next gen consoles will provide free blowjobs.
I don't really need blowjobs, but I could really do without discs. Back when the PS3 was still hackable I put in a 750gb hard drive and copied all my discs to it, it was great. Now it's just like a giant memory card and barely has any data on it. I'd love to be able to buy DD games day-and-date of retail releases, even if I do have to pay $60 for them.
Hah, DD and 'regular price drops' that reflect actual market prices. Sure, that'll happen. Also, I hear all next gen consoles will provide free blowjobs.
I keep thinking "any minute now, the big three will notice that Steam is making money hands over fist with their pricing policy and institute more frequent sales and perma-price drops," but nope.
If there's any luck in the world, Relic will ditch THQ before that shit dies and, I dunno, join up with EA or someone.
Their games are always super profitable (Space Marine excluded) and fuck this gay earth if they go under before making Homeworld 3.
Super profitable relative to costs I would say. Which is the problem. When a few games broke sales records and started selling in the 10's and 20's of millions, every major freaking publisher set that as their goal as if it were the most natural thing in the world, that the only option is go big or go home, as stupid an idea as it is. "They're getting those numbers so why aren't we getting those numbers?"
Also, IIRC Company of Heroes didn't do so well either. But then a large part of that I always felt was simply overshooting its system specs. Given the cult following and hype build up surrounding it, I'd be surprised if CoH2 wasn't a really successful title.
Even if its sales were low, well relatively low, they were good for an RTS, the game brought an awful lot of prestige to THQ. It's one of the highest rated games ever, on any platform in any genre. It's been more well received by critics than any Halo game. That has huge financial benefit in other areas, especially with investors and that side of things.
You know, ideally you make a game that sells a bajillion copies. And it's a bonus if the game is also good. But if your game doesn't sell well, you'd better make it be super fucking incredible. Because it will slowly sell forever, and raise the profile of the developer.
That's why we all know about Double Fine, despite their games all being atrociously bad sellers. They make good games. It all comes around.
I love DoW2 to death, and feel bad about getting into it with a dead online community. I hope DoW3 sticks with that micro heavy, actiony unit focus.
Hah, DD and 'regular price drops' that reflect actual market prices. Sure, that'll happen. Also, I hear all next gen consoles will provide free blowjobs.
I keep thinking "any minute now, the big three will notice that Steam is making money hands over fist with their pricing policy and institute more frequent sales and perma-price drops," but nope.
PSN has had excellent sales regularly for the last year, both with and without Plus. It's Microsoft that's behind on this.
Hah, DD and 'regular price drops' that reflect actual market prices. Sure, that'll happen. Also, I hear all next gen consoles will provide free blowjobs.
I keep thinking "any minute now, the big three will notice that Steam is making money hands over fist with their pricing policy and institute more frequent sales and perma-price drops," but nope.
PSN has had excellent sales regularly for the last year, both with and without Plus. It's Microsoft that's behind on this.
Well, so has Microsoft. It's just that their downloadable retail games are waaaaaay behind the pricing curve.
Hah, DD and 'regular price drops' that reflect actual market prices. Sure, that'll happen. Also, I hear all next gen consoles will provide free blowjobs.
I keep thinking "any minute now, the big three will notice that Steam is making money hands over fist with their pricing policy and institute more frequent sales and perma-price drops," but nope.
PSN has had excellent sales regularly for the last year, both with and without Plus. It's Microsoft that's behind on this.
Well, so has Microsoft. It's just that their downloadable retail games are waaaaaay behind the pricing curve.
I don't think Nintendo's ever had a digital sale.
Nintendo had one Sega sale on December a few years ago (2010 I think). For some reason they never did another.
I singled PSN out because I see retail games dropping in price with more regularity there than on Live. We tend to get only 1-3 GoD price drops per month.
With rising cost every new generation it should be expected such absolute crashes of studio's will only happen more.
Look at this generation where one bad game sealed the fate of a likeable studio doomed it. Even when previous allied with a big partner.
But the thing is that the costs are rising because the publishers are jamming those costs through the roof. There are more people in game design than ever and the hardware gets cheaper and better every year, so why the hell are those costs so high? Because publishers think dumping a ton of cash on project means big, big sales.
I've spent less on games per year in the last couple of years, yet gotten more games in that time, than during the entire time I was using a PS2, with quality ranging from good-to-stellar. The big publishers with grandiose delusions are the ones crashing the game market, not the costs of actually making a game because it's easier now than ever to be able to get a group together to develop a cheap game around good concepts.
this whole 38 studios thing is kind of sad because they put out a game, and it was good! and it sold well! but oh well
Pretty much one of the primary problems with the entire game industry right now. The budgets are so wildly out of hand that "good sales" is simply not good enough; a game has to get stupidly high sales for publishers to be happy. It's phenomenal to me that a game can sell 2 million copies (around 120 million in dollars made) and that's considered mediocre by batshit-crazy publishers (that's an unrelated number to whatever 38 Studios sold; I have no idea how many copies of their last game sold).
Yet if the publishers would think with their brains for two seconds, they'd realize that being able to regularly make profit off of games that "only" sell one or two million copies but don't have massive budgets would actual be a way to make consistent money and grow the company gradually. You know, like the way companies are supposed to work, not this bullshit overnight "make a billion dollars off a franchise or it's a failure!" nonsense.
The interesting thing about Reckoning, though, is that the publisher was satisfied with its numbers. EA thought the game did pretty well for a new IP; nothing to jump up and down about, but they were ok with it. This was a case in which it was the development studio itself had unrealistic sales expectations for the game, not the publisher.
Want to find me on a gaming service? I'm SwashbucklerXX everywhere.
And, well, they had been pouring so much of their lifeblood into the MMO there wasn't enough left for lifesaving Blood Magicks.
Alright and in this next scene all the animals have AIDS.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
0
AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
I thought KoA was a pretty solid showing for a new IP, actually a really solid showing. If that was the only game they made then 38 Studios would be on cloud fucking nine.
God damn shame about what happened after.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
If there's any luck in the world, Relic will ditch THQ before that shit dies and, I dunno, join up with EA or someone.
Their games are always super profitable (Space Marine excluded) and fuck this gay earth if they go under before making Homeworld 3.
Super profitable relative to costs I would say. Which is the problem. When a few games broke sales records and started selling in the 10's and 20's of millions, every major freaking publisher set that as their goal as if it were the most natural thing in the world, that the only option is go big or go home, as stupid an idea as it is. "They're getting those numbers so why aren't we getting those numbers?"
Also, IIRC Company of Heroes didn't do so well either. But then a large part of that I always felt was simply overshooting its system specs. Given the cult following and hype build up surrounding it, I'd be surprised if CoH2 wasn't a really successful title.
Even if its sales were low, well relatively low, they were good for an RTS, the game brought an awful lot of prestige to THQ. It's one of the highest rated games ever, on any platform in any genre. It's been more well received by critics than any Halo game. That has huge financial benefit in other areas, especially with investors and that side of things.
You know, ideally you make a game that sells a bajillion copies. And it's a bonus if the game is also good. But if your game doesn't sell well, you'd better make it be super fucking incredible. Because it will slowly sell forever, and raise the profile of the developer.
That's why we all know about Double Fine, despite their games all being atrociously bad sellers. They make good games. It all comes around.
I love DoW2 to death, and feel bad about getting into it with a dead online community. I hope DoW3 sticks with that micro heavy, actiony unit focus.
I got into DoW2 as well, I think it was just a case of timing in my case but it really is the online RTS that first got me truly hooked.
Pretty sure they will stick with that focus, they're taking CoH and DoW in different directions (although they did say that they're re-introducing base building somewhat in DoW 3). It's not dead per-se (even played a few games last night), but it is fairly small now. I'm not sure but I think it's still bigger than CoH's.
Really there's a lot of reasons that its community has shrunk (personally, after 3 years of play I'm impressed people are still playing it consistently). Overall I'd say the reason is that DoW 2 suffers from being the middle child between DoW 1 and whatever DoW 3 is going to be. It was a massive experiment where Relic tried a lot of things that well... let's say they've probably learned a lot from. They've cracked away a lot at the game over the years (and credit to them for the massive support they've given it) and changed things massively. The whole gameplay dynamic, the multiplayer architecture shift from GFWL to Steamworks, the balance emphasis from 3v3 to 1v1. Each time they've had these big shifts to make the vision of what the actual game is supposed to be clearer, but of course this has all had a toll on the community.
The next game in the series is probably going to be a lot more focused with the understanding they have, so I'm hoping the community will stay stronger for longer (assuming people don't just stay with CoH 2 instead).
The big problem is THQ. With all the stuff happening around them, there's reason to be concerned as to how anything outside of CoH 2 is progressing, and whether it will get the chance to be released.
I just hope that if THQ does fold, Relic manages to find another publisher that has given them the kind of leeway with franchise support that THQ did.
I know im late to this party, but why is THQ having trouble? They had Saints Row, Company of Heroes, Darksiders, and Red Faction. Is this all cause of the uDraw, or did RF Armageddon and Space Marine really tank?
Posts
Quite.
Instead of a Central Processor and a Graphics Processor, they might do a Graphics Processor for general purpose and a Graphics Processor for graphics purpose.
Since the Cell was specifically designed to do a couple of things that a GPU could do so the machine wouldn't need a GPU as good as the competition and still come out on top, there's a bit of logic to this.
More so for maximising the general performance of the design rather than providing backwards compatibility to an exotic CPU, but still.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
Maybe Bungie didn't like Gearbox's job with Halo PC, and Bungie holds a grudge forever?
I don't even know what to say about a contract item that stupid. On the one hand, Activision is plenty stupid enough to imagine some goofy, convoluted situation wherein that would be necessary. On the other, I can't imagine Bungie being dumb enough to want something like that.
Though on the third hand, Bungie did sign a long-term contract with the most crooked company in the industry where said crooks can blow the contract up if Bungie's next game isn't a runaway success. Did Bungie just not hire a legal team at all or what?
They should have made some more weird requests.
"We demand that ever Friday be Pizza Friday!"
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Pretty much one of the primary problems with the entire game industry right now. The budgets are so wildly out of hand that "good sales" is simply not good enough; a game has to get stupidly high sales for publishers to be happy. It's phenomenal to me that a game can sell 2 million copies (around 120 million in dollars made) and that's considered mediocre by batshit-crazy publishers (that's an unrelated number to whatever 38 Studios sold; I have no idea how many copies of their last game sold).
Yet if the publishers would think with their brains for two seconds, they'd realize that being able to regularly make profit off of games that "only" sell one or two million copies but don't have massive budgets would actual be a way to make consistent money and grow the company gradually. You know, like the way companies are supposed to work, not this bullshit overnight "make a billion dollars off a franchise or it's a failure!" nonsense.
HA!
Sony: "BC is so last gen. This gen, it's all about selling an add on to the PS4, called the PS2.5!"
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
We also don't know what bungies reaction to this contract was. They may have seen it and thought it was an acceptable risk/reward situation.
I think it's much more likely that Bungie didn't want to downgrade from what they had at Microsoft and were blinded by a moneyhat. Especially since Bungie wanted to leave Microsoft so they could "do their own thing" again... and jumped right into the arms of Activision, who now has them slated for a decade-long franchise run. That's some incredible free-willed spirit right there.
Personally, I wouldn't deal with Activision unless they paid in advance.
And had a very hands-off agreement in the game development process.
Atlus is a company I can think of that doesn't work that way. they only do small niche releases yet they seem to stay in business.
Twitter
Gamasutra already noticed that, because publishers are increasingly putting out only OMG TEH HUEG games, most people are making less money.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
Yes. Thankfully there are companies like Atlus and Kalypso that have their own place in the market.
38 Studios' problem wasn't the game they just released anyway. It was the MMO and what appears to be bad money management.
Their games are always super profitable (Space Marine excluded) and fuck this gay earth if they go under before making Homeworld 3.
Do you have any idea how much clout you need to carry to make them agree to that? Approximately this much.
That's because Atlus is content making money at all, as opposed to the WE NEED TO GET RICH OFF A SINGLE PRODUCT mentality dominating the industry. Again, I blame goddamn fucking investors in the stock market.
Well yeah, that's basically my point. Activision would never pay up front, just like they would never keep their useless hands off of a product.
I was basically saying, in a roundabout fashion, that I simply wouldn't work for Activision. The company is such trash that it's simply not worth the risk and the inevitable screwing-over you'll get.
Bungie would've been a lot better off developing on their own and just getting somebody like Microsoft or EA to publish for them. They'd still have to put with some bullshit, but at least the Activision reaper wouldn't be hanging over their head.
Super profitable relative to costs I would say. Which is the problem. When a few games broke sales records and started selling in the 10's and 20's of millions, every major freaking publisher set that as their goal as if it were the most natural thing in the world, that the only option is go big or go home, as stupid an idea as it is. "They're getting those numbers so why aren't we getting those numbers?"
Also, IIRC Company of Heroes didn't do so well either. But then a large part of that I always felt was simply overshooting its system specs. Given the cult following and hype build up surrounding it, I'd be surprised if CoH2 wasn't a really successful title.
Of course, that assumes the next generation of console online infrastructure won't have the stupid bullshit this one did.
Even if its sales were low, well relatively low, they were good for an RTS, the game brought an awful lot of prestige to THQ. It's one of the highest rated games ever, on any platform in any genre. It's been more well received by critics than any Halo game. That has huge financial benefit in other areas, especially with investors and that side of things.
You know, ideally you make a game that sells a bajillion copies. And it's a bonus if the game is also good. But if your game doesn't sell well, you'd better make it be super fucking incredible. Because it will slowly sell forever, and raise the profile of the developer.
That's why we all know about Double Fine, despite their games all being atrociously bad sellers. They make good games. It all comes around.
Very much agree with this. Digital releases on consoles should be standardized next gen, with regular sales like XBLA has. More regular price-drops as well.
Twitter
How well did TERA sell, on a completely unrelated note?
I keep thinking "any minute now, the big three will notice that Steam is making money hands over fist with their pricing policy and institute more frequent sales and perma-price drops," but nope.
I love DoW2 to death, and feel bad about getting into it with a dead online community. I hope DoW3 sticks with that micro heavy, actiony unit focus.
PSN has had excellent sales regularly for the last year, both with and without Plus. It's Microsoft that's behind on this.
Twitter
Well, so has Microsoft. It's just that their downloadable retail games are waaaaaay behind the pricing curve.
I don't think Nintendo's ever had a digital sale.
Nintendo had one Sega sale on December a few years ago (2010 I think). For some reason they never did another.
I singled PSN out because I see retail games dropping in price with more regularity there than on Live. We tend to get only 1-3 GoD price drops per month.
Twitter
Look at this generation where one bad game sealed the fate of a likeable studio doomed it. Even when previous allied with a big partner.
But the thing is that the costs are rising because the publishers are jamming those costs through the roof. There are more people in game design than ever and the hardware gets cheaper and better every year, so why the hell are those costs so high? Because publishers think dumping a ton of cash on project means big, big sales.
I've spent less on games per year in the last couple of years, yet gotten more games in that time, than during the entire time I was using a PS2, with quality ranging from good-to-stellar. The big publishers with grandiose delusions are the ones crashing the game market, not the costs of actually making a game because it's easier now than ever to be able to get a group together to develop a cheap game around good concepts.
The interesting thing about Reckoning, though, is that the publisher was satisfied with its numbers. EA thought the game did pretty well for a new IP; nothing to jump up and down about, but they were ok with it. This was a case in which it was the development studio itself had unrealistic sales expectations for the game, not the publisher.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
God damn shame about what happened after.
I got into DoW2 as well, I think it was just a case of timing in my case but it really is the online RTS that first got me truly hooked.
Pretty sure they will stick with that focus, they're taking CoH and DoW in different directions (although they did say that they're re-introducing base building somewhat in DoW 3). It's not dead per-se (even played a few games last night), but it is fairly small now. I'm not sure but I think it's still bigger than CoH's.
Really there's a lot of reasons that its community has shrunk (personally, after 3 years of play I'm impressed people are still playing it consistently). Overall I'd say the reason is that DoW 2 suffers from being the middle child between DoW 1 and whatever DoW 3 is going to be. It was a massive experiment where Relic tried a lot of things that well... let's say they've probably learned a lot from. They've cracked away a lot at the game over the years (and credit to them for the massive support they've given it) and changed things massively. The whole gameplay dynamic, the multiplayer architecture shift from GFWL to Steamworks, the balance emphasis from 3v3 to 1v1. Each time they've had these big shifts to make the vision of what the actual game is supposed to be clearer, but of course this has all had a toll on the community.
The next game in the series is probably going to be a lot more focused with the understanding they have, so I'm hoping the community will stay stronger for longer (assuming people don't just stay with CoH 2 instead).
The big problem is THQ. With all the stuff happening around them, there's reason to be concerned as to how anything outside of CoH 2 is progressing, and whether it will get the chance to be released.
I just hope that if THQ does fold, Relic manages to find another publisher that has given them the kind of leeway with franchise support that THQ did.