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General: Overpromise & Under-Deliver
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In his latest column, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Bill Murphy refers readers to a recent article that indicates that July console game sales were down significantly from last year. What does that have to do with MMOs? You'll have to read Bill's article to find out. Read on and then let us know what you think when you're finished.
There’s also reason to believe that the industry will still see an up year when it ends in a few months, due to a reportedly big increase in digital sales. Note: this dip is mostly referring to physical sales. There’s no accounting for digital, DLC, mobile, and other sales just yet. Michael Pachter, renowned analyst of the industry from Wedbush Morgan said that while July is usually a dead month in general, “It's possible last year was a little stronger because of hardware because of the Xbox 360 clearance. What shocked me was Wii was down (25%) year over year and they cut the price. It just shocks me."
Read more of Bill Murphy's Overpromise & Under-Deliver.
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Comments
i think that swtor will be another fail, boring carebear themepark like the other.
the only good game that i see coming is "Infinity: the quest for earth". lets just hope that IA can pull that ambitoius game off!
when a game becomes big business its all just smoke and lollipops all of a sudden.
Look at Tera, Star Trek Online, Champions Online, Warhammer Online, DC Universe Online, Final Fantasy XIV, Vanguard, Age of Conan.
The rare few doing ok: Aion, Rift, Lotro.
SWtOR will be an interesting look. MMOs have the odds against them, but Bioware games tend to be better than the average video game (yeah even Dragon Age 2).
Lol... MMO hipster much?
@OP: The problem with MMO's under-delivering is that these MMO's cost so much to make, and -generally speaking- dumb management tends to shove these games out the door before they're ready. See: Warhammer. The developers may have had every intention of delivering the things they promised, but fall due to unfortunate circumstances regarding deadlines and budgets.
This is why Arena Net won't say a word about a feature in Guild Wars 2 until it is in the game and it is WORKING how they want it to work. They have a stable development studio, with a strong economic backing from NCSoft. They are working under the "deadline" of "When it's ready." because too many times games were shoved out the door and once that first impression is made, often is the case that's the only impression the game will ever get.
So, in this regard, I think Star Wars: The Old Republic has every ability to deliver everything they say they will. And it's easy to see them doing it now. They've had a going beta before they've even given a release date, and they continue to show off new features at trade shows, including this year's Gamescon. They're not just "promising" full voiceover, they've already hired their 900+ voice actors to bring the world alive, and people can see these things at the trade fair events.
Games are just a portion of our free time, a smaller portion of our awaking hours.
Enjoy them if they serve and walk on if they fail, we do not need to worry about them. There are enough worries in RL, from work to commuting, from eating to sleeping. Why should we stress ourselves over the few hours which should be our fun moments, our opportunity to relax, to wind down?
Cheer, if SW:ToR fails, it will not be the last, if it delivers, it is just another story of success for a few years.
The game systems are just getting old. Everyone who's going to buy a Wii has bought one. Ditto for the Xbox and PS3. The games aren't really looking any better. The PS3 might have some more room to expand capabilities, but those games are held back by what the XBox can do. Even there, the PS3 is limited by its old graphics card.
PC gaming is still progressing though, video cards are being upgraded, SSD's are getting cheaper and have more storage and ram is getting cheaper too. Not to mention integration with social networks and not having to pay an additional fee on top of your internet to play with your friends in console like games (FPS mainly). Game downloads and "F2P" is becoming more mainstream.
Finally, 'smart' phones have really entered the market. They are taking a chunk of casual gamers' time that they aren't spending on consoles. Especially younger gamers.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I have no doubt game sales have taken a dip. They've barely released anything worth playing in the last 6 months. Heck, they've barely released anything at all.
If they want to sell games Id imagine its time they start actually making them. Instead of promoting new expensive motion controls, or 3D capability. No one really cares. Furthermore, what games they do release are sequels. Hardly ever an original IP graces store shelves these days.
The industry is loosing its way. They waste time when they should be making games. Did the business suddenly become non profitable? Hardly. Its time to stop piddle farting around. If they want to make money they ought to start making games. Its a rather simple concept they seem to be having a very hard time understanding.
You will be sadened by the fact that the project is cancelled/postponed indefinitely. He is building the game engine to sell liscenses. Considering they have a team of i think 2 guys the future of Infinity:QFE does not look good. The engine however should be amazing.
It's hard to get excited about unreleased games that haven't been hyped.
Man I feel bad for people who worry about work, commuting, eating and sleeping. Hobbies are usually more stressful than any of the above because its something we care about. About the only hobby I get to have zero worries about is fishing, everything else I do for fun involves some kind of increased heart rate.
Why does gaming as a hobby not equal real life? Is it not part of life? So when I'm playing the rest of the world stands still? As I've grown older I've rapidly lost touch with the premise of this saying as life is what we do. To some people the hobby is all that matters, when I played M:TG in PTQs and weekly tournaments it was real life and I took it seriously and it was the most important part of my life at the time. Why should gamers on a gaming system not do the same? Sometimes we go through the motions to provide for our enjoyment and later on(at least in my case after college jobs, etc) we enjoy our normal routine normally as well.
Maybe over 9% official unemployment has something to do with the sales drop? I think this current obsession over "hype" is sort of silly. Its called advertising. And if there's one thing true about sales figures, its that they were never hurt by too much advertising.
I think part of it is that as a society we have lost much of our collective patience.
Because of how fast everything has gotten due to e-mail, instant messaging, texting, high speed everything etc. we no longer have the patience to sit and wait things out.
When it comes to gaming, especially MMORPGs, we have to wait SO long for a game to be released, and when it finally is I think we feel like we expect it to be perfect and everything we ever hoped and dreamed it could be because it took SO long to make.
It's hard for people to understand how something could take years to make and be released and not be completely perfect and finished.
At the same time, many companies throw their hat into the ring because they see how much money is being made on MMOs, and like anything - the more products and spin offs are created, the more likely some of them will suck and have much lower quality.
So how do you market to gamers who are impatient, expect perfection, and fickle as hell?
Hype. Hype. Hype.
If you don't find a way to retain their attention, you'll lose it. Quickly.
Gamers have become the dog from Up.
We are in a spot of not quit there for all the things we would like a game to do, and it may be here before we know it.
But the biggest thing I see for what we see now, is like it is stated the promise. More and more Free to Play that would cost you a fortune to really play to their fullest, the latest pays are dungens and such you can not get into to ensure even those that do not want the pretty parts will use the shops. Now that causes a bad taste in gamers.
I am looking forward to GW2 because they are in we will release when it is ready, it is not being promised away we are seeing what we are getting and this is a good way to see the game dev's go.
At the moment I am playing rift, and I am enjoying it, they are on top of their game with lots of movement and updates. The fact if you can not play alot you can get on and join open rifts with lots of people from the area is nice. I have tested a few things out there and and sometimes I make it a few hours and think this is the same thing different skin and not even a good skin.
Look for the Rose with the Thorn.
Overpromising and underdelivering is certainly part of it. A huge part of it. That goes without saying. The other issues that are affecting sales is simply an oversaturation of the market in general and a lack of ingenuity and creativity.
Why shell out all the initial expenditures for a new game if it feels like the same old thing you've already been playing for eons? Especially in a time where a lot of people are streamlining their expenditures due to current economic trends.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Seems like we're spending a little too much time in hype mode.
Perhaps the companies are a little too eager to show us pretty screenshots from a 5% complete game, go to a trade show three years before the game's release.
They do it partly to get the interest of potential investors up. But it also leads to player expectations that just cannot be met.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
That is the result of years of games always made simpler, easier, shorter and more streamlined to a perceived mass market by bean counters and stockholders. The so called mass audience is a fickle one, and game companies systematically alienated their core audiene over the years, making games ever simpler and shorter. Finally people are just tired to have a 10 hour game with a mere 3 classes for 50+ dollars, where you once for 15 classes and 150 hours for the same money.
We here said it so many times over the years what was going wrong with gaming. I critizised bad games at every opportunity. (And I got enough flaming for it.) When now game industry faces a coming disaster (and it will face that!) I can say, I did all I could to prevent that.
My hands are clean.
Unlike the hands of the MANY blind and arrogant fanbois who ENDLESSLY defended "their" fan companies and fandom games and thus prevented all chance to improve games again. They are directly and mainly responsible for the situation we face with games. No that is probably not a nice thing to say, but it's the bloody truth, whether you like it or not!
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
That's not true. I would cite Limbo as a great example of a small game that flew under the radar and was excellent. Yeah, big budget games move the bottom line, but they're also much riskier to produce. There are other business models that work besides the big bang theory.
Basically EA spent a lot of money on Bioware to make TOR after already failing on WAR's beg investment. They need a hit and they need a day 1 hit. Therefore bring on the hype. But, what are they hyping? Appears to be an MMO that is not much different from every other MMO. The NDA is also a huge concern because the only legitimate information we have about the game is through breif clips and developer demos of a very narrow set of gameplay.
Haters are going to hate because we use history to try and extrapolate what's going to happen in the future. History tells us that lots of talk and NDAs right up until release usually result in a developer hiding something about their game. WAR, AoC, TR and CO all fit this model. WoW's launch was pretty poor, but at least we knew what we were getting into. Rift's was super smooth and it was very clear what we were getting into.
I get that things change and some fansite blow jokes like the comment from comicon about the game through 2025 way out of proportion. However, I'd rather see how the game is progressing through developement and make my own decision. If an MMO company basically asks me to buy a game, level 35+ content unseen, I'm probably going to balk. Now, maybe the MMO gamespace can expand again with more new players that haven't played an MMO and are willing to take a flyer, but I have a feeling more mature players are going to take a more critical look at TOR before they jump in and ... as much as people hate to admit it ... it's the hardcore, the players that form solid guilds and play through group content that drive the in game economy and game in general.
If you don't worry about it, it's not a problem.
Step Forward CD Projekt Red to answer your last question big fella.
Good games. They are far and between. I dont remember last time i played a game i really enjoyed. Maybe Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age. Right now i'm just starving for a good MMO or RPG but there is nothing good on the market. I'm currently waiting for Skyrim but it's only getting released in November. On the MMO side i have very low expectation with SW, i think it will be just WOW all over again. I'm waiting for GW2 but i dont think it will release this year. So yeah, not many blockbuster games being released this year.
Way to quote the end of the post and miss everything that led up to it lol.
It's funny, product announcement is a wierd thing.
You do it too early, people will expect updates or they'll think you were lying or the product fell off the face of the Earth.
You do it too late, people feel like they had something sprung on them.
In once sense, you have to string customers along during the process from announcement to release because otherwise it falls off their radar.
Hype, by itself, is not a bad thing.
Not living up to the hype is an obvious issue. That is just as much our fault as consumers for not researching a product or buying without testing and then being disappointed etc.
There have been a few examples where the hype didn't match the end product. WAR comes to mind. AoC does too. So do DF and Aion (at least on this site MMORPG.com)
More recent releases like Rift seem to have backed off the hype and instead been both honest in their promotion and allowed players ample opportunity to try before they buy. If players don't take the opportunity to participate and try before they buy and do their research, they can't blame the company. They gave you opportunity to see for yourself.
SWTOR is doing the same with their frustratingly slow announcements/news.
They are also doing a good chuck of preview events with the September beta weekends.
Rift, while not a smash hit, has been very successful. I think a big part of that is that players for the most part knew what they'd be getting in to after the open-access beta weekends.
SWTOR will do well I think... if they ever announce a release date... it's starting to bug me at this point.
As for the console industry... I'd spend more money on it if they had some decent MMOs.
There is two bright hopes in the future for this genre. WildStar and Blizzards yet to be revealed new MMORPG. I say this simply because if what we saw from Carbine regarding the Alpha stage of WildStar's game play and the premise behind it and Blizzards ability to make outstanding games...especially multiplayer ones...there is still hope.
Speaking of MMORPG's of course.
As for other games...we have BF3 coming out soon and Skyrim, both look to be outstanding titles.
Good read couldnt agree more. I have grown a serious anti hype formula over the years.
Instead of overhyping your game by hiring CGI and other PR artists use the money for more devs and develpment time. Nowadays no game will ever life up to a massive hype, so why not focus on whats really important?
We need a MMORPG Cataclysm asap, finish the dark age of MMORPGS now!
"Everything you're bitching about is wrong. People don't have the time to invest in corpse runs, impossible zones, or long winded quests. Sometimes, they just want to pop on and play."
"Then maybe MMORPGs aren't for you."
the reason it's so low is because of pirating the software, even on consoles, that will end in a couple of years tho when they pass that bill that lets the usa remove torrent sites from the internet