More indie studios die/on the verge of

EvaUnit02 on 14/8/2009 at 08:02

(http://forum.sacredeng.ascaron-net.com/showthread.php?t=64252) Ascaron - developers of Sacred 1 & 2. I never played their games, but they were supposedly decent Diablo clones.

(http://kotaku.com/5334459/bionic-commando-developers-grin-in-big-big-trouble) GRIN - Made the superior PC versions of GRAW 1&2, plus Bionic Commando Rearmed and its next gen sequel.

I haven't played Bionic Commando, but I've heard that it was good. It flopped big time sales wise though.

The two licensed 3rd person shooters that GRIN made recently were quite bad though. Wanted: Weapons of Fate was blah and christ, Terminator: Salvation was pretty dreadful.

Malf on 14/8/2009 at 09:41

The new Bionic Commando is one of my favourite games this year so far, and to see the company that made it die is a great shame.
The other great shame is seeing some of the criticism the game gets; it looks like people were expecting something other than a Bionic Commando game, complaining about the linearity of the levels and how difficult the swing mechanism is to get to grips with. Well duh.

gunsmoke on 14/8/2009 at 11:04

goddammit economy

Shadowcat on 14/8/2009 at 11:40

Quote Posted by EvaUnit02

I haven't played Bionic Commando, but I've heard that it was good. It flopped big time sales wise though.

It's pretty much brand new, isn't it? I know I've only just heard about it being available. How can it possibly have "flopped big time" already?

Malf on 14/8/2009 at 12:06

It's been out since mid-may.
It really didn't sell well initially, possibly because of Grin's strange decision to release a multi-player only demo for what is predominantly a single-player game.

Thirith on 14/8/2009 at 12:07

Quote Posted by EvaUnit02

(http://forum.sacredeng.ascaron-net.com/showthread.php?t=64252) Ascaron - developers of Sacred 1 & 2. I never played their games, but they were supposedly decent Diablo clones.

Where did you get the idea that Ascaron was an indie studio? Unless being German automatically makes them indie, that is; as far as I know, they were one of the big mainstream companies developing games in Germany.

EvaUnit02 on 14/8/2009 at 12:17

Quote Posted by Shadowcat

It's pretty much brand new, isn't it? I know I've only just heard about it being available. How can it possibly have "flopped big time" already?

(http://kotaku.com/5291385/bionic-commando-fails-to-grab-retail-success) First month of sales:- 27,000 copies sold in the US according to NPD data (consoles only).

(http://kotaku.com/5326841/capcom-quietly-reveals-bionic-commando-sales-data) Roughly two and a half months later:- 550,000 copies shipped worldwide.

For a multi-platform AAA title that likely cost several millions to develop and advertise, in today's climate most big publishers would consider that a "major flop."

Matthew on 14/8/2009 at 12:38

Eva, you surprise me! Shipped not equalling sold and all that.

EvaUnit02 on 14/8/2009 at 12:55

Can we just stop this here now? Can't we just celebrate the memory of these developers and their games rather than just get bogged down in obsessing over semantics that frankly no one really cares about?

Quote Posted by Matthew

Eva, you surprise me! Shipped not equalling sold and all that.

No shit, I never said it was a sale. A retailer orders stock, the publisher gets paid. Whether not retailer actually sells the stock, publisher has already made their money.

If there's no demand (i.e. not much stock is moving), then the retailer doesn't see the point in getting any more stock, no more money for the publisher.

If there's 550,000 shipped worldwide after 2.5 months, for a major publisher you can assume that there's no demand, thus you can definitely make the reasonable conclusion that game hasn't sold well at all.

Matthew on 14/8/2009 at 13:34

Aaah, I see what you are getting at now. Thank you!