Infinite business wisdom

[seasnake]

Shogun 2, Starcraft 2, Civilization 5, AoE III, EU III ...

Strategy games may not be as popular as FPS, but there are a MILLION of those. Meanwhile, a well-done strategy game can still make a ton of money by grabbing a large share of an admittedly smaller market. And it looks like, maybe I'm wrong, that well-done franchises are still making quite a bit of money.

 

[Aristos]

yup, and this is exactly why 2K is on the decline and may not exist as a publisher in the near future. (it's happening on all of their games, with minimal exceptions)

@Fabiano79

The stats are out there, and yeah.. those '90s gamers are all now in the 'we have the largest pool of cash for games' demographic. 2K may have missed the memo. again. Kids don't buy games, their parents do.

E-X-A-C-T-L-Y.

The "head" that does the talking in that article is missing that thingie that serves as the endpoint of the shoulders. I have never read so much idiocy in so few lines... how can a person like that become an "executive" of any company? What is happening to the world?

To be honest with you, I hope 2K pays the price, but at the same time, how to save the franchise when 2K (does it read like KK, which in Spanish would sound something like "caca" = pooh?) goes down? Would they sell it just in time? What happens to the IP if KK takes the franchise to hell when they go down after so much missmanagement? Does anyone know the legal aspects of IP after bankrupcy?

 

[MadDjinn]

the only 'fair' thing I can think of saying for his idiot way of saying it is this:


(2011 on the left, then 2010, 2009, 2008)
Net revenue by platform:

Console
	  	  	85.7 	%	80.4 	%	74.4 	%	89.9%
  	

Handheld
	  	  	4.6 	%	10.3 	%	13.9 	%	6.3%
  	

PC
	  	  	9.3 	%	8.7 	%	11.3 	%	3.3%
  	

Other
	  	  	0.4 	%	0.6 	%	0.4 	%	0.5%

 

[binhthuy71]

I played XCOM: UFO Defense when it first came out. I still play it via DOSBOX. It was at the time a standout game because of its use of action points and the aliens' tricky psychological ability. Now some corporate dodo wants to make it into an FPS. Right, because there's never been an FPS based on fighting aliens. Quake never happened. As long as this fool is reinventing the wheel, why doesn't he remake XCOM as a side scrolling shooter. That ought to wow the fans.

Having the future of Civ in the hands of people like this means that Civ has no future. No Civ VI, kids. Instead we'll have an endless series of DLC's (Now you can play as Belize!) by whomever 2K sells the bones of the franchise to. I like Civ V, even in its infancy, and I hope that the mods keep on coming because that's all there is.

 

[Mods]

They just want a part of the huge first person shooter market, xcom is just a good excuse to do so

 

[binhthuy71]

They just want a part of the huge first person shooter market, xcom is just a good excuse to do so

If the AI in their creation is as clever as the current AI in Civ V the game will be a runaway favorite with five-year-olds everywhere.

 

[SpearMan153]

it is all true - a game must be realtime to be big

we are all turn based dinosaurs

or not...

 

[SpearMan153]

ps there is already an X-COM first person shooter - look it up it's on steam

 

[spider1]

we are all turn based dinosaurs

I get that a lot at my age

Still love the Civ series though. If they make enough money off V, there'll be a VI. Hopefully. No telling what it will be though.

 

[Zenstrive]

I feel sorry for the young ones, taught only to kill and not to think.

 

[Polycrates]

Head of publishing company says something stupid, world shocked.

On this particular day he's just trying to defend their (awfully strange) decision to use the x-com IP for something almost entirely unrelated, probably without the slightest thught as to what he's saying.
Ultimately, the very contemporary buckets of cash that Civ V has made will speak rather louder, I think.

Meanwhile Paradox are going from strength to strength, and have even gone so far as to employ actual beta testers (!)

 

[Misterboy]

@MadDjinn

Those numbers are really interesting. Can you link the source? Thanks.

 

[MadDjinn]

@MadDjinn

Those numbers are really interesting. Can you link the source? Thanks.

http://investing.businessweek.com/r...wFiling.asp?formType=10-K#A2204277Z10-K_HTM_8

It's from their 10-K filing to the SEC.

 

[Thormodr]

Thanks for the link Op.

Not all that surprising to be honest.

Would sure love for Firaxis to shed that millstone that is 2K Games.

Happily, 2K Games' X-com abomination isn't your only option.

http://kotaku.com/5518361/another-new-x+com-game-and-its-not-a-shooter

 

[Thormodr]

Exactly. And I'd pay a lot for what I want. Two of my favorite game lines don't even produce stuff anymore (Age of Empires and Empire Earth) and the only other game line I play besides Civ and the two Empires, is the Anno Discovery games. I'm currently enjoying 1404 quite a bit.

Other than that, I just don't buy modern games, but I would if they made the type I like to play. The Anno folks are coming out with a new game this year sometime.

I thought Age of Empires online was coming out this year. Is that not in the same vein as Age of Empires?

As for the Anno series, I quite like them. Anno 2070 looks pretty cool from what I've seen.

 

[Ian7]

I thought Age of Empires online was coming out this year. Is that not in the same vein as Age of Empires?

Age of empires online is an online game with a free portion and "premium"(entire game) portion, and graphics appealing to young children.*
*excluding me, though at 11 not really a young child
The true age of empires series is dead unless they revive the pc games.

 

[Aristos]

So, nobody knows what happens with the IP after the IP holder goes bankrupt? Would be interesting to know, and it's on line with the OP, because if the zombie talking in the article about Mr. Ray Charles has any real saying in KK's strategic view, there is no way KK will survive in the long term...

Anyone with deeper legal knowledge on the matter?

 

[The_J]

IPs are normally sold as part of the insolvency mass.

 

[zekeand]

I think that CIV series is unlikely to die.

There is a huge comunity out there. In case civ dies in corporate world, there is Freeciv... I played it a lot in early 2000's.
It will take time, but we can make a good Open Source project. Direct Democracy for contents, and a great oportuniy to all enthusiast.
I'm not an Open Source evangelist. It's just a thought looking forward. We can do it, there is a lot of people who has the abilities.

I play a lot of games (shooters included), but I feel just like civ is my home. I always return home

Greetings

Zeke

 

[MoonFlare]

Publishers in general don't care about anything except money. And that douchebag is thinking with money and not with his brain. The same with EA and Activision-blizzard. But 2K is really small compared to those two. Reminds me about a little greedy and spoiled child that needs to get slapped across the face a few times.
Look at The Witcher 2. Namco only cares about itself and not about its customers.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/08/c...action-after-dropping-drm-from-the-witcher-2/