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jammy2211

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Posts posted by jammy2211

  1. Posted

    The article has alot of sensationism, and misses out alot of facts. The general theme rings true but it should be taken with a pinch of salt.

     

    Anywho, what is causing publishers to lose money more then most is just trying to use last-gen sales trends and practises this generation. The market has changed, consumers buy products in different ways now, EA and Activision need to understand that. They're in the process of adjusting to the new model, then figures will pick up.

     

    The articles skips around companies like Capcom, Konami and Ubisoft, who despite the strong Yen, Global Recession, no behemoth HD hits for the year and heavily supporting HD developement are reporting fiscal year profits thus far.

     

    Revenue is at an all time high, just profits arn't. Costs of making games are higher, true, but when revenue is highest then profits are potentially highest, it's just a matter of time until EA and Activision's finances reflect this.

  2. Posted

    You don't always need the most powerful hardware to be able to push the limits of your talent. Here is my analogy: Give a drummer a huge drum set, with a set of, I dunno, 6 tom-toms, two floor toms, different cymbals ranging from different sized crash cymbals, to a splash, and a cowbell and ask them to come up with something.

    Now, give the same drummer a regular five-piece drum set, with a snare, two tom-toms, a floor tom, two crashes and a ride and ask them to come up with something.

     

    Both provide different sets of challenges. Sure, with a bigger drum-set, you have access to more available sounds, so there's more you can do. However, it is also a challenge to use all of these drums and cymbals - quite often you may only need a regular five piece. Some of the best songs ever created were accomplished with a five-piece drum set.

     

    So, yeah, having access to loads of different tools is great. But, there is also the challenging aspect in using technically inferior hardware. With the 360, we know that the system can produce wonderful things. With the Wii, it's much more challenging to produce something really high quality (in terms of the technical things, graphics, etc) when compared to its rivals. But, if you push the system, you can get marvelous things from it. In my opinion, I would be more impressed with pulling off something like Super Mario Galaxy than I would Halo3.

     

    I hope this makes sense, and I hope it makes you see things in a different way.

     

    The problem for me is that music is completely subjective, musical complexity (Or how big a drum kit the band has) doesn't make the music and better or worse, because everyone has different tastes and whatever.

     

    Whereas, how realistic a game looks is objective. How much it pulls off technically is just numbers and figures. I understand you can get subjectivity with art styles and whatnot but even then, the programmers and artists would probably rather make the best looking cel-shaded game then a good looking cel-shaded game. Companies should be going for a less realistic look with their games though (Albeit they best not go in the direction of that majestic march game lol).

     

    It really comes down to the studio in hand on what they want to (And what they financially can do). The reason most people go into games developement is because they enjoy games, and so for most of them (And the ones I've spoken to) they want to go down the PS360 route of developement, as that's what they grew up with.

  3. Posted

    I was trying to avoid giving this away in the IGN podcast thread lol.

     

    But yeah, definitely a good announcement, very interesting when you consider the sort of market it's aimed at too. Good to see EA branching out further, albeit there is still a bit of cheek to it with Dead Space 2 heading to PS360 (Albeit maybe that'll have a Wii version?)

     

    Either way, hard to get too excited before screenshots. Dead Rising Wii sounded promising too...

  4. Posted

    Seconded, but Square has to evolve the series to keep it relevant. Id personally buy FF13 if it reverted back to SNES graphics but thats just me, im in the minority there. Wouldnt it be great if S-E pulled a Mega Man 9 and did a new 2D FF for DLC! No? Ill show myself out....

     

    Seeing more Mega Man 9 style developement would be awesome, there was something like that on the DS but I think it turned to vaporware. Some minnow developed who probably went bust.

     

    But yeah, RPG's need to sort themselves out. I think Square are trying to 'revolutionize' their games but the problem is at the same time they're trying to not alienate their hardcore fanbase, and we're then left with a mish-mash of new innovative ideas which arn't fully realized because they dare not change enough to make it work.

     

    For me though I don' think FFXIII is the game they should be changing much. It's Final Fantasy, it's an epic incredible gaming experience and the pretty much represents Square-Enix on the global scale. I'm happy for essentially 'more of the same' provided it's up to the high standards set by all their previous final fantasies.

     

    Maybe use Versus to mix things up? I'm not sure.

  7. Posted

    Retailers choose how much stock they order, not the publisher.

     

    It could sell out it's initial stock and still be a flop, if the retailers just didn't but into the product. It's an irellevent figure to be honest.

     

    The game flopped in Japan I'm sure, it's not going to hit 6 figures... I doubt that'll see Namco any sort of a return. Probably come to the west though.

  8. Posted

    Oh for god sake, whenever I think of buying a Wii game the sequel is always announced before I get around to it. Same with DS, sigh.

     

    Looks cool though, gonna be living in a flat with some mates next year so I'll probably pick this up for multiplayer :).

  10. Posted

    Dead Rising didn't flop on 360, it did really well, just Capcom see it as their best money making opportunity, most likely after the success of the Resident Evils. It's the same premise really, shoot zombies etc. Dead Rising 2 is coming to PS360 btw... just encase you're interested

     

    As for Zack and Wiki, it sold well (According to VGchartz....) but most of those sales were after retail price cuts, it had an iffy initial reception and once retailers cut the price then revenue is nearing minimal. Nintendo published it in Europe, and DID give it TV advertising, and it struggled even more here, so I doubt Capcom investing millions of dollars into a Z&W advertising campaign would have made any sense.

     

    I still think we'll see a sequel...

     

    EDIT: Just seen Sven on the Capcom-uninity boards hinted at Zack and Wiki not making a profit too, so it's not just a misquote or whatever supposedly. Guess some figures somewhere are way-off, I'd imagine retailers cut this games price VERY quickly.

     

    EDIT 2: Quote from Sven on Capcom-unity (Not in reply to me):

     

    It did not sell 500K units or anywhere near it. I still don't understand where you're getting 500K.

     

    To the best of my knowledge, the 300K figure quoted by IR included European orders from Nintendo who published the title on our behalf in that territory. Nor did it do the volume it did do at anywhere near frontline pricing (in the US anyway).

     

    And what you think was a cheap game to make, wasn't. Great games almost never are.

     

    Dam you VGchartz *Shakes fist*

  13. Posted

    If I recall, I don't think Dead Space was a major flop, but it certainly didn't set any charts on fire. With it being a multi-format game as well, it's possible EA didn't exactly cover development costs. It's understandable they want to address that.

    Dead Space has been EA's best success of the holiday season (Along with Left 4 Dead). It's nearing the 1.5 million milestone (Without PC sales) and still holds it's full retail price, one of the few games to do that at the majority of retailers this Christmas.

     

    I'm sure they covered developement costs well before it reached the 500k mark and total costs somewhere around 600k - 700k. The game being a success is as much reason to bring it to the Wii as it is if the game flops.

  15. Posted

    Ubisoft seem amazing at ripping off Nintendo.

     

    First Nintendogs, then Brain Ages, then Wii Fit, maybe throw in the Rayman RR game as a Mario Party rip off, and now Smash Bro's.

     

    But yeah, this looks pretty forgetable at the moment, will give it more attention once I see gameplay footage. It just looks like a Smash Bros clone with no where near the appeal or anywhere close to the amount of content.

  19. Posted

    I disagree, the Wii has the best line up this year, other than Halo Recon and Killzone 2 there's nothing on the other systems that interests me.

     

    Fair enough, although I find it hard to believe they're the only games you can possibly be looking forward to on the other systems.

     

    But yeah, one mans garbage is another mans treasure, or something like that.

  21. Posted

    So he's not allowed to have the opinion that he doesn't like someone else's opinion now? :confused:

     

    I didn't say that, I just said it was pathetic that he wished people with families to feed would lose their jobs just because supposedly they disagree with him. Considering he's never met these people in person it surprises me he even cares, not to mention has such a hatred towards them.

     

    And @metroid, they didn't 'go under'. I'm not sure the whole story but some big media company bought them out and then fired most of their staff and is doing some crazy stuff with their site now.

  24. Posted

    Well yes, lets hope they don't sell any :) Agreed?

     

    Doesn't bother me, it's gonna have the best games for me whether they sell more systems or not.

     

    Also at the Giutar Hero vs Rock Band thing, wasn't Rock Band 2 like staggered releases because Microsoft paid for timed-exlucisve? I'm sure EA made plenty of money off of giving Microsoft an advantage.

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