Re: Games, games and games

[Mark Collins <me@thisisnurgle.org.uk>]

On Wednesday 20 June 2001 18:42, you wrote:

> That it isn't true, there are a big market for those games.  Maybe the
> market for no-brain action games is bigger but Sid Meier's games are big
> hits without great graphics or sound.

Actually, the market for "no brain" games is quite small. An FPS will sell 
shitloads in the first couple of months, but after that it's usually 
relegated to the bargain bin. The interest dies off very quickly. An RTS 
offers more longetivity, but they usually follow the same route.

Games like Civ, on the other hand, sell for years. (My local EB still sells a 
large number of copies of CTP). The initial numbers aren't as high, but the 
total volume of sales is MUCH higher.

> Those games ( like civilization) are based on the fun of the game itself
> not in the multimedia experience.  Of course any game can be improved with
> graphics but good games are good even without them ( or almost).

My philosphy is "fun and addictive". A while ago I wrote an article for 
GameDev.Net (still in the queue) about the common elements in hugely 
succesful games (Tetris, Civ etc etc). I'll talk to the guys who run the site 
about getting it up so you can take a look...

> In Spain there is a company build up around one single game.  The game is a
> football (soccer) manager simulator.  In the game you sell/buy players,
> build up the stadium, make contracts etc.  Now they are in the 4th or 5th
> release and making several milion dollars a year the game is full of
> graphics, 3D players, etc but they are losing their market because the
> "brain part" of the game has not been improbed as much.

All soccer games are like that, even the ones where you take control of the 
players (UEFA Championship League, WLS and UEFA Dream Soccer are all based on 
the same 5 year old code base. If you own all of the Silicon Dreams soccer 
games, you have been serioulsy ripped off). The only thng that changes over 
time are thr graphics and the team/player names. Nothing else. It's all a big 
con.

> With the first release they make 6 million dollars in Spain alone, Italy
> and south america markets, ( I think I saw this number in a magazine). 
> Maybe this is nothing compared with other titles but it is money enough for
> an small company.

Small companies tend to make mroe money for several reasons:
Lower expenses
More creativity
HIgher risk (meaning people strive to make the title original)

As soon as a small dev house gets big, quality goes downhill fast (in 90% of 
the cases). Take id for example, back in the Doom days they were huge, but 
now their honeymoon period is over, things are starting to dwindle. (they now 
make most of the money from licensing engines, and not the games themselves).

Nurgle

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