"Flippin Pixels is a group of ex-Rare veterans who have with a new start-up of their own team in a smart building just outside Leicester. The five man team have worked on the likes of Banjo, GoldenEye, Donkey Kong Country 2, Viva Pinata and the recent Kinect Sports titles.
Each of the developers at Flippin Pixels joined Rare in the late 90s, when the company was producing an unrivalled stable of games, exclusively for Nintendo. “Rare was unique. Nobody was making games of the quality that Rare and Nintendo were making,” says Shaun Read, design director. “The reason Microsoft bought Rare was very clear. They had a very core-orientated console, and it was doing very well – but it was just for the core audience. The Xbox built its success on FPSs, very good ones at that, but they bought Rare knowing that we made games that appeal to a wider audience.”, writes Edge.
Journey, The Unfinished Swan, the Souls series... What a load of rubbish! Maybe they can't if executed poorly, but with the right skills, taking risks is the right way to go! Just look at how much media coverage quirky PSN game Journey received. Why? For being different - they took risks!
Companies such as EA certainly imply the opposite by running tired franchises into the ground. Ignore EA, EA is now stupid.
Thats why I love about sony. They arent afraid of taking risks on new ip's. Nintendo use to be the same way until they went mostly casual with the wii.
Sony has been throwing out a larger number of new ops, but they don't market the games well enough. I do disagree that great games sell well, xenoblade and the last story were 2 examples of great games that didn't sell well or got a lot of positive hype...or awards. It's really all a game of chance. Not all great games get the attention they deserve.
Sony kick a$$ at doing new things. I care not for haters of Sony, but they deserve props for still bothering with awesome studios like Team Ico, that although made 2 of THE BEST PS2 games, & in fact, 2 OF THE best games in the history of gaming, suffered at the register, as most gamers didn't bother, until it was too late. I mean, BOTH these awesome Team Ico games were so great, that I can't see how any video gamer could ignore these games, in fact, Ico was like a new age Mario in spirit, it had the same age old story of rescuing the princess, but it was implemented by Team Ico, in such a way, that it didn't alienate itself from the casual market, & it should have sold in bucket loads.....but the marketing was non-existing to say the least. Ico came to PS2 at a time when GTA 3 came to the system (or at least not far off), & truly outstanding games like these were trodden on by the tirade of terribly overhyped & smartly over marketed.
So, what I guess I am saying is, that if marketed smartly & plentifully, then you are 3 steps closer to success. I have the tv on as I type, & I have literally seen the same ad for the new Tomb Raider every ad break & before I switched channels I saw the ad run twice in one ad break.....Now, that is marketing, as the game is awesome, the ad is awesome & intriguing, & I believe it WILL SELL copies based off the ad, as casuals that don't come to sites such as GS, GT, NG4, etc, & are blissfully unaware that a new Tomb Raider game was on the cards. Now, I personally know many casuals that loved TR on PS1 & TR2, not to mention several sequels that came to PS1. Now, many of these people will see this ad & say, "f$#k yeah, looks awesome, gettin' it"......and they will run off & buy the game after having it's awesome looking advert. thrown constantly in there face every night..they won't have bought a game since COD:BO's 2, Fifa 13, NBA 13, Madden 13, or any such big, casual aimed, title hit store shelves, & combinations of nostalgia, intrigue, the opportunity to stare at the a$$ of a girl protagonist, & other reasons, like it's payday tomorrow, so I need to offload some cash to a good cause, which entails the purchase of a case of beer, a stick of fine hydroponic weed & of course, the awesome looking Tomb Raider game for my PS3/360.
So, that said.....I'm pretty sure TR will do good sales numbers thanks to the awesome marketing/advertising, the awesome graphics & vistas, the fact it is Tomb Raider & Lara Croft, & the word of mouth factor of people who own the game & agree with what most reviews have to say about the game.