In the third of GI.Biz's exclusive editorials on the ongoing development of Darwinia+, Introversion's head of marketing and PR Vicky Arundel talks about the problems associated with marketing a title that defies normal industry stereotypes.
What happens when screenshots simply can't convey the sense of a game, and how do you therefore get the right message out to the right people?
Chris Delay and Mark Morris of Introversion Software talk about Prison Architect, babies and where Darwinia went wrong.
After nearly a decade of living, breathing and sleeping Darwinia, indie studio Introversion gave it a send-off in style: they created Darwinian torture porn. But Darwinia will be sorely missed - and here is why.
Mark Morris – the business mind behind Introversion – has declared at GDC that he doesnt believe the team would ever work alongside industrial giant Microsoft in the future.
"but they don’t back it up with sales.”
So, I guess the 360 audience has something to do with the low sales..
Even though ms offered promotions and deal of the week discount for the games, I don't see how Introversion can blame ms for not being able to back it up with sales..
WTF is Darwinia and Multiwinia?
ow googled it now i see, you can't get sales if your game sucks duhh.. they sold more on steam probably because it was cheaper and PC has a wider audience.
@Mystogan
yeah steam has a bigger audience and there is much more consumer confidence on the platform, people are willing to pay a small amount with the risk a game might be bad - which is usually due to it being a console port anyway
Hey man Darwinia was a great game!
Only reason I didnt get it for 360 was because I like to play the game with mouse and keyboard -.-
So they are upset because microsoft made them work out all the bugs before they would put it on xbla then, even though microsoft promoted it, it didn't sell well?
DARWINIA IS OLD AS FUCK. I have seen it on steam For years and yeas now. I dont think it would sell that much when you could probably get it on steam for cheap as hell for years now.
and these games are made to be played on PC.
The guys who made Super Meat Boy just finished saying the exact same thing. They commented that Microsoft was a nightmare to work with and they've seen far more sales on Steam then they have with XBL for whatever reason.
Developers have had a hard time cracking the 360 market in the past. Just look at what happened to Banjo Kazooie, or Alan Wake. Looking at what games sell on the 360, I think it's a fact that 360 owners know what they like and what they want. Limbo ended up being on quite a few game of the year lists, but how did it fair in sales?
By contrast, Steam just has a broader audience. That's not a slight against the 360, it's just that you have to know your market.
“Do we regret working with Microsoft?” said Morris. “No, but it’s unlikely we’ll work with them again …"
it seems like he(they?) just don't feel it was worth the time or investment to bring it to the 360.
It comes down to marketing. MS controls a lot of what the user sees on their 360.
I have no clue what MS did or didn't do, but if they are going to demand certain standards beyond what the developer believes is adequate, they should reward that extra effort by marketing the game well. This guy seems to think MS didn't do that.
He just said that they marketed them but failed to back it up with sales. As if microsoft are going to force their install base to buy the games!
Microsoft do not back up anything with sales, the 360 audience does that. If these guys had their way we'd all have unwanted game trials queued on to our consoles lol...better yet, the full game purchased already without our consent
There is a difference between marketing and good marketing.
All he said was that they put it into the deal of the week section. Sounds like it was pretty ineffective, so I wouldn't classify that as good marketing.
There is far more MS can do besides chucking it into the discount bin for a week. They were able to do well on Steam, so obviously the game can sell if it is marketed well.
Wow. I see the Microsoft Defense Force is out in full swing, and like usual, can do nothing beside disagree without backing it up.
Sure, Microsoft has marketing email, dashboard advertisements, and Xbox.com at their disposal, but sticking the game into the Deal of the week section months after it is released is clearly good enough. It's entirely the game's fault that it didn't sell well. I guess that means Steam is run by miracle workers who could sell ice to Eskimos.
I was looking forward to this game from the trailers, but once I got my hand on the demo I felt let down. Then the price right off the bat was 1200 MSP if I remember correctly, pretty pricey!
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...lets blame the publisher after all they make the game right???...O_o
This is a pretty dumb decision on the part of this dev or any other dev out there. Keep it to your self dumba33...why burn a bridge for no reason. XBL has many massive hits...make a game people want, they will buy it. It wouldn't matter what system your game is on, if the demographic of that system is not interested, then they're not interested.
" XBLA were good to us and put us in the deal of the week, but it had no impact. Steam promotion was an order of magnitude better.”
They were good to you, put you in the deal of the weak but it STILL didn't sell well huh...lol...maybe, just maybe your game isn't as hip as you think...lol
I am one of the people that bought Darwinia on the 360(day one), and to be honest I was not that impressed. I am not sure who the fault goes to in that, me for not getting it; or Introversion for not making a very fun game.
RARE died while with Nintendo.
Don't blame MS for Rare.
Blame them for Ensemble.
Your right, they died shortly before the sale to Microsoft. Tired of seeing people posting that microsoft killed them, they didn't, RARE just died on its own. Microsoft got the short straw in the deal though since they had payed a VERY VERY large amount for RARE thinking their game quality would remain constant.
the thing about rare is that the talent were what made them good.
when the talent left and made free radical, rare became just a name with some IP
maby we can blame ubisoft for destroying free radical though
now that the talent are with crytek they will be forced to make another bad game probably, instead of making TS4 which is what everybody wants
It has become quite obvious that it was NINTENDO that made RARE good and without it their work has suffered. Maybe they can still revive them but i wanna see if MS can have the same positive effect on them that NINTY had on them.
So how come the talent that supposedly left to form Free Radical weren't that good themselves then?
Seriously... who the f*** are these guys, and why are they blaming MS for sh*tty sales for their sh*tty games???
I don't see how MS making you work for better production value is bad
this just sounds like someone with sour grapes because their game didn't sell
