Now more than ever, gamers are getting a little wiser. You may argue against that, but that's really besides the point. We're critical, we whine, and we "boycott" (lulz). We entered the information age a while back and the effects are still strong. Nothing escapes our twitchy internet-surfing fingers. Our voices can easily be heard for the juggernauts that fuel our favorite pastime. So why don't they seem to be listening?
Recently, THQ announced that the Red Faction franchise will not be continuing in "any meaningful way". This is presumably due to the lackluster performance of the most recent game in the series, Red Faction: Armageddon. Now, if you know anything about the release history of this gen, you'd know that the previous installment, Red Faction: Guerilla did very well. It boasted open environments and fully destructable structures throughout. It was arguably one of the games that we were imagining could be possible when we were starry-eyed about the "next generation". To top it off, it cleared one million units in just over a month.
Then comes Armageddon. A linear "sequel" with limited destruction and is what many would consider a step back for the series. Now, you'd THINK this would tell THQ that abandoning the selling-points of your previous game was a major factor to Armageddon's failings. Instead, they figure, "Well, guess people just aren't into this anymore." Did they not see or hear the criticisms? I think when people heard about a RF sequel, they got pumped. Why wouldn't they be? Give us more of what we love!
THQ: No.
Let's take a look at the Kingdom Hearts series. Here, we have a quote reported not too long ago of the "difficulty of getting new players into KH." I'll say so right now that I've been wanting to see a KH3 sliding into my PS3 for the longest, so call me biased if you want, but this stuff is real. Why have they been ignoring what so many fans have asked for? Square Enix cannot possibly be so self-absorbed that they cannot see the internet craving for a proper console sequel... could they?
The rising costs of productions and the harder failings of flops means game companies are less willing to take risks than ever before. That's understandable to a certain degree. But when does it become too much? When does it go from us being a stray thought to not even being considered at all? Do our opinions even matter? Whether it's Lucas Arts' inability to give us a proper Battlfront sequel or EA's desire to tack on multiplayer where it wasn't asked for (Dead Space 2), it seems that publishers are becoming so ignorant to the pleas of the hardcore to the point of not only disgusting us, but hurting their finances.
Could it be that they are taking the wrong approach to their business? The gaming industry is similar and disimilar to other industries in specific ways. In this case, THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. Do gamers always know what's best for the next upcoming multiplayer game? NO. But it's only for so long we're going to let ourselves get herded around to places we never wanted to go while expected to stay in line.
As the sole reason these people are where they are today, we should have more say in what games are released. We need a setting where we don't get corporate fingers in our faces telling us, "You don't know what you want. Take this and be happy." It's easy to blame the rise in casual gaming for this, and maybe we should, but that's another thing altogether. Ultimately, we are the driving force behind this industry; and it's a fragile one. When we don't like something, havok ensues and can mean the closure of a studio and the loss of jobs.
As much as the majority of us may be in the dark about business essentials, we all know the role of the rodent in the maze. Eventually, he's going to learn to find out what he should do. Publishers... I'd hate to one day have to say that they didn't meet the prestige of the lab rat.
Games Asylum: "Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog weren’t the only platforming heroes receiving system-selling sequels in 1992. Over in Japan, the PC Engine’s Kaizō Chōjin Shubibinman (Shockman) series gained its third entry. US gamers had only just received the second game, and while there was hope of the CD-based Kaizō Chōjin Shubibinman 3 making it to the US, it was never to be. After playing through this newly translated re-release, it’s easy to see the potential it may have had – it’s comparable visually to Mega Drive/Genesis games released the same year and would have likely been positively received in the likes of EGM and GamePro."
Narrative flaws aside, Stellar Blade shines as a top-tier action title with unforgettable final boss fights, showcasing the best of the genre.
Sony is to blame for Helldivers 2 getting brutally review bombed, so why is Arrowhead still catching strays?
i feel like a majority has been blaming Sony and not Arrowhead.
just what ive seen.
Arrowhead's CEO is awesome and so transparent; they're demonstrating they're a gamer-first studio and will stand by our side even with a publishing partner as big as Sony.
I haven't seen anyone blaming Arrowhead except the dumb "but you knew!" takes... Which are useless, it's still the publisher that listed it for sale in unsupported countries.
I think we've already moved past it but hey gotta remind everyone what direction to throw shade where they were already throwing it.
Very well put, they think they make gaming grow as an industry, but they only flock in when it's already profitable, leech it, then destroy it, again and again.
Be it Atari ET, Sega of america in the late 90's, Nintendo's shovelware decline, or casual gaming where truly complete works of art are being replaced with 2~$ low cost/quality clones for Iphone.
Many publishers make pretty dumb decisions and usually dont really care much about bringing an inovative product to the market and instead they settle down and bring more sequels after sequels which usually tends to decline in quality.
On the topic of customers I dont think we're always right. Sometimes we can confuse developers and we can be pretty obscure or contradicting.
However, its just a matter of publishers taking the wrong business moves. maybe they're worried about cost or sales. Maybe someone else's ambition is getting in the way. Maybe they just dont care that much about certain products. But when it comes to kingdom hearts, they'd be foolish not to give us a PS3 port or Part 3. Its wanted by all the fans. DEMAND DEMAND DEMAND.
THQ just made a very poor business decison regarding Armageddon..
Very well written article.
That's very sad to hear. While it could be THQ being stupid about not remembering how well Guerrilla did, I think it honestly comes down to a budget thing. What with Armageddon and Volition really flopping hard, THQ has taken some serious financial hits. My brother-in-law works with networking equipment, and THQ is one of his clients. They have one Nteworking guy to manage all the servers where they store all the data to make a game. Can you believe that? They have one guy that gets flown around to different places to manage their networks. But maybe they don't have enough money to hire some more IT guys, which is sad (Plus an upgrade to their network could help their games...).
Gamers' opinions do matter, but it seems publishers really want to use the opinions that end up most profitable. Take DS2's multiplayer, for instance. Luckily, I don't think it dampened the story at all. However, it wouldn't have mattered if MP wasn't in the game. I do recall a minority of people years ago saying Dead Space MP would be awesome. Well, given EA's new 'Online Pass' system and some small support for DS MP, they could easily 'please gamers' while at the same time making a profit on the normalization of their new way of doing online.
I do think all the big boys (especially Activision) are after the $$. It's so sad, but to me that's why we're also seeing some really good Arcade games being released -- super small companies that won't make millions, so they're making games they can passionately fuel with fun and have a largely free amount of creativity involved.
I understand what you are saying, but at the end of the day they are running a business and can do whatever they want. They don't really have any obligation to do what you want them to do, regardless of whether you or anyone else buys one of their games. They are selling a product - a game - and if you want to buy it, fine, buy it, but buying that product gives you no right to say what games they should be making.
I'm not saying that they shouldn't listen to fans, but if they don't want to they don't have to. If you don't like it, don't buy their games or make your own publishing company.
And then you can have fans complaining about the games you don't make as well :)