Bodycount Dev: Bulletstorm Proves There Is a Market Outside of Call of Duty

[Logan Westbrook]

Bodycount Dev: Bulletstorm Proves There Is a Market Outside of Call of Duty

It turns out that you don't have to be a brown and grey military shooter to sell well.

Andy Wilson, design director for Codemasters' upcoming shooter, Bodycount, said her was pleased that Bulletstorm as it showed that consumers would actually buy shooters that weren't Call of Duty or its contemporaries.

Wilson said that Bulletstorm's success showed that there was room in the market for all kinds of titles, and said that it was nice that it was possible to make a multi-million selling shooter that wasn't a big-name military FPS like Battlefield or Medal of Honor. "We looked at Bulletstorm and I think it's fair to say that it was a sort of 'acid test' for us," he said. "Because they were coming out first we were very interested in how they did and it's a very good sign."

Bodycount is said to be a spiritual successor to the 2006 FPS Black, which was created by the same team. While it's not necessarily all that much like Bulletstorm in terms of gameplay - you're not going to score extra points for groin shots, for example - both games have the distinction of being new IPs competing in a market dominated by just a handful of large franchises.

It's worth mentioning, however, that Bulletstorm had a number of advantages that Bodycount lacks. For starters, Epic's marketing budget seems to have been significantly higher; the studio actually released an entire parody game as part of the marketing campaign. What's more, Epic could offer access to the Gears of War 3 beta as an incentive, something that Codemasters obviously can't do.

Wilson isn't wrong that there's a market for non-military, non-brown shooters, but selling millions and millions of copies take a lot of effort. Whether Codemasters has pushed hard enough will become clear when then game comes out on August 30th.

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/309987/news/bulletstorm-proves-theres-a-market-outside-call-of-duty-codies/?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-News-RSS]


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[TimeLord]

I loved Black on the PS2, it was current gen graphics but with lots of explosions!

 

[TerribleAssassin]

Never played Black, but if Bodycount is outrageous and has a sense of humour, I might get it

 

[MrStab]

I think I enjoyed Black more than any other shooter I've played excpet for the first two Medal of Honour games on the PS1. So if this is anything like black in the gameplay or mechanics I am fucking keen.

 

[Jonny49]

Does this mean we can get a Timesplitters 4? Like... yesterday?

 

[Mr Somewhere]

So, there's not just a market for first person shooters, but also a market for more first person shooters... yay.

 

[dyre]

Bulletstorm kinda sucked though. A better example of an FPS that proves there's a market outside CoD is probably Borderlands

 

[Astalano]

Well, Bulletstorm didn't exactly sell fantastic so I don't know what this guy's point is.

 

[infohippie]

Hey, Andy Wilson, you know what else there's a market for? Games that aren't shooters. Try building some of them instead.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I liked Black on the Xbox but I think it's silly to say people are interested in shooters outside of the CoD/MoH/Battlefield mold and use Bulletstorm as proof. Bulletstorm is a far cry from many of them but TF2 is an extremely huge shooter which practically drips whimzy. It's also sold better than Bulletstorm if I'm not mistaken.

Either way, I need to take a look at this Bodycount thing.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

What's more, Epic could offer access to the Gears of War 3 beta as an incentive, something that Codemasters obviously can't do.

This was my only thought when first reading your title. Bulletstorm was a fun-for-five-minutes kind of game for me, the constant repetition in the later levels were as annoying as the characters themselves (Cog's in disguise).

Bulletstorm was the Portal 1 of the FPS, carried by the horsepower of big name developers, nothing amazing, just simple and fun, yet blown way out of proportion. Except in my opinion, Bulletstorm wasn't very funny.

For me, Bulletstorm sold well because Epic games helped it with big budget marketing, and bonus offers.

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

Bulletstorm kinda sucked though. A better example of an FPS that proves there's a market outside CoD is probably Borderlands

This.

Bulletstorm was ok...It wasnt worth $60 I think it should have been the old Crackdown joke

$60 for the GoW3 Beta and a Free Game (if you bought for 360)

I hope for a Borderlands 2 and perhaps (asking for to much I bet) maybe a character creator

 

[Retardinator]

It turns out that you don't have to be a brown and grey military shooter to sell well.

So you can be orange and dirt-yellow instead?
The only distinction Bulletstorm has is that it comes a list of moves for somewhat modified conventional weaponry and lots of swear words. You figure out which one of those two was deemed innovative.

 

[Imbechile]

Wow, I must be one of the few people that really enjoyed Bulletstorm, and I'm someone who HATES the current shooter trends.

 

[SovietPanda]

borderlands, TF2, brink,perfect dark even halo i mean yea it's milatarised but theres lots of colour and its pretty over the top. There's always been room in the market for sureal and colourful shooters. As long as the gameplay is solid, the maps are well thought out and the guns are fun to play with.

 

[Legendsmith]

borderlands, TF2, brink,perfect dark even halo i mean yea it's milatarised but theres lots of colour and its pretty over the top. There's always been room in the market for sureal and colourful shooters. As long as the gameplay is solid, the maps are well thought out and the guns are fun to play with.

Damn Ninja.
But yes, Trade Fortress 2, Borderlands and all that proved this way before bulletstorm did.

It turns out that you don't have to be a brown and grey military shooter to sell well.

So you can be orange and dirt-yellow instead?
The only distinction Bulletstorm has is that it comes a list of moves for somewhat modified conventional weaponry and lots of swear words. You figure out which one of those two was deemed innovative.

Yeah, I agree. As yahtzee said, the game's weapons are like something from a game that's not trying to be a "supa-relistack military brown&bloom" game, but the enemies, the chest high walls everywhere speak a different story. The game's like 'Gears of ridiculous weapons & dick jokes.'