EA Aims to "Broaden" Dead Space Audience
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
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Basically, what he's saying is:
"The Cocaine trough is empty and we need an absolute crapload of money to fill it again. Because we've made utterly moronic decisions over the last few years desperately trying to be Acti-Blizzard, our slush funds are all empty too. The only even remotely AAA title we have in the works at the moment is Dead Space 3 so it has to bear the burden of pulling us out of the red"
And seriously, you morons who think the publisher gets 50% of the sale price (I'm not even touching the idiots who think 100% goes to the publisher... sheesh), you really need to look up some very basic principles of business.
5 million sales equates to about $135 million to the publisher, the rest goes to the stores. They've already paid for the game to be made when they green-lit it however many years ago that was, so on DS3 have probably been sitting at -$25 to -$30 million for a year now. Assuming at least as much spent on marketing (and yes, you DO spend that much if you're EA) means EA are looking to be $50-60 million out of pocket before a single copy hits the shelves. Going by other industries, you'd want to at least match what you've spent in profit, so they want to make $50-60 million on top.
The rest is greed and covering for their poor practices elsewhere.
"The Cocaine trough is empty and we need an absolute crapload of money to fill it again. Because we've made utterly moronic decisions over the last few years desperately trying to be Acti-Blizzard, our slush funds are all empty too. The only even remotely AAA title we have in the works at the moment is Dead Space 3 so it has to bear the burden of pulling us out of the red"
And seriously, you morons who think the publisher gets 50% of the sale price (I'm not even touching the idiots who think 100% goes to the publisher... sheesh), you really need to look up some very basic principles of business.
5 million sales equates to about $135 million to the publisher, the rest goes to the stores. They've already paid for the game to be made when they green-lit it however many years ago that was, so on DS3 have probably been sitting at -$25 to -$30 million for a year now. Assuming at least as much spent on marketing (and yes, you DO spend that much if you're EA) means EA are looking to be $50-60 million out of pocket before a single copy hits the shelves. Going by other industries, you'd want to at least match what you've spent in profit, so they want to make $50-60 million on top.
The rest is greed and covering for their poor practices elsewhere.
Im not much surprised by the "We're streamlining this game to become more of a shooter to appeal to a wider audience", fairly common market strategy, unfortunetly. Especielly from EA.
But five million units? That number puzzled me. Some of EA's most massive titles havent sold in 5 million units, how do they heck do they expect Dead Space 3 to manage?
Something is seriously wrong in the way EA does buisness. Not just morally, but financially.
But five million units? That number puzzled me. Some of EA's most massive titles havent sold in 5 million units, how do they heck do they expect Dead Space 3 to manage?
Something is seriously wrong in the way EA does buisness. Not just morally, but financially.
Vault101 said:
-Much MUCH easier
-Talking and personable protagonist as opposed to a hidden, non-talking one
-Variety. People like variety, even if it spoils the atmosphere
-Take away the map and turn the game into a giant linear pathway
Though, To be fair, how many people actually took the time to use the map system and not just do what I did- spam the locator system?Blood Brain Barrier said:
And I died a lot in DS2, especially on Zealot difficulty, even with epic tier weapons.
5 million units in 3 months?
Yeah, maybe if you're Bethesda or Valve but right now everyone is turning their backs on you so you're REALLY gonna have to fucking try if you wanna push those numbers. Saying that you're gonna "Broaden the audience" (which is basically saying we're gonna take everything you liked about this series and turn it into Cover-based space shooter #12905) of a series, is a BAD way to do that.
I love the first Dead Space game, I was considering getting the sequel at some point this year. Now I'm wondering if I should bother.
Yeah, maybe if you're Bethesda or Valve but right now everyone is turning their backs on you so you're REALLY gonna have to fucking try if you wanna push those numbers. Saying that you're gonna "Broaden the audience" (which is basically saying we're gonna take everything you liked about this series and turn it into Cover-based space shooter #12905) of a series, is a BAD way to do that.
I love the first Dead Space game, I was considering getting the sequel at some point this year. Now I'm wondering if I should bother.
oh look, and just like that any lingering chance of me buying this game have been stabbed in the face. What's with people's aversion to survival horror? Even if it was mostly just monster closet scares it was nice to have something like Dead Space lurching around and moaning. As it transitions into a full on action game I kind of hope this actually kills the franchise, if only to teach EA a lesson...which they'd probably ignore.
Why do people keep bringing up Mass Effect? I personally thought 2 and 3 didn't touch the quality of 1 ... but the simplification in 2 was a commercial success. The franchise destroying ending in 3 can hardly be scratched up to pandering to the lowest common denominator either, that was purely up to Mac Walters's ego and poor oversight (an ending which effectively kills the world for further games is never going to get approval at a managerial level, even if people who consider themselves artists lap that shit up).
Dragon Age 2 is a fine example though.
Dragon Age 2 is a fine example though.
You've got a point there. Then again, that would mean a few years without ANY good games...Iron Criterion said:
"We want to advertise to a broader audience". Copy, paste on google translate, set settings to: Translate from greedonia to english. Result: "We prefer moolah above artistic value."
Yes, $30/unit is a good estimate. Because that's what EA makes per game THROUGH RETAIL, and since EA makes most of their money through console sales (not Origin), they have to go through retail.Spaloooooka said:
The retailer "middleman" hikes up the price per unit to what YOU see (~$70). That's the cost of going through retail.
(Of course, a point of obvious douchebaggery is that EA is still charging prices at parity with retailers online for Origin, even though they cut out the middleman with Origin.
It's their right to be sure, but they have no other reason than "Because we know you're gullible enough to buy it".)
Agreed sir! I've watched some good franchise travel this road to ruin, the most noteworthy being Mass Effect and that was extremely disappointing. Dead Space isn't a great survival horror game but it had some good ideas, its sad to see them fuck it up like this.Proverbial Jon said:
Until games like Call of Duty Gears of War and other big shooters stop making ridiculous ammounts of money, publishers will continue to replicate mainstream shooters in an attempt to earn big. We might say no-one wants this to happen to a great game but it DOES appeal to the unwashed masses (example black ops 2 massive preorders) and this saddens me deeply