Remedy Boss Blames Weak Advertising for Disappointing Alan Wake Sales

[bjj hero]

I still plan to buy it. I'll be doing it in the near future now that the price is low.

I don't see the point in buying single player titles like this for full price when I can get a better (with subsequent patches) version for cheaper 6, 12 or 18 months down the line. Multiplayer games are different, the player base and people on your friends list for consoles moves with new releases so its has a social element. That makes a release day COD more tempting.

It's different with PC games though. I bought Civ 5 a couple of weeks after release at a very resonable price.

 

[Hiphophippo]

I actually really enjoyed the game. It was very atmospheric and had more than a few nods to Max Payne...and that's not even including the writing.

And besides, it's not like the new Max Payne game is going to be worth a shit, so Alan Wake is all I've got.

 

[Banter]

It's no secret that Alan Wake didn't exactly set the world on fire when it came out in May. Despite receiving very positive reviews, sales were disappointing, especially compared to the likes of Red Dead Redemption [http://www.amazon.com/Red-Dead-Redemption-Xbox-360/dp/B001SH7YMG/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287946835&sr=1-1 ] and Super Mario Galaxy 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-Galaxy-2-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B002BSA388/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287946868&sr=1-1 ], which came out in the same month. Speaking to IGN [http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/112/1129256p1.html], Remedy's managing director Matias Myllyrine blamed the lackluster sales not on anything to do with the game itself, but rather on Remedy's failure to tell people what made it worth playing.

Despite receiving very positive reviews, sales were disappointing, especially compared to the likes of Red Dead Redemption [http://www.amazon.com/Red-Dead-Redemption-Xbox-360/dp/B001SH7YMG/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287946835&sr=1-1 ] and Super Mario Galaxy 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-Galaxy-2-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B002BSA388/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287946868&sr=1-1 ], which came out in the same month.

Red Dead Redemption [http://www.amazon.com/Red-Dead-Redemption-Xbox-360/dp/B001SH7YMG/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287946835&sr=1-1 ] and Super Mario Galaxy 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-Galaxy-2-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B002BSA388/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287946868&sr=1-1 ], which came out in the same month.

That strikes me as a greater reason tbh.

 

[WrongSprite]

Bullshit, that was being heavily advertised years before it came out, it just wasn't very good.

 

[Antiparticle]

Don't look at me, I bought the game twice. First the regular edition and then after that the limited edition because I was so impressed with the game. (and because it came with really cool extras such as a soundtrack CD, novel, and even in-game developer commentary!)

 

[Logan Westbrook]

It's no secret that Alan Wake didn't exactly set the world on fire when it came out in May. Despite receiving very positive reviews, sales were disappointing, especially compared to the likes of Red Dead Redemption [http://www.amazon.com/Red-Dead-Redemption-Xbox-360/dp/B001SH7YMG/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287946835&sr=1-1 ] and Super Mario Galaxy 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-Galaxy-2-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B002BSA388/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287946868&sr=1-1 ], which came out in the same month. Speaking to IGN [http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/112/1129256p1.html], Remedy's managing director Matias Myllyrine blamed the lackluster sales not on anything to do with the game itself, but rather on Remedy's failure to tell people what made it worth playing.

Despite receiving very positive reviews, sales were disappointing, especially compared to the likes of Red Dead Redemption [http://www.amazon.com/Red-Dead-Redemption-Xbox-360/dp/B001SH7YMG/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287946835&sr=1-1 ] and Super Mario Galaxy 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-Galaxy-2-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B002BSA388/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287946868&sr=1-1 ], which came out in the same month.

Red Dead Redemption [http://www.amazon.com/Red-Dead-Redemption-Xbox-360/dp/B001SH7YMG/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287946835&sr=1-1 ] and Super Mario Galaxy 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-Galaxy-2-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B002BSA388/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1287946868&sr=1-1 ], which came out in the same month.

That strikes me as a greater reason tbh.

Well, as I say at the end of the article, the competition and the relative weakness of the advertising are both part of a single large reason.

 

[xDHxD148L0]

It was an ok game the tried to go up against red read reedemption coming out that same month. Thats why it got squashed, it might have sold a little more if it was realeased during the summer when almost nothing came out.

 

[voetballeeuw]

I enjoyed it. I thought it was fun. There were definitely some problems with it, but I still found it to be a solid game.

 

[Mcface]

I blame it being a shit game.

 

[Senaro]

I thought that's what Thriller meant. Like Dead Space or Resident Evil. There's not much else I can think about a game that just shows me a picture of a guy in a dark room with a flashlight. It never seemed interesting to me in any way.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well the game really wasn't that great, they had some good ideas but 90% of it was drudging until you find the next decent peace of the game.
If they collapsed it down to 3 hours it would be a really great game for it's type, but padded out like this it was mostly tedious and just diminished the good parts.

And they may not have noticed but not alot of people go for this genre, so they really can't get top sales on this.

 

[xyrafhoan]

Let's see. A niche genre title goes up against two of the hardest hitting developers in gaming in its launch month. The game doesn't clearly communicate what kind of game it is supposed to be, its identity confusion extending through marketing right into the gameplay itself, and also included some egregious in-game advertising for Verizon that stirred up the ire of gamers. And then it was confined to a single console.

That's a lot of reasons for Alan Wake not to do well.

 

[Alphavillain]

I like trees, woods, moody lighting and pretentious videogame storytelling. Which is just as well, because there was a lot of trees, woods, moody lighting and pretentious videogame storytelling in "Alan Wake".

 

[Jamash]

Alan Wake [http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Wake-Xbox-360/dp/B0010AYJXI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287946804&sr=8-1] was a great game, but Remedy's Matias Myllyrine feels that there was confusion about what kind of game it actually was.

I'll admit I didn't know what it was. Every time I read the title I assumed it was a Wakeboarding sports game in the vein of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater or Dave Mirra BMX Challenge.

Mentally I read it as Alan (Surname's) Wake(boarding Challenge) and dismissed it because I don't like boarding games.

I blame the fact that at the time I heard of it the market seemed to be saturated with celebrity sports personality games, although to be honest, I wasn't much more interested in Alan Wake when I did find out what kind of game it was.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Alan Wake to me was one of those games that seemed really neat while playing it the first time, but looking back on it, it wasn't that great. It also downright sucked as a horror game. I wasn't scared once, although that part when you have no weapons and are being chased by an axe murderer was pretty cool, almost scary, but not enough.

 

[The Hairminator]

It was a very special game, depending on atmosphere and feeling, rather than raw game mechanics. The combat could have been better, but the plot was solid and the characters were good, and the feeling was the way it was intended, although after a while it all felt too spread out. It became very repetitive.

 

[Something Amyss]

News story: Alan Wake Player Blames Weak Game For Disappointing Alan Wake Sales.

I was pretty excited for it before launch. But then I bought it.

My goodness, was that game ever boring. I never even bothered to finish it, it was so disengaging.

Then again, games that are in the works for years and years often don't turn out very well.

Your last point is the most pertinent one, I believe.

I think this thing could have had the largest media blitz ever, and still been "disappointing" in sales terms.

I was hyped for it...Years ago. It looked like a LOT of people lost interest after years of delays, Judging by almost every site I visit regularly. I think less advertising was probably better: Less money to recoup.

 

[SaintWaldo]

Ad-space was saturated. Didn't Escapist run a gutter-spread for that, as well? It just took way too long for the type of experience and title it was.

Look, GT5 can take 5-7 years to come out, because, in a lot of fans minds, it's simply the premiere racing experience. MGS4 could be delayed 2-3 years because, in a lot of fan's minds, it's simply the premiere stealth action melodrama experience.

What did Alan Wake offer? Playing a knock-off Stephen King wanna-be in a game that never quite told you if it was Silent Hill, Resident Evil, or 7th Guest. That's not a winning formula, no matter how much advertising. YOU SIMPLY MADE A GAME WITH NO MARKET, GET IT?

Why would you find Alan Wake scary if it isnt a horror game? You dont know what Alan Wake is about, it is a Thriller mixed with Action. It isnt a game to scare you

Right. Which is why they put in all that Stephen King name-dropping and blurbs mentioning suspense and "booga booga booga" monsters jumping from the dark and whatnot. Crying about "misunderstood" often means the complainer didn't actually know what they were trying to say.