Xcom Publisher: Strategy Games Are Not Contemporary

[omega 616]

I didn't realize I needed somebody to tell me what I want.

I have never played an xcom game but what this guy said sounds like crap to me, "were not just cashing in on the name" certainly sounds like you are!

"strat games are what gamers want"? I dare you to go to Korea!

Make what the fans want, not what you think they want. You will sell a butt tonne more games if you do.

 

[Continuity]

Yes, because it's not like 2K has a best-selling, award winning turn-based strategy series that just saw the release of it's fifth game in the series to strong sales. No, that's impossible, because those things are totally dead and have been for years!

Civ has become much more combat based since 2k got a hold of it. Civ 4 was kind of a mess. Civ 5 was pretty good, but was poorly optimized; it was like they changed content for the better (hex based is awesome) without caring about quality of presentation because "that's not what civ fans care about". All I play these days (pretty much) are strategy games (just picked up Frozen Synapse), and Civ 5 doesn't run well on my laptop unless I make it look like crap. For a game that can get easily repetitive when playing single player, visuals are key to keep the experience from becoming boring.

Correction, Civ4 was awesomeness distilled, Call to power was a mess. IMO.

As for Xcom.... Fail 2k, big fail.

 

[Artemis923]

Another one of my beloved franchises dies.

Which one will be next, I wonder?

 

[Quanta Starfire]

Another one of my beloved franchises dies.

Which one will be next, I wonder?

Nintendo recently announced that they're doing a reboot of the Mario series as an FPS in order to capitalize on the Western gaming market.

Here's the trailer [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtMZKYnLg5c].

 

[Eveonline100]

Another one of my beloved franchises dies.

Which one will be next, I wonder?

Nintendo recently announced that they're doing a reboot of the Mario series as an FPS in order to capitalize on the Western gaming market.

Here's the trailer [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtMZKYnLg5c].

Here my thoughs on that WTF

 

[themilo504]

ever heard of a gap in a market or nostaliga or both.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

This "game that they insist should be called XCOM" might be quite good as a shooter-with-some-depth kind of game, but it's really hard to go for a game that pretends to be something it isn't.

You're right, people aren't pissed because they think the end result will be subpar... it's just not what they want or expect from a game sporting the XCom pedigree. When you use an establish franchise/brand you're trading on expectations generated by previous products sporting the same name, to turn around and ignore those expectations is... well, at the end of the day it's a waste of money spent on the franchise rights because at best they'll be a non-issue and more likely to be a negative.

The question is will this game sell better as 'X-com' than it would have as... fuck, whatever title you can think up... let's go with 'Agent Fancyhat: Alien Exterminator'. I'm not seeing any indications that it will, which suggests that all 2K are doing is burning a franchise and gambling that this reinvention will garner the same sort of fanbase the original XCom titles did... which is a bad gamble, these are the kinds of people who've kept the same couple of games running over the course of half a dozen or more OS changes.

The question at the heart of it is - if they're aiming to sell to old school XCom fans who jump genres and ignore the established setting? If they're aiming at a younger crowd, why bother using a franchise name that their target market has almost no idea of?

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Correction, Civ4 was awesomeness distilled, Call to power was a mess.

Civ4 was great because they rebuilt the entire game from the ground up. No more odd bits of legacy code or random slapped on fixes and workarounds from previous versions. It was the ultimate extension of what could be done with the original gameplay and concepts.

Call To Power was the first hint of how truly evil Activision was... although it did introduce expanding borders.

 

[Mailman]

I'm on the ropes. I'm not a fan of strategy games but the world of X-Com sounds so interesting to play in. I read a Stargate/X-Com fanfic and it was pure awesome every chapter.
I've seen some let's plays and although the graphics are primitive by today's standards, the reviewers seemed to have a great deal of fun.

I'm not excited about this remake. The aliens look generic. The only thing they have going for them is setting it in the 1950's.

 

[Pharsalus]

I've never felt the urge to use the word philistine until now. It's just tragic that companies are so commuted to getting their own market share of FPS fanboys that their pretty much openly insulting people who play strategy games. Too angry to think straight.

 

[Dexiro]

It's not a case of cashing in on the name. We just need to renew it because times are changing."

Maybe the times are changing because developers like this have this deranged idea that only FPS games sell these days and they're afraid a good ole' strategy game won't get them enough money.

If more developers actually took risks for once maybe Strategy games could be the FPS of the future. Lead the change instead of just sheeping along with what's popular.

 

[AdumbroDeus]

Somebody needs to explain the concept of "over-saturated market" to x-com, I doubt it's gonna make anywhere near the amount it would've as a strategy game because it carries no name brand recognition into the shooter market and because there are so many shooters today, only a relative handful of which are making the big bucks.


Also, plenty of recent strategy games have sold extremely well and there are still plenty of jazz artists out there. Music genres don't die, there will always be the genres that are in pop, but there's still baroque-style music being produced today under the label of "neo-classical".

 

[Rpground]

"It's not a case of cashing in on the name."

when you say your "rebooting" a franchise to a shooter from a TBS game to appeal to the masses...THAT IS CASHING IN YOU IDIOT! my brain hurts...

something is wrong with captcha...

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

something is wrong with captcha...

I believe that's the hieroglyph for 'titwank'.

 

[Volafortis]

I hate this FPS trend publishers are pushing. Sure, they sell to a larger demographic, but other genres still sell.

Look at Starcraft 2, Civ 5, WoW, Dragon Age, Minecraft, etc..

All have multi-million copies sold, and none are RTS. 2 are straight up Strategy, and 2 more can be argued as very strategy intensive.

 

[Vankraken]

/Facepalm

What moron green lit the idea to use a landmark turn based strategy series IP from 15 years ago and slap the name onto a FPS and use zero of the content from the IP and make up uninspired crap instead (its geometry because its easier to model and thus saves money).

If you wanted a FPS using the X-Com name then why not try to revive X-Com Alliance as an AAA title while leasing the IP rights to a smaller development company to make a strategy game that can release within a year of the FPS.

I am going to be pissed (and lose faith in the gaming community) if this shit actually turns a profit.

 

[AntiChrist]

He continued explaining his position through a comparison to the music business. "I use the example of music artists. Look at someone old school like Ray Charles, if he would make music today it would still be Ray Charles but he would probably do it more in the style of Kanye West. Bringing Ray Charles back is all fine and good, but it just needs to move on, although the core essence will still be the same."

"The core essence"? Say what? When a game developer starts defending its product by arguing that they're preserveing some ill-defined "essence", it basicly means that they're bullsh*tting you. Supposedly, if the upcoming X-COM is so in line with what the present gamer desires as 2K claims, then the gameplay should be able to speak for itself without relying on metaphysical mumbo-jumbo arguments.

Also, Ray Charles in the style of Kayne West? WTF? [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AxdefW6jNh8/TLs84XsJMHI/AAAAAAAAGew/AKkBmE7Jem0/s1600/fffuuu.gif] What style is that? Non-talented?

 

[Brian Hendershot]

Ye. Clearly he is not trying to cash in on the old franchise name. Nope. He is trying to cash in on the old franchise name and the success of CoD like games all at once.

 

[sniddy_v1legacy]

It really is stupid

You have a brand you could release a stonking game on, and the hype would be incredible. Right now all the attention is BAD - the words generic shooter, cash in, just another FPS are hardly appealing to anyone. Exciting, new, update, long awaited, and the massive hype a reboot/sequal could generate WOULD pull in people....

If you take the Xcom brand and do something of an in between game (probably between terror and apoc) - then hush it up with some ultra top secret stuff to explain it not appearing in cannon - then your sequel pulling in everything and hinting an an alliance remake would drive the fan base wild - then do it.

But no, generic mass effect cookie cutteried soulless monster 23 is produced to compete with 'cogs of war' 'call of battle' 'run'n'gun' and the 100 other titles screaming 'look at me CoD fanbase, look at me, please give me all your money I heard you like guns and stuff, so buy me, meeeeeeee'

Stupid dumbarse move

 

[LorienvArden]

Could somebody please give this "publisher" a booting out of his office back into marketing 101 ?
1) Target demographic : People who enjoy playing Mass effect or Bioshock.
2) Setting : Generic 50s/60s with generic abstract alien invasion
3) PR : Annoy the hell out of followers of the original IP, give uninformed demonstrations and try to sell long established features like brand new inovations.
4) IP : Tag on a Brand name that is neither recognisable in the game itself nor attracts the audience for the game.
5) Technology: At least a year behind industry standard.

Here are some pointers how the "lets make another X-com shooter" idea could have worked:

Make it about the original Xcom. Let players fight through interception missions as a squad comander against sectoids and snakemans. Give them a fresh and modern look at how we imagined those terrormissions to feel like - with civilians fleeing from their homes while cyberdisks blasted their homes and abducted their pets.
Let us select missions from a trusted geosphere that changes as the invasion continues depending on the missions we chose.
Make us feel like we are in control of a squad instead of a whole organisation. New tech will be presented to us depending on what we faced in the missions we played and how we accomplished our goals.
Blew up the elerium in the last interception ? Sorry, no expensive jet-pack armor until we can power them...
Killed those leaders instead of tasering them ? How do you expect us to find out about cydonia if you don't do your job RIGHT ?

Outside the game: Be reasonable and have a feeling for the world of games around you. At least KNOW that your company is very good in the "not so contemporary" genre of strategy and that one of the biggest e-sports leagues is centered around Starcraft(which happens to be an RTS title).
Do not presume that you know what players WANT, but chose your words with care and honesty - say that "you think this will appeal to a younger audience" and "might draw in players from other successfull shooters". Give meaningfull presentations and don't just spew another round of "cinematic,next-generation,innovative thingamajig" emptyness at us. If you can't tell us anything about your game - DO NOT GIVE AN INTERVIEW for pete's sake.Coming to a show like E3 and thinking "well, if we just hide enough of the game we might make somebody curious..." is NOT how your company should present itself. It is a waste of your time, your money and worst of all - OUR time trying to guess if we should give a crap.

This is the worst project I've seen in a long time. Whoever greenlit this thing should ask themselfs how to get the money for their investment back. The game might have had potential, but it is handled with the finess and care of a wild boar.
As it stands, this clusterfudge is just going to fall so short of expectations that DNF will be considered a Game of the year candidate in comparison.