Xcom Publisher: Strategy Games Are Not Contemporary

[Treblaine]

Sell games in bulk. Screw niche markets and dedicated fan bases, you don't matter and they don't want your money.

The irony is that this notion that only shooters are marketable also fails to take into account the fact that most modern shooter fans probably don't know or care about the Xcom series and will likely blow their cash on CoD and Battlefield anyway. By turning their backs on their fans they basically lost the largest and most successful demographic the game would of had.

I mean even if it was at least and RTS opposed to a shooter I think many fan would agree that was a logical step in the next directions, but turning it into a shooter is a step back.

The thing is they are clearly backpeddling like fuck. All through E3 they made many failed attempts at showing this is an Xcom game for Xcom fans realising very late in the development that they can't just slap on the XCOM name to get easy sales.

I think they have realise what a shit position they are in as they are just another FPS game in a market when so many others have done very poorly, both in a critically and financially:
-Homefront
-Singularity
-Duke Nukem Forever
-Medal of Honor
-MAG
-Brink
-FEAR 3

XCOM (2012) is in dire need of a 'unique selling point' something that will give anyone a reason to chose XCOM over all the other FPS games coming out the same year like:
-Far Cry 3
-Prey 2
-Deus ex 3: Human Revolution
-Metro: last Light
-Bioshock Infinite

 

[secretshadow90]

Does anyone have a clip of The Spoony One's yelling of "BEEEETRAAAYAAAALLL" from last year's E3 after he saw the XCOM preview? Because I think that one clip sums up everyone's reaction.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

What fool insinuates that Kanye is the new Ray Charles? He's probably so poorly educated on music that his idea of researching this analogy was to go 'Oh, Kanye borrows from I Got A Woman in Golddigger, therefore if Ray Charles was alive he would probably make music like that'.

I really don't get this. Is there some kind of rule now that all senior executives at publishing companies must speak like douches? Do they have a flow chart somewhere that shows "piss off your consumers = get more money"?

 

[RDubayoo]

Sorry, not buying it. People do still want turn-based strategy games. And if 2K thinks that it wouldn't sell as a AAA title, then... why not release it as a Xbox Live/PSN/Steam downloadable game at a cheap price? Just excise all the grandiose cutscenes and famous voice actors, then focus on making a compelling strategy game. But nooo, we have to make XComioshock or whatever the hell this is.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Apparently neither are good well made games too. As long as it can rope you in for 2 seconds its done its job IE made a sell that can not be undone.....

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

XCOM (2012) is in dire need of a 'unique selling point' something that will give anyone a reason to chose XCOM over all the other FPS games coming out the same year like:
-Far Cry 3
-Prey 2
-Deus ex 3: Human Revolution
-Metro: last Light
-Bioshock Infinite

Most, if not all, of those have a much higher profile with the majority of gamers who play shooters than a 90s turn based squad tactical game. They're already sequels to FPS/FPS-RPG titles so at least they're aiming at the same demographic their predecessors made their names in... which is a long way fo saying XCom's brand power is essentially zero with their target market and they're going up against some pretty hefty brands.

Let's face it, for most people who are already a fan of the franchise the game being a shooter is negative... disregarding the original setting is even worse.

 

[toothofymir]

2k...
You IDIOTS

 

[BoogieManFL]

Apparently 2k games doesn't know jack shit.

If we wanted a shooter, we'd, you know, PLAY A SHOOTER.

 

[Nouw]

I like the idea of adding new genres to a game but I disagree with the 'are not contemporary' bit.

Strategy games are still very much contemporary and aren't the 'Ray Charles' of video-gaming.

I guess that means that Starcraft is due for a reboot as a shooter as well? (Now that I think of it, a shooter based in the Starcraft universe would be pretty cool...) I don't see any of this working out too well. It's not necessarily what today's gamers want, it's what they think will sell better.

So what you're saying is... Halo? Couldn't help trying to draw attention to the similarities, but in all honesty, if the flood were actually made a playable faction in Halo Wars, it would have completed it's destiny of totally ripping off Starcraft. Depending on your outlook, that might have been a good thing.

Wait what? Since when was 'parasitic alien-races' exclusive to Starcraft? And could you further show your similarities between Halo and Starcraft? I'm very interested in how you think the Protoss are the Covenant, Zerg are Flood and Terran are UNSC.


Also, there was an axed Starcraft shooter called Starcraft:Ghost if you're interested.

 

[Silvianoshei]

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.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Funny. I thought Total War, Civilization, Starcraft and Dawn of War were all doing well... I guess not.

 

[Mr Companion]

Yeah its not like FrozenSynapse is one of the biggest strategy games of this year or anything turn based strategy is sooo dead.

 

[Mr Companion]

I want Ray Charlies to come in now and be like "Alright im real happy for you 2K and im gonna let you finish but turn based strategy is the best genre of all time man!"

 

[Caffiene]

Translation: "We dont have the vision or inventiveness to corner a niche market even with a ready-made IP to build on, so instead we're going to hope to claim an average and unremarkable share of the same market everyone else is already in by making an average and unremarkable game."

Im honestly not much of a fan of the Xcom games (they just arent a style I was interested in, even when they were new), but the impression I get from all those quotes is "We dont want to be different, we want to do what everyone else has already done". Very sad when a supposedly creative industry allows this sort of talk to become not only an acceptable viewpoint, but acceptable enough to publicly announce in a press interview.

 

[DracoSuave]

He has a point. The economy is bad and game developers are worried about losing sales and missing out on potential markets, Valve for example was thinking of making a line of tactical games sort of like Starcraft (apparently) and they ended up scrapping it because they knew that even with their popularity they would be missing out on money and not make as big a profit.

Its just a thing of the industry that you have to deal with really. I don't like it either but it happens.

EDIT: I'm surprised a lot of you are shocked by this. Nearly all companies would react pretty much the same...unless its Blizzard because they have a massive market for these sort of things...but even they are simplifying their games and trying to find ways to get more players for their strategy games.

Conversely, a strategy game has a larger sales window than a FPS, due to the undersaturation of the market. Look at games people buy weeks or years after they come out. Civ 5, The Sims, these games still sell months after release, unlike a FPS which is forgotten after the next FPS comes out.

 

[Monsterfurby]

Oh, Here We Go Again. Just because that Hardhearted Hannah threw Sticks and Stones at Civ and f'd up so bad they now chose to Sing The Blues, that doesn't mean strategy games are out of fashion. It's just, shooters seem to be easier and cheaper to do, I give him that, as neither Hide nor Hair protects you from a badly made strategy games. If someone would please Unchain my Heart and tell that guy to Hit the Road, Jack, That Lucky Old Sun 2k might stand a chance. With that attitude though, My Heart Cries for You, 2k Games - just get Back to Where We Left Off and admit that you're Busted.
Let's Go Get Stoned.

 

[Treblaine]

XCOM (2012) is in dire need of a 'unique selling point' something that will give anyone a reason to chose XCOM over all the other FPS games coming out the same year like:
-Far Cry 3
-Prey 2
-Deus ex 3: Human Revolution
-Metro: last Light
-Bioshock Infinite

Most, if not all, of those have a much higher profile with the majority of gamers who play shooters than a 90s turn based squad tactical game. They're already sequels to FPS/FPS-RPG titles so at least they're aiming at the same demographic their predecessors made their names in... which is a long way of saying XCom's brand power is essentially zero with their target market and they're going up against some pretty hefty brands.

Let's face it, for most people who are already a fan of the franchise the game being a shooter is negative... disregarding the original setting is even worse.

Which is all a real shame because I liked Bioshock 2, it was made by the same dev team of 2k Marin and even though it rode a lot on the coat-tails of Ken Levine's original Bioshock it continued the narrative quite well with it's own novel approaches.

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.

I think several things need to be done to save this game:
(1) The devs must Admit that this is a NEW game that just uses the old name as the concept is objectively similar. Stop the bullshit failed pandering and just be honest.

(2) change it so that officially this is a "reimagining" or "reboot", don't try to crowbar this into a beloved canon where it only serves to contradict and confuse

(3) CHANGE THE TITLE! Not completely, just add on a subtitle so it doesn't have the EXACT same name that is descriptive of the entire franchise. Call it something like "XCOM: Zero", "XCOM vs UFO" or "XCOM: The Electric Bogaloo" seriously, something that distinguishes this game by name from the rest of the Strategic franchise.
But yes, a complete renaming would be ideal away from XCOM to something like ZCON, I don't know.

At the moment this fails to appeal to the strategic interests of Xcom fans and it can't even say "Hey Xcom fans, you ever wanted to get down and fight face-to-face with the aliens you are so familiar wi... oh wait, none of the aliens you are familiar with are present"

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I want Ray Charlies to come in now and be like "Alright im real happy for you 2K and im gonna let you finish but turn based strategy is the best genre of all time man!"

Epic post.

I just think he was jealous of Ray Charles.