Why Majesco Fell

CNN Money's Game Over column today takes a look at some of the reasons Majesco has bowed out of the majors of game publishing. From the article: "Majesco was hardly blameless for its failings. 'Advent Rising' didn't come close to living up to expectations - earning middling reviews at best ... 'Psychonauts,' though, was a critical darling - earning a spot on many critics' holiday buying guides. Despite this, the game never found an audience. Sales were awful, coming in at under 100,000. As for the movie licenses? 'Aeon Flux,' based on last year's Charlize Theron film flopped. 'Taxi Driver' was cancelled as part of last week's decision. 'Ghost Rider,' (based on an upcoming Nicholas Cage film) was sold. And, inexplicably, Majesco has decided to move forward with the release of a game based on 'Jaws' itself - perhaps as a last hurrah, perhaps because it couldn't find a buyer and the game was essentially complete. (I saw an early build of 'Jaws'. It is not - in any way - a game that would have reversed Majesco's slump.)" We discussed their decision last week.

Comments

FACT

[SimianOverlord]

It is a fact that gamers are to blame for good game companies going under. As a group, we simply don't award creativity or innovation in gaming. 'Cult' hits are a sign of the disease, intelligent, thought provoking gaming like Planescape: Torment simply do not get the sales they deserve, and soon appear in the bargain bin.

I really have no idea why this happens. Fantastically good games available for about £5 in some cases is simply unbelievable in any other industry like film or music. Classics of the genre in those industries retain their value beyond a year - you don't find classics like On the Waterfront or 12 Angry Men in the bargain bin, as they seem to hold their value.

It's a sad thing, because in response, the game industry is going to chase the brainless blockbuster format, which EA has pretty much sewn up. And its hard to blame anyone other than ourselves. I don't really know why this happens, but I'd guess that too many of us are unwilling to try something new. It seems OK to be a FPS guy, or a sports sim guy - but if you only went to movies that were about sports, you'd be regarded as a total whacko.

Gamers will get the industry they support, and what they support is a million EA clones released with incremental changes year after year. It's so depressing.

Re:FACT

[Strell]

You don't know why it happens? It's a self defeating industry with self perpetuated biases. It's the thought that simply because Xmen Legends was a good game based on a somewhat good movie, Fantastic Four is going to ride that gravy train on home as well. Hence, a kid goes to Blockbuster and finds 10 copies of F4, but zero-to-one copies of Psychonauts. It doesn't help, of course, than the general gaming public has become entrenched and mired in this sort of cycle - a shitty game with a big license will outsell an original game that is much better, EVEN if huge names are backing it (i.e. Shaefer).

The industry revolves around whatever big thing 14 year old boys think is cool. Right now it's guns, killing hookers, rap, cars, and abysmal gameplay. I saw a 7 year kid (or therabouts) talking about how Shadow the Hedgehog was the greatest game ever. Why? Because he had a gun. Nevermind that the game was universally rejected as enjoyable - it was marketed as cool and thus will at least generate respectable sales (whether or not they are respectable for Sega's princely franchise is another argument altogether).

That is the reason. That is why Halo, GTA, and any knockoff franchise - including all WW2 shooters, any "sandbox" game, etc - will be chart toppers. There's an entire group of games that go unsung and underrated, and it is mostly because the main hero isn't some generic rage filled smart mouth guy holding a big gun. We have a Scarface game coming out for god's sake. AND a Godfather game. Who in their goddamn mind thinks this is a good idea?

Answer: The industry, based on current trends.

I'm serious - the game indsutry crashing again can't come soon enough. Finally knock some goddamn sense into everyone, and weed out the useless people buying Madden Roster Upgrade 200X every year.

Re:FACT

[LilBlackDemon]

'Cult' movies may retain value long after their release, but are often times overlooked on release and there are certainly a large number of releases that failed to reach 'cult' status. For every 'Pi' there are a hundred independent movies that are only seen by a few hundred, sometimes failing to make back even their initial cost (usually under $30,000) and fall into disgrace (and irrelevance). The commonality among 'cult' movies is that they pass quickly through word-of-mouth and have modest box office success (just look at 'Donnie Darko'. Although the movie barely recouped it's cost in the theatres, it has done amazingly well on DVD, garnering a special director's cut as well as regular release).

You can make the same argument for games, that good but not amazing initial sales will keep people playing for long periods of time (look at games like Tribes 2's re-release). The difference is that there are no residuals once a game has been bought, and games move off of store shelves (if they ever make it on) very quickly. To further compound the problem, most people don't buy older games with very few exceptions (this is slowly starting to change, but is still only a small fraction of the market with little to no residuals going back to the developer). Movies continue to be rented and shown on television long after they are produced (even very old movies through the US cable TV channels TCM and AMC), and so studios continue to profit off of these residuals long after their release.

Re:Majesco had issues.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like you worked there. :-)

The other problem with Psychonauts is they were way too conservative with their projected sales and the game ended up difficult to find! If you want to sell product, damn, you gotta put it on shelves first!