There was a study done by a major publisher that tracked sales vs when a functional crack was released.
The first week is key; after first week/two weeks of sales, they drop off in general. Additionally, it was proven that when a crack is released, sales will drop off right away.
Games that did not have working cracked versions in the first week or so, saw more overall sales than those that got cracked quickly.
The prevalance of the cracked version on torrents would also correspond to drops in sales - the more quickly a a game became widesread torrented, the quicker the sales dropped off.
Unlike D&D and Magic and such, Warhammer and 40K are a 3 part hobby - modelling, painting, and playing. Each player puts a different amount of emphasis on each. Some love painting most and don't play all that much, so this is not much different than buying and painting regular plastic kits. For me, modelling comes first, then playing, finally painting.
The models, assembled or not, can often be resold for 75% or more of their purchase price. If well painted, they can be sold for more than purchased.
When it comes to big name commercial games, those first 3 days can make a big difference in total sales. If it can be delayed out to a week, even better.
A few years back, one company I worked at had developed a playable demo of a game. We had an engine that worked very well, and was even being shown at the Nvidia booth at E3 (it showcased their latest tech very well). When other companies saw it, they asked how we had managed to license the Doom 3 engine (this is before Doom 3 had shipped, mind you) - it looked that good.
We had the playable engine you could walk around a sample level and interact with, a story with storyboards, and plenty of concept art. We had an established company, founded by a well known game developer (who went back quite a ways in the industry), and all of our people had experience on at least one previous big budget commercial title. We had self funded a lot of the development to this point. All we needed was a company to pick it up and give us funding to go wide with development.
We showed the game to a variety of publishers, and only a few were interested. But even then there was a catch. Those few who were interested, wanted to see a lot more before they bit. It became quickly apparent that the only way we'd ship the title was if we self funded most of the game's development. That was the nail in the coffin - we didn't have that money lying around, and our attempts at venture capital funding failed miserably.
Another example - an independent developer not too far from us had developed their own game to completion, and went to a publisher. The publisher looked at it, liked what they saw, and then said "Well... can you turn it into a Star Trek game?" So they did, and the Star Trek game got published. However, I believe they ended up having to self-publish their original game.
Publishers don't want to publish your game. They want to publish their game. They don't want to fund you to develop your game, but they will gladly fund you to develop their game.
Your best bet - develop it up on your own, and try to sell it on Steam or the like.
To be fair, Final Fantasy IV for the DS is a complete remake of the game. It is presented in 3D (vs the 2D sprites of the previous incarnations), and features full motion video and voice acting. It does stil follow the same story and characters, and is probably one of the best FF stories (though I'm still very partial to FF6).
They haven't stated, but I do not believe you will need to have a Gold subscription. I downloaded plenty of content and watched videos off of Xbox Live with only the Silver (Free) account.
I am also a long term member, and have the Readers Rewards VISA card. I haven't actually BOUGHT a book from them in quite a while, but have gotten many free books, as I run all my expenses through my card. Every $1500 I spend allows me one "book" selection up to $25, with free shipping... fortunately this includes multi-book deals up to $25, so I've received a LOT of books. I'm probably sitting on 15-20 books yet to read (havent had time lately), and at least another dozen or so free book certificates to use up.
Since I always pay balance off in full, I have no finance charges to worry about either. Using a credit card is a nice safety buffer between the bank account and merchants.
They often have new releases as well, I think I've gotten the majority of the Harry Turtledove alternate history books I've read through them, usually within a few weeks of release.
After a few years as a member they offered me another "We'll give you 6 books for $5 if you commit to buying another 4."
Free download of 9 songs, with 40-page PDF. $5 for a one-time-download in one of 3 DRM-free formats, including PDF and many digital extras (wallpapers, etc) $10 for songs on 2 CDs, PLUS the download $75 for songs on CDs, plus DVD with all tracks in all digital formats, plus BluRay disc with HD audio and slideshow, plus download
The $5/$10 price points set new precedents... especially considering this is 36 tracks. That's far cheaper than iTunes or normal CDs.
SD is unwatchable on LCD and Plasma panels, agreed.
But thats why I got a 55" Sony SXRD rear projection. It uses 3 1080p LCOS chips to generate the image (unlike the DLP which use a half-1080 chip and a spinning color wheel - so no rainbow effect). While it takes about 45 seconds to warm up to full brightness, thats perfectly tolerable - image us viewable within 10-15 seconds of turning it on. Standard Def looks great, even at 55", in any of the 4 aspect modes available (no change, stretch to widescreen, and 2 scale and crop modes). HD looks amazing. The unit weighs about 80 lbs, and goes for about $2k.
Unlike other rear projections, I don't have problems with poor brightness or horrible contrast - Battlestar Galactica is very watchable without turning off the lights or cranking brightness up... so thats saying something!
You can't see the forest for the trees. Yes, you are being extremely arrogant.
You're talking strictly about engineering. They were talking about exposed design, user interaction, and user interface. How the data is stored in memory and manipulated is completely irrelevant to the point at hand. From an engineering perspective, the amount of work required for that part IS trivial. From an interface implementation perspective, its not that difficult, just time consuming. But when it comes down to actual screen real-estate planning, interaction with the user who is using aj oypad, it becomes a much more difficult system to plan and design. Keep in mind it is a console game which must be able to function at less than 640x480 - and on top of that there is a dedicated safe region around the edges, so take off 5% of your screen space on each edge! Additionally, a joypad is a very different control paradigm than a mouse - you can't just click around the screen. Don't judge how long it would take to create the screen they used. They're talking about how long it took them to come up with the screen they did, which includes prototyping other ideas which they felt did not work as well.
You seem to like to use background to backup your claim, so here is mine. I am currently and have been an engineer in the games industry for almost a decade, having worked on big budget titles for every platform of the current and previous generation systems, as well as PC (with the exception of the Wii). Along the way, I've worked directly UI engineers on implementation of UI screens and back end interfaces on both PC and console games.
People also seem to forget that 2/3s of the passengers of the Hindenburg survived, and it was the only notable airship disaster, whereas most airplane crashes that involve fatalities seem to kill a good majority (if not all) of the passengers, and seem to happen at least once or twice a year lately.
I've seen bad ghosting on monitors using crappy VGA cables, but haven't had any problem with any of several 2405s and 2407s (pre-HC though). I must say the 2407s are a good sight better than the 2405, and the original 2407 release and first revision have acknowledge serious issues. After a couple revs though, they can be really good.
I have the 2407 WFP (the pre-HC, they released the wider color gamut HC model two months later). Best monitor I have ever used. However, I will say for gaming, I could never go beyond 24". It's at the edge of affecting my reaction times in FPS games like Team Fortress 2.
The 2407 doesnt kill power to USB when it goes to sleep, but it does if you turn the monitor off entirely.
Dell makes some of the best LCD displays, in my experience.
You are putting words into my mouth. I have made no statement of expectations regarding Spore.
I am pointing out that it as a new brand it has significant risk associated with it, and that is obviously expensive to develop (given how long it has gone).
The guaranteed sellers like Madden and other sports titles bring in guaranteed profits. It makes taking risks with other games - which EA has been doing more of lately - easier to justify, and keeps the risks from folding the company. I've known a few development companies who took a single risk and it cost them everything, because they did not have anything to fall back on.
They may complain about it, but if I recall correctly the profit margin on video games is 40%-50%, which is comparable to a lot of other products. I think the issue comes when they have a lot of product that ends up not selling for whatever reason, and eats into the massive profits they can make on hot sellers. They don't like that part, and will whine about it, but thats just part of doing business.
Your numbers are a bit off, from my experience. I've usually received about half what the used game sells for - for example, in one case with a recent release of a hot game still selling for $60 new, $50 used, I got $25 store credit. Of course, YMMV.
Slashdot Mirror
There was a study done by a major publisher that tracked sales vs when a functional crack was released.
The first week is key; after first week/two weeks of sales, they drop off in general. Additionally, it was proven that when a crack is released, sales will drop off right away.
Games that did not have working cracked versions in the first week or so, saw more overall sales than those that got cracked quickly.
The prevalance of the cracked version on torrents would also correspond to drops in sales - the more quickly a a game became widesread torrented, the quicker the sales dropped off.
Unlike D&D and Magic and such, Warhammer and 40K are a 3 part hobby - modelling, painting, and playing. Each player puts a different amount of emphasis on each. Some love painting most and don't play all that much, so this is not much different than buying and painting regular plastic kits. For me, modelling comes first, then playing, finally painting.
The models, assembled or not, can often be resold for 75% or more of their purchase price. If well painted, they can be sold for more than purchased.
Yes, CRTs have something like 1-2 ms latency + refresh rate.
When it comes to big name commercial games, those first 3 days can make a big difference in total sales. If it can be delayed out to a week, even better.
A few years back, one company I worked at had developed a playable demo of a game. We had an engine that worked very well, and was even being shown at the Nvidia booth at E3 (it showcased their latest tech very well). When other companies saw it, they asked how we had managed to license the Doom 3 engine (this is before Doom 3 had shipped, mind you) - it looked that good.
We had the playable engine you could walk around a sample level and interact with, a story with storyboards, and plenty of concept art. We had an established company, founded by a well known game developer (who went back quite a ways in the industry), and all of our people had experience on at least one previous big budget commercial title. We had self funded a lot of the development to this point. All we needed was a company to pick it up and give us funding to go wide with development.
We showed the game to a variety of publishers, and only a few were interested. But even then there was a catch. Those few who were interested, wanted to see a lot more before they bit. It became quickly apparent that the only way we'd ship the title was if we self funded most of the game's development. That was the nail in the coffin - we didn't have that money lying around, and our attempts at venture capital funding failed miserably.
Another example - an independent developer not too far from us had developed their own game to completion, and went to a publisher. The publisher looked at it, liked what they saw, and then said "Well... can you turn it into a Star Trek game?" So they did, and the Star Trek game got published. However, I believe they ended up having to self-publish their original game.
Publishers don't want to publish your game. They want to publish their game. They don't want to fund you to develop your game, but they will gladly fund you to develop their game.
Your best bet - develop it up on your own, and try to sell it on Steam or the like.
To be fair, Final Fantasy IV for the DS is a complete remake of the game. It is presented in 3D (vs the 2D sprites of the previous incarnations), and features full motion video and voice acting. It does stil follow the same story and characters, and is probably one of the best FF stories (though I'm still very partial to FF6).
Oh, I don't know, maybe because mine is quiet when it's not playing a game?
They haven't stated if it will require Gold or not. Silver let me do pretty much everything except play games against other players.
They haven't stated, but I do not believe you will need to have a Gold subscription. I downloaded plenty of content and watched videos off of Xbox Live with only the Silver (Free) account.
But can I watch them on my Xbox 360?
Mmm hm, that's what I thought.
Thankfully my Netflix subscription will give me that at no extra cost.
I also have the WRT54GL (which is different than the WRT54G, for other readers).
I run the stock firmware, and never need to reboot it.
Fortunately I'm hosted at the Dallas facility, and this event was at the Houston one.
I am also a long term member, and have the Readers Rewards VISA card. I haven't actually BOUGHT a book from them in quite a while, but have gotten many free books, as I run all my expenses through my card. Every $1500 I spend allows me one "book" selection up to $25, with free shipping... fortunately this includes multi-book deals up to $25, so I've received a LOT of books. I'm probably sitting on 15-20 books yet to read (havent had time lately), and at least another dozen or so free book certificates to use up.
Since I always pay balance off in full, I have no finance charges to worry about either. Using a credit card is a nice safety buffer between the bank account and merchants.
They often have new releases as well, I think I've gotten the majority of the Harry Turtledove alternate history books I've read through them, usually within a few weeks of release.
After a few years as a member they offered me another "We'll give you 6 books for $5 if you commit to buying another 4."
The other prices are astounding:
Free download of 9 songs, with 40-page PDF.
$5 for a one-time-download in one of 3 DRM-free formats, including PDF and many digital extras (wallpapers, etc)
$10 for songs on 2 CDs, PLUS the download
$75 for songs on CDs, plus DVD with all tracks in all digital formats, plus BluRay disc with HD audio and slideshow, plus download
The $5/$10 price points set new precedents... especially considering this is 36 tracks. That's far cheaper than iTunes or normal CDs.
Oh, I just discovered that they are discountinuing their rear projection lines... which means you can probably get them on sale for a good price now.
SD is unwatchable on LCD and Plasma panels, agreed.
But thats why I got a 55" Sony SXRD rear projection. It uses 3 1080p LCOS chips to generate the image (unlike the DLP which use a half-1080 chip and a spinning color wheel - so no rainbow effect). While it takes about 45 seconds to warm up to full brightness, thats perfectly tolerable - image us viewable within 10-15 seconds of turning it on. Standard Def looks great, even at 55", in any of the 4 aspect modes available (no change, stretch to widescreen, and 2 scale and crop modes). HD looks amazing. The unit weighs about 80 lbs, and goes for about $2k.
Unlike other rear projections, I don't have problems with poor brightness or horrible contrast - Battlestar Galactica is very watchable without turning off the lights or cranking brightness up... so thats saying something!
I'm more reminded of the Disney Hercules animated movie from 1997 than TF2...
TF2 wasn't the first to do non-realistic cartoony graphics. Only the most recent and successful.
You can't see the forest for the trees. Yes, you are being extremely arrogant.
You're talking strictly about engineering. They were talking about exposed design, user interaction, and user interface. How the data is stored in memory and manipulated is completely irrelevant to the point at hand. From an engineering perspective, the amount of work required for that part IS trivial. From an interface implementation perspective, its not that difficult, just time consuming. But when it comes down to actual screen real-estate planning, interaction with the user who is using aj oypad, it becomes a much more difficult system to plan and design. Keep in mind it is a console game which must be able to function at less than 640x480 - and on top of that there is a dedicated safe region around the edges, so take off 5% of your screen space on each edge! Additionally, a joypad is a very different control paradigm than a mouse - you can't just click around the screen. Don't judge how long it would take to create the screen they used. They're talking about how long it took them to come up with the screen they did, which includes prototyping other ideas which they felt did not work as well.
You seem to like to use background to backup your claim, so here is mine. I am currently and have been an engineer in the games industry for almost a decade, having worked on big budget titles for every platform of the current and previous generation systems, as well as PC (with the exception of the Wii). Along the way, I've worked directly UI engineers on implementation of UI screens and back end interfaces on both PC and console games.
People also seem to forget that 2/3s of the passengers of the Hindenburg survived, and it was the only notable airship disaster, whereas most airplane crashes that involve fatalities seem to kill a good majority (if not all) of the passengers, and seem to happen at least once or twice a year lately.
I've seen bad ghosting on monitors using crappy VGA cables, but haven't had any problem with any of several 2405s and 2407s (pre-HC though). I must say the 2407s are a good sight better than the 2405, and the original 2407 release and first revision have acknowledge serious issues. After a couple revs though, they can be really good.
I have the 2407 WFP (the pre-HC, they released the wider color gamut HC model two months later). Best monitor I have ever used. However, I will say for gaming, I could never go beyond 24". It's at the edge of affecting my reaction times in FPS games like Team Fortress 2.
The 2407 doesnt kill power to USB when it goes to sleep, but it does if you turn the monitor off entirely.
Dell makes some of the best LCD displays, in my experience.
You are putting words into my mouth. I have made no statement of expectations regarding Spore.
I am pointing out that it as a new brand it has significant risk associated with it, and that is obviously expensive to develop (given how long it has gone).
The guaranteed sellers like Madden and other sports titles bring in guaranteed profits. It makes taking risks with other games - which EA has been doing more of lately - easier to justify, and keeps the risks from folding the company. I've known a few development companies who took a single risk and it cost them everything, because they did not have anything to fall back on.
They may complain about it, but if I recall correctly the profit margin on video games is 40%-50%, which is comparable to a lot of other products. I think the issue comes when they have a lot of product that ends up not selling for whatever reason, and eats into the massive profits they can make on hot sellers. They don't like that part, and will whine about it, but thats just part of doing business.
If it funds games like Spore, are you still going to complain about it?
Your numbers are a bit off, from my experience. I've usually received about half what the used game sells for - for example, in one case with a recent release of a hot game still selling for $60 new, $50 used, I got $25 store credit. Of course, YMMV.