Their games where profitable, what ever you think of the localizations. If there games where profitable, why then did they shut down? From Victor Ireland we know they couldn't get Sony to greenlight their projects, and after years of tough battles they threw in the towel. Why wouldn't Sony ok projects from a sucessful (financially) developer?
to wondering why a publisher won't fund his game even though it'd probably be reasonable profitable. The answers obvious: games are so big right now, being a publisher's like a license to print money. Why waste even a few moments of time on a game that'd net you 1 million when there're others that'll get you 10 times that. Worse, no smart industry wants to risk fragmenting their market into niches if they can avoid it. That's why they music industry pumps out the same crap over and over again. That's what killed Working Designs, and it'll kill anything this guy tries to do with a major publisher, sooner or later.
was mentioned in the article, and it's 7 bloody years old. I mean, really, what's needed are cabinets with interchangable hardware so it's not so expensive to add new games. Jamma was a good idea, but as soon as 3D hit big, it was thrown by the wayside in favor of custom hardware. And Clint's assertion that people don't have 52" screens with vibrant color and animation is just silly. The last couple House of the Dead games ran on x86/Nvidia hardware, and I know plenty of people with 52" tvs. Bolting a sports bar on isn't going to help much either. OTOH, tournaments are good. Might give people a reason to go to the arcade again.
but if I could go to jail for 14 years just calling George Bush a fsckin' asshat, I wouldn't be willing to settle for a pen name. I mean, how much effort does it take in that kind of gov't to track you down by ip?
the people in power, the people making these patent laws, operate in a global theatre. The US can go to hell for all they care. Heck, they're looking forward to it, it means more cheap labor.
if he's got a CS degree, they might not touch him (and yes, I know people with CS Degrees working in tech support, thx to India and Outsourcing. If you get stuck in a town with no programming jobs due to family, housing, etc you're screwed). Companies don't like to hire people like that, since they'll leave the first chance they get (instead of when the company's ready to fire them).
reserve prices discourage bidding, since seeing one means you won't get a great deal, just a fair one (maybe). Plus I think ebay charges a fee. Besides, if you win the auction with your fake account you can leave positive feedback for yourself.
since in addition to idiots bidding the auction up for the hell of it, you've got sellers who bid on their own crap when it doesn't go for what they wanted. I've known 5 ebayers who all did it (years ago, don't know 'em anymore). I remember running across an obscure piece of computer equipment I wanted, and a seller who was running 5 separate auctions for it. For two weeks I'd bid, and for two weeks the same damn ebayer would out bid me within 30 minutes. There were 5 of them on ebay at all times. Doesn't take a genius to figure out what was going on.
it clears up those messy 'fair use' issues with an iron clad rule that circumventing any sort of copy protection is illegal. Just checking the CD-Key is enough.
Farmers often had millions of dollars in land, but very little real wealth. The problem was every generation they'd have to sell off half the farm to pay the tax. Meanwhile a large corporation would move in and buy up the land. Hence the death of the American Farm. These are the people we want to protect by eliminating the death tax. The question is, are there any left to protect?
That only works when there's a labor shortage. People keep forgetting that things in America and Europe sucked until after WWs I & II killed off a large chunck of working men and the cold war prevented nations from outsourcing to sweatshops. Well, the baby boomers have bred their way back to a surplus and the cold war is over. On the plus side, there's a really nasty war brewing over oil and metal. WWIII here we come. Hope I get to stay out of it.
where's the market research (that isn't months old and already talked to death over)? EA, Square/Enix and the rest of the big publishiers must be looking at this trend, couldn't we hear a little from them? How about some hard stats on the # of games the average WoW player has bought in the months before and during play? We know sales are down, but the economy's in the toilet and it's pre-Christmas at the end of a console epoch. for God's sake, it's expected. I'm not saying MMORPGs are or aren't biting into the rest of the market, but then neither is the article.
had arcade perfect ports of Space Harrier and Afterburner, so did the Saturn. Arcades were dying in the states, only the fighting game crazy kept 'em breathing. Commodore's mistake (I assume you mean the Amiga32) was trying to sell hopelessly old tech at a high price because it had a CD drive attached. Sega's mistake was infighting, rushing their next gen console to get it out first, and trying to market the Dreamcast as hip instead of for the technological marvel it was.
Sadly, yes. Now, an intelligent society wouldn't have let you have more than 2 (enough to sustain the population), and wouldn't let you have those unless you could support them.
Enough to buy good food and housing, pay for healthcare when needed. Manage small personal disasters, and save money for a time when you can't physically work anymore. And finally enough that the stress from working doesn't negate the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.
Or Ar Tonelico? Then there's all those Tactical RPGs (Disgaea et al). How about Legend of Mana (if we're going as far back as the n64 era)? Sad that Dawn of Mana's 3D, even if it looks nice. I remember thinking how awesome the 2D games on these new consoles will be. High Res and lots of animation. Too bad it never materialized.
why the hell Rockstar Games made a bloody table tennis game (and promoted the hell out of it). It's a tech demo, like DOA Beach Vollyball. Then again, I'd be mad if I paid $50 bucks for a tech demo and didn't even get scantily clad women to go with it.
just ask anyone in Los Angelos or Mexico City. I still remember as a kid hearing about 'smog days' and being shocked anyone would put up with that instead of just taking a fsckin' bus to work.
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Their games where profitable, what ever you think of the localizations. If there games where profitable, why then did they shut down? From Victor Ireland we know they couldn't get Sony to greenlight their projects, and after years of tough battles they threw in the towel. Why wouldn't Sony ok projects from a sucessful (financially) developer?
to wondering why a publisher won't fund his game even though it'd probably be reasonable profitable. The answers obvious: games are so big right now, being a publisher's like a license to print money. Why waste even a few moments of time on a game that'd net you 1 million when there're others that'll get you 10 times that. Worse, no smart industry wants to risk fragmenting their market into niches if they can avoid it. That's why they music industry pumps out the same crap over and over again. That's what killed Working Designs, and it'll kill anything this guy tries to do with a major publisher, sooner or later.
was mentioned in the article, and it's 7 bloody years old. I mean, really, what's needed are cabinets with interchangable hardware so it's not so expensive to add new games. Jamma was a good idea, but as soon as 3D hit big, it was thrown by the wayside in favor of custom hardware. And Clint's assertion that people don't have 52" screens with vibrant color and animation is just silly. The last couple House of the Dead games ran on x86/Nvidia hardware, and I know plenty of people with 52" tvs. Bolting a sports bar on isn't going to help much either. OTOH, tournaments are good. Might give people a reason to go to the arcade again.
but I still hate the Dutch. And the Belgians, because they share a border with the Dutch.
but if I could go to jail for 14 years just calling George Bush a fsckin' asshat, I wouldn't be willing to settle for a pen name. I mean, how much effort does it take in that kind of gov't to track you down by ip?
the people in power, the people making these patent laws, operate in a global theatre. The US can go to hell for all they care. Heck, they're looking forward to it, it means more cheap labor.
Didn't the tax law legalize private, non-commercial copying (i.e. making a copy for your buddy)? Still sucks either way.
if he's got a CS degree, they might not touch him (and yes, I know people with CS Degrees working in tech support, thx to India and Outsourcing. If you get stuck in a town with no programming jobs due to family, housing, etc you're screwed). Companies don't like to hire people like that, since they'll leave the first chance they get (instead of when the company's ready to fire them).
reserve prices discourage bidding, since seeing one means you won't get a great deal, just a fair one (maybe). Plus I think ebay charges a fee. Besides, if you win the auction with your fake account you can leave positive feedback for yourself.
since in addition to idiots bidding the auction up for the hell of it, you've got sellers who bid on their own crap when it doesn't go for what they wanted. I've known 5 ebayers who all did it (years ago, don't know 'em anymore). I remember running across an obscure piece of computer equipment I wanted, and a seller who was running 5 separate auctions for it. For two weeks I'd bid, and for two weeks the same damn ebayer would out bid me within 30 minutes. There were 5 of them on ebay at all times. Doesn't take a genius to figure out what was going on.
it clears up those messy 'fair use' issues with an iron clad rule that circumventing any sort of copy protection is illegal. Just checking the CD-Key is enough.
Because then there would be an alternative for people who want a Star Wars Themed MMORPG.
Farmers often had millions of dollars in land, but very little real wealth. The problem was every generation they'd have to sell off half the farm to pay the tax. Meanwhile a large corporation would move in and buy up the land. Hence the death of the American Farm. These are the people we want to protect by eliminating the death tax. The question is, are there any left to protect?
That only works when there's a labor shortage. People keep forgetting that things in America and Europe sucked until after WWs I & II killed off a large chunck of working men and the cold war prevented nations from outsourcing to sweatshops. Well, the baby boomers have bred their way back to a surplus and the cold war is over. On the plus side, there's a really nasty war brewing over oil and metal. WWIII here we come. Hope I get to stay out of it.
where's the market research (that isn't months old and already talked to death over)? EA, Square/Enix and the rest of the big publishiers must be looking at this trend, couldn't we hear a little from them? How about some hard stats on the # of games the average WoW player has bought in the months before and during play? We know sales are down, but the economy's in the toilet and it's pre-Christmas at the end of a console epoch. for God's sake, it's expected. I'm not saying MMORPGs are or aren't biting into the rest of the market, but then neither is the article.
If you cut and past the text from that PDF, it tells you where they buried Jimmy Hoffa!
had arcade perfect ports of Space Harrier and Afterburner, so did the Saturn. Arcades were dying in the states, only the fighting game crazy kept 'em breathing. Commodore's mistake (I assume you mean the Amiga32) was trying to sell hopelessly old tech at a high price because it had a CD drive attached. Sega's mistake was infighting, rushing their next gen console to get it out first, and trying to market the Dreamcast as hip instead of for the technological marvel it was.
Sadly, yes. Now, an intelligent society wouldn't have let you have more than 2 (enough to sustain the population), and wouldn't let you have those unless you could support them.
Enough to buy good food and housing, pay for healthcare when needed. Manage small personal disasters, and save money for a time when you can't physically work anymore. And finally enough that the stress from working doesn't negate the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.
Or Ar Tonelico? Then there's all those Tactical RPGs (Disgaea et al). How about Legend of Mana (if we're going as far back as the n64 era)? Sad that Dawn of Mana's 3D, even if it looks nice. I remember thinking how awesome the 2D games on these new consoles will be. High Res and lots of animation. Too bad it never materialized.
why the hell Rockstar Games made a bloody table tennis game (and promoted the hell out of it). It's a tech demo, like DOA Beach Vollyball. Then again, I'd be mad if I paid $50 bucks for a tech demo and didn't even get scantily clad women to go with it.
Here
shock and awe, my friend, shock and awe.
just ask anyone in Los Angelos or Mexico City. I still remember as a kid hearing about 'smog days' and being shocked anyone would put up with that instead of just taking a fsckin' bus to work.