XCOM E3 Previews are in!

[Pete]

No probs - I know, there aren't any reliable figues and I'm only going off what Dave Ellis said as well.

 

Gaming markets have doubtless changed over the years and I'm sure it did very well for it's time, but this new one will be hyped up quite a lot if the Bioshock marketing was anything to go by, plus it's being released on more than one platform from the outset. I'm willing to wager that the fact it's more FPS-oriented in it's tactical element will shift more units as well. It is getting back into stereotypes, but I imagine there was less interest in the PS version of XCOM than there was in Resident Evil back in the day, and it seems like the majority of games on consoles are FPS-oriented, so my thinking was that this will shift a lot more units than the unknown amount of copies the original game sold.

 

So yeah, it's working from some assumptions and no hard evidence, and there's probably not a lot of point guessing

[Matri]

I, for one, fully agree with Cracked on the direction the industry has taken.

[Bomb Bloke]

Meh, they've been "out of ideas" since the '90s.

[Matri]

At least they were still doing other genres then. Now it's just FPS, guns, flashy graphics.

 

Gameplay? What's that?

[FullAuto]

Dave Ellis believes

 

Mmm. Not going to bother saying anything else about this. I find it hard to credit that a game that 'didn't do that well' (going by the way people talk about it), spawned a sequel almost immediately, and then another three games, innumberable imitators, many websites and so on and so forth. They're not resurrecting X-Com now because they think it's the best game they've ever played, they're doing it because they think it'll sell a lot.

 

(Civ 2 sold 2 million I think)

 

Fair enough, but didn't Civ 2 come out after X-Com EU? 94 vs 97? There was a bit of market difference there, Amiga going tits-up, IBM PCs coming to the fore, etc.

 

Gaming markets have doubtless changed over the years and I'm sure it did very well for it's time, but this new one will be hyped up quite a lot if the Bioshock marketing was anything to go by, plus it's being released on more than one platform from the outset.

 

I'm not saying if you directly compare the numbers, the originals will come out on top, necessarily. However, if you talk about the whole series, I don't think this new incarnation is going to outsell them all put together. Not unless the later games really died on their arse (do we even know how they did? No? What a surprise).

 

My point was, if you compare sales as a percentage of the market, I think the original(s) would still stack up favourably. I'm at a loss to explain why certain people seem to downplay how many copies X-Com sold when they talk about it. Especially as it seems no-one has any actual figures.

 

I imagine there was less interest in the PS version of XCOM than there was in Resident Evil back in the day

 

No doubt, although they're in different genres and released in different years, but the fact that it got a port in the first place is surely an indicator of considerable success? How many PC games got a port to the PS1? It's not something companies do lightly, because it's expensive. Civ 2, for instance, got a console port. But apparently it was a much bigger success than X-Com EU. Perhaps there was still money in it, perhaps the bar was much lower then, and they still stood to make a mint on EU on the PS1, but if you take Civ 2 as a valid comparison, how can EU, who apparently only did 250k (one-eigth as much), have been worthy?

 

/ gnaws bone

[Space Voyager]

At least they were still doing other genres then. Now it's just FPS, guns, flashy graphics.

 

Gameplay? What's that?

I don't think so. True, FPS is the most prominent genre right now but there are A LOT of games out there and coming. SotS2, Shogun2:TW just to name the two (my) most anticipated strategies.

[FullAuto]

I don't think so. True, FPS is the most prominent genre right now but there are A LOT of games out there and coming. SotS2, Shogun2:TW just to name the two (my) most anticipated strategies.

 

Matri may be overstating slightly, but he does have a point. The FPS is rather over-exposed at the moment, with many competing franchises, each selling millions of units. Medal of Honor, Call of duty, Halo, Killzone, and then lots of smaller titles all trying to get known and sell a load of units and climb to the top of the heap.

 

If you're looking for an innovative title, chances are it's on Wii, DS, PC, or iPhone, and it's independently developed on a shoestring budget, has next to no advertising or exposure apart from word of mouth, receives little attention even when it's out for review (even if it's a great game, you'll find it can get ignored in favour of a title with a higher profile), and fades away because no-one hears about it and no-one buys it. The starry-eyed devs either kill themselves or just turn evil and start working for Activision, EA, etc.

 

Every few years, you get a title like World of Goo, a tiny little game that manages a few minutes of fame and sells well because it's a good game, but this happens rarely, and the more money goes into the industry, the less this will happen.

[sluissa]

First off, sorry if I hurt any feelings by my half joking, half serious accusation. I always think corruption is a possibility no matter how big or small the enterprise. I apologize if I was out of line. In any case, I'll drop that subject for now.

 

I don't think so. True, FPS is the most prominent genre right now but there are A LOT of games out there and coming. SotS2, Shogun2:TW just to name the two (my) most anticipated strategies.

 

I think what we're seeing here is the condensing of all games that give the player control of a single entity or small group into FPS style games. Even with RPGs we're seeing this, in Bethesda's Elderscrolls and Fallout games and Bioware's Mass Effect games.

 

With strategy games, games it falls into two distinct types of gaming. On one hand you have strategic gameplay. This would be the games like Civilization. Most major strategy games follow this turn based 4x style for their strategic sections. For control of battles though, you're seeing pure RTS gameplay. Most major game series that combines the strategic and the tactical aspects will use these two methods seperately. This is most obvious in the Total War series and Sword of the Stars. Both of these games give you turn based Strategic gameplay and real time Tactical gameplay.

 

There are, of course, exceptions. But few, if any of the exceptions are what could be considered "mainstream", to use a mildly outdated term.

[FullAuto]

First off, sorry if I hurt any feelings by my half joking, half serious accusation. I always think corruption is a possibility no matter how big or small the enterprise. I apologize if I was out of line. In any case, I'll drop that subject for now.

 

I think we all know the gaming industry is fairly corrupt. That is, we don't have suspicions, we know that it's bent.

 

The reality is, we don't take bribes. The chances are, no-one will ever approach us anyway, because we're just too small. The big sites like IGN, GameSpot etc get the money, in one form or another, whether it be PR events, advertising from the dev's/publisher's parent company or whatever.

 

I'm not too keen on the new X-Com, but I don't think slating it on here, when we know basically nothing about the game, will achieve anything. It certainly will be a good way to start arguments and upset people, though. I think Pete was 100% right in asking you to send your views to the devs, rather than repeat them on here. At least then the shit will be headed in the right direction. Will it change anything? Almost certianly not. But you know that anyway.

 

Even when we know all there is to know about the game, it's not going to change the dissatisfaction we have with it; that it's not the X-Com we know and love. We know they've resurrected the name to enhance sales. We know it has tenuous-to-zero links to the other games. We don't need the devs to admit it, because we know it, and they would never admit it anyway.

[Gimli]

Here's Dave's exact quote:

 

[FullAuto]

I bet TFTD had a smaller budget, IIRC it came out the very next year. It uses the exact same game template as EU, with some mission variety, but it's basically the same. New graphics, new sounds, bit of engine twiddling, and bosh, sequel.

 

As a complete guess, as I doubt my hunt for figures will be any more fruitful today than it has been in the past, I think a new X-Com strategy game would be a success. The name is obviously worth something, as it's being used now, on a new title. The series is still for sale on Steam and the like, and I bet they've done alright.

 

Why these numbers are so bloody secret, I do not know. People sat down and looked at sales figures and said "We can make lots more money." or "We can't make any more money." Did the devs just not care, not take an interest? "Are we going out of business this week because our game isn't selling? Or is it time to buy another yacht? Do you know, what, I don't care."

[Bomb Bloke]

The new game is being sold both under the name of X-COM (kinda), and on the merits of BioShock (if you only pay attention to the video releases thus far).

 

Regarding TFTD, the story as I've always heard it was that Mythos was not involved. But we've has someone claiming to be a graphical artist for both UFO and TFTD on these very boards... So there must've either been input from Microprose into both games, or input from Mythos into both games.

 

Civ II had multiple "versions", one of which involved a fairly major graphical overhaul, more units, etc. Then there were the expansions (one of which was X-COM based!)... UFO/TFTD only really had two versions each (the DOS one and the Windows one, putting aside the free update patches), and these played nearly identically (the only intentional differences between them I've managed to find, to date, is that the CE versions have more characters represented in their font files, and throws more detailed error messages if you make it crash. Oh, and there was the whole CE-games-run-natively-within-Windows thing, of course, but my point is none of these things impacted "gameplay").

 

Given that more "flavours" of Civ II were put on the market for people to buy, I'd expect it to have more sales overall. That is to say, it really counts as more then one game.

[Gimli]

As you all know, Mythos did UFO. Mythos back then was pretty much only the Gollops I think. As I understand it, the two of them handled programming and design, and Microprose supplied art, sound and music people. TFTD was all Microprose using the assets from UFO.

[Thorondor]

@Gimli:

 

Do we have any numbers for similar games? Silent Storm, UFO: After... series and such.

I can shed at least partial light on UFO: Aftermath sales as I followed its development and release rather closely.

 

In the 3rd quarter of 2005 it was made public by the publisher who funded development (Cenega Publishing) that Aftermath had sold 350.000 copies worldwide.

 

Cenega was very pleased and deemed the game a success, allowing for the team to go on to start making Aftershock shortly afterwards. It bears saying that ALTAR went on supporting Aftermath past release despite not being payed a dime by the publisher for such - all patches made for the game were funded solely by ALTAR - their time, their expense.

 

Note that the development team at ALTAR (at the time named "ALTAR Interactive") braved a number of difficulties in order to get Aftermath out the door, as they eventually did in October 2003.

 

The ALTAR Interactive team

 

Things like receiving a handful of virtually nothing in terms of code/assets from Mythos' "The Dreamland Chronicles: Freedom Ridge" project in July 2001 and having to start from scratch, being abandoned without pay by Virgin Interactive, having to self-fund development for months without any promise a new publisher would be found for the title, etc.

 

Martin Klima's (Project Lead, ALTAR) "Dev Diaries" offer a glimpse of that time, if you're curious.

 

https://www.strategycore.co.uk/assets/images/newsletters/20050930/Martin.jpg

Martin Klima posing next to the game at E3

 

They believed in their game, though, pushed through, and proved they were right in having done so.

 

I also particularly recall something "inspiring" Martin Klima shared with us at the old official boards (under the ALTAR posting pseudonym) from his stay at E3 2002, as he tried to pitch Aftermath to a publisher's representative - and I quote:

 

(...) I can quote a manager from certain well known publisher/distributor after showing the UFO:AM to him: "It is a PC game and it is too cerebral. This is not a kind of market we are interested in..."

It's possible 2K still shares this view while regarding the present-day market.

 

As we all know, nonetheless, following Aftershock, ALTAR was again green-lighted to develop yet another entry in the series: Afterlight.

 

The trilogy is still sold in boxed and digital format for a decent amount given the time elapsed, so one may surmise it has at least been worthwhile to keep it available.

 

::

 

Admittedly, none of the games were perfect, but they did well enough by my estimation.

[Gimli]

That's the thing that I have trouble explaining to people: it isn't very important to make a huge profit, every developer's most important financial goal is to "cover themselves" (no, not in money ), which means that they have enough money for their next project. As long as you can do that, everything else is a (welcome) bonus. 350 000 copies sounds good actually, considering the genre.

[Mouse Nightshirt]

Having read the posts thus far, I'll throw my tuppence in.

 

This game looks great.

This game does not look like X-Com.

 

For point 2 alone, this game scares me greatly. I want to remember X-Com for the epic battles, classic strategy, fantastic storyline that became a huge part of my childhood and beyond. I don't want this to be upset by what clearly is a different game. This game may be fantastic, but I want to play X-Com, not something that's pinched the name and slapped it on a completely "alien" series (excuse the pun).

 

I'm just very wary that this game will severely disappoint me purely on an expectation front. The game may be brilliant, but that's not what I'm after.