Release Date situation insight from reviewer perspective

[BigAntStudios]

We're spreading the same marketing budget across even more territories so it needs to be even shorter.

 

[Zapages]

We have had public showing of the game. It's not being hidden.

I appreciate the effort in your posts but there are some parameters that make our titles different, it's a very niche game (those without cricket interest will not purchase it) and it has a relatively low marketing budget.

Historically we have run the same campaigns and they have been very successful, indeed all of them have been #1 in Australian charts with AFL Live also being the best selling AFL game ever.

PoP SoT is the only one I finished, it was by far the best game of the series but was the least profitable.

Prince of Persia Sands of Time sale wise was least profitable for Ubisoft due to lack of sales in the beginning of the release of the game. Over time Prince of Persia Sands of Time sold more than its sequel Prince of Persia Warrior Within. Beyond Good and Evil was huge loss, fortunately it sold well enough with spirit of Michael Ancel ie. Rayman creator he is able to make sequel to that game.

The problem with the video game industry and like the movie industry is that they very release/top heavy. What I mean is that when the movie or video game is released they usually sell the most in the first week to a month respectively. Hence over time they get discounted to the nth degree.

I don't want nor hope Big Ant's efforts to go to waste like what happened to High Moon Studios and their Transformers Franchises. :\

Hence, I understand the month long marketing blitz to generate hype to get folks to buy the game. But unlike AFL which is centered in Australia. AFL is a localized effort there. Also like all sport games, its only the folks who are interested in the sport are the ones who are going to buy the game.

This what troubles me in TruBlu's approach to counter piracy by having a same release date in all regions. This is huge and difficult task to do. Another option could have been for folks to import the game as the PS3 is region lock free and so is Xbox 360 for some specific games. I know I have imported games form Japan and it costed me about 100 dollars.

Is Big Ant ready for the Steam Summer Sale in July and August with the release of DBC 14 in May for the PC?

As for the marketing budget, I know Ubi did exactly the same thing what you are doing here. I hope in the future this is not just one time thing.

Ok lets me share what happened. Back before the release of Prince of Persia Sands of Time. Ubisoft had their representative on IGN and on the official Prince of Persia Forums talk about the game like you are sir. We had many answers and questions sessions with him. This continued every year from Sands of Time days to Assassin's Creed II (So about 7 years). After this, Ubisoft as publisher decided to no longer do this as it was like sharing too many secrets with the general populace. I hope this does not occur here over the years and BigAnt all the success with this project.

As for marketing wise with the low budget, can't you hire some folks from planet cricket from each region ie. North America, Europe, Pakistan, India, Australia (you have that cornered), UK+Ireland, Middle East. I think you are going with partners there. Ubi did this as well on top of their guy who talked with the fans on IGN's forums. But that was in place and had proper hype train going for 3 months before the release of the game for Prince of Persia Warrior Within and Prince of Persia The Two Thrones. This was really successful. They made the folks do was post pictures or fan made videos from the demo or trailers about the game to get them points. The points were then used to get them prizes or gifts. Most of the prizes or gifts were like a poster from the game or poster in size of a postcard from the game, or even at most go with something like the actual game your version of choice as the top prize. This would generate free hype and marketing for the game itself from the fans themselves here.

Currently, even after the hype of generated for a month or so? The game is going out there to die in terms of sales. It might do well in Australia and some markets. But the casual audience will never know about it until the game is discounted. There a lot of huge games coming on March for all consoles and that might overshadow any hype for this game. What I foresee is that most folks will be like wow this awesome cricket games is coming out so soon! I want to buy it, but I don't have the funds to get it due to my previous pre-orders.

I am in USA and I don't expect this game to be released in a huge manner at all. But still there should be some trailers or so something on Facebook to get the casual audience to know about the game.

On the side note, the game is not being mentioned by major websites such IGN Australia, Gamespot Australia, etc in past week or month or so? That is my major concern as they are the ones going to be critiquing the game. :\

 

[Frostyvegi]

would you be holding play sessions post release then

Play sessions with reviewers were done during the recent road show.. hence the posts about Sam from Indian Video Gamer who attended the distributor event.

 

[Ajh1977]

Work has been a bit slow for me lately Ross due to the weather in the UK, so if I can help in anyway I'm available, whether its testing the game and reviewing it or selling it from a suitcase!! Every little helps!

 

[Frostyvegi]

People really need to stop thinking that because they don't see anything, that nothing is happening. It is possible for there to be a fire without any smoke.

Thought about this a bit more, probably the reason we are not seeing any 'smoke' even though TruBlu probably haven't done anything more special than other publishers when they ask reviewers or distributors to not release info until a certain time is due to, as Ross said, niche game. If there was any 'behind the scenes' info about GTA5 for instance, it'd get leaked because there would be a million people probing for information. Someone would let something slip and it would go like wildfire.. probably not the same enviroment for the same to happen to DBC'14.

 

[Ajh1977]

I'd would imagine if AFL sold well in Australia then surely a cricket game would do as well if not better considering the current teams success, I would be willing to predict DB14 will do better than any cricket game released in the past in the UK too, I don't think people should worry bout whether this game will do well and I don't think a massive tits out high budget marketing campaign would appeal to many more people, cricket is a niche sport, if you like cricket and you have a console, PC and a controller, you're gonna buy it, if you don't like cricket you won't no matter what the marketing campaign is like. Sport wise the only competion for DB14 will be the football game EA always release for the World Cup, and again if you like cricket you'll buy DB, even if you're goin to buy the footsie game. Really don't see why some people are getting worried, I have every confidence we'll be playing DB14 in march.

 

[BigAntStudios]

I respect that everyone has an opinion but please remember that Tru Blu have been in business for 35 years and have been publishing since the Atari 2400, and I was first published in 1979. It doesn't mean we always get it right but we have a little experience in these matters and are still here when many have fallen.

There are so many things that we do differently that the comparisons, particularly to Ubisoft, do not bear close examination, even the track record we have for always holding high prices for our games, we do not discount* as buyers of our AFL and RLL games will attest.


*if you see a discount then the retailer is wearing it.

 

[Snowy]

Ultimately I don't think people are really caring what Tru Blu are/aren't doing.

They just want to be put at ease that the end of March is still achievable (which is obviously the case with the points being presented)

 

[Frostyvegi]

They just want to be put at ease that the end of March is still achievable (which is obviously the case with the points being presented)

Which, I thought Ross has done time and time again, mostly with the post in my signature (and another one around the same time basically saying 'Nothing has changed, end of March is still the date'. People obviously have selective eyesight as they have absolutely ignored it all.

 

[Biggs]

PoP SoT is the only one I finished, it was by far the best game of the series but was the least profitable.

It's the best one, the rest were pretty much pants because obviously Assassin's Creed was their built-from-the-ground franchise and getting all the love. Not surprised it was the least profitable, but it's still easily the most fun out of them all.

The irony is the POP "themes" really leans itself towards an open-world style of gameplay, escaping from a massive prison in persia, then out to the streets, collecting an army, bringing it back to confront the evil empire and so on... Arguably would be a better story than the most recent Assassin's Creed stuff, which unfortunately they're just milking now and are just licenses to print money for their riskier projects, Watchdogs being the most obvious.

 

[isrararrafi]

It's the best one, the rest were pretty much pants because obviously Assassin's Creed was their built-from-the-ground franchise and getting all the love. Not surprised it was the least profitable, but it's still easily the most fun out of them all.

The irony is the POP "themes" really leans itself towards an open-world style of gameplay, escaping from a massive prison in persia, then out to the streets, collecting an army, bringing it back to confront the evil empire and so on... Arguably would be a better story than the most recent Assassin's Creed stuff, which unfortunately they're just milking now and are just licenses to print money for their riskier projects, Watchdogs being the most obvious.

A recent article about ubisofts history (3 part article I think) in IGN said, assassin's Creed started as a new prince of Persia game and LATER, soon after the conception they decided to name it assassin's Creed.

 

[BigAntStudios]

My understanding, unofficially from friends working there, was that it was a highly political project and as SoT was not the commercial success that France expected so they seized the opportunity take it from them and improve its profitability (Warrior Within).

 

[Zapages]

My understanding, unofficially from friends working there, was that it was a highly political project and as SoT was not the commercial success that France expected so they seized the opportunity take it from them and improve its profitability (Warrior Within).

There were other reasons as well? The main reason why Prince of Persia: Assassins became Assassin's Creed was that Ubisoft pays the creator of Prince of Persia series for the game as Mr. Mechner still holds the rights to the IP and licenses the game creation portion out to Ubisoft. On top of that game became too different than what Ubi imagines Prince of Persia to be ie. magical game.

On top of that Ubi wanted to create something internal so they won't have pay those fees and just be independent from that situation.

I know for a fact that there were 3 Prince of Persia games in the work at 1 time.

Prince of Persia: Assassins > Assassin's Creed
Prince of Persia Zero - modern day/future > Cancelled
Prince of Persia 2008 (magic based) >published

Prince of Persia 2008 was published but did not do well sales wise.
Prince of Persia 2008's sequel was canceled and its parts were used for Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands for the Wii

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands was suppose to be a movie based game, but became something else due to changes in the script/delay of the Sands of Time movie.

Afterwards, Ubisoft has tried to reboot Prince of Persia about 2 or 3 times.

Prince of Persia Zero 2 > was changed to Project Osiris, which was then cancelled.
Ubi tried to salvage Project Osiris to become Prince of Persia, but that did not pan out either.
Then there was 2D.5 Prince of Persia which Ubisoft rejected as well for the next Prince of Persia (XBLA/PSN type).

Then finally Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame was remade by 4th tier group of Ubisoft in India. The 2D remake of the original, too bad that they took all the best part of the game i.e. the Witch and cinematic in the game.

1st Tier is Ubi Montreal
2nd Tier is Ubi France/Toronto
3rd Tier is Ubi Shanghai
4th Tier is Ubi/Gameloft folks.

Ubi wants to create a new Prince of Persia game, but it'll be a whole new adventure.

As for watch dogs. Its connected to Assassin's Creed Series. The game was delayed because of bad reviews that they were going to get and the game has been down graded a lot from the original vision of the game. Then again Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed games are basically bunch side missions. Also Watch Dogs is Assassin's Creed in modern day setting. Hopefully the delay will allow them to get back on track to the original vision that they had for the game.

The iOS/Android is ok, I wish they release it on PSN/XBLA?

 

[whiteninness]

Disinterested: unbiased/impartial
Uninterested: no interest.

The classic example is, if you are going to court you want a judge who is disinterested but not uninterested.

Unfortunately people have mixed the two up for so long that the error is almost "correct", just like many other words.

 

[BigAntStudios]

The classic example is, if you are going to court you want a judge who is disinterested but not uninterested.

Unfortunately people have mixed the two up for so long that the error is almost "correct", just like many other words.

Ok, in the main reviewers are probably both of those words with regard to cricket, one word leading to the other.