6 ms·
Not really. Their last game (Infinite) was a flop (AAA game that only sold 4m units). Take Two control the money, and with those kinds of results (huge team of
by jimwalsh 13y ago
Not really. Their last game (Infinite) was a flop (AAA game that only sold 4m units). Take Two control the money, and with those kinds of results (huge team of 300 something, that took six plus years to create Infinite) you can imagine they weren't lining up to do another title. So Ken did what he could so that some of the studio would stay alive.
- sliverstorm 13y agoWasn't it widely considered one of the best games of the year? How did it flop?
- chops 13y agoJust like he said: Though it was an amazing game (I bought it opening day), it only sold 4m units. Unfortunate that that's considered a flop. By comparison, Modern Warfare 3 sold 10m copies on day one.
- kayoone 13y agoAnd thats sad... More mindless military shooters year after year after year
- deevus 13y agoIt was such an amazing game. Is this just like Looking Glass and Terra Nova?
- AimHere 13y agoWell LGS made about three games after Terra Nova, so maybe not. Their last full game was Thief 2 which I think made money but not enough to warrant them being kept alive in the wake of the Daikatana fiasco.
- gendoikari 13y agohttp://www.ttlg.com/articles/lgsclosing.asp http://www.ttlg.com/articles/lgsclosing.asp
- deevus 13y agoTerra Nova was the disaster that led to their demise. It's a shame because I was one of the 100,000 people that purchased it, and it is still one of my favourite games of all time. It's up there with SS2, Half Life, Quake.
- hybrid11 13y ago4M units is as of last summer (March to August), they've sold more than that by now. That's comparable to Bioshock 2 sales. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioShock_Infinite#Sales http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioShock_Infinite#Sales http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioShock_2#Sales http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioShock_2#Sales
- scott_s 13y agoI disagree with your characterization of Bioshock Infinite as a "flop." Usually, calling something a "flop" means that it was wildly unsuccessful. Infinite may not have re-couped its investment, but it was not wildly unsuccessful. That would be selling under, say, 100,000 units. (Keep in mind this is a semantic distinction, and not a value judgement of the game itself.)
- enraged_camel 13y ago>>Usually, calling something a "flop" means that it was wildly unsuccessful. To me, "flop" means it failed to meet the rather ambitious expectations, and instead performed only moderately well.
- uchi 13y agoSo what would you call something that actually 'flops' by the English definition standard? A cataclysmic failure bound to ruin any and all associated with it?
- ijk 13y agoThe problem being, AAA game development is hit driven enough that a common publishing strategy is blockbuster tentpole or bust. Many of the games produced are fine games, and some even sell well, but may not match the (possibly extremely overoptimistic) financial forecasts. So, "flop" is probably pejorative. It does fit what the business reaction seems to be to some of these games, but that may be a problem originating with something other than the game.
- kosei 13y agoThe last game that studio published was 6 years ago - Bioshock in 2007; Bioshock 2 was shipped by another studio. If they had 100+ employees (not unreasonable for a AAA game studio), they could have incurred personnel costs of $60M+ for the game's development. Which could definitely be considered a failure in the eyes of a game that only shipped 4MM games.
- antimagic 13y ago
- naiyt 13y agoKind of odd that 4m units is considered a flop. Jim Sterling did a video on that idea of what AAA "success" in terms of sales is awhile ago: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/7121-Dark-Souls-and-Dark-Sales http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/712...
- afterburner 13y agoThe 16th best-selling game of 2013 was a flop? http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/16/100-best-selling-video-games-of-2013-revealed-4265929/ http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/16/100-best-selling-video-games-o...
- bunderbunder 13y agoConsidering how much it must have cost to produce, yeah it's believable. #6 on the list was also considered a failure for not selling enough copies. Rough outline of the business plan behind most AAA titles: 1. Assume all 10 of us have a >50% chance at being among the year's top 3 sellers. 2. Scale budget according to assumptions from step 1.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- ijk 13y agoNote that number 6 on that list is Tomb Raider, which Square Enix publicly declared to be a flop: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-26-tomb-raider-has-sold-3-4-million-copies-failed-to-hit-expectations http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-26-tomb-raider-has...
- cwyers 13y agoWell, they said it missed the sales target. The game did make Square Enix a profit: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.839763-Tomb-Raider-Made-Money-Despite-Publishers-Early-Disappointment http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.839763-Tomb-Ra...
- sspiff 13y ago4 million in retail, that's excluding Steam and other digital distribution platforms. I know a lot of gamers, but none of them buy games in retail.