Many Call of Duty players "aren't hardcore gamers, or even gamers", says Infinity Ward
"It's kind of a weird, ironic thing to say," muses Mark Rubin
Every year, Activision releases another Call of Duty game, and every year, comments threads and forums overflow with contempt for that game, and every year, that game somehow manages to sell tens of millions of copies regardless. How to explain this phenomenon? Infinity Ward's executive producer Mark Rubin suspects it has something to do with the huge proportion of consumers for whom Call of Duty simply is gaming, the one and only title they feel obliged to play.
"Yeah I think so," he said, when we asked whether he expected the franchise's audience to stay the same following the release of Call of Duty: Ghosts in November. "Because regardless of platform - people's gaming habits aren't going to change just because there's a new platform. We have an enormous amount of players who are more in the casual game space, but they play a lot.
"It's kind of a weird, ironic thing to say," Rubin went on. "They aren't hardcore gamers, or even gamers, but they play Call of Duty every night. And those guys are going to continue to play regardless of platform. So I think not only will we continue to engage with that existing player base, but we'll take next gen and see how far we can go with it."
"Casual" is a hopelessly general term, of course, but you can kind of see Rubin's point. Trading on anecdotal evidence, I suspect there's a sizeable percentage of young male UK players who only buy consoles for two franchises - Call of Duty and EA's FIFA.
Intriguingly, Rubin has elsewhere suggested to Kotaku that Infinity Ward introduced female character to multiplayer for the sake of this vast, nebulous "casual" audience. "We felt that that was something that casual players, who are a huge portion of our fan base, would benefit the most from," he told the site. "Our fan base is huge.
"We cover such a dramatic range of people who play our game that we wanted to be as inclusive as we possibly could with character customization. And that's where the idea came from. Why wouldn't we have a female [option] then?"
Discussing the prospect of more fundamental change, Rubin has also likened Call of Duty to a sport, arguing that "we can't change too many of the core rules" for fear of deterring both the casuals and the tournament crowd.
He's right. The "true gamer" market is probably no larger than 5-10 million people worldwide. Any game that sells more copies than that has successfully crossed over into non-gamer territory.
I don't think "true gamers" are a homogeneous group. Someone who likes turn based strategy games might not like FPSes or platformers, and player who like those might not like an isometric RPG.He's right. The "true gamer" market is probably no larger than 5-10 million people worldwide. Any game that sells more copies than that has successfully crossed over into non-gamer territory.
http://gaminrealm.com/2013/10/20/capcom-cant-make-next-gen-fighter/Capcom Doesn’t Have Enough Resources For A Next-Gen Fighter
Posted by Jahmai Williams | Sunday, 10 October 2013 | Gaming News
More bad news regarding Capcom. When asked by a fan if the company would be bringing Ultra Street Fighter IV to next gen consoles, Yoshinori Ono responded with a very grave statement:
Earlier this year we reported (through GameIndustry) that Capcom had a very minuscule amount of cash in the bank. The company is currently in financial disarray. Then the news surfaced that Capcom of Europe is planning to cut more than half of its staff members. Combining those two older reports with Ono’s recent remark, it’s clear that Capcom is seriously, undeniably in trouble.
Not to mention that fighting games aren’t necessarily as resource-heavy as say adventure or 3D action games. The fact that the company cannot afford to make a fighting game, or even port a fighter is devastating news.
As I stated in our earlier reports, I personally cannot feel sorry for the company. What goes around comes around. This is what happens when you betray your fans and kill off beloved franchises.
Megaman Legends sucked.That's for Mega Man Legends 3, you fags.
That's beside the point.Megaman Legends sucked.That's for Mega Man Legends 3, you fags.
I don't think "true gamers" are a homogeneous group. Someone who likes turn based strategy games might not like FPSes or platformers, and player who like those might not like an isometric RPG.He's right. The "true gamer" market is probably no larger than 5-10 million people worldwide. Any game that sells more copies than that has successfully crossed over into non-gamer territory.
Correct me if I am wrong, but Megaman Legends 3 never had greenlight in the first place.That's beside the point.Megaman Legends sucked.That's for Mega Man Legends 3, you fags.
The manner in which they teased the fans with the third installment, the development and the way they canceled it are the reason they should all fuck off to the job office.
Correct me if I am wrong, but Megaman Legends 3 never had greenlight in the first place.That's beside the point.Megaman Legends sucked.That's for Mega Man Legends 3, you fags.
The manner in which they teased the fans with the third installment, the development and the way they canceled it are the reason they should all fuck off to the job office.
From: winterfox.livejournal.com
"English majors like talking about"
I'm an English lit graduate and I fiercely dislike most post-modernist literature.
[ICE]_Beastman [developer] 12 hours ago
State of the game: Clearing up any confusion.
Dark Matter was originally planned to be a self-funded game, but in able to elaborate more on the immersive story-line, a Kickstarter project was devised. The idea was to make it a larger, more epic title, with significantly more levels and selling at full price ($30). Sadly, the Kickstarter project failed to reach the target amount and this idea had to be abandoned.
The idea was then formed to make Dark Matter an episodic series, with episodes selling at a budget price of $14.99. Any further episodes would, however, need to be dependent on the success of the previous instalment. The first instalment is what has launched recently on Steam and is simply called Dark Matter.
We would like to stress that the game is exactly as described on Steam (including that it contains 14 levels) – it is simply not true that the game is unfinished, or unplayable. Some people have misquoted the developer as having admitted that the game is incomplete; we should reiterate that what was meant was that this is not the $30 full-priced game, but the episodic budget version (currently selling at $13,49 at 10% off).
There are presently something like 5-9 hours of absorbing and highly entertaining gameplay to be had. However, like with all games, it is possible for the game to take longer or indeed a shorter time to complete, if you do not explore all areas and collect all pick-ups. We still feel , like many gamers have also posted, that the game offers value for money and is an enjoyable gaming experience throughout.
It is true however, that at present, the end of the game may cause confusion and is not satisfactory. We sincerely apologise for this, as it is not of the standard we would expect. We are working to offer a more conclusive and satisfying ending to the game as we speak and expect a fix to appear as soon we are able to.
Erik Schreuder
CEO
Iceberg Interactive
We have a thread for talking about recently played games FYI.