Topic: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-present

[NWR_insanolord]

Wipeout HD is awesome, it's like F-Zero had a baby with the good parts of Mario Kart.

[Urkel]

As a matter of fairness, might as well report any Wii centric devs that go under, however rare that may be.
 
Deep Silver Vienna (developer of Cursed Mountain) goes under.

[BlackNMild2k1]

As a matter of fairness, might as well report any Wii centric devs that go under, however rare that may be.
 
Deep Silver Vienna (developer of Cursed Mountain) goes under.

Besides Cursed Mountain, what else have they developed?

[broodwars]

As a matter of fairness, might as well report any Wii centric devs that go under, however rare that may be.
 
Deep Silver Vienna (developer of Cursed Mountain) goes under.

Besides Cursed Mountain, what else have they developed?

According to the article, Cursed Mountain was that developer's first title.  Being a Wii 3rd party core game, it (naturally) flopped and took the developer with it.

Then again, I'm a core Wii gamer with a love of survival horror and they never made me want their game, so perhaps the game deserved to flop.     If I remember correctly, it also released in the same window as Metroid Prime Trilogy, another core Wii game that didn't sell.  Perhaps those two ate into each other's sales?

[D_Average]

Sony closes Studio Liverpool.

Looking over their list of games on Wikipedia, the only notable games they ever made were the Lemmings and Wipeout games.  No big loss there.

That's a HUGE loss if they developed Wipeout HD.  They nailed that game.

[Peachylala]

broodwars: Metroid Prime Trilogy was a limited release collectors edition set with games people already owned, just with Wii controls (which made the games better). Cursed Mountain was a flawed, though enjoyable, survival horror game.

[Deguello]

Going back through Deep Silver Vienna's history, they used to be Rockstar Vienna And their last game before being being acquired was the PS2 port of Max Payne 2 or something from 2003.  Then from 2003, apparently they did a little work on Manhunt 2 and then went quiet for a long time until Cursed Mountain.  Lots of the news cites internal struggles in addition to the poor performance of Cursed Mountain.

I get the feeling this developer died around 2005 and took 5 years to realize it.

[Peachylala]

So basically they pulled a Daikatana?

[Chozo Ghost]

The Wii has claimed its first victim. This is what you get when you taken Wii development seriously and expect your games to sell on it.

I wish I was being sarcastic, but sadly that is how it seems to be...

[KDR_11k]

Would Cursed Mountain really have saved the studio if it had been for the HD systems?

[broodwars]

Would Cursed Mountain really have saved the studio if it had been for the HD systems?

Maybe, considering it could have capitalized on the backlash against RE5 last year for not having any real horror elements anymore.  It certainly would have had an easier time trying to find an audience there.

The problem with the whole "slow burn" phenomenon on Wii is that it only works if your game is extremely low budget (or your studio has deep pockets), because the cash just doesn't come back to the developers quickly enough to deal with upkeep and work on their next project.  And "slow burn" seems to be the only way most games on Wii sell.

[Deguello]

No, it wouldn't have.  There have been developers that went out of business this generation after selling 3 million copies of a game.

Cursed Mountain was simply too low profile a release, thrown into the horrible atmosphere other third parties created for all of them on the Wii with their shovelware antics, and not advertised or marketed in the least outside of maybe a banner ad.

Which is a shame, because I hear it's pretty good.  One thing to note is that Deep Silver, the publisher itself, is still alive and squarely a PC developer with some ports.  I wonder if the "internal struggles" cited were the result of the bigger publisher simply not caring about the Cursed Mountain project to begin with, essentially leaving this multi-year project out in the cold.

And please, no more comments on what "can" and "can't" sell on the Wii.  RE4 is just like Cursed Mountain and it's a Million seller so...

[KDR_11k]

I think slow burn means positive word of mouth is the main form of advertising. Games that don't form that won't have a slow burn, they'll go out quickly even if they sold like arse.

[broodwars]

And please, no more comments on what "can" and "can't" sell on the Wii.  RE4 is just like Cursed Mountain and it's a Million seller so...

Except that RE4 is not only part of a very well-known franchise (Resident Evil), but also a port of an exceptionally popular game on 2 other platforms.  I wouldn't use it as a basis for determining anything on Wii.

[BlackNMild2k1]

And please, no more comments on what "can" and "can't" sell on the Wii.  RE4 is just like Cursed Mountain and it's a Million seller so...

Except that RE4 is not only part of a very well-known franchise (Resident Evil), but also a port of an exceptionally popular game on 2 other platforms.  I wouldn't use it as a basis for determining anything on Wii.

But it shows that there iswas an audience for that type of game. They might have moved on since then since Cursed Mountain is only other game released that is similar and no one really knew about it. But there was 1million potential customers that would have been interested in this had someone bothered to let them know it existed.

I had to poke and prod NWR about impressions from E3 and then again to eventually get a review, so you know that there really just wasn't any hype surrounding this game from anywhere. It was sent to die and take the studio with it.

[Urkel]

Would Cursed Mountain have sold a decent amount on the HD consoles with the same amount of advertising none and the same limited shipment?

[Peachylala]

No.

[D_Average]

And please, no more comments on what "can" and "can't" sell on the Wii.  RE4 is just like Cursed Mountain and it's a Million seller so...

Except that RE4 is not only part of a very well-known franchise (Resident Evil), but also a port of an exceptionally popular game on 2 other platforms.  I wouldn't use it as a basis for determining anything on Wii.

But it shows that there iswas an audience for that type of game. They might have moved on since then since Cursed Mountain is only other game released that is similar and no one really knew about it. But there was 1million potential customers that would have been interested in this had someone bothered to let them know it existed.

IMO, the only thing it shows is that Wii gamers were starving for fun after launch.  Looking at the other titles out at the time, it was pretty clear RE4 was the cream of the crop.  Hell, even one year after launch when I finally bought my Wii, I picked it up as there just wasn't much out there for me.  Now, 3+ years after launch, there are plenty of quality titles to choose from for new gamers.  That said, I wouldn't use RE4 as a barometer until the next system launch.  The landscape just isn't the same, not even close.

[Chozo Ghost]

Another thing RE4 had in its favor was that it was only $19.99. This price meant that even if you already owned RE4 on the GC or PS2 it wasn't a big deal to grab the improved Wii version with better controls, content, and graphics because of the cheap price. So I think a lot of RE4 Wii purchasers probably already owned or played the games before.

But then again, I see Cursed Mountain on Amazon for only $19.99 so what's the deal? It has great reviews, and it has a great price, so why aren't people buying this? It looks like a great impulse buy. I know advertising for this game was pretty much non-existent, but don't people ever go browse through games and just make a purchase based on reviews? I do that all the time on Amazon, and have grabbed games I never heard of before (including this one). I don't understand why more people don't do that...

[BlackNMild2k1]

Because most people already have in mind what they want when they go shopping.
Not to say that that is all they are gonna get while they're out, but they already had in mind what they were leaving the house for.

The majority of consumers are not educated buyers, they are impulse and that is why advertising is necessary if you want to be on the minds of those going out to spend the money.

[Stratos]

Also remember that said games need to be on the freaking shelf for it to become impulse buy material. I can't go browse any electronics section or game store and go 'oh, look, Cursed Mountain is only $20!'.

Yes, it was on my list on Amazon since before it came out, but as others have said, with a limited budget for entertainment some titles just slip to the wayside. Even on your wishlist it is easy to continually pass up a game or miss it if it is near the bottom.

[Chozo Ghost]

The majority of consumers are not educated buyers, they are impulse and that is why advertising is necessary if you want to be on the minds of those going out to spend the money.

I'm sorta an impulse buyer too, in that I browse on sites like Amazon and if I see a game with a low price and great reviews I might jump on it then and there.

[broodwars]

Namco Bandai has now posted huge losses for the last 9 months and will be firing 10% of its workforce.  I'd like to be sympathetic here, but I'm still waiting for Tales of Vesperia PS3 and Tales of Graces on Wii. And of all the companies abusing DLC, I'd say Namco-Bandai is easily one of the worst (paying real money for in-game level-ups, anyone?).

[ThePerm]

beat me to it, I remember Nintendo wanting to buy Bandai a couple of years ago. That is why the merged with Namco..to deflect that. Lets hope Nintendo goes after them, and we can have exclusive Pacman, Tekken and Soul Calibur, and a crapload of Anime licenses.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6083620.html

[BlackNMild2k1]

Nintendo could easily afford them now.
Looking at Nintendos spread sheet, they probably wish they had let Nintendo atleast become a heavy investor and re-organize their studios to work with the Wii and DS using Nintendo branding and quality assurance.

If by some crazy twist of fate Nintendo did purchase Namdai/Banco, the next Smash Bros would be pretty crazy. I'm not really sure what Nintendo would do with alot of Namco properties besides Pacman & Dig Dug, but VC/Arcade would be getting a huge update.

Tekken and Ridge Racer would probably never be heard from again, while Soul Caliber, Point Blank and Time Crisis might get exactly what they need.

I have no idea what properties Bandai has though. *off to google search*

edit: How big would a Pokemon vs Digimon be?
Or if Nintendo revived Tomagotchi
or Gundam vs Custom Robo