How to revive sales and save this great game.

[priller26]

Originally Posted by Lurker_71

If this were a great game, it wouldn't need saving.

Hopefully the sequel will be different.

If past performance is an indicator of the future, I wouldn't hold your breath on the sequel being any better. I'm still rather annoyed that after all this time we are nothing more than beta/alpha testers. Obviously no one put a gun to my head to "test" this game for the past umptenth months, however, it's become old and frustrating.

[icarus]

Originally Posted by priller26

If past performance is an indicator of the future, I wouldn't hold your breath on the sequel being any better. I'm still rather annoyed that after all this time we are nothing more than beta/alpha testers. Obviously no one put a gun to my head to "test" this game for the past umptenth months, however, it's become old and frustrating.

+1

[He111]

Originally Posted by Lurker_71

If this were a great game, it wouldn't need saving.

Hopefully the sequel will be different.

I think you mean "If this weren't a great game, it wouldn't need saving"

They've put alot of time and effort into quality models with quality destruction details, pity small bugs are destroying what should be another classic .. and financial success (once word-of-mouth gets around).

Allowing users to add their own content (starting with altered current models - Blenhiem fighter, Ju88 fighter, P-96 (http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforu...__t_29885.html), etc etc would also make CLOD-BOM "THE" and "ONLY" flight sim to have !

.

[Lurker_71]

Originally Posted by He111

I think you mean "If this weren't a great game, it wouldn't need saving"

No. I mean, had CloD been a great game, it would have sold more than enough copies and not need fans fearing its demise and posting forum threads titled "how to revive sales and saves this great game." Hopefully, the sequel will not need this sort of desperate measures to save it and do great from the outset.

[Wolf_Rider]

Originally Posted by MadBlaster

I thought in game industry you can make more money on volume sales using the existing online mid level pc gaming market as the target audience. ~

That's the approach Oleg took

Originally Posted by ATAG_Snapper

This would appeal to a high end target group, with the means to procure cutting edge PC's & peripherals. Look what people pay for FSX + dozen's addons/plugins. Marketing is key, community contact/feedback as well.

and giving (by comparison) unfair advantage

[310_cibule]

Originally Posted by He111

(1) Change target audience from average gamers (younger) to middle age flight sim lovers - generally people in the aircraft industry or similar. These people are generally financially better off and are more familar with a WW2 setting.

Is this target - I mean us, middle age COMBAT flight sim lovers - big enough to make such a huge project pay off?

No idea about Russia or China (pirate's copies prevails there I presume) but the rest of the world deliver some thousands souls of this kind (as far as I can quess from popular server s like SimHQ etc.) Twenty, fifty?

Does anybody have an idea how much the costs are to develop, create, promote and keep such a sofisticated game alive for some years?

Can we compare the costs with potential gains talking about the market you suggested?

[zander]

[GraveyardJimmy]

Originally Posted by zander

-salary picture-

Those are probably based on American development studios though, I expect labour costs are different in the Russian job market (though I am only speculating).

Luthier did mention it was difficult to find competent programmers.

[addman]

1. Make it a free-to-play online MMO with micro-transactions and/or DLC if you want a lot of people to play.

2. Make it the traditional "hardcore historical accuracy accurate FM's flightsim way" and very few will buy it.

Basically, if you want BoM to sell you can't make it the traditional way. Too expensive to develop it especially when you consider potential sales. I don't like that it is this way and I bet few fans of the il-2 series does either but it's the harsh reality. Casual PC gamers (those who play Crysis, Skyrim, Torchlight etc.) don't pick up hardcore sims anymore, not in general anyway.

I think if you are expecting things to be the way they used to be, you should really think again. Even the biggest publishers with the biggest game franchises are being "forced" to go free-to-play with micro-transaction because let's face it, a lot of people like to play games but they can't afford each 50€ game that is released. They prioritize, do I want to buy this obscure Russian developed flightsim or do I want this critically acclaimed and awesome triple-A action/adventure game for my 50€? I'd say most gamers will go for the latter and those very gamers are needed for this franchise to survive and prosper. It doesn't help if you bought 3 copies of CLoD if only a few tens of thousands have been sold.

If you have a free-to-play model you can at least say, "hey! just try it out for free to see if you like it". At least then there's a chance to hook new recruits. Maybe I'm wrong though, maybe our little core community is enough to sustain further hardcore WWII flight games but even if that's the case, I bet those bean-counters we keep hearing about all the time wants to see their investment grow and not stagnate.

[BlackSix]

Originally Posted by zander

This is ridiculous. Salaries are 3-4 times smaller in similar positions in the gaming industry in Russia.