1C: A story of untapped potential

[Cashavelli]

1C is not a fan of money.

You may be asking yourself "Who is this idiot, and why would he make such a ludicrous claim?" However, if you decide to read this wall of text, you will understand by the end and hopefully agree that 1C could have been a game development juggernaut with a little bit of foresight and business savvy.

To preface this rant, I will explain who I am so this doesn't seem completely out of the blue and loony. I am an American Marketing major at a 4 year university. While no, I do not have the experience in business and marketing that I'm sure 1C's marketing department has enlisted(or so I'd like to assume), there are a few things I'd like to point out from my point of view that simply make no sense. Let's also keep in mind that yes, I am American and yes, I understand that 1C is Russian and may market their products differently in Russia. Irrelevant. And while I do like games such as KB and others in the tactical rpg genre, I do not consider myself a niche gamer, I love games that prove effort has been put into the development.

1C...Who?
1.) The only reason I've ever heard of your seemingly well-established publishing company is because of Steam, and my pure adoration of the Tactical RPG genre that encompasses some of the most fun games I've ever played. While I understand that 1C is a primarily Russian company and has not established a foothold around the world, this is not a legitimate excuse. Around the holidays, Steam ran multiple sales that were almost obscene because they were offering games for so damn cheap. One of these deals was for all of the King's Bounty games and while I understand that the game and its sequels/expansions have been out for a few years, there is NO reason that I should be able to purchase games such as KB for the price of some of the crappiest games ever(and not just steam, but I've noticed other digital distributors selling seemingly identical packages). The reason 1C's games are so cheap is not because they are all bad, they're cheap because 1.) Some of their games really are not very good 2.) The games that are good have been mired by the horrible titles that 1C has produced in the past. This is why you see digital distribution sites such as steam, gog, etc. selling 1C titles for dirt cheap, the demand is simply not there. (BUT IT SHOULD BE)

You don't develop for Mac...?
2.) You're ignoring a mostly untapped, fresh market that has enormous room for growth. With the recent development by Apple of their Mac App Store, that essentially brings content to mac owners that they normally wouldn't have the opportunity to access, games and gaming on macs will become more and more prevalent. Smaller companies and companies such as 1C that have not become mainstream in the U.S. would be shortsighted to not utilize all possible platforms for marketing their brand and product. GET YOUR PRODUCT OUT! People need to become associated with your brand before they'll be comfortable enough to continually buy your product. Not only that, but even if it was a risk to develop for mac (even though more and more evidence suggests that mac will soon become a viable gaming platform) why not take that risk and jump on the massive mac bandwagon that has been a virtual grassroots movement through the mac app store?

Frankly, I am shocked that more people don't cherish and appreciate the unbelievably addicting and rewarding gaming experiences that 1C has created in their more successful games, i.e. King's Bounty and its sequels and expansions, etc. As a marketing student studying here in America, it saddens me to see such good quality products fail because of poor marketing strategies. Don't fool yourselves, while 1C may be making a decent profit off their minute market, they could easily be as successful as some of the biggest publishing companies in the world. However, I am also making the assumption that it is 1C's wish to become as profitable as they possibly can, perhaps this is a poor assumption? Perhaps 1C's mission is to provide locally and not worry so much about globalization and the economic opportunities that lie therein.

Don't get me wrong, 1C has done a lot of things right, namely the creation of one of my favorite games to date; King's Bounty. Their graphical style in the game supersedes almost all others in the genre and easily make KB the most aesthetically pleasing of the tactical rpg's. While this is all fine and well, I am frustrated that such a quality game was hardly marketed at all, and that more games of this particular genre don't exist/aren't of as good quality as KB. Therefore my argument concludes, 1C is not a fan of money.

Oh, and if you don't make another KB I'll cry.
(I apologize if this has come off as callous but it needed to be said )

[Sneaksie]

Thanks for your concern!

[Katie]

A company can only publish what it can afford. The more money a company has, the "better" games it can publish, but you have to remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 1C for me, has put out many good games, even older ones, because a lot of them are olde school, and even though they could be better with translation, they are still better than the new big budget games put out in the West for the new generation.

Steam dictates the amount of money they sell a game for. If they want a game on sale, they will put it on sale. Only if 1C could manage to talk to Steam to not put a game on sale, would they not do it. I don't know if 1C has the patience to deal with Steam employees on that matter(but I congratulate you if you do and succeed!). Steam isn't pleasent to work with.

I disagree with a lot of what you said, but I'm not the type to go around doing arguements . Anyway, it's all cooooool. I just hope another Konung 4 is in the works!