Civ3 - The Marketing Plan

[Flurry-of-fun]

So somebody explain to me how 100 people have more rights than just 1? I suppose a majority could vote themselves more rights, but then that would be found unconstitutional in most countries and thrown out in a court of law. That technique works better with budgets than with the rights of individuals.

[dainbramaged13]

Well, I've realized that we dont need to worry about sales of civ3. It is a given that it will at lest sell well, we dont NEED it to even be the bestseller of the year. In fact, we might not even want it! More Money equals Bigger Company does NOT equal Better Game. I think the main reason people are worried is that if civ3 'fails' (ie. does not even surpass other strat games) firaxis wont provide patches/expansions/further strategy games, ala CTP2. Stop worrying. Even if it doesn't succeed in the epic sense, it is a given that it will at least succeed enough for them to support it.

[Ozymandous]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov

Now, as for your new scenario...minus the MP part (which is a moot point if the patch is free anyway), it sounds suspiciously like how Diablo II and The Sims have been marketed. And those games have done astoundingly well. So Infogames has their example for their product marketing.

Diablo II cost (with expansion) - $90
The Sims cost (up to Hot Date, soon to be out) - $140

Actually Diablo2 with Expansion is out for $50 (also with D1), so all the loyal customers who bought D2 & D2 expansion pack had to live (thus far) with NINE patches and are essentially spit on by Blizzard who sells the bundle pack less than 4 months after the release of their expansion for the cost of the initial game.

Diablo2 did sell, but from all the game sites I used to visit (hard core D2 players) you can bet that D2 will be gone this time next year because the X-pack essentially killed the game like a bad virus, slowly from inside with broken treasure drops, massively unbalanced skills vs. monster resistances, people selling stuff all over E-Bay and the grief players & cheaters who continuously degrade the game daily.

Just wanted to throw out more information since people still seem to (blindly) assume that Blizzard is the be-all, end-all of gaming companies.

[Ozymandous]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Deer Hunter...who would think rednecks would have computers?

Roller Coaster Tycoon?????

ROLLER COASTER TYCOON?!?!?!?!

My faith in the consumers is now shattered.

Heh, you forget the "average gamer" makes up the MAJORITY of the market base and not the minority like the folks here, at "The Lurker Lounge (D2)", "MrFixitOnline (all strategy games)" etc.

Your "average" consumer is the one who has made The Sims, Deer Hunter and RC Tycoon so successful.

Besides, RC Tycoon is fun, you can design your orn coasters (who's never wanted to do that??), and even crash them sometimes...

Don't be a snobby elitist.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Ozymandous

Don't be a snobby elitist.

Sorry, I can't do that. It's in my blood.

I will confess to owning the Sims and loving it.

Actually Diablo2 with Expansion is out for $50 (also with D1), so all the loyal customers who bought D2 & D2 expansion pack had to live (thus far) with NINE patches and are essentially spit on by Blizzard who sells the bundle pack less than 4 months after the release of their expansion for the cost of the initial game.

As one of those loyal customers, I feel their pain. On the plus side, I have gotten smart about ordering games and usually do so through dragonCA in Canada. I get the games much cheaper there. I refused to pay $40 for the D2 expansion, so got it there for about $28, including shipping.

I have much more faith in Firaxis, based on their history, than almost any other software company.

[Steve Clark]

Sigh. my respect for Boris just went down a notch (for buying and playing The Sims).

Moral Hazard: There is one other factor about the market for expansion packs, there were many (like myself) who's first Civ game was Civ2 MGE.

[HalfLotus]

Originally posted by Steve Clark
Moral Hazard: There is one other factor about the market for expansion packs, there were many (like myself) who's first Civ game was Civ2 MGE.

Ditto.

[Moral Hazard]

MGE is not an expansion pack:

It's similar to say Shogun: Warlords Edition or Half-life: blue shift. It's another full game and usually comes out at a time when the game company figures that the market for the expansion pack has dwindled immensly or that it's good enough to be a seperate game.

These are different from GOTY editions or Gold editions, which are merely a renewed marketing push to sell the game again.

The point is these games were never planned on initial launch.

PS. Shogun:WE is a high-bred. I guess EA figured that the existing Shogun market was too small.

[korn469]

here is the most recent chart i could find

Best-selling games for the week of September 16-22, 2001:

Rank / Title / Publisher / Average price
1. The Sims / Electronic Arts / $40
2. Diablo II: Lord of Destruction / Vivendi Universal / $35
3. Operation Flashpoint / Codemasters / $41
4. Flight Simulator 2000 / Microsoft / $31
5. Red Faction / THQ / $42
6. The Sims: House Party / Electronic Arts / $30
7. RollerCoaster Tycoon / Infogrames / $23
8. Max Payne / GodGames / $47
9. The Sims: Livin' Large / Electronic Arts / $29
10. Diablo II / Vivendi Universal / $40

so all the loyal customers who bought D2 & D2 expansion pack had to live (thus far) with NINE patches

those nine patches by blizzard haven't been because the game is seriously flawed but because Blizzard support their games like no other company i know of

Blizzard added replay ability to StarCraft in a free patch almost three years after the game came out! Replay wasn't a bugfix, it was a new and useful feature, a fairly major feature in fact

Do you really think that firaxis is going to add a major feature to SMAC which came out about 10 months after starcraft? nope SMAC(smax) is dead, firaxis said as much when they wouldn't even release the SMAX bug fixes for SMAC

so basically less than one year after SMAC came out it firaxis had completely stopped supporting it on moved on...this is what most game companies do, and blizzard is one of the few exceptions

my biggest fear is that civ3 will have awsome sells till about january then it will fade away, and firaxis will stop supporting it

however after seeing the MoO3 screens i want them to release civ right now!!! because MoO3 comes out three months after civ3, so the sooner civ3 comes out the sooner MoO3 will be out

i'll pick them both up so it'll be all good

and one last thing, i don't blindly assume that blizzard is the be all end all of computer games, they have over the years built their trust with me and i have owned warcraft2, diablo, starcraft, broodwar, diablo2, and diablo2: lord of destruction and i have throughly enjoyed each one of those games, which is the most important benchmark of any game, but not only that i have seen blizzard support those game long after other companies would have moved on to something else, and battlenet has certianly built a community...maybe it is a community of bratty, immature, cheating lamers for the most part, but there are some really great players (good skills, but more important nice and helpful) out there...that community is there because battle.net is an aswome concept that more games should implement, and it is certainly one of the best multiplayer interfaces they have came up with so far

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Steve Clark
Sigh. my respect for Boris just went down a notch (for buying and playing The Sims).

Hey, don't knock it 'till you've tried it. I, too, thought at first it would be a dumb game, but man o man, it is addictive. I am finding myself eagerly awaiting Hot Date...oh lord help me...

[Moral Hazard]

I'm the oposite of Boris here. I thought it would be fun. Then I got the game from EB (thankfully). Try to play it the intended way got sick of it really quickly (I mean the game centers around everything, I hate IRL. getting up, time management etc.) Had fun killing off my Sims, but that got old fast. Returned it for Europa Universalis.