How will GalCiv react to the Moo3 delays?

[TCO]

Enough softball stuff. Y'all are at Poly now!

What I wonder is how the Moo3 delays will impact Galciv. Better, worse? More buzz for the genre? OR dividing a small pie? And does GalCiv have any chance to beat Moo3 onto the shelves?

Unrelated...but also with a business slant: Does having Civilizations in your name give you any copyright problems? I thought CTP had to go to court to win even a one time mention of civ in their title...

[MarkG]

/me thinks "Civilization" is different from "Civilizations"
plus, the Galactic Civilizations names has been around for ages(since 1993!)

also, since you mentioned the word "shelves", one should take into consideration that Stardock is also selling the game by themselves over the net, giving them an extra advantage over the classic model of retail....

[TCO]

Well...I'm not sure what all the legalities are with that word. Just putting an s on it is enoiugh?

[Kyle]

The way its looking now, they'll be out at almost the same time. Though the GalCiv release is still subject to change. If they're released at the same time, GalCiv will be buried unfortunately. They've got many good ideas, a years worth of updates and features, and the ability for the player to add diplomatic options. I'm buying both, but I don't think GalCiv should be put out in the same month as Moo3.

[Edan]

Moo3 will have a lot more PR (though IIRC I think it's set to come out at the end of feb, while GalCiv will be out in the middle of Feb) There's also Starships Unlimited: Divided Galaxies, that was recently released in stores, which might affect sales somewhat (how is it, anyways - anyone know?)

GalCiv might have a slight advantage in having been released via the drengin network and seperately, as many eager players may have already bought Gal Civ, and therefore be a little worn out by the time Moo3 is released (I know I'll likely wait a month or two before purchaning MOO3 unless it gets rave reviews as I dont want to grow tired of space games too quickly)

Galciv, however, will no doubt not do as well as Moo3 - such are the realities of life.

[Draginol]

Actually GalCiv will be at retail just like other games. We'll have it available electronically in addition for those people who want the ultimate impulse buy.

As for trademark legalities, we've been using the name Galactic Civilizations for a decade. GalCiv 1 for OS/2 was available at retail 10 years ago. So if someone had a problem with the name, they would be hard pressed to give us grief now.

Regarding MOO 3's release date. The current rumor is that they may come out on February 25 which is the same day we are scheduled to come out on.

That puts us in an awkward position because let's face it, MOO3 has had three years of marketing behind it and is the sequel to classic series. I played MOO2 in the delivery room for the birth of my first son (no joke). That's why I know MOO2 came out in October of 1996. ;-)

We don't want to come out on the same day as MOO 3. Most people can't afford to buy 2 games at the same time. So then the question comes, do we move the release UP or do we push it back.

If we push it back a couple of weeks that would give us more marketing time, more pre-orders and we could add more features to the game.

But nothing's been decided yet. Afterall, imagine if we delayed the game a few weeks and then MOO 3 got delayed again. It was originally supposed to come out a year ago so there's always the chance it'll get pushed back further.

[TCO]

great answer, Brad.

[AIL]

I think it would be smart to have it out before Moo3, so you could give all the people who are waiting for Moo3 something to satisfy their 4x-addiction the few more month until Moo3 is finally released.

If it was already out I would go and buy it. If it comes out after or only few days before Moo3 and Moo3 is as good as I expect it to be, GalCiv would it have very hard to be bought by me. At least not short after the Moo3-release, maybe a year or severeal month later.

[WarpStorm]

Can you still get the beta?

[13Matt13]

I dont think MOO3 PR is a force to be reckoned with.

[Edan]

Originally posted by Draginol
Actually GalCiv will be at retail just like other games. We'll have it available electronically in addition for those people who want the ultimate impulse buy.

Well, thats what I meant, and that the electronic availability might get a few players who were gunna get MOO3, but didn't want to wait for it (although I doubt this is a significant number).

As to MOO3s release, given the number of delays, theres always the possibility that it will be delayed further.

However, MOO3 will almost undoubtably have better coverage, more availability (at least retail-wise), more copies in stores, and better locations in stores than GalCiv will have - and that will undoubtably have a big effect on how well the game sells (just look at the, apparently horrible launch of Europa 1400 - I cant find it retail anywhere. )

[Urban Ranger]

Maybe MoO 3 has 3 years of marketing, but the PR engine has been FUBARing. Besides, 3 years is a long time to wait and MoO 3 already got the vapourware label - justified, IMO.

[Edan]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Maybe MoO 3 has 3 years of marketing, but the PR engine has been FUBARing. Besides, 3 years is a long time to wait and MoO 3 already got the vapourware label - justified, IMO.

IIRC, there have been other games that have been 3+ years in the making and were released, IIRC. (for some reason, I seem to remember some game taking 5 or 6 yeasrs to get released...)

However, I don't see MOO 3 doing too badly, based on the PR I'm seeing in stores (ie, Get a free copy of Mechwarrior 3 if you preorder MOO3, etc)

(Of course, even though Galciv 3 probably won't do as well as MOO3, Moo3 probably has to sell more copies to be considered a success and make a profit, particularily after 3 years of production costs)

[LDiCesare]

I dont think MOO3 PR is a force to be reckoned with.

It would be a pity to lose sales because of MoO3. You would probably benefit from an earlier release IF you had some announcement PR because people pissed by MOO3 delays would buy the available title.
As for myself, I think I'll probably buy GalCiv before MOO3 anyway since I'll only get MOO3 if I see some good reviews here and if the tactical RT combat doesn't look like it could turn me off.

[Asmodean]

From what I know of the two games so far, I would have to say that Galciv looks like the best game. MoO will do better saleswise however. As Brad said himself: They have three years of marketing, and being the follow-up on a classic going for them.

UR: I agree that the marketing of MoO has been FUBARed, but this, i believe, is an instance of bad PR being better than no PR.

I too have seen threads like "What are you going to spend your MoO3 money on?" and such, but I'll bet you that in the end 90% of those people end up buying MoO3 after all.

That said and done, I'll just add: Go Galciv, Go Galciv, Go Galciv

Allthough I'll probably end up buying both, as I'm one of the people who can afford it.

Asmodean