Game News Mike, This Business Will Change You & Your Release Date

[Jason]

Tags: Alpha Protocol; Obsidian Entertainment

<a href="http://www.gamespot.com/news/6206186.html" target="blank">Remember the good old days when Alpha Protocol was expected in February?</a>
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<blockquote>That changed today when Sega provided an updated release window for the espionage-heavy action game, saying that Alpha Protocol is now expected to ship worldwide for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in October. Along with revealing Alpha Protocol's delay, Sega also offered a handful of new screenshots for the game, showing protagonist Michael Thorton in various states of threat. </blockquote>
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Those states of threat are also highly visible in this new <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/alphaprotocol/video/6206183/alpha-protocol-official-trailer-2" target="blank">official trailer</a>.

 

[Tigranes]

Delay = old hat. October is new though.

Sounds a little too late, competing with DA and the like. I guess they keep thinking that nobody buys games in the summer or something.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Sounds a little too late, competing with DA and the like. I guess they keep thinking that nobody buys games in the summer or something.

Yeah. I never got that. Everyone releases their games in the Fall and Winter, all at the same time, and all at a kind of terrible time. Summer is a much better time, especially seeing as the game industry totally targets kids and students, who have tons of free-time and money to burn then.

And competing against Dragon Age and other blockbusters? Nice job Sega, they're really into screwing Obsidian over as much as possible I guess.

 

[AlanC9]

Well, it's better than outright cancellation, which is what a lot of us were predicting not too long ago.

 

[Bluebottle]

...or pushing it out of the door too early. One of my biggest concerns with the cancellation of Aliens, was that Sega were going to try and get AP out as early as possible and we'd all end up with a fantastically buggy mess. Competing with DA is obviously not ideal, but it is certainly preferable to the alternative.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Perhaps also they want to have time to put their hype machine into full gear.

 

[Lesifoere]

And competing against Dragon Age and other blockbusters? Nice job Sega, they're really into screwing Obsidian over as much as possible I guess.

Deja vu. VtM: Bloodlines, anyone?

 

[Andhaira]

Lets not try to blame the publisher again. Thats what Troika and Black Isle always did.

 

[Spectacle]

Sometimes the publisher is to blame though, and SEGAs financial difficulties are well known by now..

 

[MetalCraze]

Nice job Sega, they're really into screwing Obsidian over as much as possible I guess.

Evil SEGA, killing my game studios
Obviously it has nothing to do with Obsidian's tradition of releasing incredibly buggy games (not mentioning that not a single one of them were fixed by Obsidian - NWN2 has about 15 patches and it still runs like shit - they even didn't try to fix KotOR2) - not mentioning that at some points in the trailer framerate drops far below norm - and something tells me that trailer wasn't recorded on a 2 year old PC.

But hey - are you afraid that "Bioware generic fantasy PoS" will kill the very original and good AP? As well as other "blockbusters". That's not much confidence in a best gamedev evar.

Sometimes the publisher is to blame though, and SEGAs financial difficulties are well known by now..

Yes that's why they decided to push back the title instead of releasing it immediately like EA does. Must be some real financial difficulties.

Revenue US$1.64 billion
Employees 3,127 (2009)

Yes very real financial difficulties.

 

[Severian Silk]

Summer is a much better time, especially seeing as the game industry totally targets kids and students, who have tons of free-time and money to burn then.

Kids also have more time in the summer to learn how to bitorrent. Parents don't.

 

[Dionysus]

And competing against Dragon Age and other blockbusters? Nice job Sega, they're really into screwing Obsidian over as much as possible I guess.

I tend to agree. The Holidays aren't a great time to go for a sleeper hit. With that having been said, this might mean that SEGA is actually putting some serious emphasis on the title. If they buy TV time, then it probably won't just get lost in the shuffle. The competition during the Holidays is more about attention than money. I still don't think the game shows very well, but the kids like the 24, so I could see them generating hype if they pitch it like that with some high-profile ads.

 

[Alistus]

Shit happens, atleast they aren't ending the production .

Sometimes the publisher is to blame though, and SEGAs financial difficulties are well known by now..

Yes that's why they decided to push back the title instead of releasing it immediately like EA does. Must be some real financial difficulties.

Revenue US$1.64 billion
Employees 3,127 (2009)

Yes very real financial difficulties.

Do you even know what revenue is? It's not how much money company makes after operational expenses. If you want to continue your crusade against Obsidian atleast get your facts right. Not that your other posts on Obsidian have much sense either, but saying that a company is doing fine based on revenue makes you very ignorant and you prolly should shut up when big boys talk business.

 

[M_I_C_K_E_Y_M_O_U_S_E]

You guys really want a repeat of TSL and rushed release dates and bugs with AP? I don't.

 

[Wyrmlord]

NWN2 has about 15 patches and it still runs like shit

Rubbish.

 

[poocolator]

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

 

[Panthera]

NWN2 has about 15 patches and it still runs like shit

Rubbish.

Yeah, upgrade your Pentium III and turn off shadows.

 

[Volourn]

"atleast they aren't ending the production"

Yet.

 

[MetalCraze]

Do you even know what revenue is? It's not how much money company makes after operational expenses.

Ohmigod you are so smart - I totally didn't know that! But damn quoting out of context is fun - asides from the total money they got right now (which is more than Blizzard got with approx. the same number of people and Blizzard is considered amazingly successful) you somehow missed a part about not rushing titles (and Sega has more titles than just AP - like TW series f.e. which is a friggin' PC exclusive) - if anything those are absolute financial ass indicators. That's some blind fanboy love right there.

Not that your other posts on Obsidian have much sense either

Oh cry me a river - I have yet to see a single post from your kind that isn't "oh you just talk bullshit but I can't say why exactly Obsidian is good myself"

but saying that a company is doing fine based on revenue makes you very ignorant and you prolly should shut up when big boys talk business.

Yeah I agree - those big boys also don't have troubles with reading - so listen to your own advice.

NWN2 has about 15 patches and it still runs like shit

Rubbish.

Uh huh - you would think they will learn how to use that engine in 4 years - but releasing an addon that was lagging even worse than the original game - guess that was an evil Atari doing - putting my SoZ against blockbusters.

 

[Alistus]

@Skyway, i took your numbers out of context of AP discussion, but i didn't say anywhere what it had to do with AP release being pushed back or did i? Just pointed out that revenue isn't any indicator alone how well company does. Blizzard with smaller revenue is more succesful propably because they don't publish and devolep as many tittles and that's why they have less expenses because they can keep milking WoW. Revenue by definition is income company gets from it key business and then you need to substract all kinds of expenses like salaries, rents, licenses etc. to get profit. You might know as well that even if company makes profit it necesarily isn't doing well, because company constantly needs to make investments to enchance productivity and competitiveness and at present financial situation it's not very easy to get a loan and you depend on your own money which you sofar have at your account when making investments. Sega is a larger publisher which publishes more tittles than Blizzard which means more income and more expenses since Sega doesn't have money milking products like WoW which need little operating expenses compared to devoleping sequels or new IP.

And i'm not really defending Obsidian. Just saying that atleast i have hard time taking some of your arguments seriously. Among other things you make up things from revenue without understanding what revenue in reality is.
My personal opinion about Obsidian is that it's too early to tell if they will make excelent games or if they are good studio. It's not like Origin made their masterpieces in their early years and Obsidian is still pretty young studio.

 

[MetalCraze]

Blizzard with smaller revenue is more succesful propably because they don't publish and devolep as many tittles

Hmm. You do know that Blizzard is now a publisher too right?

milking products like WoW which need little operating expenses

I don't consider having whole server maintenance teams all over the world - little operating expenses. Blizzard right now has 2700+ people and growing - and somehow I doubt that someone there works just for food.

Among other things you make up things from revenue without understanding what revenue in reality is.

Please point at my post where I said something about how revenue works.

Among other things you make up

Please tell me what things I make up.

My personal opinion about Obsidian is that it's too early to tell if they will make excelent games or if they are good studio. It's not like Origin made their masterpieces in their early years and Obsidian is still pretty young studio.

That's because of blind fanboyism.
Obsidian is around for nearly 6 years - more than Troika and Black Isle -lived- - and Obsidian released 4 games - 3 of which were piss poor - especially compared to Troika's games with their constant financial problems (and Troika had not overused and overhyped IPs) or BIS games like PS:T and IWD - unlike Obsidian which spits off a game per year de facto and even those games are sequels/ripoffs of Bioware's successful titles.
"Too early to tell" argument is retarded.

 

[Volourn]

"I have yet to see a single post from your kind that isn't "oh you just talk bullshit but I can't say why exactly Obsidian is good myself""

Oh, this is an easy one. They are good because they make fun games. Period.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

Discussing the revenue of sega is kind of mute. They are with that pachino or whatever business in Asia and they had some amusement parks and shit. Sega the games division makes far less than that revenue.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

NWN2 has about 15 patches and it still runs like shit

Rubbish.

No, it really does.
I can run pretty much anything maxed out except shitty ports like Saints' Row 2. But NWN2 still slows my machine to <10fps in parts - the city of Saramach in SoZ, the shipwreck at the beginning, and a couple of locations in modules have actually been near-unplayable.

 

[Silellak]

milking products like WoW which need little operating expenses

I don't consider having whole server maintenance teams all over the world - little operating expenses. Blizzard right now has 2700+ people and growing - and somehow I doubt that someone there works just for food.

Ignoring the rest of your discussion - because I don't actually give a shit about any of it - I just wanted to point out this article from October of last year:

http://kotaku.com/5050300/how-much-has-wow-cost-blizzard-since-2004

As of that time, WoW had cost Blizzard $200 million to maintain since it started. Considering that, at an estimate, WoW makes $150,000,000 a MONTH from subscriber fees alone (assuming 10 million subscribers), not even counting sales of expansions, I think it's fair to say that the operating expenses are "little" as compared to the amount made.

I saw a breakdown of Activision's profits from last year, and their WoW profits were almost as much as their profits for every console system combined. Why do you think every PC developer with the money to do so is moving towards the MMO market? All you need is a fraction of WoW's success and you're practically printing money.