When does the game become a flop

[wozzar 154]

I said this a long time ago that SC2013 would be a flop just like SCS. So when does the SC2013 officially become a flop and is this based on sales figures which are not entirely accurate.

[perafilozof 143]

Considering the amount of people playing it, and that new players keep coming in, if the game was not to expensive to make they will make some fat profits of it.Not a flop by a long shot.

[wozzar 154]

whether

 

Considering the amount of people playing it, and that new players keep coming in, if the game was not to expensive to make they will make some fat profits of it.Not a flop by a long shot.

You cant just based that on sales figures. It is whether people will play it once and then put it on the shelf and never play it again. Spore was a flop yes it sold heaps of copies but it was still a flop as most people played the game only once and put it on the shelf never to be played again and this would have affected the sales of the expansions.

[nats 99]

Its already a flop, almost certainly it is not reaching anywhere near the expected sales. They have shot themselves in the foot with this whole thing.

 

The great thing is that this has opened a lot of people's eyes to the whole constant online DRM thing - I think this will prove to be good for PC games in the long run. Of course whether EA, Maxis and Simcity as a series will survive this atrocity, only time will tell. I do hope we havent seen the end of Simcity.

[City Planner 121]

It depends, I consider games in two categories.

 

1. Financial success or Financial flop

 

2. Gamers success or Gamers flop

 

 

I have a strong feeling that this in no way will be a financial flop for EA/Maxis however we'll need more time to determine if it's a gaming flop as there are MANY players that are having a blast playing it, even with it's bugs and other faults.  And as usual the vocal minority is loud and abusive right now so it's impossible to tell what is really going on, especially on the EA forums where people can load into another persona and post messages which is why I believe there are so many disgruntled posters that have all of  1 to 5 messages posted in total.

 

In any event, for me, while the game does a lot wrong (in my opinion) and had some serious launch problems, I doubt heavily that it will be a financial flop and for me (for me) it will not be a gaming flop even with ti's faults.  Will I be playing this 10 years down the road like I have SC4?  Well, if no expansions come out for it, and there is no modding allowed then I'd seriously doubt it.  However, Origin reports that I've already played this version of the game for 71 hours.

 

Yes, Seventy One hours.  I don't think I could consider that to be a gaming flop even if I really wanted to.

[Wiimeiser 436]

You have to debate over which is better programmed: SC5 or

monstrosity of a glitch

[snwboardn 18]

I haven't bought it yet... But I am itching for the bugs to get ironed out so that I can. The only way it flops is if they just abandon it, without fixing the bugs... The only thing that bothers me is more of what I consider bugs seem to be working as intended. I will give it a few months and see what Maxis does, it is completely up to them to redeem themselves. 

[macvirt 361]

SC2013 is far from a flop. It would only have "flopped" if it had been unable to reach in to the targeted volume markets, but it has done that quite decently. It could face a risk of not meeting further targets for DLC if the current issues surrounding the discrepancies between marketing and reality persist, but that can be mitigated. Mostly by the people at Maxis though, and I do think it is fair to say that they are starting to realise that, and to address it. For example, consider the statements of no banning for modding, but also the recent recognitions of removed features and so forth. 

 

Right now they are facing a situation which could have been avoided, competition between the studio level and the customer while under scrutiny (the narrative of the marketing being destroyed day by day). But that is still something which if they are smart they can use to their advantage. It is rapidly becoming a case of going with the flow, and building on top of that. As opposed to sticking to the strategic marketing directives and pulling their pants down (so to speak). 

 

In simple terms, it is time for Lucy Bradshaw (as an example of function, nothing personal) to go quiet, and for the Devs to seize the messaging as devs. People want to believe, why not step away from the trust degrading marketing instrumentation and embrace that which stimulates people to embrace. 

[perafilozof 143]

It depends, I consider games in two categories.

 

1. Financial success or Financial flop

 

2. Gamers success or Gamers flop

 

 

I have a strong feeling that this in no way will be a financial flop for EA/Maxis however we'll need more time to determine if it's a gaming flop as there are MANY players that are having a blast playing it, even with it's bugs and other faults.  And as usual the vocal minority is loud and abusive right now so it's impossible to tell what is really going on, 

 

Exactly. And there is another thing that is true for all games: only people that don't like it or have a problem will be on the forums and such, who ever is having fun and no problems will be happily playing. And maybe 1 in 100,000 will post how he likes the game on a forum, but you can be sure that 90,000 out of 100,000 that have a problem will have something to say about it.

[mastorofpuppetz 199]

I said this a long time ago that SC2013 would be a flop just like SCS. So when does the SC2013 officially become a flop and is this based on sales figures which are not entirely accurate.

 

Your wrong.... Sales were better then expected...

[Sunfighter 186]

I win by saying it would be a lot like Diablo 3. Sell well, have server problems, but ultimately die out pretty quick with the mass market.

[mastorofpuppetz 199]

I win by saying it would be a lot like Diablo 3. Sell well, have server problems, but ultimately die out pretty quick with the mass market.

Diablo 3 sold 12 million, die out quickly? hardly...12 million for a pc game is enormous.

[Sunfighter 186]

I win by saying it would be a lot like Diablo 3. Sell well, have server problems, but ultimately die out pretty quick with the mass market.

Diablo 3 sold 12 million, die out quickly? hardly...12 million for a pc game is enormous.

 

How many people still play diablo 3? How many are still buying it? Diablo 2 was STILL being sold on shelves the day diablo 3 came out..do you really think that will happen with diablo 3?

[mastorofpuppetz 199]

 

I win by saying it would be a lot like Diablo 3. Sell well, have server problems, but ultimately die out pretty quick with the mass market.

Diablo 3 sold 12 million, die out quickly? hardly...12 million for a pc game is enormous.

 

How many people still play diablo 3? How many are still buying it? Diablo 2 was STILL being sold on shelves the day diablo 3 came out..do you really think that will happen with diablo 3?

 

D3 is still on the shelves and selling well thus 12 million sales, most of which came well after launch. The loud minority on forums are just that minority, most people playing games do not post on forums nor care what people whine about online. I was dissappointed in d3 but dont act like you know what all the casual gamers who are still buying and playing it think.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

SC4 still has a strong playerbase (think about it...a ten years old game !)

 

SC2013 if well done could have been a sentation, could have last long too. As it is now, you're right... it's gonna die very quick.

[dogma555 187]

You should take a look at how many people are still playing Counterstrike 1.6...

 

 

 

37,000 people playing a game that was released in 2000, RIGHT NOW. May not be the amount when it first came out, but it goes to show there are still TONS of people still playing older games.

 

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/

 

Not all of us are into "disposable gaming" like you seem to be advocating. Some of us are lucky enough to find games we like so much that we never plan to stop playing them.. and this is obviously much more true when it comes to PC games, who tend to attract far far more dedicated gaming communities than console games can.. of course, mostly due to modding potential adding near infinite longevity.

[iceanimator 6]

When people stop talking about it.

[hellmunkey 30]

Do you honestly think most games keep their launch playerbase for an entire year?  Most MMOs cant even do that.  Even if D3 only has 10% of its playerbase still active, thats 1.2 million players which is a hell of a lot more than a lot games can even make in total sales.  New games come out all the time and people transfer their attention to those new games.  I play my old games all the time, but I dont play them near as much as I did when I first got them.  I dont know anyone that plays a game a year later as much as they did when they bought it.

[Turjan 1,048]

I'm pretty sure Simcity 5 was a full financial success. For the company, it doesn't matter whether people still play the game one year later, except if they wanted to milk it for a constant revenue stream with DLC. Still, the first week of a game is most important, and as this game topped the sales charts, it was obviously successful.

 

Now, whether the game ruined the franchise is a different question. Will people buy the next iteration? I think the average consumer memory lasts about two years, so they should be fine for some new customers in 2015. They won't be fine with me, but one person is irrelevant. especially as I didn't buy this game for several reasons, which means I'm not part of their target group, anyway.