How to revive sales and save this great game.

[zander]

[GraveyardJimmy]

Originally Posted by zander

-salary picture-

Those are probably based on American development studios though, I expect labour costs are different in the Russian job market (though I am only speculating).

Luthier did mention it was difficult to find competent programmers.

[addman]

1. Make it a free-to-play online MMO with micro-transactions and/or DLC if you want a lot of people to play.

2. Make it the traditional "hardcore historical accuracy accurate FM's flightsim way" and very few will buy it.

Basically, if you want BoM to sell you can't make it the traditional way. Too expensive to develop it especially when you consider potential sales. I don't like that it is this way and I bet few fans of the il-2 series does either but it's the harsh reality. Casual PC gamers (those who play Crysis, Skyrim, Torchlight etc.) don't pick up hardcore sims anymore, not in general anyway.

I think if you are expecting things to be the way they used to be, you should really think again. Even the biggest publishers with the biggest game franchises are being "forced" to go free-to-play with micro-transaction because let's face it, a lot of people like to play games but they can't afford each 50€ game that is released. They prioritize, do I want to buy this obscure Russian developed flightsim or do I want this critically acclaimed and awesome triple-A action/adventure game for my 50€? I'd say most gamers will go for the latter and those very gamers are needed for this franchise to survive and prosper. It doesn't help if you bought 3 copies of CLoD if only a few tens of thousands have been sold.

If you have a free-to-play model you can at least say, "hey! just try it out for free to see if you like it". At least then there's a chance to hook new recruits. Maybe I'm wrong though, maybe our little core community is enough to sustain further hardcore WWII flight games but even if that's the case, I bet those bean-counters we keep hearing about all the time wants to see their investment grow and not stagnate.

[BlackSix]

Originally Posted by zander

This is ridiculous. Salaries are 3-4 times smaller in similar positions in the gaming industry in Russia.

[310_cibule]

That makes sense to me, addman

[zander]

Originally Posted by BlackSix

This is ridiculous. Salaries are 3-4 times smaller in similar positions in the gaming industry in Russia.

Really?
You have programmers who work for $20k?
That's rather depressing, I'd leave the country ASAP.

Originally Posted by GraveyardJimmy

Luthier did mention it was difficult to find competent programmers.

lol, no wonder.

[BlackSix]

Originally Posted by zander

Really?
You have programmers who work for $20k?
That's rather depressing, I'd leave the country ASAP.

Yes, 28-33K is a normal salary for the average programmer in Russia.

[SKUD]

Originally Posted by BlackSix

Yes, 28-33K is a normal salary for the average programmer in Russia.

In 2003 -2006 when I was there the salaries were much lower. I saw them rise dramatically more than 100% in 3 years.They are still going up, unlike our western economies.

[He111]

I was getting paid about A$50,000 back in 1995, contractors alot more. This kept going up until companies said enough is enough and we were outsourced to India and China, needless to say many lost their jobs - me included. Thankfully i had my hobby of sharetrading to takeover. Sharetrading isn't as mentally stressful as C++

.

[Toni74]

Originally Posted by zander

Really?
That's rather depressing, I'd leave the country ASAP.

:facepalm: