to developers: how to boost sales

[Robotic Pope]

Originally Posted by Cwl

yes but the IL2 Sturmovik brand is an unknown brand to 99% of gamers. it might be big in the PC flight sim world but not in the console market.

besides Birds of Prey looks like an afterthought if you look at the box of the game. in bright bold lettering the average gamer sees 'IL2 STURMOVIK' and thinks wtf is that? before even noticing Birds of Prey which is tiny.

if the average gamer saw SPITFIRE : Birds of Prey or P51-MUSTANG: Birds of Prey they would be far more inclined to buy it. especially those people from the USA and former British Commonwealth.

Its all about marketing. most people do not know the IL2 brand. more people are familiar with the Spitfire aeroplane and the Mustang.

those hardcore PC flight sim fans who know the Il2 brand would probably be on the look out for any new games made by the same company and since so few flying games get released for consoles I think there wouldnt be any danger of them missing this game.

most PC sim fans are more into PCs than consoles however.

Ok here is a example for you. Halo : Combat Evolved. "Halo? what the hell kinda name is that? Isn't that something angels have above them in stained glass windows? pffff i'm not gonna buy that, I don't care that it has a cool looking future soldier on the front of the box"

For a new (to console) series, Box art is FAR more important for sales than a name. The BoP box art is awesome. And as I said by changing the name you alienate the IL-2 PC gamers who I think may suprise you in their number, it's far higher than 1% of sales thats for sure.

[InfiniteStates]

Originally Posted by Robotic Pope

For a new (to console) series, Box art is FAR more important for sales than a name. The BoP box art is awesome. And as I said by changing the name you alienate the IL-2 PC gamers who I think may suprise you in their number, it's far higher than 1% of sales thats for sure.

Quite agree - the majority of uneducated (in the franchise, not in general) buyers will just look at the picture on the box rather than the title. If the OP's argument held water, we would see no successful game series because they would all be subject to the chicken/egg paradox. I think the name will only become important if they release another game for consoles in order to capitalise on the success of the first...

P.S: HALO is also an acronym for High-Altitude Low-Opening, but are there even any parachutes in the game...?

[Cwl]

ok then naysayers we'll wait and see how popular this game turns out to be. so far it doesnt look good.

[Pizzicato]

CWL has a really good point. The kids that are ripping into him clearly aren't thinking things through.

I work at a major games company, surrounded by people that really know their shit and play pretty much every demo that gets released onto the Xbox marketplace and PSN. Over the past couple of weeks a number of people have asked my what I've been playing and, amongst others, I've been waxing lyrical about the "Il-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey" demo.

No one on the team has played it.

No one.

Aside from the large number of people that aren't interested in flying games or simulations, the standard response I've received is some variation of "Yeah, I saw that on the Xbox marketplace but thought 'What a weird aircraft to base a game around' and didn't bother downloading it".

When I pointed out that you actually get to fly a whole bunch of much more commonly known aircraft, their interest levels immediately increased. If you take this very small sample of the gaming community and extrapolate outwards, you begin to see the overall effect.

It's easy to cretinously spout gems like "LMAO" or "P51: U.S.A! U.S.A! F%$K YEAR!" or "Oh noes! Yuz gots P-51s in my Il-2s" but takes a little more thought and inquiry to sit back and objectively look at how marketing affects a game's sales.

[Cwl]

well glad to see someone agrees with me.

this is damn fine game (aside from a couple of issues) but nobody on my friends list has it and few people have heard of it.

the demo did reasonably well but the game needs more marketing and a name change

[Lexandro]

Its a FRANCHISE, you dont go changing the name of a franchise when you already have a core fanbase. This is evident by the new Halo franchise titles that have bugger all to do with the master chief.

And a name change now would be totally idiotic. The games on sale, the reviews are written, and the public are buying it. It would take a MASSIVE amount of cash to do a "re-run" of production with a new name to the game.

Please CWL stop suggesting dumb ideas, your only making yourself look foolish.

[manintrees]

It's a PC franchise and the core fanbase are PC gamers. The name is forgettable for those who don't know the game and unfortunatly many are going to miss out because of it. If there is to be a sequel I think we will see IL-2 as a sub name only.

[manintrees]

When I first heard about the the two games (IL-2 & Heroes over europe) I instantly decided to go with Heroes because the name was something I could identify with. They both had cool art. Only because I quickly became very interested in ww2 planes and scoured the internet for info did I realize that BOP was going to be the superior choice. IL-2 has a rich history in combat sim and I don't think they should change the name but I do believe it is going to hurt sales. If they had just called it "Birds of Prey" and used IL-2 Sturmovic as a sub name it could have had a better shot from the beginning. I swear the people at my local EB Games only know of BOP because I have called so many frikin' times. To be honest I don't really think 'Birds of Prey' is that great of a name.

[nudger1964]

vgchartz says its sales are 50,000 in the two weeks sinse its first region release. usa was a week later than most of europe, and canada by the sounds even later. i have no idea if that is good, bad or indifferent.... i would imagine it will get steady if not spectacular sales.

[Wissam24]

If I saw "Spitfire: birds of prey" I would assume it was a tacky, cheaply made poor flight simmy game. I probably wouldn't look at the back of the box. I had never heard of Il-2 before this game was advertised. So it drew me in.