to developers: how to boost sales

[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.

[Robotic Pope]

This whole thread is pointless and should be locked.

[Cwl]

my suggestion is valid just most of you guys have your heads in the sand.

nobody cares how good a plane the ilyushin 2 was in ww2.

this is all about sales, and the reason so few people have this game is partly due to lack of marketing and partly due to the bad name.

disagree if you want but this game has struggled to sell considering how good it is. you gotta at least concede that IL2 STURMOVIK: Birds of Prey isnt the most catchy titles is it now?

[Lexandro]

No it is you who has his head in the sand. A name change is NEVER going to happen with this game so give up already. You have already been given multiple reasons why your wrong, you just refuse to accept the fact.

[Revvin]

IL-2 Sturmovik is a recognised brand, its sold extremely well on the PC format and has been the best WWII flight sim for the last 8 years. The suggestions you put forth make it sound like completely different games and would only cause more confusion with people wondering if 'Spitfire: Birds of Prey' is compatible with 'P51: Birds of Prey' and 'Messerschmitt: Birds of Prey' and 'Ilyushin: Birds of Prey' etc etc. Birds of Prey is also probably still a trademark owned by Activision so likely rules that out as the main title with a plane name after it which would still cause confusion amongst the buying public. These kinds of thread really are quite insulting that you think an idea pulled out of thin air is better than the market research and surveys done by marketeers in the 1C Company.

[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.