to developers: how to boost sales

[Cwl]

Originally Posted by 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.

the problem is you are viewing it from a hardcore PC flight sim perspective, so are your buddies.

this is not a PC game. this is a console game. sales so far aren't very good, there's few people online and the forums over on xbox.com are half empty. not a good sign.

now obviously this game is out so its too late to change things like the name but the devs & publishers will be considering a sequel and a name change should be the thing to look at.

now I know lot of hardcore PC followers loath mass market games and the dumbing-down they inevitably cause so I can see why you wouldnt want to appeal to the mass market. But this game has the arcade mode to appeal to those.

I'm pretty sure if you conducted some basic research and asked which videogame would you rather buy based on name alone.

Spitfire and Mustang would be far ahead of Sturmovik. with the exception of Russia where the developers come from.

If you want online to be empty then fair enough but I dont.

this is my last post on the topic. ive said all that needs to be said.

[Wissam24]

I wouldn't want a game called Spitfire. Too cheesy

[PantherAttack2]

Originally Posted by Cwl

...the devs & publishers will be considering a sequel and a name change should be the thing to look at.

How would anybody know it is the sequel if the name is different?

And... Now you have something more to say.

[Cwl]

Originally Posted by PantherAttack2

How would anybody know it is the sequel if the name is different?

And... Now you have something more to say.

it doesnt have to be a sequel per se. it could just be a spiritual successor just like how Bioshock is a spiritual successor to the system shock series.

a single games company doesnt just churn out endless sequels, sometimes they have to make a new game. they could do it next time. making it a successor of sorts.

[PantherAttack2]

Originally Posted by Cwl

it doesnt have to be a sequel per se. it could just be a spiritual successor just like how Bioshock is a spiritual successor to the system shock series.

a single games company doesnt just churn out endless sequels, sometimes they have to make a new game. they could do it next time. making it a successor of sorts.

A sequel is a sequel, if you meant 'spiritual successor' then don't say 'sequel', because they are different.

And I never said a game company continues making sequels forever. But I think it would be pointless for them to make another game about aerial combat in WW2 and not name it IL-2 Sturmovik, especially once a fan base was established for that title.

[steellwaters]

My computer is not the best gaming rig so I don't get to play alot of these pc games/....however I spend alot of time scouring the web drooling over all the pc sim games I will own when I can afford the rig(probably after I finish my engineering degree).....with that said I have been routinely disappointed with console flight games....and the tendency for console games to hold your hand and help you beat them reduces sim qualities.......

the ONLY reason I tried this games demo was because I saw IL2 in the title..my jaw dropped and initially I thought maybe they had ported it directly....i loved the sim mode..and bought the game as soon as it came out here(california)...but if it had been called anything else I probably would never have downloaded the demo in the first place....

just my half a cent

[Lexandro]

Originally Posted by Cwl

Blah blah blah, yakety smackety.

You know making presumptions is dangerous. You assumption is that I came with the Sim crowd. Sorry to burst your bubble but ive never played the PC game, BoP is my first foray in to the game. I play Arcade mode, I dont like sim in this game.

So right there your argument falls flat. I am a completely new customer to 1C and the IL2 team. I was drawn to the game because of the demo. My pals and I saw the demo on LIVE! and downloaded it to try it, since we all like arcade flight games like Ace Combat. The name had absolutely no effect on me, I would buy a game with the most idiotic of titles if its actually a damn good game to play.

In short the entire premis of your argument is flawed.

[Revvin]

Originally Posted by Cwl

the problem is you are viewing it from a hardcore PC flight sim perspective, so are your buddies.

Well I'm viewing it as a gamer and I see no sense in your renaming idea

Originally Posted by Cwl

this is not a PC game. this is a console game. sales so far aren't very good, there's few people online and the forums over on xbox.com are half empty. not a good sign.

Online is empty because of other issues in the game like people not being credited for kills when a player ditches for example, that really takes away the enthusiasm for getting online, the xbox forums are not as busy as somethign like Halo but the IL-2 community has always been here, the XBOX forums only appeared shortly before the game shipped so the community was already right here where there is plenty of discussion going on.

Originally Posted by Cwl

now obviously this game is out so its too late to change things like the name but the devs & publishers will be considering a sequel and a name change should be the thing to look at.

So....what you're saying is they need a recognisable brand but now you say forget the work gone into making the IL-2 franchise known on the console format, throw all that out and start from scrath for the next game...wow you're a marketing genius!

Originally Posted by Cwl

I'm pretty sure if you conducted some basic research and asked which videogame would you rather buy based on name alone.

Spitfire and Mustang would be far ahead of Sturmovik. with the exception of Russia where the developers come from.

If you want online to be empty then fair enough but I dont.

this is my last post on the topic. ive said all that needs to be said.

If you put 'Mustang' on the front of the box more people are going to buy it thinking its a driving game or stand in the shop looking at the box wondering what the hell the game is suppossed to be. The name 'Mustang' is far more synonomous with the car than the plane. Lets not stop there though lets make them really recognisable for the masses 'Hulk Hogans WWII Royal Rumble in the Skies'? the 'Red Bull Racing WWII Edition'? 'GI Joes Air War'?

[Cwl]

Originally Posted by Revvin

Well I'm viewing it as a gamer and I see no sense in your renaming idea



Online is empty because of other issues in the game like people not being credited for kills when a player ditches for example, that really takes away the enthusiasm for getting online, the xbox forums are not as busy as somethign like Halo but the IL-2 community has always been here, the XBOX forums only appeared shortly before the game shipped so the community was already right here where there is plenty of discussion going on.



So....what you're saying is they need a recognisable brand but now you say forget the work gone into making the IL-2 franchise known on the console format, throw all that out and start from scrath for the next game...wow you're a marketing genius!



If you put 'Mustang' on the front of the box more people are going to buy it thinking its a driving game or stand in the shop looking at the box wondering what the hell the game is suppossed to be. The name 'Mustang' is far more synonomous with the car than the plane. Lets not stop there though lets make them really recognisable for the masses 'Hulk Hogans WWII Royal Rumble in the Skies'? the 'Red Bull Racing WWII Edition'? 'GI Joes Air War'?

Spitfire / P51 Mustang vs IL2 Sturmovik

which plane is most recognisable?

1. Spitfire
2. Mustang

with Sturmovik coming in a distant last!! however you spin it nobody has ever heard of it outside the ww2 buffs and flight sim experts.

the developers next time round should use what they've got from the IL2 franchise to start a new one. they wouldnt be the first company to do such a thing and create a spiritual successor. heck it could be intended as a sequel just with a different name. its upto the developers.

they being Russians will be fond of their historic aircraft so its up to them. I did think about having multiple box covers. one for say eastern europe and one for Western Europe and one for America but you could just have 2 box covers depending on whether Spitfire or P51 Mustang is more recognisable in the US which is the worlds single biggest games market.

[Wissam24]

I'm not a massive history buff, but I love my planes, and I had heard of the Il-2. Don't assume that because you don't know something, no one else does either. That is a very foolish and stupid thing to do, and will get you nowhere in life. DO assume that a proper publishing company, one that has a virtual monopoly of the software industry in Russia, is a lot better at market research than you, a person who is not a company