Is Steam Graphs Real

[SlipBall]

Originally Posted by ACE-OF-ACES

So are you guys saying you are just now realising that flight sims are a niche market?

That is to say flight sims are the red headed step child of games?

Welcome to 1998!

So true, it is...1c is moving in the right direction IMHO, they need to get to a place of a FPS with air support...thats where we come in

[Force10]

Originally Posted by ACE-OF-ACES

So are you guys saying you are just now realising that flight sims are a niche market?

That is to say flight sims are the red headed step child of games?

Welcome to 1998!

They might not be as niche' as you think. MSFS X sold over 300,000 units. I would certainly say that CLOD in it's current state is a niche' product. My point is that there are plenty of other game types that are more "redheaded" than flight sims.

[ACE-OF-ACES]

Originally Posted by SlipBall

So true, it is...1c is moving in the right direction IMHO, they need to get to a place of a FPS with air support...thats where we come in

Bingo

Which I think explains why 1C is putting so much effort into the ground controlled vehicals..

[ACE-OF-ACES]

Originally Posted by Force10

They might not be as niche' as you think.

Trust me it is

And to be more specific.. I am talking about combat flight sims

[Force10]

Originally Posted by ACE-OF-ACES

And to be more specific.. I am talking about combat flight sims

Fair enough...but maybe we shouldn't use CLOD's flatline numbers as a barometer for how the whole combat flight sim genre is doing. We are talking about the worst flight sim launch in history, that has customers that still can't/won't use the product. Not a good indicator for how the whole genre is doing.

[ACE-OF-ACES]

Originally Posted by Force10

Fair enough...but maybe we shouldn't use CLOD's flatline numbers as a barometer for how the whole combat flight sim genre is doing.

Guess you missed the post in this thread that pointed out the graphs don't show any values below 100.. That is to say if 99 users were on it would show up as ZERO

Originally Posted by Force10

We are talking about the worst flight sim launch in history, that has customers that still can't/won't use the product. Not a good indicator for how the whole genre is doing.

Could be worse..

This flight sim could have been made by the devs who made Silent Hunter 5 who took the $ and ran leaving behind a buggie sub sim.. Folks would do themselfs well to STOP and remember that befor posting a whinnie 'are we there yet' post

[ParaB]

Originally Posted by ACE-OF-ACES

Could be worse...

Yup. Someone could hit me over the head with a baseball bat every time I start CloD.

Other than that I have a hard time remembering a similar horrible release. Luftwaffe Commander perhaps.

[ACE-OF-ACES]

Originally Posted by ParaB

Yup. Someone could hit me over the head with a baseball bat every time I start CloD.

Not srue if that happened to the Silent Hunter 5 users..

But having the devs drop all support for that game within months of release probally had that feeling of being hit over the head with a bat.

Originally Posted by ParaB

Other than that I have a hard time remembering a similar horrible release. Luftwaffe Commander perhaps.

Plenty of games out there with worse releases.. But if you wanted to focus on a flight sim maker.. Take a look at DCS.. If you think 1C is bad by anouncing a 'sequal' that is going to add new features and planes and maps.. How does that compare to DCS BlackShark where they just re-released the same game with a few new features and fixes.

Long story short, all new games are very complex..

IT IS UNREALISTIC TO EXPECT ANY GAME TO BE RELEASED BUG FREE!

With that said, I think we should be glad to hear that 1C is still 'working' on it instead of doing what the SH5 devs did

[Force10]

Originally Posted by ACE-OF-ACES

Guess you missed the post in this thread that pointed out the graphs don't show any values below 100.. That is to say if 99 users were on it would show up as ZERO

Guess your missing my point....Your looking for numbers on steam for CLOD and basing the whole genre on one game and on one client. 1946 is still doing well on hyperlobby, you have the DCS series that doesn't really have a way to track numbers, ROF, and not to mention the vast majority that flies offline like myself.

BTW: I was looking at old numbers for MSFS X...it sold a million units.

[jibo]

maybe you should ask to formers employees of Sierra-Dynamix/MicroProse/Origin/Rowan-Empire/Jane's-EA/DID-Rage/MS Games Studios (CFS)
how roomy the niche was
With a shrinking pc market, a ongoing crisis, the rise of no brainer games etc ...
It was hard for everybody, only FPS really made it through.
The different genres are slowly crawling back (apart sub-sim which of course remains underwater) so the youth is progressively rediscovering the joy of a real rewarding game. (other rewards than angry bird stars).

It's nice to see that some good old studios are still in the place (codemasters, the creative assembly, Bioware ...)
There is also a trend of successful revivals (mass effect, soon command and conquer ...)
I was reading a interview of the Japanese lead programmer of Final Fantasy series he said the gameplay hasn't change in 10 years, eventually the market is rebuilding itself on the same basis.
And IL2 will shine for 20 years, can't you hear it approaching, trutrutrutthhhffffffffffff