I like Alpha Protocol. I like it a lot. So far it's one of my favorite games of the year in a year already full of superb RPGs and promising more to come.
As Destructoid's resident Alpha Protocol apologist, I acknowledge that the game is very rough-hewn (at times almost intolerably so), but in my estimation, what it does right carries far more weight than what it does wrong. But this post isn't about how I disagree with the review, but rather about how I might not be the only Alpha Protocol apologist out there.
Though the franchise is effectively dead thanks to middling reviews and slow sales, the game itself has still managed to move over 700,000 copies since its launch in late May. Those aren't exactly Modern Warfare 2 numbers, but they're a good amount considering that it's a new IP from a (relatively) obscure developer based in mechanics that are much more "RPG-like" than some other, more distilled titles that I won't name.
What strikes me, though, isn't the number so much as Sega's behavior. 700k is a lot. Just how high were their sales expectations for Alpha Protocol that they'd definitively choose to cut and run after it "bombed"? Given the strength of their marketing push prior to the release, I'm thinking they were hoping for quite a lot. It's still a shame. A lot of much less deserving games have gotten sequels, and now Obsidian won't get the chance to make a more polished follow-up.
What do you think? Did Sega jump the gun and kill off a slow-burn title? Did they, like too many other publishers, put overmuch weight on Metacritic scores and first-week numbers? Or did they just know, in their corporate heart-of-hearts, that Alpha Protocol just sucked so bad?
Sega sold 700,000 copies of Alpha Protocol [Siliconera]
Contest:
7:00 AM on 07.31.2010
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AP was a flawed, but still fun game. Too bad Obsidian will never get the chance to improve on it with a sequel.
Its the closest thing I've seen to "Every choice you make has repercussions", one dialog choice and you can change your experience of the game. Sure, you look at the missions and thing there's only about 5...but when you look deeper and see the amount of possibilities that arise from each choice you make...its amazingly deep.
That being said there were alot of things that let the game down....the most infuriating part for me was the Boss Battle where one of his main attacks was Melee...and because I hadn't put many points into Melee my attacks and defence was fairly weak. I applaud damage and such being based on your skill...but if the boss is going to use that skill no matter what sort of character you yourself use...thats just irritating design.
Sometimes I think Obsidian bite off more than they can chew....and though their ideas are usually fantastic...they tend to give us games that dont live up to what they could be. KotOR II is the other example, which Chris Avellone acknowledge was their fault because they agreed to the short development window.
All in all, AP was great game let down by a few different factors. It should be given another chance...I mean if Acti can get away with releasing mediocre shit like Modern Warfare 2 and get 10's for it....AP sure as hell deserves another chance.
You guys need to remember that isn't exactly cheap to make a game like this.
Real shame we aren't getting a sequel to it. Oh well..
I don't think reviewers thought it was a shooter, but I think they rushed through the game hoping to get their review out quickly. Alpha Protocol is best played experimentally, by choosing unconventional options that would force a death screen in most games, and patience to dig into the meat of the RPG system.
8/10 from my experience, and I'm typically a harsh reviewer.
A full point is lost there for technical issues, the other was just the barrier I erect against all games for not blowing my mind like Fallout 1+2 did.
Not sure exactly how I feel so far.
The larger this industry gets, the more customers are something companies take for granted.
That's interesting. Were people expecting an FPS out of Bloodlines? I don't remember if or how it was advertised, I just bought it because I like Troika/Black Isle's earlier work as well as the underappreciated Vampire: Redemption, which also had wonky gunplay.
The trailers and press for the game made it look like a Vampire based FPS with some RPG elements. It was one of the first games to use the Half-Life 2 engine as well making people further think that it was an FPS. However, just like in AP, the shooting mechanics were heavily based on your statistics which turned off a lot players. I am glad I stuck with it though because it is a really good RPG.
Also, its nice to know that I am not the only one who liked Vampire:Redemption :)
> Self realization when it takes weeks after launch for people to even figure out what the game is.
http://www.vgchartz.com/game.php?id=18474
http://www.vgchartz.com/game.php?id=18474
So I'd say what you are seeing here is a bit of PR trickery.
Mechman:
Do you know anything about sales? In the territories it released, that'd be about 250,000-270,000 units moved in each territory.
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Anyways, Alpha Protocol is fantastic and deserves a second chance. Give it another go, Sega. Don't pull out so quickly.
Which would be somewhat surprising.
I didn't play the game itself, but I watched my brother play the PC version quite a bit, and it didn't seem to be nearly as bad as the reviews made it out to be. They made it sound absolutely atrocious, while the PC game I saw looked atleast decent, definitely better than some of the other absolute shit I've seen come out in the past year.
If I had to guess I'd say the PC version might be superior to the console verssion, or perhaps PC gamers taste just differ somewhat from console gamer tastes here.
Actually, my friend, you're jumping the gun. This sold 700,000 units globally from June 1st to June 30th.
"Alpha Protocol was released for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in Europe on May 28th and North America on June 1st. As of June 30th, the role-playing game has sold 700,000 units."
That's a rather large success, I'd say.
You are right. It's quite possible that Sega did not profit from Alpha Protocol. And I do understand why they don't want to publish the sequel. It sill sold 700 000 units. For a game that was so badly reviewed (in my opinion since it was misunderstood) that's not too bad.
On the other hand it seems a few people here are more getting to the point that, at the end of the day, 700,000 people still bought he game, which for such craptastic reviews is impressive.
I guess we're all talking about the numbers with two different mindsets.
Of course, Sega's been doing this a lot, and its really wearing on me as a consumer. I can't trust that a Sega game will be good, and I definitely can't depend on them supporting the developers after a release unless its a core franchise.
"That's a rather large success, I'd say."
If what you say is true then why have they abandoned the notion of DLC and sequels? I mean, you can point to whatever number you want and say "in my opinion this is great!" all day long... but the fact is Sega sees it as a failure and is doing what it can to distance itself from AP. Why would that be if it's a "rather large success"?
To add to that.. we don't have a clue how much this game cost to make. It was supposed to be the start of a new AAA RPG franchise. 700k in a month is not a lot when you compare it to another AAA's first day sales of 500k, which is Mass Effect 2 (the closest RPG sales number that I know of).
It's really a moot point what we think. Sega sees AP as a failure and they've ended the franchise before it began.
The game was doomed prior to release, as sega had basically decided that it was going to be their game to compete directly with mass effect, and when it didn't look like it was going to make it, they let it crash and burn.
Take a look and youll see lots of comments against...
@trueb7ue: more like demonic pacts, God had nothing to do with this.
I still need to try this game out......
Eh? AP sold 150,000 on the 360, Alan Wake sold around 600,000 on the 360. How do you figure AP sold more?
So either way...how do you figure AP sold more?
Just waiting for a price drop.
I enjoyed AP more than I did Metro 2033, Dragon Age, or Singularity, and none of those games were considered flops.
It's not apples to oranges when comparing Alan Wake's sales to AP's sales because both developers knew exactly what they were getting into. X360 isn't the only market. In fact, the AP market was twice as big for PC than it was for 360, so shouldn't be figure PC to be the main market?
The fact that AP came closer to that "standard" than Alan Wake is what bothers me, thought your point is very logic and gives me some relief, still, it saddens me that in the industry's eye AP will be considered better than AW.