This is hilarious. Jeff Minter, old school cult developer who recently released the trippy, arty and not-very-good Space Giraffe for Xbox Live Arcade has thrown a bitchfit over the aforementioned game's lacklustre sales. Because the updated Frogger has done so much better on Arcade than some silly light show, whiny Minter now sees very little point in making games.
not seeing a lot of reason to continue even trying to make games, at this point, when a remake of Frogger, one of the worst games in the history of old arcade games, can outsell Space Giraffe that we put so much love and effort into, by more than ten to one, in one week.
OK, we get the message. All you want on that channel is remakes of old, sh*te arcade games and crap you vaguely remember playing on your Amiga.
We'll shut up trying to do anything new then.
Sorry for even trying.
Maybe he's kidding? One would hope he is, because that's such an amazing crybaby attitude that I'd be embarrassed to make myself look that bad even in jest. What shocks me is that he acted surprised that an obscure, confusing game that had no mainstream appeal did poorly. It's not exactly Wii Sports in terms of accessibility now, is it? While I fully believe that original and inventive games should be supported (if they're good), it's never a surprise when they don't sell well. Sadly, a lot of people DO want old, sh*te arcade games.
Oh, and it doesn't help that Space Giraffe simply isn't better than "one of the worst games in the history of old arcade games." You need some gameplay to go with your lights and pretty music, Jeff.
[Thanks to Buster]
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
6:11 AM on 11.23.2007
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Would you have been as dismissive of his comments if he'd been the creator of Psychonauts complaining about the attention that other, inferior games got instead of his?
wardrox spends his evenings playing Boom Boom Rocket
Someone should tell Mr. Minter how many people have bought Uno, he'll flip his fucking lid once he finds out.
Maybe he would have been better phrasing it as "Ahhh bollox. =( "
Space. Giraffe.
Sounds like an indie band.
lulz.
Most people are either too intimidated by it or to lazy to figure the game out.
But like Jim said, whining about your game not doing good is completely unforgivable. Tim Schafer didn't do that, Hell it seemed like he didn't even care. People should make videogames because they like it, not because they want to turn a profit. If this guy is going to complain about how his game did, then he really shouldn't be in the videogame business.
I also have to go with aborto. The guy makes a poor selling gmae, bitches about it doing poorly then quits? He doesn't have what it takes to make it in the industry. Final Fantasy was named such because they felt it was actually their final fantasy at making a game before going bankrupt.
Jeff Minter isn't worthy to lick the semen off my boot.
Why do you have semen on your boot?
look I drink...
I just checked the blog with the original post. Here's his post from two days after posting his bitchfest(please BBCode, please work):
[quote]
I'm not going to be writing about game development here any more after this. Yes, I had a bit of a rant the other night because frankly yes, it is a bit disappointing to see a repackaged MAME rom doing much better than original content, but hey, that's how it goes. People are more inclined to buy stuff they remember rather than stuff that's new.
We're invested in XBLA now, and we *need* to re-use the SG framework for a couple of reasonably quick games - I think that's the way to make it work out for us, we just need more games in the pipeline. I'm already halfway through the next one and I just want to get my head down and get on with it.
To those who came on here to have a go at me and tell me how much I suck - just piss off, I don't care. If you do that I shall delete your comments and ban you. Guess what, I think you suck too, and I don't give a rat's arse if you don't like my games; they aren't made for you anyway.
And thanks to those who gave me a bit of encouragement at a low moment. Rest assured I'm not giving up; I'm just getting on with it quietly.
So no more dev stuff here, from now on this will just be about sheep and plushies and other such non-work-related stuff. There will be no talk, no press, no screenshots and no videos of work in progress except as and when we are ready to release them, at the appropriate time, through the appropriate channels.
[/quote]
I am really shocked he bitched about anything at all, I would have laughed him out the building if he had shown me that to put on XBLA... it could possibly make them liable for causing utter stupidity.
Yes that's how much I HATED the thing.
I used to like Jeff's monthly column in Edge magazine, he seemed like an ok kind of chap. Sadly though Jeff, love and effort don't make a great game.
I hope you were joking about the tempest ripoff thing.
So.. he' admits his game is not made for everyone and yet he whines about sales?