If anybody knows a thing or two about good games selling poorly, it's Double Fine's Tim Schafer. His last game, Psychonauts, was notorious for a disappointing sales performance despite widespread critical acclaim, but unlike the gamers who rage at such injustice, Schafer is taking it in his stride, not too worried at all.
"Fans worry too much about sales, to tell you the truth," explains the designer, swallowing another chill pill. "As long as you make a cool game, publishers want to talk to you… [They say,] 'We liked Psychonauts, and we think we could have sold it better."
Backed by Jack Black, Brutal Legend looks to have a lot more mainstream potential than Psychonauts ever did, and Schafer is aware of that. He also swears that Brutal Legend's mainstream appeal was a creative decision, not influenced by marketing. Double Fine works to make each game radically different from the last, which is this one, in Schafer's words, "is a game that natually has more commercial hooks, like hot babes and Jack Black."
Brutal Legend is looking to be this year's hot commodity among the hardcore elite, and we're all looking forward to it here at Destructoid. Hopefully it sells far better than Psychonauts did, even if Schafer isn't losing sleep over it.
Contest:
1:40 PM on 04.06.2009
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I'll take quality over quantity sold any day.
As one who never played Psychonauts, I can tell you this: the game looked too kiddie for me. And that is why I never played it. It may have been this epic tale that spans through a lovable cast of characters who touch my soul on an emotional level... but if it looks like a kids game, I'm gonna look at other potential games to spend my money on.
The little, free web game Double Fine made to coincide with GDC had more wit, charm and humour than many games with multi-million dollar budgets. 19 years on, many people still play and love games like The Secret of Monkey Island. How many people will still be playing Halo 3, Killzone 2, GTA IV in 19 years?
I've always felt like games lost something when the 3D arms race started gathering pace.
The problem is that gamers care about sales because publishers care about sales! If we find a game that is just so awesome that it screams for a sequel, we're ging to want more sales so that publishers don't be afraid to publish a sequel.
Case-in-point: Okami. One of the most brilliant games ever created had a paltry 500K sales. Even if Capcom didn't dissolve Clover, those kinds of numbers don't necessarily warrant a sequel. Zack and Wiki is another one! I want a Zack and Wiki 2 desperately, but do you Capcom is going to make one when it only sold 360K copies? Not going to happen.
We as gamers have no choice but to want higher sales for games that we like because the publishers aren't willing to spend a lot of money distributing a game that doesn't sell well.
So, what Tim Shafer says is true, but really it's because we want more sales by proxy, thanks to the publishers, not because we simply want more sales.
@Timmeh
Couldn't agree more
My brand of dish-washer salts sold more than your brand.
When will we all grow the F**k up?