Blashy Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 Well Hubert, I live next to Ottawa (Gatineau) I work at the House of Commons, no I ain't a politician!!!. I'm a Network Analyst. And I would be interested in giving live feedback if ever you are looking for people. I'll happily sign a full NDA. And I'm no SENS fan (Leafs, heh), HABS all the way, now that they finally got some old HABS with good heads up top. Still though, the game sucks now. Gimme my 80's hockey back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 Originally posted by pzgndr: </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> Any chance Hubert needs live beta testers? As opposed to his ... "Dawn of the Dead" beta testers?? </font> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blashy Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 All natural: Cocaine, Tobaco, Caffeine, Magic Mushrooms, Poison Ivy, Venom... So when they say that, their statement is pretty stupid. As if all natural means "good for you" . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les the Sarge 9-1 Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 Hmm was not aware Hubert was an Ontarionian like me. Where abouts do you hang your Hat Hubert? I hang mine about 90 minute drive north east of Toronto (cottage country in the Kawarthas). Dumb place they call City of the Kawartha Lakes (which to those not from these parts, is also basically the same as saying Victoria County). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly's Heroes Posted March 23, 2004 Share Posted March 23, 2004 Well, I got SC at EB today. It cost $19.95 Canadian. Worth the wait Apparently my local EB sold all of their SC games in two days. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Want to guess how much of that goes into Hubert's pocket, Kelly's Heroes? Martin PS. Let me add quickly and clarify that I am not complaining, or even attacking you personally After all, we could have simply not released the game into retail. I am in fact happy that you got a good deal on the game, and in fact I'm happy that we manage to increase the fan base and bring a great game to people who might have never found out about it otherwise. Plus SC has been a great selling game already, so no need to be greedy. But I thought it might be good to point out that not much has changed in the retail market since Battlefront.com has been founded, and that one game sold direct still is the equivalent of at least 10 games sold through retail - to the developer at least. Martin [ March 23, 2004, 05:16 PM: Message edited by: Moon ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_j_rambo Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Sure, I'll guess: Breakdown: ========= 1) $20 retail price in Canadian = $15 US dollars 2) Retail store gets at least half $7.50 3) Physical production is gets $2.00 (the jewel case & disk are cheap, but its labor & storage) 4) Franchis BS, overhead of the "company" gets $3.00. Depends if salary or not. 5) Shipping & whatever I'm missing such as. $1.00 Hubert gets $1.50 per copy? do I win? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 $1.50 x 4.9 million customers -- he's doing all right! A Day at BattleFront* *The skulls are only ornamental.** :cool: **Banned -- Oh, come on!! [ March 23, 2004, 06:02 PM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_j_rambo Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 4.9 million copies of SC? No way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Okay, I tend to be an opimist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_j_rambo Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 I'd say they've sold 25,000 copies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blashy Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Seems like a reasonable number. Can you people let us know the sales figures? I agree, I'll always buy direct from the game devs if I can, I know most of the $ is going in their pocket and H deserves every bit of it. I mean this is the ONLY not FPS game I play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 I was thinking 50,000 world wide but, like I say, it's an opimistic view. 25,000 seems very reasonable. Gotta get this thing available in China and India -- even .05% of that market @$1.50 a pop might make a decent chunck of change. No, now that I think of it, there's a lot of counterfit marketing out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly's Heroes Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Originally posted by Moon: Want to guess how much of that goes into Hubert's pocket, Kelly's Heroes? Martin PS. Let me add quickly and clarify that I am not complaining, or even attacking you personally After all, we could have simply not released the game into retail. I am in fact happy that you got a good deal on the game, and in fact I'm happy that we manage to increase the fan base and bring a great game to people who might have never found out about it otherwise. Plus SC has been a great selling game already, so no need to be greedy. But I thought it might be good to point out that not much has changed in the retail market since Battlefront.com has been founded, and that one game sold direct still is the equivalent of at least 10 games sold through retail - to the developer at least. Martin Hi: Well, you know the 'ol saying: Sell one item for $1 million or sell one million items for $1.00. That's why donut shops do so well. Who hasn't got a buck for a donut or a coffee? How much of the duty and shipping would you have received if I had bought the game online? Nada. But I would have been out of a big chunk of change. (But don't cry for me Argentina. . .) Now, since I have saved about $50.00, I also bought Combat Mission. See? I wound up buying two games instead of one (if I had bought SC online). Now that I have the game, I will be spreading info about the game via word of mouth. Others will do likewise. So everyone wins in the long run. BTW, the version I bought is patched to v1.07 and has all the latest graphics, etc already built into the game. Cheers! [ March 23, 2004, 10:11 PM: Message edited by: Kelly's Heroes ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les the Sarge 9-1 Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Hey I saw this guy driving a porche, and he had these two hot looking blondes with him eh. And I would not have thought anything of it, but I heard one say, "Oooh Hubert baby, give them that SC2 so we can spend more time in Hawaii next winter". Hmm, I am suspicious now eh, I think Hubert is doing rather well on SC sales Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Well, whatever number you come up with for the total, divide it by, umm, about 4-5 years of work(2 years to develop the game, 2 years since it's been released). Does it still look like life on the fast lane? Kelly's Heroes - like I said, no bad feelings at all. Quite the contrary - the whole reason for us to go retail after 2 years is to give a better offer to those that still have not bought SC, and it seems you're the perfect example of the system working as it should. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly's Heroes Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Originally posted by Moon: Kelly's Heroes - like I said, no bad feelings at all. Quite the contrary - the whole reason for us to go retail after 2 years is to give a better offer to those that still have not bought SC, and it seems you're the perfect example of the system working as it should. Martin Martin: I understand your point of view. As a modder myself, I clearly understand the amount of work that goes into a computer game, so Hubert deserves payment for his hard work. But this is why retail is soooo important. It opens up the game and the company to thousands of others who have NEVER heard of you or the game before (even though the game has been out for 2 years). Many people still have never been on the internet. When I bought my copy of SC at EB, the sales clerk had never heard of Battlefront or SC before. I talked with him a bit about the game, and he seemed to be interested. He mentioned he was a chess player, and I told him the game was quite chess-like in its planning and detail. And I think he will be taking a second look at the game. Although you may not make as much at retail, just the increased sales, volume and word of mouth about the game and your company works wonders in the long run. This builds up a large customer base in the long run. There is a real demand for a strategic WW2 game. I wanted SC because it helps to fill that need (for me) for a strategic level WW2 game. BTW, the unit counters in the retail release are the best I have seen for this game so far. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Kelly's Heroes, all good points, and they certainly apply to most mass market games. But unfortunately for wargames reality has it that you are wrong. The increase in volume does not make up for the loss in income. Don't forget, the ratio is 10-to-1 (and sometimes even higher). We need 10 salesclerk-hobby-chessplayers for each direct customer, and that's just for Hubert to come home with the same amount of money! If we decided to follow your advice and go the retail route and indeed managed to increase our customer base by 500% (sales managers would kill for something like that), we would still lose in the long run! If it was any different, BFC wouldn't be here... The way things are now work out to the best of all involved. You get your good deal if you're willing to wait a couple of years, we get you as customer in the end, and even the sales clerk might discover the wonders of a good game for a change Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J P Wagner Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 And keep in mind that SC had the market cornered for a good two year run, turn based that is so I don't offend HOI proponents, and...uh...non DOS based, but that is about to change...other companies are jumping on to the Strategic WWII bandwagon so there will be some more competition in 2004-5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly's Heroes Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 Originally posted by Moon: Kelly's Heroes, all good points, and they certainly apply to most mass market games. But unfortunately for wargames reality has it that you are wrong. The increase in volume does not make up for the loss in income. Don't forget, the ratio is 10-to-1 (and sometimes even higher). We need 10 salesclerk-hobby-chessplayers for each direct customer, and that's just for Hubert to come home with the same amount of money! If we decided to follow your advice and go the retail route and indeed managed to increase our customer base by 500% (sales managers would kill for something like that), we would still lose in the long run! If it was any different, BFC wouldn't be here... The way things are now work out to the best of all involved. You get your good deal if you're willing to wait a couple of years, we get you as customer in the end, and even the sales clerk might discover the wonders of a good game for a change Martin I certainly agree with you in principle. But being only internet based also has many disadvantages: 1) Most people who would buy your games have never heard of you. I have run into people who rarely go online, and yet, when I show them certain wargames, they become intensely interested. 2) Retail mainly is to gain exposure and recognition. It's purpose mainly is to attract even more people, than those who know about you via the internet. 3) I have found that even non-wargamers like some types of wargames, such as SC, because it appeals to the planning and strategic side of their nature, much like chess does. There is a reason why Axis and Allies is known worldwide, not only because of the nature of the game, but also because it has exposure. 4) Wargames will always remain niche games, so long as they are made strictly for, marketed to, catered to, and sold only to, internet-based wargamers. I wish you all the best success,and I am looking forward to SC2. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly's Heroes Posted March 24, 2004 Share Posted March 24, 2004 If it is expensive to go retail, or if not enough money is made this way, then why not consider forming co-operative partnerships? For example, SC could be coupled with some military history magazines. SC boxes could offer advertising to those magazines, in return for advertising dollars, which in turn would help cover any short fall in money, going retail might cause. Just an idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hurtzDonut Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 I found out about SC from playing CMBO/CMBB/CMAK. I tried to find it in all the outlets around here and could not find it, so I ordered it. (Wish I would have ordered it when I got CMAK to save on shipping), oh well now I wait on the mailman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheesehead Posted March 26, 2004 Share Posted March 26, 2004 I discovered SC by searching on google. I think the search terms I used were "World war II" "strategic" and "computer game." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hurtzDonut Posted March 27, 2004 Share Posted March 27, 2004 Curse you postal delivery drone!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hurtzDonut Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 Does SC ordered from Battlefront come patched up to 1.07 or do I have to download and patch it myself? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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