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Wow, Kump and Manx sighting in one thread. Reminders of good times.

Yeah, didn't Manx take over Kumps old site or something?

Kump was the guy that got me into the "subdued" look in CMBO.

Mord.

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Hi ya guys...yep, still here!! Nice to see loads of familiar names (the usual suspects) still hangin' around here.

Spent the last few years catching up on some game time which i never had when i was running a CM site. Mord - good to see your still here. I ran COMBAT MISSIONS for a few years, then spent some time with Madmatt helping out at CMHQ.

Looking forward to CM:N or whatever it's gonna be called. Hopefully it will generate the same buzz around it that CMBO did. I'm sure it will.

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Adam:

I can't see any good reason why screenshots and videos/aar's shouldn't be pouring out of the Battlefront PR machine right now. Many companies start their marketing efforts years (or at least "a" year) before release, and posting these things is free for the company!

BFC certainly is different from other gaming companies I deal with with respect to publicising their work in advance of release. New developments and modules for other games that I follow get touted long in advance of release with screenshots and in-depth discussions of new features. They're so eager to show off their work and talk about their ideas. I like this. BFC keep everything very close to their chest though and there's absolutely nothing anybody can do to change their mind. That's just the way they like to play things. Frustrating as hell! :D

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BFC keep everything very close to their chest though and there's absolutely nothing anybody can do to change their mind. That's just the way they like to play things. Frustrating as hell! :D

Hope you're right! It's either that or we really still have a long way to go before we start seeing the light at end of the tunnel !

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"I can't see any good reason why screenshots and videos/aar's shouldn't be pouring out of the Battlefront PR machine right now. Many companies start their marketing efforts years (or at least "a" year) before release, and posting these things is free for the company!"

My guesses for reasons are:

a: Staff are focussed on finishing the game rather than promoting it (in a small company people often have multiple jobs).

b: There's a lot less need to create a buzz. If you are putting out another FPS with great eye candy, then you need to make a lot of noise to sell it because it's a crowded market and two other FPS will be out this month. For a product like CM:N there's a lot less competition in the market and a niche dedicated audience, so less need to promote. The sales profile is more likely to be a slow burn rather than big bang.

c: Not having a good idea on completion date. To build a buzz you need to know when you are going to launch. Given this game is taking years longer than the initial estimates and it isn't being developed to any particular release date, then it would be unwise to spend the effort creating a buzz and then have it fade away as development times take longer and longer. I also imagine some games reviewers would be more interested in taking a look at a game that is due to come out 'next month' than one that will come out 'when it's ready / we don't know'.

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I can't see any good reason why screenshots...

I'm reminded of BFC's very first screenshot from Normandy. A pretty picture of a Tiger I sitting in a field of daisys (I think). Immediately some persons pounced on that screenshot as though it was an omen of doom "A Tiger? OMG, you're selling out to the mass market! Oh, mercy, the game is being totally ruined!" [i paraphrase ;)] Wow, all this angst over a screenshot?

Am I making a point? ...well, let me make up a point.

Product information is like news information, if you parcel out dribs and drabs people might come away with a faulty impression. Better to present the whole package in one go so people won't falsely assume things - like the game's just a big Tiger slugging match, or the NATO module will be missing Canadians, or the Afghan title is.... whatever they assumed about the Afghan title. :rolleyes:

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Oops... I just noticed this thread has exceeded the 300 post limit tradition. I'll close it up after I've addressed the points raised...

We are different than other game companies. Therefore, expect differences from how we operate compared to the other game companies :D One of the big differences is we do not need to create hype or buzz ahead of time. Other companies MUST create buzz/hype well ahead of their releases or they will have a sales disaster. That's for three primary reasons:

1. Each mainstream game is competing against a TON of games that are pretty much identical to the one they are looking to release. The end user is constantly being manipulated to favor the game with the most buzz/hype so when a particular product comes out he buys it the first week or two. Since consumers tend to favor the thing they are most familiar with, it's better to be the first generic RPG game in their minds than the last one. Especially when Christmas rolls around and the majority of retail sales are landed.

2. Retail buyers make a pretty good chunk of their purchasing decisions months in advance of a game's release based on what they perceive as the viability of the game in the marketplace. Part of this is based on how much marketing money they've seen spent, how many previews have been landed, how favorable the net is towards it, etc. If there is no buzz/hype, the retail buyers won't do much to help the game sell. In fact, they might actively hinder its sales because they instead favor some other product. Remember, to a retailer the only thing that matters is sales, not quality, not originality, and certainly not longevity.

3. A retail game has to do HUGE numbers in the first week or two for it to stay on the shelves. If it doesn't do huge numbers, it is yanked and that's pretty much the end of its full price run in the market. This means the game MUST have pent up demand for day one of release or it's pretty much doomed to the discount bin. We don't have that problem since to us since we don't toss our own products into a discount bin (with retail partners this is an issue, which is another reason we're not doing simultaneous releases any more). In fact, it's better for us to have sales spaced out because it eases support issues and makes for better cashflow.

Which means... if there is no hype/buzz then the retailers don't buy, the customers don't create demand, and the product flops because it didn't get a huge hit of sales in the first couple of weeks. We're not like that on purpose.

The bottom line here is that we actually have disincentives to putting out too much information too far ahead of release. One example of this are screenshots that aren't "damned near perfect". The nit pickers and Negative Nancys tend to hijack otherwise positive reception and turn it into a headache for us. Headaches mean distraction from finishing the game, which isn't a good thing. I know it sucks that 95% of you guys have to suffer because 5% have the imagination and understanding of a brick wall, but we don't make the rules.

So there you have it. We're not prone to throwing stuff out there like other game companies for very sound reasons which are fairly unique to us. We do understand that people would rather have a steady flow of tangible stuff to pick at while waiting for release, but we have to balance that insatiable want with actually getting the game done. After all, would you rather have screenshots or the game itself? Exactly :D

Steve

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