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"Proudly forgetting over a decade of video games history"
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Your vote can decide the future! |
|  |  On account of the recent PlayStation Network (PSN) account leaks, publisher redspotgames has started a survey to poll consumer confidence in Sony's online platform. Is your trust irreparably dented, or will you be happy to hand over all your personal information to Sony as soon as PSN is up again? Speak up and your vote could help decide whether Rush Rush Rally Racing will go portable. And you can even win some goodies!
Tick the boxes here: http://www.redspotgames.com/survey/index.php?sid=78767 |
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| | Could this be the reason why I wasn't able to download the Resident Evil 5 update?
Well I hate digital stuff and rarely buy any game that I can't physically hold in my hands, but I don't mind buying an expansion pack or an update if it is really worth it. Like the DLC content for Alan Wake on 360 (BUT I GOT IT FREE CAUSE I BOUGHT THE LIMITED EDITION  ) |
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| | Due to my old sentiments towards that company, I naturally had to vote against the Sony port.
The only reason against it I could come up with was all the work you spent on it already. In an earlier post, you used complex cooking metaphors to describe that the PSN port was supposed to be edible sooner than Age of the Beast, implying that you have already begun working on it. Wouldn't it be a slap in your face to just have your project cancelled?
Oh, and before I forget: "Haha" to everyone who trusted Sony in the first place. They couldn't handle online gaming in the sixth generation and their beloved network sucks just as much in the seventh generation. Hey, here's a new slogan for you, Playstation 3: It only does NOTHING! |
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| | | The only reason against it I could come up with was all the work you spent on it already. In an earlier post, you used complex cooking metaphors to describe that the PSN port was supposed to be edible sooner than Age of the Beast, implying that you have already begun working on it. Wouldn't it be a slap in your face to just have your project cancelled? |
Perhaps, but on the other hand my face would feel even more slapped if I completed the project in vain. I'd like to employ another complex cooking metaphor here, but for some reason all I can think of is "trout". |
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| | I'm getting a 503 (Service Unavailable) error when I try to go vote.  |
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| | The 503 is probably due to the redspot site being down so often 
Try again later. |
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| | | 30 Apr 2011 20:13 / last edited 30 Apr 2011 20:14 | |
At one point Max was planning on torching the house of the server guy, while he was still inside.
I guess he hasn't gotten around to that yet. |
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| | I hate Sony, I hate them for what they did to the industry, I hate them for shifting focus from quality to marketing.
That said, I didn't vote because I wasn't going to buy anything Sony related anyway... so I didn't want to distort the vote.  |
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| | | That said, I didn't vote because I wasn't going to buy anything Sony related anyway... so I didn't want to distort the vote. |
The voting wasn't just about Sony, it felt more like a general poll, asking among other things which consoles you own, which services you use and what platform you'd like to see Rush Rush Rally Racing on. So your vote doesn't distort the poll and you can even name alternatives to PSN (indirectly damaging Sony int the process. Yay!).
From Michael Pachter's point of view, I believe it is safe to say that while the PSN market share holds potential, it could be worthwhile to investigate the possibilities of working on another platform . Before the Deprogrammer hacked PSN, you would have reached most of the "I play retro because it is so hip" crowd, as well as the wannabe elitists, but now these audiences seem to shift away from Sony, leaving behind only the Playstation core fans, who, based on my observations, do not take much of an interest in retro games. They were always the ones craving for the newest cutting-edge technology, believing that a good game must also have exceptional graphics.
*Ahem*, let us return to facts: Should you still want to port R4 one final time, a Microsoft platform is the way to go. Most prominently we have Xbox Live, which seems to be the choice of every indie game developer out there. It appears to be the obvious choice, since good retro-style games like Braid have steady sales and are usually well-received. The main gripe I have here, are the overlapping target audiences WiiWare and XBox Live.
If you feel like being a daredevil, there is also one potential platform you could consider. Microsoft Windows. Whoa, whoa, whoa, don't open your FAIL image folder yet and listen:
It is a proven fact that 83% of computer gamers use Windows. Additional statistics prove that downloadable games are trending, as can be seen with services such as Valve's Steam. One thing of which I am not sure are the requirements to become a third-party Steam publisher, but I bet Max/Adrian can figure that one out. Not only could you reach the computer gaming crowd, which is the majority in large parts of Europe, but at the same time have a simple platform to develop for with the most commercial and Indie development tools available. And let's not forget you would not have to cripple your game and have an infinite amount of space available for videos, gallery art, goodies and... a making-of? The obvious weakpoints here are the loss of pride when developing a game for Windows, compatibility issues between the various Windows iterations and piracy.
Either way, it is still a thing you guys and RedSpotGames decide. All I want is to share some observations. And an RSG keychain. 
Oh, before I forget, where is the RedSpotGames-and-Senile-Team-should come-to-GamesCom-2011-so-I-can-make-up-for-being-a-weird-stalker-last-year-button? |
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| | Dude piracy is an ultimate deal breaker.
While obviously R4 has been pirated 10 times more than actual units sold however 7 out of 10 pirates were never going to buy it because the dominant piracy users exist in 3rd world countries where said games aren't legally avaiable to begin with.
I don't think Windows is the way to go, atleast not until your done with the R4 Franchise, maybe when you've made the 3rd and final game in the series you can just release the source code or something. |
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| | It's times like this when I feel I'm one of the only people left who would rather pay for a physical copy, whatever the platform, over a digital download. Pieces of ART like R4 deserve to be treated as such. Very few people share my opinion sadly.
I bought the Dreamcast version and am very happy with it, but I can't help but feel releasing on a "dead" console (however awesome it may be) hurts in the long run. It's a true dilemma... |
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| | @Captain Dreamcast:
Xbox Live (Arcade / Indie Games) has been mentioned several times before, so naturally we have considered it. However, according to our information (which is partly based on the experience and business sense of other developers), it would likely be a very, very bad choice.
Besides, as a Dreamcast fan, shouldn't you hate Microsoft at least as much as you hate Sony? Microsoft used their experience with the development of the Dreamcast (creating the redundant and poorly performing Windows CE) to compete against it. The backstabbers!
@Halogen:
I share your opinion! Well, about owning physical copies, that is -- I can't be expected to have an unbiased opinion on R4's quality so I'll leave that to others. Unfortunately, it requires much greater investments to produce physical copies than to make a game available via download services. So for a small and pennyless team such as ourselves, there isn't much choice. |
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| | | 02 May 2011 15:06 / last edited 02 May 2011 15:07 | |
Sega didn't seem to mind that though. Then President (forgot his name) made multiple trips to Microsoft to make Xbox Dreamcast compatible but evidently Microsoft didn't want Dreamcast access to XB's online network which was a deal breaker.
@ Hallogen: Given the old school nature of this forum, I can assume we all love physical copies over digi. |
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| | @Captain Dreamcast:
Xbox Live (Arcade / Indie Games) has been mentioned several times before, so naturally we have considered it. However, according to our information (which is partly based on the experience and business sense of other developers), it would likely be a very, very bad choice. |
Oh, never knew about that. Maybe the stuff that reached me was adjusted by Microsoft propaganda?
You know, this is be the kind of knowledge I'd get if I was finally invited to the super-secret DC-developer club meetings.
| Besides, as a Dreamcast fan, shouldn't you hate Microsoft at least as much as you hate Sony? Microsoft used their experience with the development of the Dreamcast (creating the redundant and poorly performing Windows CE) to compete against it. The backstabbers! |
I was in Michael Pachter mode! 
Microsoft is something I feel rather ambivalent about. On the one hand, they obviously stole all the good things from the Dreamcast, probably related to the fact that they also "stole" Sega of America CEO Peter Moore. On the other hand, despite the fact that they are both sixth generation consoles, they never actively competed against each other. Like cube_b3 mentioned, Dreamcast was on its way out and Isao Okawa (that was his name) tried to keep the DC going by making the XBox backwards compatible. Sadly, both Bill Gates and Microsoft's Video Defender rejected Isao's ideas and Sega had to surrender their super-secret console-development power source.
Dude piracy is an ultimate deal breaker.
While obviously R4 has been pirated 10 times more than actual units sold however 7 out of 10 pirates were never going to buy it because the dominant piracy users exist in 3rd world countries where said games aren't legally avaiable to begin with.
I don't think Windows is the way to go, atleast not until your done with the R4 Franchise, maybe when you've made the 3rd and final game in the series you can just release the source code or something. |
The copy protection for Steam downloadable games is very sophisticated, probably due to the fact that Valve said "GFY customers, protection comes first!". I do not want to go into too much detail here, but it uses an authentification code which links your Steam account to the digital copy you have obtained. Of course I am not taking into account that it might not be possible for RedSpotGames to acquire such a license. If that is the case, releasing a game for Windows would equal commercial suicide.  |
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| | | Sega didn't seem to mind that though. Then President (forgot his name) made multiple trips to Microsoft to make Xbox Dreamcast compatible but evidently Microsoft didn't want Dreamcast access to XB's online network which was a deal breaker. |
I don't see how that is supposed to prove that Sega "didn't mind". To me it just looks like they were trying to get something good out of a bad situation.
| The copy protection for Steam downloadable games is very sophisticated, probably due to the fact that Valve said "GFY customers, protection comes first!". I do not want to go into too much detail here, but it uses an authentification code which links your Steam account to the digital copy you have obtained. Of course I am not taking into account that it might not be possible for RedSpotGames to acquire such a license. If that is the case, releasing a game for Windows would equal commercial suicide. |
I'm still a bit surprised that Steam is such a success. I tried it back when it was new, and it was one of the most horrible things I had ever seen. But people say it's much better now. I suppose it must be.
Whether or not redspotgames is able to obtain a license isn't decisive. We are working with redspotgames now, but they do not own Rush Rush Rally Racing and we are still an independent developer. |
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| | | The copy protection for Steam downloadable games is very sophisticated, probably due to the fact that Valve said "GFY customers, protection comes first!". I do not want to go into too much detail here, but it uses an authentification code which links your Steam account to the digital copy you have obtained. Of course I am not taking into account that it might not be possible for RedSpotGames to acquire such a license. If that is the case, releasing a game for Windows would equal commercial suicide. |
I'm still a bit surprised that Steam is such a success. I tried it back when it was new, and it was one of the most horrible things I had ever seen. But people say it's much better now. I suppose it must be. |
If it's much better now, I have to wonder what it was like before. I downloaded Steam for the first time a couple of weeks ago, since it's the only way to buy Portal. I have never had to jump through so many hoops to buy and install a video game, let alone every time I want to play it. |
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| | | If it's much better now, I have to wonder what it was like before. I downloaded Steam for the first time a couple of weeks ago, since it's the only way to buy Portal. I have never had to jump through so many hoops to buy and install a video game, let alone every time I want to play it. |
Sounds the same as ever.  |
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| | | 14 May 2011 15:47 / last edited 14 May 2011 21:10 | |
Quote: @Halogen:
I share your opinion! Well, about owning physical copies, that is -- I can't be expected to have an unbiased opinion on R4's quality so I'll leave that to others. Unfortunately, it requires much greater investments to produce physical copies than to make a game available via download services. So for a small and pennyless team such as ourselves, there isn't much choice. |
Is it about earning money at all or about earning much more money the non-physical-release-way? I don't mean to be offensive, I just would like to know. How many R4 games for Dreamcast were sold? Where the results that bad? I'm sure you followed the success-story of Pier Solar. They just let the people preorder the game before they produced cartridges, boxes and manuals. I'm not a salesmarketing expert and maybe I'm making it to easy, but is it really that selfdestructive to release a game for Dreamcast today? Well I guess I'm in the wrong topic anyway, because I'm of course talking about the future of AotB (again). |
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| | Let's not mix things up here, because the economics of publishing a (downloadable) game for a current generation system have little to do with those of older generations.
About downloadable games: it's not about making (more) money, it's about spending less. What kind of money we'll make (if any) remains to be seen.
About Dreamcast/Megadrive publishing: to the best of my knowledge, developing games for dead systems is rarely economically sound. I'm sure the amount of time that went into the development of Pier Solar was enormous. It seems unlikely to me that the creators will earn a decent hourly wage, even if Pier Solar is relatively successful. The exception here is probably NG:DEV.TEAM, because apparently they manage to sell Neo Geo cartridges for astronomical prices. |
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| | You are right.
I hope you will release it in a profitable way AND for Dreamcast. |
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