Ikaruga [DC, GC, XBLA, PC]

[skelly]

Originally posted by Mr_Furious
It's a valid question as there are posters here that believe it's possible but without a good example on how, your general statement will have little to no weight

What, do I have to post a game design doc for you?

I don't quite share ferricide's vehemence in regards to today's shooters, but I think he has an excellent point about how they need to become accessible again. Kind of like training wheels on a bike teach a kid to ride, shooters need more concessions to newbies to draw them in, keep them playing, and eventually turn them into a real fan of the genre. Would it work? I'm a pessimist, so I doubt it. But shooter developers ought to do something, because their market ain't getting any bigger with their current product strategies.

Originally posted by MonsterMash
I don't see why these reviewers (not just Gamespy, but you happen to be talking to me ) feel they need to decide what their readers want.

You raised some good points, but there aren't (IMO) any easy answers. I will discuss it with my editor, though, and see what comes out of it.

(Thanks for reading GameSpy, btw. I love to hear that TNL folks check it out.)

[bahn]

We love to see Gamespy folks visit us

I hope I get a chance to run into you again at E3. It's beena ages since we talked!

[Mr_Furious]

well since no one can provide at least one simple idea on how shooters could penetrate the market, then I'll just stand by my original point. There are TONS of shooters, both old and new, that could do essentially what you people have been stating but truth be told, mainstream just doesn't care. Keep focusing on the niche market and make us happy and some others might "see the light". To the rest I say

[islandersfan4ever]

Originally posted by Mr_Furious
well since no one can provide at least one simple idea on how shooters could penetrate the market, then I'll just stand by my original point. There are TONS of shooters, both old and new, that could do essentially what you people have been stating but truth be told, mainstream just doesn't care. Keep focusing on the niche market and make us happy and some others might "see the light". To the rest I say

Well said, Mr_Furious.

[Shin Johnpv]

Like i said i dont think its games that need to change persay (maybe an AI that sees how well a player is playing and ramps difficulty up or down based on that)

anyway i still say its marketing

advertise
push this shit
get magazines to put it on the cover

that sells games
you need to put it in the mainstreams face
as often as humanly possible
and tell them they HAVE TO HAVE this game

[bahn]

Originally posted by islandersfan4ever
Well said, Mr_Furious.

yes...gimme more shooters!!!!

[MechDeus]

Originally posted by Mr_Furious
well since no one can provide at least one simple idea on how shooters could penetrate the market, then I'll just stand by my original point.

We already have, just as I said before: Ikaruga. Yes, it is being released in limited quantities, but those same quantities are also disappearing rather fast, no? Like I said earlier, my local Funco is already sold out of their first shipment, something they couldn't do with Frequency (and they only had two copies of that game), Gitaroo Man (both niche titles), or even Mobile Light Force 2 (a much cheaper shooter for a much more popular system).

No, it probably won't light up the charts, but it seems to still selling much better then previous shooters in the US. EGM gave it high scores and recommended it, and it's being pushed by other publications (print and web). It may not have a large amount of press but it's got some, and that's clearly having an effect.

[AaronChance]

Ikaruga has the eye candy advantage, being both in 3D and looking stylish to boot. I think it also benefits from being released on a system that isn't deluged with games so it stands out in this crowd. I also find it pretty accessable, put the game on easy and the first stage at least is a breeze, but it suffers from being very short to what a mainstream gamer is used to.

DDP is a lot more fun though, imo.

[islandersfan4ever]

The problem, as I see it, is the mindset of the casual, new generation of gamer. I may be going out on a limb, but here's my $0.02. :P

The old-school folk, like myself, have fond memories of being at the arcade trying to get a Hi-Score on Pac-Man, Asteroids, Missile Command, etc. Since we grew up on those games, scores were very important to us, especially since you could put your initials on the scoreboard.

The new generation seems to want to beat a game....and that's it. That's why a game like Ikaruga....well, most of them won't "get it". Already, on GameFaqs(yeah, I know....), there have been plenty of wankers claiming they beat the game and it has no replayability. Meanwhile, they can't chain for crap and they continued 100 times.

I think Ikaruga is rock-solid, even though I still suck at it. It's all about racking up killer chains, hi-scores, and trying to beat the game in as few continues as possible. If you get that, then you "get" Ikaruga.

[Mr_Furious]

Originally posted by Shin Johnpv
anyway i still say its marketing

Marketing doesn't guarantee it's success. Imagine how many more copies of Ikaruga that could've sold if the game got released globally at the same time (assuming Treasure could've ported to GC sooner and have it release day and date with the DC version). Since NCS's pre-orders were over 5k, it's safe to say that Ikaruga would've sold a lot more then than now, here in the U.S. One major problem is that more often than not, it takes quite a while for companies to wake up and localize Japanese games for the U.S. territory killing potential sales.

If companies would wake up and release these games in the U.S. and Japan at the same time, I'd bet sales numbers would be surprisingly higher.

Although marketing couldn't hurt as long as the company could afford it, the real problem lies in their sales strategies. Ikaruga has sold a lot of copies here in the U.S. already, including DC and it has nothing to do with marketing. It's simply quality and word of mouth that pushed sales. I've only seen scattered print ads for Iky thus far so marketing hasn't worked very hard.