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View Full Version : Is The SH Franchise To Narrow Of A Market To Develop For?



WhiteKnight77
03-18-2008, 11:51 PM
While this does not neccessarily fall into Ubi's naval submarine games, it may. Ubi's Philippe Therien, a Game Designer for Rainbow Six Vegas 2, stated in his recent Eurogamers Dev Chat (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=94737?):


lavalant asks: I'm a longtime fan of the old Ghost Recon 1 games on Xbox 1 and PC, mainly becuase they were more realistic, with one-hit kills, no recharging health-bars and massive levels. The newer Ubisoft shooters seem geared towards a mass market. Are there any plans to release or re-release any of these old super-realistic shooters on next-gen consoles?


Phil Therien: I doubt we will ever go back to really hardcore only shooters. The market was too narrow for it to be a viable business choice. We would like to be able to please both sides but compromises have to be made. We have some ideas to improve on the situation though - keep in mind however that we want our games to be accessible to as many people as possible, otherwise we just couldn't keep making games.

I do not think this guy understands all the games his company develops or publishes. I play both the iL2 and Silent Hunter series of games as well as the R6 and GR series of games (the original RSE versions of said games) and know that those 2 series are as small if not smaller than the Tac-Sim genre, yet are big successes for Ubi.

The real irony is a former RSE/Ubi employee has started his own company to create the very type of game Philippe said isn't viable enough to do. The market was growing tremendously and the demand here on the Ubi forums for games that met the old style of gameplay have always been asked for.

What does this all have to do with iL2 and Silent Hunter? We may lose these games to flavor of the month type games in the future. If what Philippe says for shooters is true, I see all niche market games Ubi develops and publishes to disappear from the radar.

What are your thoughts on this?

WhiteKnight77
03-18-2008, 11:51 PM
While this does not neccessarily fall into Ubi's naval submarine games, it may. Ubi's Philippe Therien, a Game Designer for Rainbow Six Vegas 2, stated in his recent Eurogamers Dev Chat (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=94737?):

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> lavalant asks: I'm a longtime fan of the old Ghost Recon 1 games on Xbox 1 and PC, mainly becuase they were more realistic, with one-hit kills, no recharging health-bars and massive levels. The newer Ubisoft shooters seem geared towards a mass market. Are there any plans to release or re-release any of these old super-realistic shooters on next-gen consoles?


Phil Therien: I doubt we will ever go back to really hardcore only shooters. The market was too narrow for it to be a viable business choice. We would like to be able to please both sides but compromises have to be made. We have some ideas to improve on the situation though - keep in mind however that we want our games to be accessible to as many people as possible, otherwise we just couldn't keep making games. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I do not think this guy understands all the games his company develops or publishes. I play both the iL2 and Silent Hunter series of games as well as the R6 and GR series of games (the original RSE versions of said games) and know that those 2 series are as small if not smaller than the Tac-Sim genre, yet are big successes for Ubi.

The real irony is a former RSE/Ubi employee has started his own company to create the very type of game Philippe said isn't viable enough to do. The market was growing tremendously and the demand here on the Ubi forums for games that met the old style of gameplay have always been asked for.

What does this all have to do with iL2 and Silent Hunter? We may lose these games to flavor of the month type games in the future. If what Philippe says for shooters is true, I see all niche market games Ubi develops and publishes to disappear from the radar.

What are your thoughts on this?

Wolferz
03-19-2008, 07:27 AM
The word compromises should have been shortcuts

Any niche genre is going to be borederline profitable, unless the developers are able to jam in the Wow! factor.
Bottom line is... It's all about the(insert your currency here)

WhiteKnight77
03-19-2008, 10:05 AM
I have no problem with Ubi making money, really I don't, but when one makes statements such as his, I have to wonder about all the games I like to play and whether or not I will have that type of game to play in the future due to narrowmindedness on the publishers parts. Some genres are growing faster and faster with each release of that type of genre. Take that away and you enrage many people.

Oakenhawk
03-19-2008, 12:49 PM
If Ubi starts going the way of Electronic Arts, and produces games that appeal for the masses, and not just our little 'niche', I'm sure other companies will step up into their place. It will likely just be much more difficult to find.

When there is a market, there will be a product.

For those of you who enjoy batallion sized WW2 land-simulations, I highly recommend Combat Mission (Developed by Battlefront). Most people don't even know this game exists (or its producer for that matter). I find its attention to historical accuracy and detail at the expense of eyepopping graphics a worthy trade.

That being said, I sincerely hope Ubisoft does not ignore the simulation gamer fan-base that they have secured.