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yyr
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Joined: 07 Mar 2002
Location: White Plains, NY |
140.  Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 10:01 pm Post subject: |
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ITG != Stepmania.
Hopefully someone in the know or in the "circle" will see this. I just figured I'd throw out a couple of thoughts.
1) Hopefully the folks in charge have given some heavy thought (no pun intended) to what sort of price tag ITG should have on it. I'd really like to see it at $20...not to say it's only worth $20, because it's certainly worth more...but because a $20 price tag, along with "featuring 70+ real dance songs from international artists--over 140 minutes of music!" should sell a few copies. I mean, look what Sega did with the 2K5 sports games. They dropped them all to $20 and actually sold a ton more copies than before. I think $30 is certainly reasonable, but if it's all about selling copies, $20 is a very sweet spot.
2) Maybe someone will agree with me about this as a potential cool new feature: if USB memory support was to be added already, why not add arcade-to-home score transfer for ITG PS2 and ITG2? Like this: at the arcade, you pop in your memory card, highlight a song/course on the menu and press some certain button or button combination. The high scores for that song/course (or all songs/courses, if the player so chooses) are then added to your memory card (your existing scores are only overwritten by machine records that are better). The next time you play that song at home (provided it's in both versions), you'll be competing against the new set of records instead of just your own. This, of course, should only work one-way. You should NOT be able to transfer home scores to the arcade, for reasons that should be obvious. For competitive players that can't get to the arcade often, this might be a fun little thing.
3) Somewhat farfetched, or maybe not: it'd be cool if ITG PS2 kept a set of "machine records" on a PS2 memory card, but still used USB memory cards just as the arcade machine did. Or maybe you guys thought of this already...
~yyr
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Arctic Wolves
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Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Location: Canada |
| 141. Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 5:59 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | The MSRP for In the Groove will be $39.99 |
Which is about double what you're looking for, YYR... >_>; But then again, it's going to end up at about $60-$65CAN for me, so I'd be really happy just spending a scant $40 on it. In fact, I'd be happy spending that for any game. They overprice, given the current exchange rate. But I never expected to get away without losing less than $60, and dance games are usually cheaper.
But overall, I'd like to see ItG do well, so we can see more lovely home versions and arcade versions! |
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Cutriss
Staff Member
Joined: 24 Jan 2002
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| 142. Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 6:43 am Post subject: |
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| yyr wrote: | | ITG != Stepmania |
As a whole experience, perhaps not. But it does run on Stepmania.
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yyr
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Joined: 07 Mar 2002
Location: White Plains, NY |
| 143. Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 8:25 am Post subject: |
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| Arctic Wolves wrote: | | Quote: | | The MSRP for In the Groove will be $39.99 |
Which is about double what you're looking for, YYR... >_>; |
Heh, must've missed that somewhere.
I personally don't mind paying $40, but I'm a little concerned. With the same MSRP as the Konami versions, it's competing directly against titles with name recognition going for them. Most potential buyers will have never heard of In The Groove. I was hoping that it would be at most $30, to attract more of these buyers...but I guess it's not up to me.
Hopefully, to make up for this, RedOctane will have a good advertising campaign to support ITG PS2. I think $40 for ITG PS2 will be a MUCH better value than $40 was for Extreme USA, but nobody's going to know that just by looking at the front of two game cases.
~yyr
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Cutriss
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Joined: 24 Jan 2002
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| 144. Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 9:33 am Post subject: |
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I think $40 is probably appropriate. $20 debut titles (Katamari Damacy excluded) tend to have a bit of an air of "cheap crap" to them. The fact that it's confidently priced will probably work in its favor.
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Reenee
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Joined: 21 Nov 2003
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| 145. Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 9:43 am Post subject: |
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| Everyone will forget how Fry's Electronics lowers the price of video games on their premiere weekend to $30... |
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Cutriss
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Joined: 24 Jan 2002
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| 146. Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 10:55 am Post subject: |
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Considering how Fry's has retail presences in only nine states, I'd say that's likely.
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Reenee
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Joined: 21 Nov 2003
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| 147. Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:05 am Post subject: |
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Guaranteed is more like it. They've always done this with popular games. You can look in the Los Angeles Times newspaper and find the ad for it.
Sometimes they'll do it again for the same game, though I don't know about how long after the game was first released they'll do this. Heck, they did it for DDRMAX when there was DDRMAX2. |
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RudeBoie
Vivid Member
Joined: 26 Oct 2004
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| 148. Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 12:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Cutriss wrote: | A publisher has sway - They don't want to waste their time and money pressing and marketing, say, an Xbox Live-compatible Barbie game. They might try to convince the developer to pick a different platform, or decline to publish it at all.
But they certainly can't *force* Roxor to develop for the Xbox instead of the PS2. They can encourage it, sure, but they don't have the final word (unless you consider holding the pocketbook strings "the final word").
Edit - Note that the rules are different when a developer studio is *owned* by a publisher, such as is the case with KCEH and KDEA. In those cases, the publisher *does* call the shots, and basically they order the studio around. |
You're right. Publishers can't force a developer to do something for a specific console, but developers can't necessarily force them to accept what they say either.
A publishing deal is a joint agreement.
Each agreement is different. Sometimes publishers will contract a developer to make a game for them, a game with the publisher's license (think of a movie-licensed game). In that case, the publisher will hold virtually all power to force the developer to make the game the publisher wants.
If a developer started on a game, and then a publisher would like to fund them to release it, that situation is slightly different. How much power the publisher has depends on the agreement, and usually, how much money is given to the developer. The more risk a publisher takes, you can bet the more power the publisher has in the final say of things. |
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Rancidfish
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Joined: 29 Jun 2002
Location: Santa Rosa, CA/Santa Cruz, CA |
| 149. Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 12:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Cutriss wrote: | | yyr wrote: | | ITG != Stepmania |
As a whole experience, perhaps not. But it does run on Stepmania. |
Roxor people have always been really specific that ITG runs on the Stepmania engine, or maybe even a modified Stepmania engine, since I don't remember the specifics. There's a lot of stuff in there that Stepmania doesn't do.
A lot of people think that the ITG boxor is just running ordinary Stepmania with a fancy skin and all that. Not the case.
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Reenee
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Joined: 21 Nov 2003
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| 150. Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 1:08 pm Post subject: |
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| It's a modified engine. |
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Cutriss
Staff Member
Joined: 24 Jan 2002
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| 151. Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 2:10 pm Post subject: |
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So, what I said was true...from a certain point of view. 
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quinnd6
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Joined: 19 Dec 2004
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| 152. Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 9:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Is it coming out in the uk? |
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Thomas Hobbes
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Joined: 20 Aug 2002
Location: San Francisco // NorCal |
| 153. Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2005 9:14 pm Post subject: |
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Import. >
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yyr
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Joined: 07 Mar 2002
Location: White Plains, NY |
| 154. Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 6:49 pm Post subject: |
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Just another thought I'm wondering if RoXor/RedOctane gave any consideration to:
I don't know about anybody else, but if they released a 2-CD soundtrack containing all of the game versions of the music, they'd have at least one guaranteed sale right here...
~yyr
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Thomas Hobbes
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| 155. Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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If I recall correctly, that was guaranteed to make a debut. This came from foyboy IIRC.
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Arctic Wolves
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Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Location: Canada |
| 156. Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 6:56 pm Post subject: |
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| I vaguely recall hearing something about a soundtrack, which would be totally awesome. Hopefully, there are enough people out there with similar sentiments to make it a profitable venture for Roxor, and if they do release one, I hope it sells enough to promote the same treatment for the ItG2 soundtrack. |
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Plaguefox
Roxor Staff
Joined: 21 Oct 2002
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| 157. Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 6:41 pm Post subject: |
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Worry not: a soundtrack is currently in production. Though we don't have a release date for it yet, it's coming.  |
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Catastrophe
Trick Member
Joined: 04 Mar 2002
Location: Worcester, MA |
| 158. Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 8:33 pm Post subject: 40 bux |
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| yyr wrote: | I personally don't mind paying $40, but I'm a little concerned. With the same MSRP as the Konami versions, it's competing directly against titles with name recognition going for them. Most potential buyers will have never heard of In The Groove. I was hoping that it would be at most $30, to attract more of these buyers...but I guess it's not up to me.
~yyr |
How much will Mastiff's port of PIU cost? Do we know? I think everyone's dance games are going to cost $40. The reason being, if you sell your game for less then you're saying: "Our game isn't as good as the competition, so we have to sell it for less."
And to add to what Cutriss said - the $20 and less games not only have an "air of cheap crap", but that price zone also seems to imply that the game is extremely niche. Space Channel 5 Special Edition? Gradius 5? And Katamari Damacy? Their publishers just gave those games away as acts of goodwill towards the gaming public. You can't make a profit off of a game at $20 (or less) no matter how many copies you sell. And I'm assuming RoXoR actually wants to make some money, rather than make a game for the hell of it. |
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yyr
Trick Member
Joined: 07 Mar 2002
Location: White Plains, NY |
| 159. Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 2:24 pm Post subject: Re: 40 bux |
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| Catastrophe wrote: | | How much will Mastiff's port of PIU cost? Do we know? I think everyone's dance games are going to cost $40. The reason being, if you sell your game for less then you're saying: "Our game isn't as good as the competition, so we have to sell it for less." |
Eh, I'm still going with my argument about name recognition. I just happen to think the game would have a better shot with a slightly smaller price.
| Catastrophe wrote: | | And to add to what Cutriss said - the $20 and less games not only have an "air of cheap crap", but that price zone also seems to imply that the game is extremely niche. Space Channel 5 Special Edition? Gradius 5? And Katamari Damacy? Their publishers just gave those games away as acts of goodwill towards the gaming public. You can't make a profit off of a game at $20 (or less) no matter how many copies you sell. |
I can't remember whether Gradius V originally shipped with a sticker price of $30 or $40, but it doesn't matter. I have a hard time believing that Namco didn't make any money with Katamari; it smashed their sales expectations, and for a while they really struggled to keep up with demand.
And NO company releases something for the purpose of breaking even, or losing money. If it were impossible to make money on a $20 game, you wouldn't see any in the stores. You don't think Sega made a dime on those millions of copies of NFL 2K5 they sold? Sammy released Guilty Gear XX #Reload for XBL because they love us? It *is* possible to make money on $20 games; either you make money on volume, or you keep your costs low by not overproducing the game and not running too many copies.
Seriously, it's getting harder and harder to see the "cheap crap" aura around games these days. There's a surprisingly large amount of quality budget games on the shelf, along with a ton of highly-priced garbage. Things aren't so black-and-white any more, where the games with the $20 price tag are either the Greatest Hits or the worst garbage.
...and besides, you don't see a game with a $30 tag and dismiss it as crap, right...?
~yyr
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