my thoughts on sir-tech's prospects

[Aeolian]

I don't usually bother to make posts such as this on gaming forums but I think this forum's participants are mature enough to understand my rants.

Judging from the size of the development team and the length of time it took to put the game out to market, using some rather liberal assumptions about sir-tech's financials, i estimate that it probably took sir-tech in the region of $4-7mil to develop this game (really quick-and-dirty, back-of-the-envelop calculations). to cover those costs, sir-tech would have to sell in the region of 500,000 to 750,000 boxes.

if one notes BG's sales numbers, it is highly unlikely that sir-tech would be able to sell anywhere close to what it takes to break-even. if sir-tech decides to give up because wiz8 doesn't make money, then its a crying shame.

if one notes black isle's biz strategy, the company probably wouldn't have made money on BG1:ToSC. the profits would probably come, not from Planescape:Torment, but BG2 and BG2:BT as well as licensing the infinity engine to FO:T.

imho, sir-tech would have to adopt a similar biz strat. the cost of developing the engine for wiz8 is undoubtly expensive and, imo, its unlikely that the company would be able to recoup its cost from just one title. any profits will have to come from sequels based on the same engine, i.e., like BI making users pay ~$150 for 3 titles to complete the BG series.

the company should also keep a tighter lid on marketing and logistics/distribution. most gaming websites aren't promoting the game and that can't be a good thing.

in conclusion: even if wiz8 doesn't make enough money to cover its development costs, imo, sir-tech should continue to work on new titles based on the same game engine and similar gaming concepts. games such as wiz8 is a niche market and sir-tech will have to work accordingly, ie, sir-tech can't expect such titles to sell at the same rate as the Sims or Diablo series, but it should be able to count on a loyal following among its fan base. the company will have to devise a biz strat around that.

ot: ja2:ub is waaay too hard. i wanna have fun and i'm not a masochist.

[Dan Speziale]

quote:

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Originally posted by Aeolian:
imho, sir-tech would have to adopt a similar biz strat. the cost of developing the engine for wiz8 is undoubtly expensive and, imo, its unlikely that the company would be able to recoup its cost from just one title. any profits will have to come from sequels based on the same engine, i.e., like BI making users pay ~$150 for 3 titles to complete the BG series.

the company should also keep a tighter lid on marketing and logistics/distribution. most gaming websites aren't promoting the game and that can't be a good thing.

in conclusion: even if wiz8 doesn't make enough money to cover its development costs, imo, sir-tech should continue to work on new titles based on the same game engine and similar gaming concepts. games such as wiz8 is a niche market and sir-tech will have to work accordingly, ie, sir-tech can't expect such titles to sell at the same rate as the Sims or Diablo series, but it should be able to count on a loyal following among its fan base. the company will have to devise a biz strat around that.

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I would LOVE to see this engine licensed for other RPGs. I would certainly buy them. I see tremendous value in playing a first-person view with a multi-character party.

Sadly, I've heard that Sir-Tech has said that this will be the last Wizardry game and there have been lay-offs in the past. I don't know a lot of the details, but here's a link to a Gamespot article about them:

http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories...793269,00.html


The exclusive deal to sell with EB was probably for the best, but I wish the game would get more notice than it has. I think that in good time it will.

BTW, this article is from July, 2001. It's really interesting to read the negative posts after the game that talk about Sir-Tech in such a bad light. A lot of them are anonymous users bad-mouthing a fine company. It would be nice to see them eat their words, as everything they've said is completely incorrect!

Perhaps the graphics of this game aren't as "polished" as FPS or Everquest, DAOC, etc. However I still can't play enough to justify $9.99 a month (plus the game) to play these games, however they might appeal to me. Wizardry 8's outstanding single-player game is everything I can ask for at the moment.

Thanks,
Dan

[vesselle]

in your calculations, did you include:

~the engine was licensed from an outside source with some in-house modifications. that undoubtedly cut down the development by as much as 18 months.

~add to that the fact that the game has been finished for, what? a full year? maybe more.

either way... it may or may not affect your figures.


it's just too bad with the timing on this. if only sir-tech could have hung in for another year or so, with the new game sales models developing on the web. i mean, geeze, they would be perfect for it!

i love the idea behind Digital Tome's episodic gaming. doing a "chapter" of the game at a time, downloading it from their servers, playing for a month, when the next "chapter" is released.

i think rpg's do well under a system like this. each city or area comprises a "chapter" and some are essential to the storyline, while others are extras developed for different character types to gain more experience.

::snip out long rant on how big publishing companies need to be remodeled or go broke. hullo? the "me generation" is so over.::

anyway, i think if sir tech could have only hung in a bit, they could have done the same thing. i would happily download each chapter as they finished it. and while the cute little frills in wiz 8 are fun, the game would be just as riveting without so many voiceovers (to keep dev costs down). oh, and for all our euro and ozzie friends, digital tome releases all language versions at the same time. just another reason to support this system.

sorry. i got off topic. i have been thinking about this for a long time and it kinda just splooted out of me. ::gives a crooked little smile::


V***V