No more Black Isle Studios....

[quietman1920]

I'm very sad to hear this. The family of companies that make good RPGs is not so big as to not be diminished by their loss. I raise my coffee mug to Black Isle in tribute.


(As I do so, I also utter a silent prayer that the team and its support group are able to be integrated into another company that will turn out RPG software of equal or better quality.)

[Xen]

Originally posted by Harkoliar: shame... they made such nice rpg's.. thats what made me come to IW in the first place.

Same here...

[Sythe]

Damn it's like losing Looking Glass Studios all over again. Damn Pirates making copys and the what not.

I agree! I don't mind Music Piracy but Games/Movies Piracy is where they should draw the line with a permanent marker!

[ 12-10-2003, 08:39 PM: Message edited by: The Whackmiester ]

[Luvian]

I wouldn't blame piracy too much. I was watching an interview with the president of Ubisoft Montreal tonight, and they plan to sell at least 2 millions copies of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for Chrismas. They also talked about other games I forgot about, but if you add it all, they plan to sell more than 5 millions games for this Chrismas. Just from their newest games.

Companies like to pretend they are losing a lot due to piracy, but they are playing with numbers.

Sure, your average 15 years old internet pirate might download 50-100 games per year, but he would only have bought 2-3 if there was no piracy, so they only lost 100-150$ from that guy, not 2500-5000$

It's the same things for movies and music, but truth make a less powerfull argument than sensationalism.

The real reasons companies are closing is from bad managment and abuse of their customers. Notice that both Ubisoft and EA are going strong. None of them released a rushed game recently, and almost all of their games are bug free. Did you see lots of bugs in the Sims or in Need for Speed: Underground? I didn't.

Let's look at Interplay and Atari. They Canceled two good projects that were about 50% completed, they released Lionheart, Temple of Elemental Evil and probably tons of other rushed, buggy and crappy products. They both also have an horrible customer support...

It's strange how only the bad companies are in financial troubles...

[ 12-11-2003, 12:03 AM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

[uss]

Originally posted by Luvian: Sure, your average 15 years old internet pirate might download 50-100 games per year, but he would only have bought 2-3 if there was no piracy, so they only lost 100-150$ from that guy, not 2500-5000$

I absolutely agree with Luvian here.

And I know many people in Estonia (and other Eastern European countries?) wouldn't have even been introduced to gaming for quite some time, were it not for piracy.

[Nerull]

[img]graemlins/offtopic.gif[/img]

Good point, Luvian. I've always been more than a little skeptical about piracy losses that companies report. They always report it as "this item was copied X number of times, so the losses are X times selling price". That's not the truth. They lose whatever the person would have spent if they did not download the item(s).

I researched this in my graduate business studies, and while piracy is a major issue, the real reason piracy is a major problem is because the incentive is there to commit it. When you charge close to $20.00 for a CD that only has 2 songs the person would have bought, then they feel (rightfully) that they are getting bent over on the deal. So when this alternate technology comes out that undermines the deal they have going and cuts into profits, they demonize it to protect the status quo (change is costly in the business sector, especially when it comes to technology). If the person above started downloading instead of buying that CD, you need to look at the consumption they would have done. If your CD sales were low to begin with because people just were not buying as much (because you were bending them over), then when this new technology comes out, your losses are only the amount of the drop in your sales, since that is the actual amount of lost revenue. If they downloaded two additional songs, then that is not lost revenue if they would have never considered spending the money on a CD or CD single for the song otherwise. It is, however, a copyright infringement, and in that way should still be punished. But still, to inflate the figures as they do (and to pass it down to the shop owners in increased prices) is just denying the fact that your business model no longer works as efficiently as it used to, and you need to change. Look at what Apple has done recently with downloading music; that model may put brick and mortar retailers out of business, but that has happened in other industries, too. That's what happens when technology changes.

I love the movie studios blaming text messaging for lagging ticket sales at theaters; it's another fine example of this. Maybe if you didn't put out a lousy movie to begin with, then the consumer wouldn't be text messaging their friends telling them not to waste their money.

ntopic: (you really need a smiley for this one)
I agree completely about the games coming out. As someone that suffered through ToEE, and now has played with Warcraft III (great game), it is a clear sign of what I was describing above. You put the consumer in a bad situation, and then are surprised when your sales drop and/or they pirate your mediocre game rather than blow the money up front. And other than the Infinity Engine games, how many real big sellers did Black Isle put out? I only know of the Infinity Engine games, myself, and not all of those sold well, either. It just so happens that one series that they put out (BG series) and one other game (PS:T) are my favorite games that I have played. I'll be sorry to see them go in that regard, but if you are not putting out enough good stuff to bring in sales, you will go the way of the dinosaur. That simple.

The lesson: It's really easy to blame an external source rather than to face your own internal problems. People do it all the time; it is human nature. Look in a mirror once in a while.

[Darlon]

what?! Black Isle studios gone???

Well bummer .

[wellard]

A very thoughtfull post Nerull with some excellent points [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[Sythe]

Well let me be the first to say I disagree! It's true that quality of the game affects the sales and such and all that. I still think that Piracy is the bigger issue. Sometime ago Halo was released. Before it was released there were many ads that it's coming out for PC. And millions of gamers are going crazy over this. When the game comses out some gamers buy the game but many prefer to download it. For either two reasons 1) To save money and 2)They cannot afford it. It's true that gaming companies might lose some 150-300 dollars from ONE gamer. People we are talking millions here! Multiply 50 dollars by a million. I don't know how big but I know it's a large number. Piracy takes a huge bite out of the companies profits folks. And has any of you heard of warez sites? Huge pirating websites which sell games at a price lower at your local Gamestop.

Those are my two cents.