Starhawk

[gingervegeta]

It really seems odd how Sony time and again miss out on chances to promote their products . I live in Weymouth and not one singal game selling shop has stocked Starhawk neither has any in the nearest few towns (inc the county town)  so im the only ps3 owner I know who has even heard of it and I had to buy from Amazon . They really need to learn that internet advertisements only reach a very small minority in the Uk and get some tv/radio adverts going , how did they ever expect to compete with x-box who are everywhere you look . I think Starhawk is a great game like so many other fantastic exclusives Sony has like Killzone , Mag and uncharted but as usual its like their some sort of exclusive secret . These games almost need to be multi format just so x-box would advertise them . Crazy.

[mercury7891]

I agree totally. When people i know ask what games i play and i say starhawk, they have no idea what i'm talking about. In fact, i've yet to find anyone apart from the hardcore ps3 fans who even know it exists.
Slightly off topic, but it's the same with the vita. They only had one advert that aired maybe once for 3 days, and it had nothing to do with the console.

[Stezza]

The simple answer is that TV adverts cost an enourmous amount of money and are just not feasible for niche titles like Starhawk. Publishers will only make that level of investment in games they know are guaranteed to shift huge numbers.

Lightbox Interactive have a very small team of employees and a very small budget compared to major AAA shooters. They would be blown out of the water if they tried to compete with games like COD so they aim to build a small, dedicated cult following by creating a game that has some unique features and fostering a good relationship with a fanbase who are passionate about the game.

Hopefully word of mouth will get more people interested in this great game but I wouldn't expect to see too much advertising, the budget simply isn't there.

[gingervegeta]

I know what your saying but advertising is down to the publisher in this case Sony who are a massive international corporation. Just look what happened with MAG it was not advertised either by Sony its publisher . It sold badly leaving Zipper dismantled.

[Stezza]

You're right that Sony are a big corporation, but that's part of the problem. Starhawk is an important game to us, but to Sony it represents a tiny portion of their total revenue.

When it comes to games, Sony focus most of their marketing expenditure towards their big first party titles like Uncharted, Littlebigplanet and Gran Turismo. They obviously want smaller subsiduaries like Lightbox Interactive to be profitable but if they keep the investment minimal they hope to turn a profit with relatively low sales.

From Sony's perspective if they have a wide array of titles and the majority of them make a small profit it all adds up and the shareholders are happy. It's about cumulative profit rather than trying to turn every game into a smash hit. Some unfortunate developers will fall by the wayside but Sony principally care about their own bottom line.

It's not particularly good for the smaller developers because they'll struggle to reach a big audience. It's also not good for gamers like us either because the games we love will never acheive the popularity they deserve.

Frankly though, the whole entertainment industry is mired in a risk averse, focus-group led, lowest common denominator mentality. There are a handful of blockbusters and household name stars who have astronomical amounts of money invested in promoting them and everyone else gets eclipsed.

The result is that mainstream audiences are fed a repetitive, homogenized selection that doesn't accurately reflect the great variety of creative work that exists in this world, but the advertisers are content that their commercials reach the right kind of consumer and the business school graduates who run major entertainment companies can pat themselves on the back.

The gaming industry is polarised with the sure-fire hit 'franchises' (COD, FIFA, GTA etc) receiving huge budgets and churning out sequel after sequel that will dominate the market regardless of their quality, often to the detriment of more interesting yet lesser known games.

These big franchises, of course, only represent a tiny proportion of the industry's total creative output but the people who control the wealth are reluctant to take risks with their money and consistently play it safe.

Developers like Lightbox are in a Catch 22 situation where they need investment to reach a broader audience but a publisher like Sony will seemingly only spend big on marketing if the developer has a proven track record of acheiving healthy sales figures.

[saberdragon]

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gingervegeta wrote:
I know what your saying but advertising is down to the publisher in this case Sony who are a massive international corporation. Just look what happened with MAG it was not advertised either by Sony its publisher . It sold badly leaving Zipper dismantled.

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Yeah I though MAG was great but let down by Sony....

And its the same with Starhawk....

Which is a pity as it sours the players view of the developer......

Two PS3 exclusives & neither really given the support they deserved from Sony....

[Stezza]

To be fair, though, MAG sold 1.24 million worldwide (VGCHARTZ). SOCOM 4 was the much bigger flop for Zipper.

[saberdragon]

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Stezza wrote:

To be fair, though, MAG sold 1.24 million worldwide (VGCHARTZ). SOCOM 4 was the much bigger flop for Zipper.

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  I was a Day 1 buyer for MAG though I had played in the Beta.....

It still did'nt have enough backing from Sony even with 1.24 million sales...the only ad I saw was a small bit on a board with 3 other ad's..

A game that relied on voice comm's & it did'nt come with a mic!!!!

I think a lot of the problem with MAG was the community was'nt ready for it!!!!

[gingervegeta]

It's a real shame because a lot of potential buyers miss out on some truly classic games .

[TRIX9]

You write about games in an inteligent way...maybe you could volunteer for the playstaion forum magazine?... anyway well said.