Marketing SE V

[newbie123]

Originally posted by PvK:
I don't think "getting a game onto retail shelves" is going to help much. Games can exist on store shelves and still be ignored by the moronic masses and their clueless gift-shopping relatives. Most games on retail shelves lose money for the publisher and developer, because the retail stores squeeze almost all of the sales money for themselves. And, even many pretty hard-core gamers would wait to get a deal from retail bargain bins and sales, rather than buying the game directly from Shrapnel. Total rewards from such a shift might even go down. Er, I could ramble on with various conjecture, but I've a headache and other things to do. The magazine coverage (reviews) is probably the most effective channel. Some magazine and/or web banner ads after the reviews go out might also help, though print mag ads are so expensive that I'd doubt worthwhile sales returns for a non-eye-candy-feast game. Fans subtley hitting semi-relevant forums and newsGroups periodically (such as forums for lamer but better-advertized conquest games) with plugs and links would probably help a lot, it seems to me.

Ergh, headache.

PvK

That's true. This game will only ever be so popular, just for the fact that it doesn't have "mad tyte graphics" or crap like that. Which is fine by me, as long as the game is fun, I could care less.

However, SE4 is not reaching its potential fanbase at all. This game has been out for 4 years, and I just heard about it on the galactic civilizations Boards a few days ago. I also keep pretty good track of my strategy games, so not to brag or anything but I was quite surprised that this game eluded me for so long.

My recommendations(not that they matter) - Stay away from retail, but try harder to get the word out. Many people want a 4x space strat game, but thing Moo3 is their only option. If you put some ads out on the gaming websites, maybe even take a few ads out in the magazines, I'm sure your sales would sore. Getting the occasional review in CGW or PC gamer wouldn't hurt either(This may have happened, I don't know tho).

One final thing, allow purchasers of the ame to download it while they are waiting for it to ship . Can't wait for my copy to come wednesday (I hope)

Later