(Shocking) News!!!!!

[tesco samoa]

I would say it is fear.

Beta still needs to happen. So that release date has not been set yet. Assume Aaron has full control still.

[geoschmo]

tesco samoa said:
This is my last post in this tread.

Then...

tesco samoa said:
I would say it is fear.
...

Every time Tesco thinks he's out, we pull him back in.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

geoschmo said:

For the record, I didn't coin the phrase, but it is appropriate in this situation.

Ah, a continues Shrapnel aficionado.....

So Cliche

[Malfador Machinations]

Greetings to the Space Empires IV fans!
------------------------------------------

Shocking! No, not so shocking. We love the community here at Shrapnel and have had a great time working with Shrapnel Games over the last 4 years. We just need to try and see if there's a bigger audience for the Space Empires series out there. This will mean getting the game into retail, and releasing specific language versions for different countries.

And don't worry about the SE5 development. Its completely in our hands and we have total control. Its being made much the same way that SE4 was. Our support for the game will be the same as always regardless of the publisher. We'll make patches as long they're needed!

The beta test for Space Empires V will start next month, and the first screen shots will be posted in April. We want to thank everyone for the terrific suggestions and support! We couldn't do it without you.

Aaron

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Aaron!

Thanks for the reassuring words. I'll be sure to buy SEV ASAP, be it a Shrapnel release or S1st. Keep up the good work!

[sachmo]

Malfador Machinations said:
We couldn't do it without you.

Well, you could, but who would buy the game?

Good luck in your venture. I hope things work out the way you hope they do.

[Gandalf Parker]

Tim Brooks said:
I believe I know why Aaron went with Strategy First, based on our convesations of last year. My understanding is his decision was based on the sales of Galactic Civ, a true expception to the niche market rule (name another niche market game in the last 6 years that has done anywhere near that well). If I am not mistaken GC sold over 100,000 units at retail, but this was not due to Strategy First's market penetration, but to Brad Wardell's name and standing in this industry. Search for GC on any search engine, and you come up with not Strategy First entries, but Brad Wardell entries. Now, do a search for SEIV and see who comes up?

Thats highly unfortunate. I know of Brad Wardell and GalCiv for many MANY years. Any conversation in AI newsgroups brought him and the game to mention as a prime example of game AI. I was always peeved that it was an OS/2 game making use of the multi-tasking in that OS. When I heard that BW was jumping on WinXP as possibly finally being able to run the game properly I rushed to pre-order it. (unfortunately so far Im not thrilled with the porting of it)

From what I see in newsgroups I think that a definate sizeable chunk of GalCiv sales was due to it showing up on shelves but it was because of old-timers like me seeing it and saying "is that the GalCiv I kept hearing about and could never run". There was a ready-made market if you could catch the eye of the people who normaly dont glance at the games anymore. Im not sure if there is much of a "lost gamers" market with fond memories of SEIII and SEIV to be snagged by SEV. There probably is but Im not sure that they cant mostly still be reached by newsgroups and game-mag reviews. Maybe there are, time will tell.

[tesco samoa]

Back again.

Tim to quote you

All the above quote actually says is that the Space Empires IV crowd is vocal and the game has enjoyed longevity - which, I believe we all knew . We wish we could get the wargamers to be this vocal here, but they have a vast forum network that extends beyond the Intel Forums. The reality though is that SEIV was not our 'best selling game by far'. It however has been in our top 3 sellers since its release over 5 years ago. In 2004 it was beat out by Dominions II, which was our top seller, and, in fact, SEIV came in 4th place for the year.

I do not quite follow this... So for 3 years it sold away and then in year 4 D2 took over for year sales and then to date this year 4th place... So does this mean it is only the best selling game by a little then
No disrespect. Just trying to understand the paragraph.

[Baron Munchausen]

DeadZoneMDx said:
Actually David, I now fear, that with Aaron going to SF, what happens to every other game on the market will happen to SEV
Aaron is pushed into releasing before its ready

How many publishers have we seen do that? about 90% of games today are released well before they're ready

I hope this won't be the case and Aaron has full control of this aspect

Actually, SE IV was published before it was ready. I don't think the game was complete until the Gold edition. And that was only Aaron and Richard making the decisions (I didn't hear anything about Tim Brooks leaning on them if he did... ) This seems to be a general problem with software, not just games. Proper development takes LOTS of testing, and that means lots of time. Very few people, or companies, are financially secure enough to finish the development of a major software project in one go. I fully expect that SE V will be incomplete in some major ways when first release. If I don't get in on the beta team and get a 'free' copy I'll probably wait till SE V Gold to buy it.

[Tim Brooks]

tesco samoa said:
I do not quite follow this... So for 3 years it sold away and then in year 4 D2 took over for year sales and then to date this year 4th place... So does this mean it is only the best selling game by a little then
No disrespect. Just trying to understand the paragraph.

Sorry tesco, what I meant is that on our 'all time' top sellers list, SEIV is in the top 3, not our "best seller by far". Last year, 2004, Dominions II was our number one seller and SEIV was 4th.

This is not meant to discount SEIV in any way, we are proud to call it a best selling Shrapnel game, it just shows how much our fan base has grown since we started in business. Heck our new releases now do in a month what it took SEIV several months to do back in 2000, when it was first released.