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It was just yesterday that we all found out about the closing of Pandemic Studios, creators of the Mercenaries series and the upcoming The Saboteur. While there have been a lot of game developers shutting their doors recently, this one seems to represent something larger than a simple financial decision. Pandemic's publisher EA tried an experiment last year by releasing new, experimental IPs like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space instead of their usual stable of licensed games and sequels. But are they really to blame when we, the gaming public, didn't buy into their great experiment? Listen to what Adam has to say on the subject and let us know what you think in the comments below.
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Displaying 1–20 of 97
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wiggum
Maybe when the economy picks up a bit more, gamers will be able to loosen their purse strings a little and take a chance on some original IP's that deserve to do well. Nice to see that Borderlands is a surprise hit.
I've played Mirror's Edge, Dead Space and Brutal Legend. While they all have issues, they're definitely worth taking a look at.
wiggum
Hopefully when the economy improves, gamers will be able to loosen their purse strings a little and take a chance on some original IP's that deserve to do well, rather than just staying with the tried and true. I've played Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, and Brutal Legend. While they all have issues, they're also all definitely worth checking out. Glad to see that Borderlands has done very well so far. A glimmer of hope, maybe?
perfectragedy
Adam makes a good point. Do I feel bad for Pandemic as a company? No. Why? None of their products, aside from the first Mercenaries, appealed to me (or a majority of other gamers it seems) so I did not buy them. Do I feel bad for the employees who have been let go? Yes. They have families and bills to pay. I wish them the best of luck in this wretched economy.
ValentineHeart82
Wow the way the chat script is handled is buggy, and it removes all spacing between paragraphs. Ah well, I'll keep it short and sweet next time. What's with the backslashes before quotation marks though? \"
ValentineHeart82
I think it's only fair to blame the industry as well if we're going to blame the gamers and the economy. All too often gamers pay a premium price for a game that is only good for four to twelve hours of gameplay, and games totally devoid of replay value. Dumbed down games have dominated the market with few exceptions, stripped down for the masses making them more bland and less satisfying as a long term purchase.
It's also worth noting that for many of these \"new idead\" there have also been major blunders and design flaws. Mirrors Edge was great while it lasted, but it's another example of a short and extremely linear game with little replay value. As a visual work of art it's nice but as a game, I spent $50 USD on it and I ended up shelfing it two days later, it wasn't a worth while investment.
Then there's the DLC frenzy, the industry has been cutting content from games to sell it back as DLC, often the DLC isn't really worth the price, often it should have been in the game to begin with, and sometimes it's advertised in an invasive way. The way the DLC in The Sims 3 is handled is particularly insulting and a recipe for piracy, then there's how the Warden's Keep DLC is thown at us with an 'in your face' advertisement in Dragon Age Origins, and several other games have had DLC of such low quality or handled so poorly that I've seen hundreds of otherwise legitimate customers resorting to piracy for the first time in their life, and god help me I don't blame them.
I'm personally concerned that too much of the market is now controlled by a handfull of companies many of which have no interest in quality and show a clear disconnect from gamers, not to mention a complete disinterest in constructive criticism. It's like EA and Activision in particular subscribe to that \"The Secret\" nonsense Oprah was selling, think no bad thoughts and everything will work out great. Except reality doesn't work like that.
drumsofreckoning
first mirrors edge was okay i wish they would of let u play with the free running more without always on missions i guess more of an open world type game. dead space i thought was really good especially at creepin u out playing with all lights off 2 in the morning. being recently laid off myself i feel bad for the employees sorry guys just chalk one up to the corparate dicks of the world.
drumsofreckoning
first mirrors edge was okay i wish they would of let u play with the free running more without always on missions i guess more of an open world type game. dead space i thought was really good especially at creepin u out playing with all lights off 2 in the morning. being recently laid off myself i feel bad for the employees sorry guys just chalk one up to the corparate dicks of the world.
M_AVILA346
fudge i was hoping for a mirrors edge sequel
PregnantTaco
Dead Space was good. It was definitely better than RE5! Does that mean no sequel will be coming out?
Missedshots93
no more battlefront :(
grimreaper2010
i really like dead space. i want another one. please!!
spliced_up
wait....does this mean no more Dead Space 2?!?!?!?
Kevin_Is_Delish
battlefront 3 nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooo
o_NIGHT_TRAIN_o
Goodbye Pandemic.
unfungames
The problem is that Adam attempted to say why Pandemic closed down without pointing out that their games have been incredibly mediocre the last few years. Lord of the Rings Conquest was PS2 quality and had primitive multiplayer (virtually impossible to play with friends).
Their technology is just way too mediocre. If you can't keep up then you can't survive. Many companies are having a very hard time making games that are truly next gen. They're the studios getting the axe, and shouldn't they?
Mirror's Edge didn't sell because it was a failed idea, not because consumers couldn't afford it. It just wasn't a very good idea. Platforming is hard enough in a 3D environment when it's third person, but making it first person was disasterous. Dead Space sold 1.5 million across the 360 and PS3, and that's not bad for a game that has the EA curse attached to it. People don't have faith in EA games anymore since they make so much shovelware, so Dead Space actually sold great considering it's handicap.
autowolf
I agree I don't think you can blame the consumer, I think gaming as a whole has just grown to much to fast, Hollywood has had similar happenings in the past, but you have to look at the way they've structured them selves, there are perhaps two very high budget blockbusters per year released from the major studio's combined. The rest are low budget horror or comedy flicks. I think gaming is going to find a model similar to this in the future, there have been many games in the past that have proven you don't need a rock quarry filled with money to sell a lot of units. A five or ten dev team can produce a gem when given the freedom to make something truly unique and satisfying, and in the end if they don't well the studio funding them has lost considerably less money on the game than they would a massive clone project( ala Quantum Theory, not that this game has been released yet just saying we've seen things like this fail hard in the past). Oh and I would also like to blast you for saying no one thought a modern warfare shooter was a good idea until COD4, I should like to think Battlefield 2 popularized this genre, or at the very least brought it into the light. But I suppose that's just my inner fan boy trying to claw its way to the surface.
Necronomoly
Mr. Sessler? Could you rock a mohawk for an episode of X-play for me? Pretty please?
Razorblad110
gamers should never feel "obligated" to buy a game just to help out a company...we buy a hand pick of games cause their fun and we dont have hundreds to 'blow' on games alone, if a studio takes a risk with a game, its just that, a RISK....we play games because their FUN!!!!.....not because it will be 'financially beneficial'!
smpreet
I think there are a number of contributing factors to closures like this and the lack of sales for new and different games. SOme of it comes down to marketing and what the parent companies are willing to invest in getting a IP advertised to as many people as possible. Take a looks at brutal legend for example; most of the commercial i saw for that on TV were on G4 and the commercials were basically gameplay footages with a rock sounds track.
Compare that the Halo 3 ODST or Guitar hero franchise. Big budget commercials, with i don't think much or any gameplay footage at all. ODST had is military themed thing going on which made you think is was a US army commercial until you saw the Xbox logo and game title at the end, and guitar heros had there celebs in pink shirts and underware stuff. Plus the fact that you saw them all over the place.
THe gaming public is bigger then the hardcore guys and everyone is short of cash right now. People see something big and shiny and they are drawn to it...
I think there are a number of other major factors also, but this could be 1 of the major ones in the case of some of the titles and companies mentioned.
osvaldoh
It really is quite a shame that Pandemic is gone. But on the larger scale of the conversation many people only look for the game that they hear the most about. The one with the most hype. And sometimes the games that are in the shadows, the new IP's turn out better than the established games. For me I can refer to Halo 3 and Gears of War. I got halo because I played the first two and I thought that the game was going to be good. Complete disappointment on my behalf. Meanwhile I picked up Gears which at the time wasn't overblown with hype, just kind of in the shadows and the became my favorite third person shooter easy. People need to get off the hype of games and dig deep for those hidden gems that the media (as well as the consumers) overlooks. And for anyone who actually reads this, go check out Darksiders: Wrath of War. That game has gotten minimal light and I wish that Morgan and Adam would talk a little bit more about the game. It looks phenomenal and the voice acting is great. That and Dante's Inferno.
Displaying 1–20 of 97
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