Ninja Theory: Enslaved Suffered Due to American Marketing Muck Up
UK PR and marketing did a great job
Ninja Theory's head man, Tameem Antoniades, has been speaking about developing Devil May Cry with Capcom but has also looked back to the poor sales of Enslaved.
Although he does not know how international sales break down, he is clear on where he lays blame for the poor sales of the Monkey legend-inspired title.
"I think Enslaved suffered from being a new IP, from not having a name and not being pushed hard as a new IP.
"I don't know what it was like outside the UK, but I think it was pretty much non-existent. I think Lee (Kirton, Namco Bandai's UK marketing director) did amazing work here in the UK with the TV ads, the tube posters - it seemed to be gaining traction here. I don't think I've met any Americans who have even heard of it."
That said, he's also none too pleased with how retail expectations for AAA games are constraining developers.
"We're in this kind of AAA bracket, I guess you could call it. High budget, high stakes retail model - the barriers to entry for that are so high, so difficult, that we seem to be getting, being offered, decent work in that area. It's hard to say no when you've got a team of 100 and you have to keep the payroll going. Another big project comes along, you tend to go for it."
He continues, "...there's this stranglehold that the AAA retail model has which I think is just crushing innovation and access to creative content. If you're paying that much for a game, you don't want to take chances. You want everything to be there, all the feature sets. You want it to be a known experience, guaranteed fun. That's not healthy."
Source: GI.Biz
Although he does not know how international sales break down, he is clear on where he lays blame for the poor sales of the Monkey legend-inspired title.
"I think Enslaved suffered from being a new IP, from not having a name and not being pushed hard as a new IP.
"I don't know what it was like outside the UK, but I think it was pretty much non-existent. I think Lee (Kirton, Namco Bandai's UK marketing director) did amazing work here in the UK with the TV ads, the tube posters - it seemed to be gaining traction here. I don't think I've met any Americans who have even heard of it."
That said, he's also none too pleased with how retail expectations for AAA games are constraining developers.
"We're in this kind of AAA bracket, I guess you could call it. High budget, high stakes retail model - the barriers to entry for that are so high, so difficult, that we seem to be getting, being offered, decent work in that area. It's hard to say no when you've got a team of 100 and you have to keep the payroll going. Another big project comes along, you tend to go for it."
He continues, "...there's this stranglehold that the AAA retail model has which I think is just crushing innovation and access to creative content. If you're paying that much for a game, you don't want to take chances. You want everything to be there, all the feature sets. You want it to be a known experience, guaranteed fun. That's not healthy."
Source: GI.Biz
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