Well, since they teamed up with the giant EA, I think it will be more successful than its counterpart.

... I'm somewhat perlexed by Tim Schafer now. Surely actually selling games is what puts food on his plate and his company from bunkrucy?

Either he's a genius or a financial madman

The reason that Psychonauts flopped I think is because of the piss-poor marketing. I honestly didn't even know about it until that hard-to-please critic came along (and I loved Schafer's previous games).

CantFaketheFunk:
"Hey, you know what - let's make sure our next game makes money."

Haha yea like that's ever gonna happen. Next thing you know someone releases some useless DLC, like armor for your horse or something, and charges for it.

I don't think he doesn't care about sales at all, I guess he just wants to make sure his fans know he'll still try to make interesting, creative and above all WEIRD games in the future, too. It's all about marketing politics. ;-)

A game with Judas Priest soundtrack cant go wrong...Or maybe it can?

oliveira8:
A game with Judas Priest soundtrack cant go wrong...Or maybe it can?

I'm guessing a 70% chance of win!

CantFaketheFunk:
Whereas Psychonauts' bizarre visual style and mechanics might not have grabbed the eye of Joe Q. Customer, Brütal Legend "is a game that naturally has more commercial hooks, like hot babes and Jack Black."

I don't know why, I just love this quote.

<( ^ . ^ )>

Schafer's right, though. A lot of gamers put an emphasis on how well the game sells. If it doesn't sell as well as another game, then it's seen as a worse game. Does that mean that Wii Play is the best game made in the current generation? Far from it! How good a game is shouldn't be solely determined by numbers.

Schafer should have the respect of everyone involved in the video game industry. He keeps a mindset that most developers seem to have forgotten: the video game industry is there to grant an amazing form of interactive entertainment to the public, not just to gather money off of pointless sequels. Schafer definitely has my respect, and I look forward to giving Brütal Legend a try.

<( ' . ' )>

I'm thinking that he already paid his staff, so the sales really just matter as far as when we see his next game.

As long as everyone is happy with their work at DF studios, there doesn't need to be this rabid worrying about sales.

As for Psychonauts, releasing the same weekend as Halo really didn't help.

Man, I really have to find these games and play them. Everyone loves the pants off of Psychonauts, and Brütal Legend sounds kick-ass.
Plus, from the sounds of things, Tim Schafer is more concerned with making awesome games than good sales figures.

Brotherofwill:
The reason that Psychonauts flopped I think is because of the piss-poor marketing. I honestly didn't even know about it until that hard-to-please critic came along (and I loved Schafer's previous games).

That's true - didn't the first publisher fall through? and the other went bankrupt not long after Pyschonauts was released? I wonder if the sales have increased now its on Steam? I know the trailer on Steam was so funny it convinced me to buy it.

Yeah, its not his JOB to sell the game, its his job to make it good, if it then doesn't sell the blame falls on two groups, marketing.

And us.

Doug:
... I'm somewhat perlexed by Tim Schafer now. Surely actually selling games is what puts food on his plate and his company from bunkrucy?

Either he's a genius or a financial madman

Or someone who doesn't really care about making a lot of money and just likes to make a good game.

Schafer's commerical failures didn't start with Psyhonauts; it started with Grim Fandango(even better game IMO). 3 strikes and you're out.(or at least you don't get the leeway to make unique creative games.) When his next game features a cover mechanic, blood, and online stat tracking, remember you heard it here first.

A lot of hype and popularity never means a great game (just look at Halo..). There are loads of games out there that people barely ever hear of that are amazing. When STALKER first came out, it was relatively unknown, then when I found it, I found the most unique FPS I've ever played. Sins of a Solar Empire is a good example too.

dcheppy:
Schafer's commerical failures didn't start with Psyhonauts; it started with Grim Fandango(even better game IMO). 3 strikes and you're out.(or at least you don't get the leeway to make unique creative games.) When his next game features a cover mechanic, BLOOD, and online stat tracking, remember you heard it here first.

Have you seen the Brutal Legend trailer?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM5lMHbq9j8

Anyway, I think Brutal Legend has a much higher chance of success that Psychonauts. Just stick "JACK BLACK" in big letters on the front cover. That's a million copy's in the bag right there.

The rest goes down to advertising. We've had two trailers already, plus this whole thing is being published by EA, so your almost bound to get a few bill boards scattered around.

Hopefully Tim Freaking Schafer will get the money he deserves for this one.

Aardvark Soup:

Doug:
... I'm somewhat perlexed by Tim Schafer now. Surely actually selling games is what puts food on his plate and his company from bunkrucy?

Either he's a genius or a financial madman

Or someone who doesn't really care about making a lot of money and just likes to make a good game.

Can't make a good game, or survive, without money. Tis an economic reality.

SomeBritishDude:

dcheppy:
Schafer's commerical failures didn't start with Psyhonauts; it started with Grim Fandango(even better game IMO). 3 strikes and you're out.(or at least you don't get the leeway to make unique creative games.) When his next game features a cover mechanic, BLOOD, and online stat tracking, remember you heard it here first.

Have you seen the Brutal Legend trailer?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM5lMHbq9j8

Anyway, I think Brutal Legend has a much higher chance of success that Psychonauts. Just stick "JACK BLACK" in big letters on the front cover. That's a million copy's in the bag right there.

The rest goes down to advertising. We've had two trailers already, plus this whole thing is being published by EA, so your almost bound to get a few bill boards scattered around.

Hopefully Tim Freaking Schafer will get the money he deserves for this one.

Nice...! Another good one from Schafer, I think

Doug:

Aardvark Soup:

Doug:
... I'm somewhat perlexed by Tim Schafer now. Surely actually selling games is what puts food on his plate and his company from bunkrucy?

Either he's a genius or a financial madman

Or someone who doesn't really care about making a lot of money and just likes to make a good game.

Can't make a good game, or survive, without money. Tis an economic reality.

Of course. I'n not saying that. But you can have a decent but not incredibly high income and still make great games.

We do worry about sales more than we should many times but if Jack Black doesn't raise sales of Brutal Legend I am going to destroy humanity for being so stupid.

And keep losing money and at some point publishers will no longer want to talk to you or start pushing you around in their attempts to make your games sell better.

SenseOfTumour:
Yeah, its not his JOB to sell the game, its his job to make it good, if it then doesn't sell the blame falls on two groups, marketing.

And us.

It is never the customer's fault when a game fails to sell. The seller failed to make the customer buy it. I'm not implying the customer is a will-less sheep here, I'm saying the seller has to make sure the product is one the customer actually wants to pay for and that the customer knows it is.

I'm kind of surprised how many people care about this game. It faintly doesn't make it near anything I remotely anticipate for releasing video-games.

I love Tim Schafer's thoughts that a game can tank but still be totally kickass. Really, it's about the gameplay, not how many copies it sells.

(Hugs his copy of Psychonauts.)

And I'd guess "genius", Doug. He's probably a little mad, but in the delightful, Sheogorath-esque way.

TsunamiWombat:

Doug:
... I'm somewhat perlexed by Tim Schafer now. Surely actually selling games is what puts food on his plate and his company from bunkrucy?

Either he's a genius or a financial madman

Both, probably...

Actually, genius and madness would probably explain the Pyschonauts world ;)

Try saying to your shareholders "This game could have made you rich but I thought it wasn't creative enough so replaced it with a game guaranteed not to sell."

KDR_11k:
And keep losing money and at some point publishers will no longer want to talk to you or start pushing you around in their attempts to make your games sell better.

SenseOfTumour:
Yeah, its not his JOB to sell the game, its his job to make it good, if it then doesn't sell the blame falls on two groups, marketing.

And us.

It is never the customer's fault when a game fails to sell. The seller failed to make the customer buy it. I'm not implying the customer is a will-less sheep here, I'm saying the seller has to make sure the product is one the customer actually wants to pay for and that the customer knows it is.

I'd agree in part, but until the customer quits queueing up to throw more money at the yearly NBA, Madden, Tony Hawk franchises, and every Sims expansion, and every new space marine shooter that falls out onto the market, and ignores the more creative games, purely because we only listen to the big shiny ad budgets, we are kinda partly to blame.

I do believe in that case it was mainly a case of the marketing people not getting it out and getting it heard of tho, I don't think I've ever seen a copy of the game for any format, in a store, but at least it's available on Steam and the like, tho I feel its better suited to consoles, being a platformer at heart.

dthree:

Pseudonym2:
Try saying to your shareholders "This game could have made you rich but I thought it wasn't creative enough so replaced it with a game guaranteed not to sell."

When you own the company, you don't have to do that. Besides, should that be what game studios aspire to, less creativity, more dollars?

EA is publicly traded. I think games should aspire to creativity, which is why one should be weary of publicly traded publishers.

SenseOfTumour:
I'd agree in part, but until the customer quits queueing up to throw more money at the yearly NBA, Madden, Tony Hawk franchises, and every Sims expansion, and every new space marine shooter that falls out onto the market, and ignores the more creative games, purely because we only listen to the big shiny ad budgets, we are kinda partly to blame.

I do believe in that case it was mainly a case of the marketing people not getting it out and getting it heard of tho, I don't think I've ever seen a copy of the game for any format, in a store, but at least it's available on Steam and the like, tho I feel its better suited to consoles, being a platformer at heart.

Maybe it's because the customer doesn't WANT creativity? Or at least not the zany off-the-wall creativity people like Schafer put into games? The impression I get is that people want to do the things in a game that they see on TV or want to do in real life. We watch action movies and want games like action movies, most people watch sports and want games about their faviourite sports, they play real life games and want virtual versions of those for convenience, some watch MTV and want to be a skater so they get THPS or Skate, almost everybody wants to be a rock star, etc. People want things they can relate to and usually the mundane is easier to relate to than the absurd level of creativity found in some games.