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Housemarque (Resogun) added PC due to console sale difficulties, talks future games

N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Article: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...semarques-nex-machina-be-the-last-of-its-kind

Lots more at the link, but here's some highlights.

Console difficulties:

GamesIndustry.biz said:
For Kuittinen and Housemarque, the period between 2007 and 2010 was a "golden" time for digital games on console, but that changed with the arrival of the current generation. Smaller games are less visible now, Kuittinen says, the breakout successes fewer and further between.

"Now it seems that we aren't having that many digital console hits in this generation, even though this generation has been more successful. For me, Rocket League is maybe the only smaller, digital-only game that became a really big success story on the console side.

"I might be totally wrong, but you don't see the coverage of small games like you did, say, eight years ago. There was a stream of hits at that time, but it dried up when we started this [generation]. Journey was the last one, I think."
Click to expand...
"There is now a bigger audience for digital games in general, but not exactly on the console platforms," he says. "Steam and PC are offering great success stories. The audience on PC is much more willing to try out different stuff than the console audience. I don't know if that's more demand or supply, but that's what has happened."
Click to expand...

Unsure how it will do on PC:

"There aren't that many games that can give any data or any clues about how well Nex Machina could do, because there hasn't been that many games of this kind on PC - at least, not successful ones," he says.

"Obviously, some roguelikes have been successes - The Binding of Isaac - but we take the shoot-em genre up to the highest degree. To be honest, we don't have any estimate because there's no basis for one. The market is going to tell us."
Click to expand...

Future games:

"Yeah, we've been exclusive and, relatively, we've done really well, but the big, big picture tells us that it seems there's not enough demand for [arcade throwback games like Resogun, Alienation, and Nex Machina]," he says. "Maybe this multiplatform thing is going to fix that up. But the thing is the games, and how we've done those; we've used relatively big teams, we make our own tech, these sorts of things that we feel are really necessary in order to get to that level that's needed, that we're pleased with.
Click to expand...
Ultimately, that could mean a change in direction for the studio, the details of which Kuittinen is not yet ready to discuss. "The next games that we are working on are not really that kind of game," he says, referring to the top-down shooters for which Housemarque is known. "It's going to be something different from us, after the games we're getting out now... In general terms, the problem might be that the bigger audience might be expecting something else than a top-down or side-scrolling game - let's put it that way.
Click to expand...
 
H

Hentailover

Member
From personal experience, i am less likely to try indies on consoles due to price point. Console indie releases here are same price if not more than a full priced triple A release is on steam. But I imagine that represents a reasonbly neglible portion of the audience.
 
A

Ashtar

Member
Personally I think going multi play would be a good move but I don't know their team size and if it's feasible, on the other hand I barely have occasion to even boot up my xbone And it'll be a relative unknown to xbox only gamers (unless they really loved outland)
 
M

Maintenance

Member
"There is now a bigger audience for digital games in general, but not exactly on the console platforms," he says. "Steam and PC are offering great success stories. The audience on PC is much more willing to try out different stuff than the console audience. I don't know if that's more demand or supply, but that's what has happened."
Click to expand...

Well, he's not wrong. The "it is indie so it is shit" is huge on consoles.

In before "Port the game to Switch".
 
O

OléGunner

Member
To be fair I don't think blaming console owners for not buying digital indies is totally accurate.
There's a metric crap ton of indies on the store so visibility is a bitch, even for YT or press outlets to cover a lot of the stuff that's released weekly.

Myself, I've become way more nitpicky about the indies I buy from PS3 days because there's a lot of stuff out there (would help me try more stuff if refunds were available on PS4). The hits that bubble up into my realm of interest like RL, Towerfall or Overcooked are few and far between.

But I do hope adding PC to their games output is a great move because Housemarque pump out high quality arcade shooters on the regular.
 
R

Ryuuga

Banned
Hentailover said:
From personal experience, i am less likely to try indies on consoles due to price point. Console indie releases here are same price if not more than a full priced triple A release is on steam. But I imagine that represents a reasonbly neglible portion of the audience.
Click to expand...


Being in Canda, I've reached that point with all console games. The pricing in the PC market has always been more competitive.
 
M

MegaSackman

Member
I only buy top quality indie games so yeah I'm part of the problem on console side. I also get every game Housemarque develops because... well, top quality.
 
O

orava

Member
Their last proper PC game was (then) graphically impressive PC only Supreme Snowboarding (1999). They also released a port of some xbox arcade title called "outland" in 2014

Welcome back.
 
S

Scrawnton

Member
If Housemarque is having some issues with sales on PS4, does this point to major curation problems on the system?

From my experience, they make fantastic games but is Sony letting them get lost in the shuffle despite their big conference pushes?
 
C

chronic_archaic

Member
Resogun was awesome on Vita. I remember wanting a PS4 for it then they announced the port and I picked it up on sale shortly after it launched. Is it coming to PC, can't tell from the article.
 
C

Crankshaft

Member
I think last gen there were more promotions like the xbox summer specials where they really hyped up those releases. Also more digital games had demos that you could try.

This Gen it seems like "oh yeah we have digital indie games too..." Not really a push for them and hardly any demos.

(Also I will totally purchase Resogun if it comes to pc)
 
J

James Scott

Banned
Their last 6 or so games were only on one system...but weren't they published by Sony?
I'm also pretty sure indies get more coverage than ever, but there are more indies than ever
 
LordRaptor

LordRaptor

Member
I'm not sure its fair to say its a pricing issue on consoles per se, as it is a perception of pricing issues with the "will wait until its free on PSN+" mentality
 
P

Peltz

Member
I'm kind of surprised that smaller titles aren't doing well on consoles anymore. They're usually the best games on the platform.
 
R

Rembrandt

Banned
Resogun was pretty fun. Wasn't it a PS+ game?

Outland was a GwG titles like half a year ago. Still haven't played it, bur i'll get around to it.
 
sp3ctr3

sp3ctr3

Member
On last gen it was different as these small titles were digital and stood out because of that. Now everything is digital.

And on top of that a lot more of that size games are coming out so special gems gets lost in the shuffle
 
dugdug

dugdug

Banned
This is going to sound cheap, but, I'm willing to bet that, while a lot of the points expressed here are true, indie devs saw a drop in sales once many of them kinda collectively decided that $19.99 was a good launch price on consoles. For me personally, that's past the point of impulse buy, which is what I did with so many indie games in the PS3/360 era. I understand game development is expensive, but, IMO, I haven't seen a big shift in quality to merit the price increase.

For Housemarque alone, Dead Nation was $15, and I was there day one. Stardust on Vita was $10, and, I was there day one. Again, I realize it's just $5-10, and that number varies from dev to dev, but, that's just where I'm at.
 
G

GoldandBlue

Member
Maintenance said:
Well, he's not wrong. The "it is indie so it is shit" is huge on consoles.

In before "Port the game to Switch".
Click to expand...

I think the more troubling thing I see is when some people who do end up showing interest in an indie game go "will be nice to play when it's a free PS+ game."
 
R

ramoisdead

Member
The problem, well one of the problems, with being an indie on a console is more often than not, you're gonna have folks that look at your title and say "nah I'm gonna wait until it's a PS Plus title". Rocket League was a PS Plus title and since a ton of people tried it out and fell in love, folks double-dipped on PC and word of mouth spread like wildfire.

I'm hoping something similar like that happens to Nex Machina. The game looks great so far and I'm definitely picking this up on PC.
 
O

OrbitalBeard

Member
Peltz said:
I'm kind of surprised that smaller titles aren't doing well on consoles anymore. They're usually the best games on the platform.
Click to expand...

PS+ is surely a part of it. It's probably easy for many to justify skipping an indie game they're interested in if they think there's even the slightest chance of it hitting Plus someday.
 
S

Scrawnton

Member
Peltz said:
I'm kind of surprised that smaller titles aren't doing well on consoles anymore. They're usually the best games on the platform.
Click to expand...
They're the rebound devs. You use them at the end of one console cycle and at the beginning of another to give the allure of content and then you stop caring about them when the more "attractive" software shows up.

I expect PS5s first E3 and first year in general to be another big indie push. I fully expect Nintendo to do the same thing next year with Switch.
 
G

Griss

Member
Indie fatigue is real, especially on Playstation where anyone who wants to play online has PS+, and therefore has a years' worth of indie games in his backlog. That both devalues the games and makes it so that players will turn to that backlog before spending money on a new one. It also adds the impression that if you hold off any given indie game might come to PS+.
 
J

Jarod McChicken

Member
Scrawnton said:
If Housemarque is having some issues with sales on PS4, does this point to major curation problems on the system?

From my experience, they make fantastic games but is Sony letting them get lost in the shuffle despite their big conference pushes?
Click to expand...

PS Store is crowded for sure, and not only with great products, but I feel Nex Machina, which is not published by Sony, is falling way more under the radar compared to all the games Housemarque developed and marketed with Sony. Super Stardust HD and Dead Nation were hits back in the times when the indie market was not crowded on the PSN, Resogun was a PS4 launch title so it was automatically in the light, and Alienation was highlighted just this month on PlayStation Plus. It will be interesting to look at Nex Machina sales on SteamSpy.

In any case, Matterfal news at E3, yes please ?
 
K

Kresnik258

Member
Hmm, interesting. I always thought Housemarque games were fairly decent sellers. I'd also hate to see them move away from their current focus because I've loved what they've put out.
 
G

Griss

Member
Granjinha said:
They actually released Outland on PC.



No it isn't.
Click to expand...

I just gave reasons why it is among many people, but you replaced them with a period. Strange.

There's an oversupply of games on playstation that you get 'free' with your multiplayer paywall. That leads to a fatigue or devaluing of those titles. That's my position.
 
G

gtj1092

Member
Scrawnton said:
If Housemarque is having some issues with sales on PS4, does this point to major curation problems on the system?

From my experience, they make fantastic games but is Sony letting them get lost in the shuffle despite their big conference pushes?
Click to expand...

Yeah Sony should be more like Nintendo is with Switch. It's amazing any Indies even release games on PS4.
 
R

RPGam3r

Member
Granjinha said:
They actually released Outland on PC.



No it isn't.
Click to expand...

You really shouldn't alter someone's post to a point where it drastically changes what was actually said.

On topic: I don't know if its the platform or just the games themselves not pulling in the sales versus their AAA counterparts.
 
J

Jack The Nipper

Banned
Probably an issue when you allow too many bad steam games on the store.

Each week I youtube every new release and add games to a wish list. And there are a ton of cheap shitty games.

Use to have more choice on Ààa and fewer better made digital titles.
 
M

meppi

Member
Really sucks that they are having trouble finding an audience for their games.

I personally have been buying every game day one since I got my PS3 and bought Super Stardust HD, well except for that 360 golf game.
Would really hate to see these guys go away.
Guess the PS4 audience at large really isn't all that much into arcade games. :(
 
T

timberger

Member
Sounds more like their problem is competition rather than anything specific to consoles.

Kresnik258 said:
Hmm, interesting. I always thought Housemarque games were fairly decent sellers.
Click to expand...

Says in the article their games still do really well, but it seems he's annoyed none of them have been major hits.
 
S

SliceSabre

Banned
Well last gen being indie was sorta interesting and unique back then. I certainly bought more indies last gen than I do on console now.

Another point is that indies now...we'll a lot of them are feeling themselves and charge significantly more now on PSN/XBL than they did back last gen. More indies back then were of a price I wouldn't think twice about buying, I don't feel like that is so nowadays when you see a lot of indies in the $19.99-29.99 price range now.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
timberger said:
Sounds more like their problem is competition rather than anything specific to consoles.
Click to expand...

You say this as if they're adding a platform without other games:

The biggest challenge Housemarque faces, though, will be familiar to every developer working today: overcrowding. The audience for digital games is bigger on the PC, certainly, but the number of games available on Steam has ballooned in recent times, with almost 40% of all games on the store released in 2016 alone. By Kuittinen's reckoning, the rate is around 500 new games a month, every month, which makes even selecting a release window "a leap of faith."
Click to expand...
 
O

Ouroboros

Member
Wasn't resogun free to all new PS4 owners when the console launched?

I still play my copy from time to time. Really fun game!
 
M

mclem

Member
I do have a bit of an attitude that "Housemarque games will be on Playstation+ at some point", which probably doesn't help. I wonder if they'll be pointedly not doing that with Nex Machina.
 
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