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Namco's Dark Souls 2 marketing: "We're treating this as a massive, massive AAA title"
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Trent Strong
Banned
It can't be a good idea to spend a ton of money advertising a game that only appeals to a certain type of ultra-obsessive nerd that makes up such a small percentage of gamers.
I don't really care how they market it, but the way they're talking make me very nervous about what the core product is. From the perspective of a "nerd" who loves Dark Souls more than any other game released in the last decade, I really kind of hate Skyrim. I like the idea of it, I like the open world, but the core gameplay is trash and I'm unwilling to put up with it anymore.
If they're going to get people who LIKE the gameplay of skyrim... Whose design philosophy runs contrary to everything that I believe in as a Dark Souls fan...
Very nervous.
I've seen franchises I like be destroyed before (Ninja Gaiden), but if Dark Souls is destroyed it will be the first time I'm really truly bothered by such a thing. What a shame, what a cynical world we live in that anything good must be destroyed if it becomes successful. Because after you're successful, the only goal left is to be MORE successful, which is when the dumbening becomes required.
If they're going to get people who LIKE the gameplay of skyrim... Whose design philosophy runs contrary to everything that I believe in as a Dark Souls fan...
Very nervous.
I've seen franchises I like be destroyed before (Ninja Gaiden), but if Dark Souls is destroyed it will be the first time I'm really truly bothered by such a thing. What a shame, what a cynical world we live in that anything good must be destroyed if it becomes successful. Because after you're successful, the only goal left is to be MORE successful, which is when the dumbening becomes required.
CambriaRising
Member
The game still looks like Dark Souls from what we have seen, almost to a fault.
I don't understand the paranoia here. This isn't gearbox.
I don't understand the paranoia here. This isn't gearbox.
toddhunter
Member
Relax. All this means is the marketing will be based around walking through an empty corridor and finding a chest at the end with a couple of rocks in it. They'll loop this four or five times and skyrim fans will be all over it.
The real game doesn't need to be like this at all.
Namco will just do their thing, price gouge the shit out of as many regions as they can and will move onto the next game.
Someone should remind them that Dark Souls got where it is by being Dark Souls. What's the point of reaching a few morons if you alienate all the people whose success the game is built on? It's so stupid.
How often does this actually work the way they want it to? When a company dumbs down a game to widen its appeal. Like Dragon Age 2 -- could that have possibly been more successful than DAO? I really doubt that.
How often does this actually work the way they want it to? When a company dumbs down a game to widen its appeal. Like Dragon Age 2 -- could that have possibly been more successful than DAO? I really doubt that.
someone should look at the media released of this game thus far
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Well Gearbox, with borderlands anyways knows exactly who they are marketing to. Fans of Borderlands.
Bannam on the other hand doesnt seem to have a first fucking clue who the market is or why they should even care.
Just because it looks like Dark Souls on the surface doesn't tell me anything. Come back when you've played the game.
Deified Data
Banned
Namco Bandai isn't even publishing the game in all regions.
People need to chill out.
Like this guy. This post has no basis in reality.
I think you're underestimating Dark Souls; 2.4 million copies in a year and a half is pretty good, since there are plenty of games with (theoretically) more attractive premises that wind up selling a lot less. If you said "a certain type of ultra-obsessive nerd" to disparage the series' sales potential and niche, compare Dark Souls' sales to Deus Ex: Human Revolution or Dishonored.
It's not time to throw up our hands and declare that all is lost because they've dumbed down the game to oblivion. We have seen a grand total of ten minutes of gameplay and pretty much everything we saw was reassuring.
lol ok. I can sort of deduce how the game is going to be from the interviews + in-game footage that reveals the encounter design and such.
I feel like this game is going to get a huge amount of backlash from the pseudo-hardcore who don't know how to parse game design no matter how it ends up, just based on what they've said for the marketing.
I'm sort of anticipating some backlash, too, but it'll be because the game is dumbed down.
glad to see your mind's already been made up
Bitmap Frogs
Mr. Community
That mansion of the dragons thing they showed was depressing, just empty halls.
I guess that's their solution for appeasing to the skyrim players, have half the game devoid of enemies hahaha.
Jokes aside, if they're spending big I guess we should have some new material to ponder on E3 week.
I hold the unpopular opinion that there are some aspects of Dark Souls that could/should be—wait for it—streamlined without hurting the overall depth of the game. Like resistance, for example. As a stat, resistance is completely and totally fucking useless. No good character build has ever used it, and the starting classes' stats are balanced as if it didn't exist. A lot of little things in the game, like the descriptions of items and menu actions at blacksmiths and bonfires, could be improved with longer, clearer, better-written descriptions. (Keep the flavor text, of course, but write better prose.)
But of course, some people will proclaim that making anything more intuitive or less clunky is tantamount to automating the entirety of its mechanics and making it into Baby's First Video Game.
I'm feelin' Dark Souls II |OT| Forever Without Hope, Forever Without Light, but that's a close second.
You have a game that found unexpected success, is getting big AAA treatment for the follow up, all coinciding with the director of the previous games, Hidetaka Miyazaki, no longer being director, and new guys coming in right off the bat saying things like making the game "easier to understand". Someone told them to stop talking like that, clearly, but they spoke that way for a reason. The game they're making is the game they're making.
This is simply a recipe for disaster. So, yes, I sort of anticipate some problems. I'd love to be wrong. But the stage is set for the dumbening.
Freshmaker
I am Korean.
I'm not even sure people understand that FROM isn't even a part of Namco-Bandai. They're not a subsidiary or a partner. Namco has nothing to hold over their heads. Namco-Bandai had to negotiate with them to get the rights to publish Dark Souls 2 outside Japan. To my understanding, FROM will be self-publishing Dark Souls 2 in Japan like they did with Dark Souls 1.
What Namco-Bandai chooses to do to raise awareness in regions like America exists in its' own bubble from how FROM chooses to develop the game. Maybe you'll all be vindicated in your fears that Dark Souls 2 will be Literally Skyrim, but it's not because Namco-Bandai intends to go 'balls deep' in its' marketing.
Disparage what Namco intends all you want, but the punchline should begin and end there.
What Namco-Bandai chooses to do to raise awareness in regions like America exists in its' own bubble from how FROM chooses to develop the game. Maybe you'll all be vindicated in your fears that Dark Souls 2 will be Literally Skyrim, but it's not because Namco-Bandai intends to go 'balls deep' in its' marketing.
Disparage what Namco intends all you want, but the punchline should begin and end there.
Do you think Namco Bandai even provided that much of the game's development budget? Obviously they're handling overseas marketing/distribution and some portion of the game's localization, but I think we would have heard by now if the entire project was being done on their dime.
Proposed marketing, 6-8 months before the game was released! I suppose it's slightly more justified than people calling it due to the fucking trailer at the VGAs...
They know things about the game that we don't... And possibly have influence over its design... If they think it'll appeal to Skyrim players, that's a bad sign..
Bitmap Frogs
Mr. Community
Miyazaki being shoved aside by means of Namco's mandate doesn't build confidence.
I have little fear that Dark Souls 2 will be dumbed down. What I fear if they are going all guns blazing with this is that this game wont meet the far to high expectations Namco sets, and therefor Namco concludes that in order for this game to excist and reach those expectations it needs to get more accessible, and thus making Dark of Soulty 3...
TheCongressman1
Member
Agreed. Streamlining doesn't have to mean dumbing down.
They didn't say it will, they just hope to get more people into the game by having a bigger marketing push. Doesn't mean the marketing dept is making the game.
I seriously doubt it's the case. If Namco-Bandai invested any real amount of money into the project itself, I seriously doubt FROM would be self-publishing anywhere with regards to Dark Souls 2.
good thing he wasn't
Bitmap Frogs
Mr. Community
Tesseract
Banned
and you?
Dark Souls already appealed to plenty of Skrim players. It is not difficult to find someone who liked both of them. What this marketing person is saying is that some slight changes in presentation could make it appeal to a few more. Tone down the rhetoric about difficulty perhaps, since Dark Souls is not actually that difficult and requires patience and persistence more than reflexes, tactics, or strategy. The series is also full of gorgeous scenery, which they didn't really take full of advantage of in marketing the first game.
Little things like that. It's completely possible to sell the game more effectively without changing the game itself expressly for that purpose.
Not worried at all.
They are still very aware of what makes the DS games so damn special and good.
If they have more money to spend on marketing, to draw in more new players BUT STILL ARE STICKING WITH WHAT MAKES THE GAMES SO GOOD THEN IS ALL FINE.
Hopefully they just don`t have a insane number of units that they must sell i order for Dark Souls 2 to be profit.. *cough Square-Enix couch*
They are still very aware of what makes the DS games so damn special and good.
If they have more money to spend on marketing, to draw in more new players BUT STILL ARE STICKING WITH WHAT MAKES THE GAMES SO GOOD THEN IS ALL FINE.
Hopefully they just don`t have a insane number of units that they must sell i order for Dark Souls 2 to be profit.. *cough Square-Enix couch*
Great news. Dark Souls 2 needs a great marketing push as well as even more polish for the final version. As for the Skyrim thought. Sounds good to me. It will get more Skyrim players to try out a game with decent combat for once.
Footage so far looks like the challenge is still there, as well as their own awesome style, so I have no worries about them putting more effort into promoting the game for more people to play and enjoy.
Footage so far looks like the challenge is still there, as well as their own awesome style, so I have no worries about them putting more effort into promoting the game for more people to play and enjoy.
Muchi Muchi Pink
Member
Yeah, they're speaking about the marketing. They'd love to get skyrim players, but not at any cost (Focus on souls players). Also From said there is no pressure from bamco to make it casual.
And magic is like ammo, FROM clearly going for that CoD market. RIP SOULS
Hopefully they just want to make it seem appealing to Skyrim fans in the ads, while the actual game is on the same trajectory as past titles.
The Dutch Slayer
Member
Hopefully they will have their expectations in check, because if not you get the Square ignorance of thinking you might sell 10 mil copies of a great but not COD levels of mainstream game.
That's exactly what the're saying.
Do some people really not know that marketing is a separate dept.?
They want to use more money for marketing in hopes to get more sales. This is a good thing for the series.
But if it sells well and is popular, I won't feel special for being a fan of something unique and obscure!
deddonpachi
Member
if this results in some neat poster designs or even merchandise (souls pvc figures :O), i'm all over it!
But if it sells well and is popular, I won't feel special for being a fan of something unique and obscure!
Lol gamers these days
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