...
I understand that some of the fans are disappointed. We expected it. I know that may be hard to hear, but let me explain the thinking.
We went and did a tour
around to a bunch of, like, frathouses and places like that. People who were gamers. Not people who read IGN. And [we] said, so, have you guys heard of BioShock? Not a single one of them had heard of it.
And we live in this very special
you know, BioShock is a reasonably successful franchise, right? Our gaming world, we sometimes forget, is so important to us, but
there are plenty of products that I buy that I dont spend a lot of time thinking about. My salad dressing. If theres a new salad dressing coming out, I would have no idea. I use salad dressing; I dont read Salad Dressing Weekly. I dont care who makes it, I dont know any of the personalities in the salad dressing business.
For some people, [games are] like salad dressing. Or movies, or TV shows. It was definitely a reality check for us. Games are big, and theyre expensive, I think thats very clear. And to be successful, and to continue to make these kinds of games which frankly, of the people who make these types of games, theres not a lot of them, and they havent exactly been the most successful with these types of games that have come out in the last few years. I was thrilled because I love them, and I hope that we had some small role in getting those games greenlit
But they have to be financially successful to keep getting made.
I looked at the cover art for BioShock 1, which I was heavily involved with and love, I adored. And I tried to step back and say, if Im just some guy, some frat guy, I love games but dont pay attention to them
if I saw the cover of that box, what would I think? And I would think, this is a game about a robot and a little girl. Thats what I would think. I was trying to be honest with myself. Trust me, I was heavily involved with the creation of those characters and I love them.
Would I buy that game if I had 60 bucks and I bought three games a year
would I even pick up the box? I went back to the box for System Shock 1, which was obviously incredibly important that game was incredibly influential on me, System Shock 2 was the first game I ever made. I remember I picked it up
looked at it and I said, I have no idea what this game is. And I didnt have a lot of money back then. So, back on the shelf. And I was a gamer.
I wanted the uninformed, the person who doesnt read IGN
to pick up the box and say, okay, this looks kind of cool, let me turn it over. Oh, a flying city. Look at this girl, Elizabeth on the back. Look at that creature. And start to read about it, start to think about it.
I understand that our fan says, thats great Ken, whats in it for me? One, we need to be successful to make these types of games, and I think its important, and I think the cover is a small price for the hardcore gamer to pay. I think also when we do something for the hardcore gamer, theres something were talking about and something were sure about. The thing were sure about is that were going to be releasing a whole set of alternate covers that you can download and print. Were going to be working with the community to see what theyre interested in.
We had to make that tradeoff in terms of where we were spending our marketing dollars. By the time you get to the store, or see an ad, the BioShock fan knows about the game. The money were spending on PR, the conversations with games journalists thats for the fans. For the people who arent informed, thats who the box art is for.
