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Capcom, Grin's Bionic Commando Sells A Meager 27K in U.S.

_leech_ said:
I had a bad feeling about this game the first time it showed up on the 1up Show a while back, and even when it reappeared on Co-op it looked very iffy. Never clicked with me, and I'm a huge BC fan.

My sentiments exactly. Felt the same way from the get go.
 
Ryujin said:
The problem is plain and simple that the game is a piece of shit. Not fun to play in the slightest, clunky, bad graphics, low budget, full price, TERRIBLE focus tested designs, terrible level design and just completely unappealing. This game deserved to bomb as it serves as the perfect example of what happens when you outsource a Japanese IP to a Western developer who doesn't understand it and then you give them no money.

I mean seriously this was bad, brought it back after an hour and a half and I can normally find redeeming qualities in most games. Just such a terrible, terrible game. I'm not surprised the boses in Japan had no faith in it. I mean my GOD it was bad.

I mean they had the opportunity to make something great and revive a classic IP, but instead both Capcom and GRIN fucked it straight to hell. I doubt another Bionic Commando will ever be made by anyone ever again now. Game was just not fun or fluid, actually felt like work to play and was not rewarding in the slightest.

EDIT: Should say the only redeeming quality was the music, it was pretty good. Other than that though, yuck!

In essence, a microcosm of the potential new Bionic Commando player. Played it for an hour and returned it! Way to give it a go my friend.

Let's hear it for modern players!
 
Porridge said:
In essence, a microcosm of the potential new Bionic Commando player. Played it for an hour and returned it! Way to give it a go my friend.

Let's hear it for modern players!

Let's hear it for making assumptions!

I'm not a "modern player". I'm 25 and have been gaming since I was like 4 or something. That experience has given me the ability to ascertain the quality of a game very quickly without having to play it for 30 hours. If something is not fun why would I keep doing it for hours in the hopes it MAY get good?

Aside from that I don't have much time to play so I try to only play the best games, or at least worthwhile games. And it's my money so I'll do what I want with it, damn apologists. Neogaf really does contain someone who will defend anything even if it is obviously lacking in quality.

If you liked the game and were willing to waste your time with it then good for you, but my time is far more valuable to me to waste on trash like Grin's BC. Oh and before you claim that I wouldn't be on GAF if my time was that valuable, shut up, I come to GAF to relax and catch up on news normally before I go to bed.
 
According to the CEO of GRIN, the game had a budget of 20 million US dollars.

I'll say what I said in the NPD thread:

me in NPD thread said:
Let's be generous and say they sold 30k in Europe. Accounting for the higher price in Europe, let's say they get $30US per copy.

60k * $30 = 1.8 million revenue for the first month.

Massive, massive bomba, by any account.


Surely one of the biggest bombs this generation.
 
Hell, Bionic Commando: Rearmed will (or already has) made them more money than Bionic Commando the full retail game.

That's some fucked up shit.

:lol
 
Ryujin said:
Let's hear it for making assumptions!

I'm not a "modern player". I'm 25 and have been gaming since I was like 4 or something. That experience has given me the ability to ascertain the quality of a game very quickly without having to play it for 30 hours. If something is not fun why would I keep doing it for hours in the hopes it MAY get good?

Aside from that I don't have much time to play so I try to only play the best games, or at least worthwhile games. And it's my money so I'll do what I want with it, damn apologists. Neogaf really does contain someone who will defend anything even if it is obviously lacking in quality.

If you liked the game and were willing to waste your time with it then good for you, but my time is far more valuable to me to waste on trash like Grin's BC. Oh and before you claim that I wouldn't be on GAF if my time was that valuable, shut up, I come to GAF to relax and catch up on news normally before I go to bed.
You admitted you only played the game for an hour and a half. How far did you get into the game? How many of the challenges did you do? How accustomed did you get to the swinging and the inertia and the combat of the game? Perhaps we're just making assumptions here, but going by things I've seen all over the internet and all the undeserved hate this game gets, I get the feeling you just didn't learn how to properly play the game and gave up after a relatively short time.

If you're going to rag on the game and call it shit, you should at least say what was shit about it instead of just saying "LOL THE GAME SUCKED SO WHATEVER." How does the game reek of "focus testing" as you so claim it does? What's bad about the graphics (because aside from the tearing that happens because Diesel engine is not optimized for 360, the game looks fucking great)? How is it clunky in the least? Otherwise, I and other members of the Defense Force will gladly go to town on you and your stupidity.
 
I AM JOHN! said:
You admitted you only played the game for an hour and a half. How far did you get into the game? How many of the challenges did you do? How accustomed did you get to the swinging and the inertia of the game? Perhaps we're just making assumptions here, but going by things I've seen all over the internet and all the undeserved hate this game gets, I get the feeling you just didn't learn how to properly play the game and gave up after a relatively short time.

An hour and a half is a long time imo. Though i'm the type of gamer who will play anything till it ends even if i'm having very little fun except in a few cases where i just give up ( blinx the timesweeper, assassin's no-gameplaycreed, Lair ).
 
I AM JOHN! said:
You admitted you only played the game for an hour and a half. How far did you get into the game? How many of the challenges did you do? How accustomed did you get to the swinging and the inertia and the combat of the game? Perhaps we're just making assumptions here, but going by things I've seen all over the internet and all the undeserved hate this game gets, I get the feeling you just didn't learn how to properly play the game and gave up after a relatively short time.

If you're going to rag on the game and call it shit, you should at least say what was shit about it instead of just saying "LOL THE GAME SUCKED SO WHATEVER." Otherwise, I and other members of the Defense Force will gladly go to town on you and your stupidity.


Uh, so what? We're contractually obligated to play games to completion in order to judge them now?
 
Stumpokapow said:
it only selling 27,000 will probably be an even bigger surprise to you then
Oh shit- I totally misread that.

Wow @ 27K. That blows my mind. Across two consoles, too.
 
DeaconKnowledge said:
Uh, so what? We're contractually obligated to play games to completion in order to judge them now?
sillymonkey321 said:
An hour and a half is a long time imo. Though i'm the type of gamer who will play anything till it ends even if i'm having very little fun except in a few cases where i just give up ( blinx the timesweeper, assassin's no-gameplaycreed, Lair ).
There's a great point to be made for the Old Man Murray argument for "why play a game for me to get to the good part?" I think the problem is that most people don't give the game a chance because they struggle to get accustomed to the movement and combat of the game (and admittedly, the game is pretty unforgiving unless you learn how you're supposed to play it) and therefore claim the game sucks and is broken and clunky and leave before getting to Act II, where the game opens up and kicks it up to 11. And it annoys me. :P
 
What the hell happened to Ben Judd anyway?

Last time I heard about him, he was drunk one night and said something like "Capcom has a FUCKING ACE UP ITS SLEEVE"

wtf was that about?
 
I AM JOHN! said:
You admitted you only played the game for an hour and a half. How far did you get into the game? How many of the challenges did you do? How accustomed did you get to the swinging and the inertia and the combat of the game? Perhaps we're just making assumptions here, but going by things I've seen all over the internet and all the undeserved hate this game gets, I get the feeling you just didn't learn how to properly play the game and gave up after a relatively short time.

If you're going to rag on the game and call it shit, you should at least say what was shit about it instead of just saying "LOL THE GAME SUCKED SO WHATEVER." How does the game reek of "focus testing" as you so claim it does? What's bad about the graphics (because aside from the tearing that happens because Diesel engine is not optimized for 360, the game looks fucking great)? How is it clunky in the least? Otherwise, I and other members of the Defense Force will gladly go to town on you and your stupidity.

What stupidity? I didn't play a game enough that I clearly didn't like after nearly 2 hours and decades of videogame experience to know what is good and what is not. That is somehow stupid now?

As for your other comments...really? Do you know ANYTHING about the game you seem to love so much? The character designs are focus tested to hell, that's where we got mr.Dreadlocks. That's a fact that was revealed when the game was first shown (As if it wasn't obvious already). As for the graphics....seriously now you can't honestly believe that they were anything other than mediocre and low budget, could you?

Man you defense force types are really reaching here, but whatever. Game was bad, sold accordingly. Get over it and stop trying make out like it's a misunderstood gem by the flithy ignorant masses and that only godlike superior beings such as yourself can appreciate such high art.
 
I AM JOHN! said:
There's a great point to be made for the Old Man Murray argument for "why play a game for me to get to the good part?" I think the problem is that most people don't give the game a chance because they struggle to get accustomed to the movement and combat of the game (and admittedly, the game is pretty unforgiving unless you learn how you're supposed to play it) and therefore claim the game sucks and is broken and clunky and leave before getting to Act II, where the game opens up and kicks it up to 11. And it annoys me. :P

That's the thing though; people don't have to give it a chance.

It is up to the developers of the game to make their game compelling enough to play. If the majority of gamers drop a game (or in this case, not even bother to pick it up) it is the developers problem, not the gamers. Blaming your potential customers for not buying a game is lunacy, and defending the practice frankly, is extreme fanboyism.
 
Ryujin said:
What stupidity? I didn't play a game enough that I clearly didn't like after nearly 2 hours and decades of videogame experience to know what is good and what is not. That is somehow stupid now?
You seem pretty eager to say the game sucks without going into specifics of how the game sucks aside from random troll comments. Surely you're not going to argue that it's stupid to hate something without being able to back up why you hate it with examples from the game you played and hated, are you?
As for your other comments...really? Do you know ANYTHING about the game you seem to love so much? The character designs are focus tested to hell, that's where we got mr.Dreadlocks. That's a fact that was revealed when the game was first shown (As if it wasn't obvious already). As for the graphics....seriously now you can't honestly believe that they were anything other than mediocre and low budget, could you?
Actually, I missed the whole "character was focus tested and we gave him Dreadlocks because the focus tests liked that more. Not that I really care anyhow because I've never had a problem with Dreadlocks Spencer and nothing about the game screams "we tailored this game to focus tests to make the game as appealing to the end consumer as possible" because of how, as I've said, unforgiving and hardcore the game is. And as for the graphics, did you get to the caves? Ascension City Gardens? The docks? Because though the game has some tearing and a not-so-fantastic art aesthetic, it definitely looks very nice in places. This isn't Wanted we're talking about, which looked insanely N64 in places.
Man you defense force types are really reaching here, but whatever. Game was bad, sold accordingly. Get over it and stop trying make out like it's a misunderstood gem by the flithy ignorant masses and that only godlike superior beings such as yourself can appreciate such high art.
Funny how there's only one person being a condescending asshole here.
emot-fuckyou.gif

DeaconKnowledge said:
That's the thing though; people don't have to give it a chance.

It is up to the developers of the game to make their game compelling enough to play. If the majority of gamers drop a game (or in this case, not even bother to pick it up) it is the developers problem, not the gamers. Blaming your potential customers for not buying a game is lunacy, and defending the practice frankly, is extreme fanboyism.
I don't think Grin or Capcom's blaming people for not getting the game, though. However, as someone who loves the game and really got into it, I have no problem doing that. :P

In general, though, I agree with you.
 
An hour and a half is plenty of time to gauge an opinion. If you don't like it after that much time, you don't like it.

I'll pick up a game, and take about 30 minutes to get used to the controls and whatnot, and I'll tell you what I think right then and there. I think Gears of War was the last game that took me a while to get the hang of, and once I did I was absolutely in love with the game. Same with Lost Planet.

I did one match of Bionic Commando multiplayer, probably took me about 15 minutes to get the controls down, quit halfway through and abruptly deleted the demo.

I'm not in a position to tear the game to shreds, but I'll say this that demo felt like some crappy Xbox 1 game I accidentally rented in 2002.

I AM JOHN! said:
The character designs are focus tested to hell, that's where we got mr.Dreadlocks.

I'm big on art in games, and I love Capcom's character designs. The lameness of focus testing a character design pretty much just speaks for itself. The game deserved to crash and burn just off that choice alone IMO. Thank god some games these days still have integrity and inspiration behind them.
 
Arpharmd B said:
Resident Evil overperformed by about 1.5 million.

SF4 overperformed by about 800k.

Bionic Commando underperformed by 1,468,000.

CTYD underperformed just by being released.

Capcom survived this hit but Dark Void is going to break them. Pray it had a small budget
probably didn't.

I think the onus is on Dead Rising 2 and, more importantly, Dark Void, to prove that Capcom should continue to be one of the upcoming Japanese publishers for Western developers. I very surprised that Capcom was expecting sales as high as that or even depending on the success of such experimental titles.

This is absolutely disastrous for Grin. Their business is set around an in-house engine that can be cross-platform and versatile. I can't imagine them getting work considering their recent reputation. I can see PSN/XBLA games being the best option for them.

I feel like posting the Guile 'go home and be a family man.gif' but this is too depressing.
 
I might be over simplifying but, you know this game would have totally worked as a Metroid Prime rip-off. Just replace the bulk of Samus walking with swinging and you would already probably be off to a great start.
 
The controls seem to be oen of the main complaints people have. Yet, they don't take time to understand them. Blah blah blah...developers should make the controls easier...blah blah blah. Everyone's saying that, but it's stupid. GRIN set out to make a game with a swinging mechanic that actually made sense. Instead of having the shitastic Spider-Man set up where you just hold and release a button wasn't good for this game. Bionic Commando, even the original, is about precision with the swinging.

The game gives you plenty of opportunity to get the hang of the controls. Ultimately, GRIN's biggest mistake was releasing the MP demo instead of a single player demo with the tutorial area and one or two encounters. This isn't a traditional game where you know the basics of the control scheme and pick up and play.

People played the MP demo, didn't take the time to understand the controls, deleted it and came on GAF crying that GRIN raped their childhood and the game sucks. Don't buy it, fine. But don't try to tell everyone else the game sucked because of the controls because you couldn't grap them in a MP demo.

And the most LOLtastic response I've heard yet is people bitching that the game has a jump button. Of all the problems with the game: it's steep learning curve, it's difficulty, the challenge and collectible issues and the shitastic story...to complain about it having a jump button is just downright ridiculous and is a grasp for straws.
 
JdFoX187 said:
The controls seem to be oen of the main complaints people have. Yet, they don't take time to understand them. Blah blah blah...developers should make the controls easier...blah blah blah. Everyone's saying that, but it's stupid. GRIN set out to make a game with a swinging mechanic that actually made sense. Instead of having the shitastic Spider-Man set up where you just hold and release a button wasn't good for this game. Bionic Commando, even the original, is about precision with the swinging.

The game gives you plenty of opportunity to get the hang of the controls. Ultimately, GRIN's biggest mistake was releasing the MP demo instead of a single player demo with the tutorial area and one or two encounters. This isn't a traditional game where you know the basics of the control scheme and pick up and play.

People played the MP demo, didn't take the time to understand the controls, deleted it and came on GAF crying that GRIN raped their childhood and the game sucks. Don't buy it, fine. But don't try to tell everyone else the game sucked because of the controls because you couldn't grap them in a MP demo.

And the most LOLtastic response I've heard yet is people bitching that the game has a jump button. Of all the problems with the game: it's steep learning curve, it's difficulty, the challenge and collectible issues and the shitastic story...to complain about it having a jump button is just downright ridiculous and is a grasp for straws.

+1
 
"I mean seriously this was bad, brought it back after an hour and a half "

like I said, most people were not going to have the patience for this type of game.
 
I still don't know why Capcom didn't do this in-house
Because Capcom knew that it wouldn't sell and didn't want to waste internal resources creating it. You know how hard Ben Judd had to push to even get a green light for this project?
 
Ryujin said:
Let's hear it for making assumptions!

I'm not a "modern player". I'm 25 and have been gaming since I was like 4 or something. That experience has given me the ability to ascertain the quality of a game very quickly without having to play it for 30 hours. If something is not fun why would I keep doing it for hours in the hopes it MAY get good?

Aside from that I don't have much time to play so I try to only play the best games, or at least worthwhile games. And it's my money so I'll do what I want with it, damn apologists. Neogaf really does contain someone who will defend anything even if it is obviously lacking in quality.

If you liked the game and were willing to waste your time with it then good for you, but my time is far more valuable to me to waste on trash like Grin's BC. Oh and before you claim that I wouldn't be on GAF if my time was that valuable, shut up, I come to GAF to relax and catch up on news normally before I go to bed.

Cry more :lol
 
legend166 said:
According to the CEO of GRIN, the game had a budget of 20 million US dollars.

I'll say what I said in the NPD thread:




Surely one of the biggest bombs this generation.

How the heck did Ben Judd managed to convince Capcom brass to fork out 20 mil when they're farming it out to Grin? Isn't that kind of expensive for an outsourced project? I hope Ben Judd keeps his job, he was great when he was the localization lead for DMC3 and he's such an enthusiastic producer, I just think it was the wrong project to work on, Bionic Commando isn't a popular IP, it got shoved in the basement for a good reason.
 
JdFoX187 said:
The controls seem to be oen of the main complaints people have. Yet, they don't take time to understand them. Blah blah blah...developers should make the controls easier...blah blah blah. Everyone's saying that, but it's stupid. GRIN set out to make a game with a swinging mechanic that actually made sense. Instead of having the shitastic Spider-Man set up where you just hold and release a button wasn't good for this game. Bionic Commando, even the original, is about precision with the swinging.

The game gives you plenty of opportunity to get the hang of the controls. Ultimately, GRIN's biggest mistake was releasing the MP demo instead of a single player demo with the tutorial area and one or two encounters. This isn't a traditional game where you know the basics of the control scheme and pick up and play.

People played the MP demo, didn't take the time to understand the controls, deleted it and came on GAF crying that GRIN raped their childhood and the game sucks. Don't buy it, fine. But don't try to tell everyone else the game sucked because of the controls because you couldn't grap them in a MP demo.

And the most LOLtastic response I've heard yet is people bitching that the game has a jump button. Of all the problems with the game: it's steep learning curve, it's difficulty, the challenge and collectible issues and the shitastic story...to complain about it having a jump button is just downright ridiculous and is a grasp for straws.

Every game should have a jump button.
Indifferent2.gif
 
There are some stupid people posting in this thread.

If a game needs more than an hour and a half to endear itself to you, it has serious pacing / accessibility problems at the very least. There are some games which are 'slow-starters' and others which require an investment of time before their pleasures become apparent, but you know what? Like Ryujin, my time is far too precious to spend playing games which force me to wade through shit or be patient or 'give them time' to become fun. If people are not having fun at least five minutes after they start playing, the game has issues (which may be minor or major, depending on the game).

Excuses such as 'you need to get used to the swinging' don't cut it. They just don't. That reeks of 'you need to get over the clunkiness and adjust to the unintuitive controls'. The best games are the ones which feel likea joy to play from the outset. Bionic Commando is not misunderstood. It is sloppy as buggery.
 
Sidzed2 said:
There are some stupid people posting in this thread.

If a game needs more than an hour and a half to endear itself to you, it has serious pacing / accessibility problems at the very least. There are some games which are 'slow-starters' and others which require an investment of time before their pleasures become apparent, but you know what? Like Ryujin, my time is far too precious to spend playing games which force me to wade through shit or be patient or 'give them time' to become fun. If people are not having fun at least five minutes after they start playing, the game has issues (which may be minor or major, depending on the game).

Excuses such as 'you need to get used to the swinging' don't cut it. They just don't. That reeks of 'you need to get over the clunkiness and adjust to the unintuitive controls'. The best games are the ones which feel likea joy to play from the outset. Bionic Commando is not misunderstood. It is sloppy as buggery.

no the game is just very different. the mechanics work but they are unique and unlike any other game.

Hell I still cant use a keyboard and mouse worth a shit, doesn't mean the mechanics dont work for PC fps.
 
Well to be fair, this particular title might be one of the few that might have sold better if it were on the Wii, due to Bionic Commando's fanbase from the NES back in the olden days.
 
Pai Pai Master said:
Man that 360-exclusive demo did wonders for them.
Seriously. I was convinced they couldn't be stupid enough to only put out the multiplayer demo. All they had to do was put out a demo with the tutorial and one of the more open areas of Trent Industrial or Ascension City Gardens and you'd have a demo that shows off everything the game has to offer. :\
 
Sir Alemeth said:
Well to be fair, this particular title might be one of the few that might have sold better if it were on the Wii, due to Bionic Commando's fanbase from the NES back in the olden days.

yeeeah, ok.
 
Sidzed2 said:
There are some stupid people posting in this thread.

If a game needs more than an hour and a half to endear itself to you, it has serious pacing / accessibility problems at the very least. There are some games which are 'slow-starters' and others which require an investment of time before their pleasures become apparent, but you know what? Like Ryujin, my time is far too precious to spend playing games which force me to wade through shit or be patient or 'give them time' to become fun. If people are not having fun at least five minutes after they start playing, the game has issues (which may be minor or major, depending on the game).

Excuses such as 'you need to get used to the swinging' don't cut it. They just don't. That reeks of 'you need to get over the clunkiness and adjust to the unintuitive controls'. The best games are the ones which feel likea joy to play from the outset. Bionic Commando is not misunderstood. It is sloppy as buggery.

If Bionic Commando had taken an hour and a half to endear itself to me, I wouldn't have liked it. But I took to it pretty quickly. Even in the hectic multiplayer demo, it wasn't more than one or two rounds before I was swinging like a champ.

The swing doesn't work quite as you'd expect it if you're thinking it's going to be like Spiderman. What may have helped me was that I had spent some time watching gameplay video, so I knew what sort of thing I should be going for. Emulating that was a snap.

The game controls incredibly well, in my view. You have a huge amount of control over the swinging, without a lot of complexity. Unless you're stubbornly fighting the system, it shouldn't take very long before it becomes intuitive.
 
a Master Ninja said:
I can't believe Capcom thought they'd sell 500,000 copies of Dead Rising Chop Till You Drop.

I can't believe Capcom thought they should've sold Dead Rising Chop Till You Drop
 
Okay, so Bionic Commando tanked. Can't Capcom immediately lower the price and have some sort of sale to spur... sales? I mean, that's how it works, right?
 
Sir Alemeth said:
Well to be fair, this particular title might be one of the few that might have sold better if it were on the Wii, due to Bionic Commando's fanbase from the NES back in the olden days.


Not without a serious reworking of the mechanics and the story.
 
a new Bionic Commando is about 3 generations too late.




This is why you don't sit on things, Capcom.


I'd hate to see when Strider PS4/XBox 720 comes out.... :(
 
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=199558

Awesome, the storyline feels straight out of a nes game. haha. I'll be there day one

heh. capcom wins this gen again. release date?

Czechoslovakia doesn't exist anymore.

It would make sense to have this on Wii. The "putting our C-Team to the test" part.

don't bring up metroid prime in a thread about a western sequel to a japanese classic -- it's bad luck

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=200059

WOW

The scale is pretty huge too.

Looks awesome.

Another win from Capgod.

So we can expect Lost Planet but with much more grappling and much less mecha? Sounds good to me.

THE MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's it, this game is officially awesome. I apologize to all who are working on it for associating it with Streetunwise.

The game actually looks pretty cool. I have a feeling the swinging works like Spider-Man 2.

Okay

THAT LOOKS FUCKING AWESOME

CapGod infuckingdeed. This is why we play games™

not crazy about the character design or the developer's pedigree, but that trailer is pretty sweet. and yeah, it's great to hear an orchestrated version of that song -- the arrangement actually reminds me of mgs, as does that hayter impersonation. the graphics look quite good -- swedish developers seem to excel there. i've actually got higher hopes for this than sf4 :(

This thread is like Transformers all over again.
 
SHOTEH FOCK OP said:
Okay, so Bionic Commando tanked. Can't Capcom immediately lower the price and have some sort of sale to spur... sales? I mean, that's how it works, right?

they better. Its 70 new in canada. WTF kind of BS is that. God of War 3 could come out tommorow at that price and i wouldnt buy it.
 
a Master Ninja said:
I can't believe Capcom thought they'd sell 500,000 copies of Dead Rising Chop Till You Drop.

They will probably get closer to 500k of Dead Rising CTYD then they will 1.5m of BC :lol
 
I AM JOHN! said:
And somehow in the year-and-a-half between announcement and release, the majority of GAF decided that they either no longer cared or that the game looked like shit. :|

Yeah. That "somehow" is that we actually played it. Some of us anyway.
 
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