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CAVE restructured - No more dedicated divisions, but not quite dead yet

Ban Puncher

Member
B-b-but I bought Dodonpachi Saidaioujou LE!


It's getting delivered on Monday!


Vh4oo.gif
 

Haruhater

Banned
I'm not saying that Treasure isn't going to make games, but they aren't exactly known for their scrolling shooters. Unless you count Sin and Punishment (which is kind of a stretch), haven't they only ever done four during their entire existence?

Well at least we can count on them doing some more. And, well, you know, anytime Treasure releases a shooter they are always so good that they are either the crown jewels of the genre (Ikaruga) or they outright make entire genres obsolete (Sin & Punishment).
 
SDOJ the last great hurrah of Cave?

Other than iOS ports of their backlog are they even going to make new shoot em ups?

I'd say it was good they released that cave box, however, making it uber limited and expensive really alienated the fans

goodbye Cave thanks for the great games, you will be missed
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I am fucking devastated.

My Dodonpachi Saidaioujou shipping notice was earlier this day ;_;
 

hongcha

Member
There's no money in retail Wii or PS3 shmups, the sales of those prove that (check out any Grev or Milestone release on those platforms). Cave went with the 360 because that's where the shmup crowd was. That's common knowledge. They went with retail releases because they could sell them for 7000 yen (regular) or 10,000 yen (limited edition) a pop, and they sold quite well, for the first few years. Deathsmiles, Deathsmiles II, and Mushihimesama Futari each sold over 30,000 in Japan. They experimented with DD with Guwange and Nin2 Jump, but both sold very poorly and did not even make enough to recover their development costs, so they abandoned that. They also tried putting some of their games on Games on Demand, but those similarly sold very poorly so they abandoned that as well. A lot of people here wanted them to put their games up on Steam, XBLA or PSN for $5 but they clearly did not think that was the most financially viable option for them.

The console division in Cave was a small part of the entire company, unlike a company like Grev that only does console/arcade games. While they did some great things, they also made some very poor choices. For example, Instant Brain was a huge waste of time and money that seems to have crippled the division. Cave thought it would sell well and it sold like crap. That coupled with the declining arcade market makes this news unsurprising.
 

Haruhater

Banned
A lot of people here wanted them to put their games up on Steam, XBLA or PSN for $5 but they clearly did not think that was the most financially viable option for them.

Doesn't that just goes to show what a mistake Cave made by ignoring the worldwide market?
 

@MUWANdo

Banned
I'm not saying that Treasure isn't going to make games, but they aren't exactly known for their scrolling shooters. Unless you count Sin and Punishment (which is kind of a stretch), haven't they only ever done four during their entire existence?

Gradius V was a Treasure game, too.
 

ChryZ

Member
I once almost got lynched by a bunch of elitist CAVE fans when I suggested that CAVE should try to grow their fanbase by releasing on as many platforms as possible with reasonable pricing instead of the niche audience plus premium price approach.
 

meppi

Member
Only making stuff for the Xbox was a silly choice. Also selling it all for ridiculous amounts of money. I can practically hear their bad decision-making sha-cho in my head.

The shoot 'em up community basically chose the 360 not the other way around.

Also having the games sell for as little as €10 in Europe didn't seem to help a damn thing.
And when they were on the PS2, they didn't do any better either.
It's not so much the price or system as the way overall gamers taste has turned to dogshit in the past decade.


I once almost got lynched by a bunch of elitist CAVE fans when I suggested that CAVE should try to grow their fanbase by releasing on as many platforms as possible with reasonable pricing instead of the niche audience plus premium price approach.
The problem with that is that they are a very small company, developing niche games and that multi platform development would have cost them a lot of money, quite possibly more than they would ever make back. If anything, it might have killed them off sooner. :(
 

ys45

Member
Damn! they were keeping the SHMUPS genre alive :(
Who's gonna take over now ?

So much things went away this gen ....
 

hongcha

Member
Doesn't that just goes to show what a mistake Cave made by ignoring the worldwide market?

No, they could have made even less money going for el cheapo DD releases. Grev tried DD releases with Strania, and they said it sold about the same as their retail releases, but for a fraction of the cost, so they lost a lot of money on it. As a result, they switched back to doing retail releases. XBLA and PSN are not the cash cows you might think, unless you have a break out hit it can be difficult to pull a profit on them. And Cave did not ignore the worldwide market. Three of their X360 games got international localizations, they released Deathsmiles II on the North American Games on Demand, and they made many of their Japanese shmups region free just so foreigners could play them.
 
Love how people come in, claim games would have sold better on psn/xbla/steam whatever and localized. Meanwhile there is one game on xbla and 3 localized games and several region free ones. The games available in west are even sold at budget price. Shows how much interested the "non-elite" has in these games: None.



R.I.P Cave.
 

dog$

Hates quality gaming
Sad times. Not unexpected, but still sad times.

I really wish that Ketsui and Mushi HD weren't locked. I bought everything else of theirs that I could, shooter wise.

anytime Treasure releases a shooter they are always so good that they are either the crown jewels of the genre or they outright make entire genres obsolete.
Please go make or post in another thread if you want to fellate Treasure.

"Make entire genres obsolete". What the fuck.
 

@MUWANdo

Banned
I once almost got lynched by a bunch of elitist CAVE fans when I suggested that CAVE should try to grow their fanbase by releasing on as many platforms as possible with reasonable pricing instead of the niche audience plus premium price approach.

I don't think existing STG fans are really annoyed by the idea of more people playing STGs, the issue is that people immediately dismiss them for being "outdated" or "overpriced" or "poor value" now matter how much (or how little) they charge, no matter the distribution method, no matter the platform.
 

SmokyDave

Member
Love how people come in, claim games would have sold better on psn/xbla/steam whatever and localized. Meanwhile there is one game on xbla and 3 localized games and several region free ones. The games available in west are even sold at budget price. Shows how much interested the "non-elite" has in these games: None.

R.I.P Cave.

Shows how many games they released on non-MS consoles / handhelds: None.
 

darkside31337

Tomodachi wa Mahou
I once almost got lynched by a bunch of elitist CAVE fans when I suggested that CAVE should try to grow their fanbase by releasing on as many platforms as possible with reasonable pricing instead of the niche audience plus premium price approach.

Yeah.

They wouldn't have. Guwange bombed too.

Few people wanted to play these games because gaming is full of scrubs. It's just an unfortunate fact.

Shit like this is honestly annoying. Blaming consumers for rejecting their games is totally dumb. It was Cave's responsibility to sell their games to consumers and to increase the base playing their games and they failed. That on ain't anybody else, certainly not people who enjoy buying games.
 

danmaku

Member
Well, didn't take long for armachair analysts to come out and explain how PS3 and iOS releases were the solution to everything. If only half of them would've bought their budget-priced, localized releases...
 

honorless

We don't have "get out of jail free" cards, but if we did, she'd have one.
...This thread went straight into the "Scrolling shooters don't deserve retail releases and should be $10 or less!" gutter I figured it would.

I remember reading that SCEJ refused their games on the PS3, so they went 360 exclusive.
I don't know if Cave ever tried themselves, but SCEJ refused Arika's Ketsui port on the grounds that it wouldn't help them sell widescreen TVs wasn't "PS3 quality", despite Mihara's willingness to have it ready as a launch title.

All PS3 STG ports so far have had 16:9 modes that eliminate the black bars or wallpapers a vertically-oriented game would have on a widescreen television. Creating a special "wide mode" would only have been a reasonable option for Akai Katana and Deathsmiles.

Love how people come in, claim games would have sold better on psn/xbla/steam whatever and localized. Meanwhile there is one game on xbla and 3 localized games and several region free ones. The games available in west are even sold at budget price. Shows how much interested the "non-elite" has in these games: None.
Yup. Deathsmiles is available for $17 right now. (I've seen it as low as $10.) Akai Katana is $15. I paid $12 to import my copy of DDP:R.

But it doesn't matter. Whole lotta talk, but when it's time for action the wallets stay shut.
 
Love how people come in, claim games would have sold better on psn/xbla/steam whatever and localized. Meanwhile there is one game on xbla and 3 localized games and several region free ones. The games available in west are even sold at budget price. Shows how much interested the "non-elite" has in these games: None.



R.I.P Cave.

they didn't even try. all those games were on xbox. it's not the first choice if you are a fan of japanese games for most people.
 

Brera

Banned
Love cave shooters but they deserve this for focusing on 360 only.

Otherwise I would have bought their shut on ps3
 

meppi

Member
^Yeah, fuck that.

Shows how many games they released on non-MS consoles / handhelds: None.

Well, they tried with this one:

ibymDcUgkHUTov.jpg


Wasn't worth it in the end it seems. Sales wise it least.

And again, they chose the PS2 last gen. Didn't help either.
 

SmokyDave

Member
PlayStation 2 and DS is none? :>

I thought it would be obvious that I was talking about this generation.

I really don't get why they chose the 360. I'd have thought the PS3 made far more sense. It actually has a working d-pad, for one. The Wii sold like crazy and also had a decent d-pad. The 3DS and Vita are both starved for shumps and, again, the Vita has an incredible d-pad. Yeah, people should play these with sticks, I get that. The PS3 supports a broader range of sticks than the 360. It's also region free.

Ugh, it just doesn't make sense to me. They went with, as far as I can see, the least suitable platform available.

^Yeah, fuck that.

Well, they tried with this one:

http://i.minus.com/ibymDcUgkHUTov.jpg[IMG]

Wasn't worth it in the end it seems. Sales wise it least.

And again, they chose the PS2 last gen. Didn't help either.[/QUOTE]
Again, I was talking about this gen. I actually bought Ketsui DS. Cost me £90. I regret nothing.
 

IrishNinja

Member
Love cave shooters but they deserve this for focusing on 360 only.

Otherwise I would have bought their shut on ps3

brera usually nintendo threads are ripe for your brand of stupidity, but it's really not needed here man

seriously, wish the employees well and keep it movin', no need to be fully in character here
 

Risette

A Good Citizen
I thought it would be obvious that I was talking about this generation.

I really don't get why they chose the 360. I'd have thought the PS3 made far more sense. It actually has a working d-pad, for one. The Wii sold like crazy and also had a decent d-pad. The 3DS and Vita are both starved for shumps and, again, the Vita has an incredible d-pad. Yeah, people should play these with sticks, I get that. The PS3 supports a broader range of sticks than the 360. It's also region free.

Ugh, it just doesn't make sense to me. They went with, as far as I can see, the least suitable platform available.
DS is this generation.

Also, it's Sony's fault.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I thought it would be obvious that I was talking about this generation.

I really don't get why they chose the 360. I'd have thought the PS3 made far more sense. It actually has a working d-pad, for one. The Wii sold like crazy and also had a decent d-pad. The 3DS and Vita are both starved for shumps and, again, the Vita has an incredible d-pad. Yeah, people should play these with sticks, I get that. The PS3 supports a broader range of sticks than the 360. It's also region free.

Ugh, it just doesn't make sense to me. They went with, as far as I can see, the least suitable platform available.

It made a kind of sense... 360 hosted an entire niche of super Japanese genres. Something about its obscurity in Japan lent itself to carving out a unique position.

Should have been multiplatform, YES, but 360 was actually quite a home to Japanese shmups.
 

SmokyDave

Member
DS is this generation.
So what is the 3DS?

Also, it's Sony's fault.
Do we know the exact details of that?

It made a kind of sense... 360 hosted an entire niche of super Japanese genres. Something about its obscurity in Japan lent itself to carving out a unique position.

Should have been multiplatform, YES, but 360 was actually quite a home to Japanese shmups.
For the broader audience though, importing a Japanese 360 just wasn't going to happen. Especially given the early failure rate.
 

Risette

A Good Citizen
So what is the 3DS?
"Next gen" (this gets so confusing at the turn of the gen) along with Vita, PS4, Xbone.


Do we know the exact details of that?
There used to be details of it in Japanese from Mihara, but they're hard to find these days. They date back to like 2005 or 2006.

But, essentially, Sony scared off all 2D shooter developers by rejecting Mihara's attempt to port Ketsui and saying that they weren't PS3 quality games.
 

Brera

Banned
brera usually nintendo threads are ripe for your brand of stupidity, but it's really not needed here man

seriously, wish the employees well and keep it movin', no need to be fully in character here

Sorry man,

I just would have liked some DDP goodness this gen.

Their iOS stuff was top notch even with the touch controls
 

IrishNinja

Member
Sorry man,

I just would have liked some DDP goodness this gen.

Their iOS stuff was top notch even with the touch controls

fair enough...i wish we knew why they didn't port to more places (vita would've shined with some've their input)
 

Takao

Banned
Old interview from 2011 with Cave’s game development manager Makoto Asada:

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/11/1...and-how-to-make-xbox-360-successful-in-japan/

Did Deathsmiles II sell well [on Games on Demand]?

As an experiment, it was pretty good for what we were expecting.

This year, Cave also released a new IP, Nin2-Jump for Xbox Live Arcade. How did it perform in the marketplace?

With Nin2-Jump, we wanted to find a way to approach casual users on Xbox Live Arcade. As an experiment with that particular genre, we consider it a success.

Do you think you’re going to make more original IP for XBLA or perhaps PlayStation Network?

We don’t have any specific plans for XBLA or PSN at the moment, but the market is transitioning from packaged titles to digital titles. That’s something we’re going to keep in mind moving forward.

What other genres is Cave interested in experimenting with?

Recently, I’ve been experimenting with Kinect games. I think if you start off a game project with Kinect in mind from the very beginning while designing it, I think it can be very interesting. There are a few titles I’m considering to build from the ground up with Kinect.

The most concerning quote. Remember, this interview was conducted six years after the 360 launched:

Cave has been one of the biggest supporters of the Xbox 360 in Japan. What do you think can make the console more popular here?

It’s important that more 360 exclusive titles arrive on the system. In the way I look at it, games and hardware have to be thought of together, so for hardware to be successful you have to develop games. While Xbox 360 is very popular internationally, it’s not as popular in Japan at the moment. I think things can change if there are more exclusive titles from Cave and other developers for the system.
 
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