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[CadetMahoney]

So is this a trend in the industry (low sales) or is it just because the game sucked?

If it's a trend in sales I wonder if BioshockI and Tomb Raider will suffer the same fate.

 

[DarknessTear]

I've not bought an EA game this gen, and come to think of it, last gen either. They're one of the most insipid, soulless companies. I fart in their general direction.

I bought Dead Space 1 and 2, Mass Effect 1- 3, Dragon Age 1 and revenge of shit mountain. I've bought a lot of EA games. I'm done.

 

[Aaron]

I would not want to be a Visceral employee right now, coz Army of Two 3 ain't gonna be a shinning light of sales either.

The people who made Army of Two 3 were fired the second the game went gold. EA gonna EA.

 

[Captain Smoker]

I remember a thread not so long ago where someone from EA mentioned they needed the game to sell that high in order to make a profit. Their expectations were way too high.

EA: Dead Space needs to be "more broadly appealing", IPs like this need ~5 Mil copies

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=478566

 

[Dragon1893]

Will buy DS3 on the next Steam sales probably, i'm now curious to see how bad it is

It's not bad, not at all. It just didn't realize the potential the franchise had. The setting and enemies still make it unique enough to stand out in a market crowded with military shooters, they just had ridiculous expectations.
The game is bigger than the first 2 games. Production values are obviously a step above the first 2 games, it was a gamble and it didn't pay off.
They should've realized they were making a game for the 2 million people who were really fans of the franchise and stayed true to their roots while adjusting the budget accordingly for those sales expectations.
Actually, that's what they would've done if EA could be bothered to have a 2 million seller in its portfolio.

 

[meta4]

I hope TLOU is a good game and sells really well.

2 lessons can then be learnt - Horror sells and new IP's that do not cater to the lowest common denominator can sell as well.

How can anyone go from DS1 to the travesty known as DS3? Shame on you EA for constricting the developers vision.

 

[PaulLFC]

EA...

Successful series -> lessen appeal of series by inflicting stupid business decisions like microtransactions -> Decide it's the fault of the series rather than the business itself -> Kill series rather than fix real problems

 

[KennyLinder]

So.. they alter the series to make it for gamers that have to have combat, shooting and death in every room, taking out most of the suspense and creepyness that the first one hinted at. They do that for gamers, and nobody bought it.

Sigh.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

So is this a trend in the industry (low sales) or is it just because the game sucked?

If it's a trend in sales I wonder if BioshockI and Tomb Raider will suffer the same fate.

I would despair if that is the case

Too many publishers trying after the Call of Duty money when they don't realise a large number of Cod fans play Cod not Dead Space or Mass Effect

 

[SolidSnakex]

nobody bought Mirror's Edge... so what is EA supposed to do? the gamers by and large didn't want the game. so why exactly should they make a new one? EA isn't a charity.

They currently have a third Army of Two in development. Who the hell was even asking for that? I'm being serious. I've never seen someone say "I really want another Army of Two game!". Where was that request coming from? At least with ME there's clearly a clamor for a sequel. And it's not like that's a game that would take some huge budget. Well, assuming that they don't turn it into something that it isn't supposed to be.

 

[MikeE21286]

Should have been next gen (DS3)

 

[BeardyChan]

When I finished the game in november, I knew it was the end for Dead Space as a series. The pressures of the industry moved the series into another genre. And thus we got the shooty/less scary game with a pretty good coop campaign. They (EA) thought they had the next best thing and that's what they were sold by Visceral. EA was setting it up for fail then and I knew their expectations would be too high on the series to carry it forward.

All of our personal data was manipulated to show EA that the game was fantastic and that it had little to no faults. The problem's were glaringly evident, even if the game was actually not bad.

I find it funny that nothing has happened to the Aliens:CM team after that clusterduck yet Visceral get's screwed. I hope EA wasn't expecting Army of Two to sell given its competition.

 

[Xater]

Well cant say I am surprised or even sad about it. I loved Dead Space and I still really liked Dead Space 2, although I thought it was already going in a rong direction. Basically every decision they made for Dead Space 3 had me scratching my had and the microtransaction bullshit was just the cherry on top of shit mountain. I did not buy it and from what I heard after release I think I made the right decision. Fuck EA for ruining another franchise with a lot of potential.

 

[Dave1988]

This rumor, if true, makes me sad. I love the Dead Space series and I had fun with DS3 even though it took a turn for the dudebro.

 

[DemonNite]

 

[RustyNails]

EA...

Successful series -> lessen appeal of series by inflicting stupid business decisions like microtransactions -> Decide it's the fault of the series rather than the business itself -> Kill series rather than fix real problems

This man gets it. This is a textbook case of management slicing the goose open.

 

[Batman]

Any chance that Visceral can be picked up by another studio?

Nobody to blame for this but EA, this is pathetic.

 

[Lowlander2]

Ah well. It had a good run. I was content with the quality of the series.

 

[Kill Your Masters]

So your microtransactions packed game doesn't sell?

As the industry likes to say, sorry publishers, it's just business, right?

 

[Eideka]

Can't say I'm surprised, the game is average.

And they should have done better with the PC port, when you have such forecasts to meet you make sure that you make the most of each platform.
Neglecting the PC bit them in the ass.

 

[MoogPaul]

Enjoyed 1 and 2. Bailed on 3 when I heard about co-op.

 

[Big-E]

I bought DS2 and bought DS1 twice. Their choices drove me away.

 

[Omikaru]

Never happy to see people out of work, but I won't lie: the only good Dead Space game was the first one. Besides that the series was runny dogshit. I won't miss it.

 

[Perkel]

Looks like forum users won.

It is bitter win as this mean probably that there won't be DS4 but at the same time it send clear message that fucking with fans and broaden appeal is not answer for every game.

As of now i fully expect SimCity to bomb too. As "Maxis" team did amazing things with their simulation engine publisher employed totally anti-consumer strategy to series which always was considered for "hardcore" fans.

If few other games will bomb maybe someone at EA will finally notice that it was 2006-2008 era of "good for consumers" EA that is responsible of majority of their profits now.

 

[meta4]

Can't say I'm surprised, the game is average.

And they should have done better with the PC port, when you have such forecasts to meet you make sure that you make the most of each platform.

I really dont think a not so great PC port has anything to do with poor sales.

Never happy to see people out of work, but I won't lie: the only good Dead Space game was the first one. Besides that the series was runny dogshit. I won't miss it.

This! Though DS2 was not dog shit. RE6 , DS3 is dog shit. Not DS2.

 

[aganu]

They currently have a third Army of Two in development. Who the hell was even asking for that? I'm being serious. I've never seen someone say "I really want another Army of Two game!". Where was that request coming from? At least with ME there's clearly a clamor for a sequel. And it's not like that's a game that would take some huge budget. Well, assuming that they don't turn it into something that it isn't supposed to be.

Obligatory:

 

[Busty]

I remember hearing a few years ago how EA had 'big plans' for the Dead Space IP in film and TV.

Thems the breaks I suppose.

This is my shocked face.

I say shocking things round him all the time and I can confirm this is true.

I'm honestly surprised they made it to a third entry, the second game never seemed to be all that popular.

Though I never played any Dead Space game but this sums up how I felt. I didn't hear great things about DS2.

 

[doniewhalberg]

What a shame. 3 is a great game imo just nowhere near as good as 2. Funny thing is, after playing DS3, it's not that bro'ed up, they just spent the entire last year emphasising it like it was. I guess this is what happens when you go after dat COD audience with a sci-fi zombie shooter set in dark environments.

I guess all you can say is that even if DS3 has been fantastic, was it really ever going to hit 5mill anyway? I doubt it. So it was probably on it's way out regardless.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

Like hell they did. They had heavy hand in DS3 development and direction.

I'm not sure how heavy a hand they had in the game, it felt like a natural progression from Dead Space 2 to me. Direction also felt like a natural progression from Dead Space 2.

Essentially, they did give the series a shot. Other publishers would have cut their losses after the sequel but they attempted to appeal to the mass market one more time and sadly it didn't work out for anyone.

Perhaps a break until mid next generation is in order. Reboot the series by going back to its roots and in the meantime, let Visceral focus on developing some new IPs.

 

[blade85]

DS1: Amazing

DS2: Passable

DS3: Where the heck is the horror?!

 

[ambientmystic]

I really dont think a not so great PC port has anything to do with poor sales.

EDIT:- Clarified by Eideka below.

 

[beje]

In the end, it's a little bit sad that among all big publishers and with all the shit they get, Nintendo is the only one that has understood that trying to brute-force EVERY.SINGLE.GAME into the market as a AAA release chasing the dudebro demographics with a 2 to 5 million sales projection (or bust, for the devs that is, not for the fat cats that allowed it to go out of whack) is not a sustainable business practise.

 

[Eideka]

I really dont think a not so great PC port has anything to do with poor sales

It does, a "barebone" port won't sell well and this is what they needed it seems....

If they actually tried the PC version could have sold extremely well, would that have saved them ? I'm not sure but that would have helped them that's for sure.
But you get what you pay for in the end, barebone port = poor sales that's logical.

That said I'm sad, DS1/2 were very good.

 

[daxter01]

Obligatory:

lol I used trainer to beat that asshole

 

[diamount]

So your microtransactions packed game doesn't sell?

As the industry likes to say, sorry publishers, it's just business, right?

Again, MT had nothing to do with the poor sales. They simply spent too much money on it ot make it more 'cinematic' 'accessible' 'more action-y'

 

[Harlock]

Too bad for Visceral guys. So, microtransactions was the motive for the generic ammo. That is anothr problem, even when microtransactions are option to players, your influence in the game design already had negative effects.

 

[Geoff9920]

Can't say I'm surprised, the game is average.

And they should have done better with the PC port, when you have such forecasts to meet you make sure that you make the most of each platform.
Neglecting the PC bit them in the ass.

While the PC version is a fairly straight port, there's still a fair number of options available. It's actually not that bad...

 

[maniac-kun]

Too bad for Visceral guys. So, microtransactions was the motive for the generic ammo. That is anothr problem, even when microtransactions are option to players, your influence in the game design already had negative effects.

Microtransactions have no place in a paid full price singleplayer game.

 

[Eideka]

While the PC version is a fairly straight port, there's still a fair number of options available. It's actually not that bad...

It could have been much better and sold much better, I'm not saying the PC is responsible for the abysmal sales but it could have helped a lot if they respected the PC more.

 

[Astery]

make a horror game into a generic dudebro shooting game to widen audience, loses horror fans, dudebro gamers sees another generic dudebro game, less sales as expected, EA kills IP.

Genius as always.

 

[diamount]

It does, a "barebone" port won't sell well and this is what they needed it seems....

The port was fine. But how well a ported game does on PC has no bearing on a franchises future. It does however determine the franchises future on PC if the sold poorly on said platform, like not recouping the cost of porting the game.

 

[The Xtortionist]

DS1: Amazing

DS2: Passable

DS3: Where the heck is the horror?!

I have trouble grading the DS games based on horror since they aren't very scary to me. It's mostly just jump scares and DS3 had plenty of those...I was so numb to them by DS3 that I didn't jump at all during my solo playthrough despite 5.1 surround sound being pumped through my baller headphones the whole time. DS1 and 2 only got me a few times

Spoiler

that damn alarm clock in DS2 was the biggest

. Very underwhelming for supposed "horror" games.

I play the DS games for their action and best-in-class gunplay. That said, DS3 did disappoint me by having too much filler, not enough diversity in environments, less setpieces, and worse pacing than DS2. Still a fun game though...fuck DS gunplay is good.

 

[ambientmystic]

It does, a "barebone" port won't sell well and this is what they needed it seems....

If they actually tried the PC version could have sold extremely well, would that have saved them ? I'm not sure but that would have helped them that's for sure.
But you get what you pay for in the end, barebone port = poor sales that's logical.

That said I'm sad, DS1/2 were very good.

But was it really a barebones port to begin with? I'd say it was quite competant, ran pretty well on even low end machines and you had so many graphical options to tweak/even including the types of AA used/even SMAA!

The only negative things I could say about the port was that it lacked advanced DX 11 options like tesselation and was capped to only 30 FPS when ingame Vsync was engaged.

Now Dark Souls PTDE is the definition of a barebones port.

 

[Shafto]

Dead Space 3 was a really weird one for me. Reading the previews, impressions, and reviews, I was pretty put off. And I absolutely loved the first two games. I was super hyped for DS2, and it surpassed my expectations. Massive fanboy.

So DS3 came out, and I couldn't resist playing it, especially after hearing such good things about the first 'third' of the game.

And I actually loved it - I really, really enjoyed it.

The thing is though - it felt like luck that i'd even bothered buying it. I had the free time, and some spare money, so bought it on a whim. Buying DS3, for a fan like me, should never have been on a 'whim'.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Who could have foresaw that AAAA 5 million copies sold expectation would come back to bite them on the ass? :O

 

[Miles Quaritch]

Too bad for Visceral guys. So, microtransactions was the motive for the generic ammo. That is anothr problem, even when microtransactions are option to players, your influence in the game design already had negative effects.

No. You didn't need to use the microtransactions for ammo. They were resource based and the game offered an alternative through in game collectable ration tickets that gave you access to those microtransactions without having to spend a penny of real money.

 

[mclem]

If EA had a brain they would make less expansive, less expensive sequels to games like Dead Space. Space horror is not a genre that is ever going to be more than a 2-3 million seller.

My point exactly; I completely agree.

EA wants a Call of Duty, and they're being utterly ruthless in their hunt for one - when something like that generally arises organically.

 

[VE3TRO]

I'm surprised to hear about a 4th title even being in developement. Awakened DLC is out this month so I imagine that it's then.

Oh yea also don't announce DLC before the game has released.

 

[Xater]

make a horror game into a generic dudebro shooting game to widen audience, loses horror fans, dudebro gamers sees another generic dudebro game, less sales as expected, EA kills IP.

Genius as always.

Yep. There are more than enough dudebro options. Probably better ones than Dead Space 3.

 

[Black Republican]

Fucks sake EA