I keep hearing that view but what is it based on? Does anyone have the real figures on how many cmbo, cmbb and cmak games were sold, and how many cmsf? If the potential profit off cmx1 was negligible then why was it made in the first place? Wouldn't a game company have known this before ever embarking on such a project?
It's largely self-evident, Lurker. If there were a serious demand for these types of games (i.e. more money to be made from them), you would rapidly see larger development houses capitalize on the opportunity. In fact, the audience for such games is so small they are almost uniformly ignored by the larger game sites. Just try to find information about Panzer Campaigns, Decisive Action, Uncommon Valor, or Combat Mission on the big sites. You won't. But GameSquad covers them and we will continue to cover them because some are very good games.
I would guess
Combat Mission probably sold less than 100,000 copies of each title in the series (probably a lot less). This is quite respectable for a wargame, but barely enough for a small team of developers to live off of. In fact, most wargame developers can't even make enough money to do it full time and still maintain another job as their primary source of income. In contrast,
Halo 3 made $750 million dollars on the first day. Even a beer & pretzels RTS like
Sudden Strike -- hardly a top tier RTS game -- sold a million copies its first year.
Please note, I cast none of this in a negative light. I have an affinity for wargames, which is why this site does more than most to give them attention and support. But they are very much a niche product and I am realistic about that.
Mad Russian said:
Show me an RTS/FPS that has done more than that. I'm not into RTS/FPSers so maybe you can. If that kind of support is out there I'm not aware of it. I am aware of the online gaming for such games as Warcraft. Different kind of gaming altogether. Thats a game category that wargames has competed with since D&D first came out though so that's nothing new either.
Oh my! You don't get out much, do you?
Don't make the mistake of thinking that your chosen genre is the only genre with a serious support base and loyal fans. Far from it. Sing the praises of wargames all day long if you like, and I'll sing them with you. But when you cut down on other genres like you just did, it just shows that you may be a bit misinformed what happens outside the wargame echo chamber.
And wargames "competing" with
World of Warcraft and
D&D? Oh my . . .