Why BIS couldn't get a publisher for Armed Assault

[Tankbuster 1747]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Those of us that have the Czech and German version are now seeing what BIS showed to the worlds' game publishers last year. We are paying beta testers. Nothing more, nothing less.

Publishers are businessmen. They are not, first and foremost, game players. They can look at a product with clear vision, unlike us I think. They don't care about the community, they don't care about the history, they don't even care about the gameplay. Is it a simulator or a game? Or even a training aid? They don't care. They want to know if they invest in this game, will they take more money in than they paid out. Lots of them have looked at the product and walked away not because it's full of bugs and unfinished, but because they think it won't make them any money.

But let's be honest, the writing was on the wall even before Armed Assault broke cover. OFP took four years and has gone through half a dozen versions before it became the game it should have been on day one.

As usual, the same band of diehard AA advocate will crawl out of the woodwork saying the game runs fine on their Pentium 2 with 128 meg of memory and one or two more will tell us that no game is complete when it goes gold these days. And that is meant to assuage our complaints? Some will complain this is one of many threads all on the same subject. I wonder if they've stopped to ask themselves why there are so many threads deriding the game and so few applauding it? Are the malcontents simply noisier that the contents? I doubt it.

At the risk of making a sweeping statement; not only is this game far from perfect, it's far from publishable content. There are SO many problems. If I was a publisher -and I'm not, so I can only speculate- I wouldn't have taken this game on board.

As many of the advocates of AA say, it will be better in the 505 version. Well, I hope so, but I am half expecting to wait until 2010 before this game reaches it's potential.

I bet Codemasters are laughing like drains right now. I also bet 505 are having sleepless nights.

[sickboy 13]

There were already 100's of topics of this.. it's getting old and you are supposed to use up such already available topics...

If you would've read them you would read a lot answers or likewise/different views on what you post above...

I'll add mine just for the fun of it:

BIS Got screwed by Codemasters

BIS is not stupid and no mule, so they do not make the same mistake again

BIS took as own choice very small publishers which can very little influence BIS as opposed to how Codemasters did it.

End of story... Just wait until the 505-Release like all others,, with better patches, remember that ArmA will keep being developped upon/patched/even maybe expanded, without the need to throw up some dust every single f...day

[Guest]

Oh, I'd say publishers care a lot about the history.

(I assume you mean predecessor by that.)

That's why a lot of money is spent for licensing movie titles etc.

Publishing a 'Succesful-Title'-Version-2-game or a 'The Game for the Movie'-Game is a considered low risk. No matter how crap the product might be, the game will sell just because of the name, and not the content, as you can see here.

[Tankbuster 1747]

Sickboy;

Oh I have read them all, and posted in many.

I've not seen the BIS got screwed by CM angle before though. Care to expand on that.

BIS clearly have made same mistakes again. They've even managed to ressurect some OFP early version bugs that had been squashed by the time it got to 1.96.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not BIS bashing just for the sake of it. There is nothing I'd like more than to see AA become a million seller , but, and this is the point of my OP, I'm beginning to see why there were problems securing a publisher.

[sickboy 13]

Oh I have read them all, and posted in many.

I've not seen the BIS got screwed by CM angle before though. Care to expand on that.

I do not know much about it, it's actually all I know apart that I heard that BIS & Codemasters broke up with eachother because of problems and being screwed over in the licensenses/fees/money area...

Quote[/b] ]Don't get me wrong, I'm not BIS bashing just for the sake of it. There is nothing I'd like more than to see AA become a million seller , but, and this is the point of my OP, I'm beginning to see why there were problems securing a publisher.

Sure, but thats what all are saying, but in the meantime we have (had) 100's of these topics/threads all with generally the same content...

In the end... A lot of discussion, some heat ups between multiple 'sides' of the community.... and to what end? Nothing... Talk talk talk, angry angry angry ... nothing nothing nothing

All I can say at this time is: Wait and See.

Really... BIS aint stupid, why on earth would a company simply 'suicide'... I don't think that's the plan and I don't think that that's what they are doing...

Let's see at the next patch what it brings, next to PROBABLY more patches, additions etc. that might happen in the future.. Nothing is certain, but it has been sayed more than enough times that ArmA is an ONGOING project, not until the release, but also after, and I do not believe that that only means 1 or even 6 months

[AfrographX 0]

Funny how usually people complain about the evil publishers who force developpers to publish unfinished games, whereas we know actually have a strong developper who seems to have the guts and the freedom to do whatever he might think is good and what do we get?

I guess it's just that BIS, too, has a lot of bills to pay and with OFP for the Xbox not selling that good they probably just had to release ArmA to get some cash.

Apart from that I can imagine a shitload of why-not-release-arma-now-threads if BIS had decided to postpone ArmA's release in order to finish the product.

[sickboy 13]

...whereas we know actually have a strong developper who seems to have the guts and the freedom to do whatever he might think is good and what do we get?

...

Apart from that I can imagine a shitload of why-not-release-arma-now-threads if BIS had decided to postpone ArmA's release in order to finish the product.

Yep, exactly. It is never good, and you can't satisfy everyone. Choices need to be made and that's it... And in my eyes BIS has tried making many different types of players aswell as types of people happy, but you can't keep/make all ppl happy....

Still there is always something to complain about, complaining is in the core of us and complaining is what we shall do till the end of days

PS... I am not against complaining in general, otherwise there indeed probably would never be progress, but there are also unnecairy complaining and to my opinion if a new patch is incoming, it would be better to review the result instead of keep kicking up dust every singleday ;D

[Rhodite 3]

This thread is a more suitable place to air your complaints.

We have had more than enough single threads on peoples individual opinions and speculations as to why BIS did this that and the other. Fact of the matter is you DON'T know for sure and you are guessing.