Why Arma 2 has a small market

[InFireBaptize 0]

I have been doing some research into why Dragon Rising is getting an enormouse fanbase, whilst Arma 2 is still left with a small community. I have tried as hard as i can to promote Arma 2, and i think i have found as big an audience as you can generally find. But still, dragon rising videos get way more views than Arma 2 videos.

But why? Well i think i have the answer, and i guess alot of you won't like it. It seems like BIS has made very little attempt to sell their game. We saw a few videos before release, and a few videos after. Nothing too special, nothing too bad.

There was nothing much going on in the forums before the release in the way of marketing the game, and there wasn't much after, either. We've seen a few interviews, a few gameplay snippetts and thats all.

Now i understand BIS is a very small team, so obviously i would never expect advertising on the same scales as say, CM, EA, or Ubisoft. But i think you need somebody in your advertising department.

For example, i found this on the Dragon Rising forums. If BIS did this pre release, i think they could have so many more sales.

http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=371251

People like to do this kind of thing not for the shabby "free game", but just so they can say they did something for the game they love. It really does work.

Codemasters are constantly releasing video after video of their game in progress, in the form of gameplay, interviews, featurettes, movie shorts, developer diaries etc. Every time they do this they are attracting so many more players.

In contrast, it's as if BIS didn't really want a new audience, they just made the game and released it.

Maybe i am totally wrong and have the wrong end of the stick, I don't know. But from my point of view Arma 2 could be alot more popular than it is, and all it would have taken was a simple stream of pre release videos. I mean, everyone loves your stylish accents!

Regards,

Rich.

can you show us numbers, statistics? how did you come up with this? screw dragon rising, i need to know how did you come up with this conclusion?

Edited August 15, 2009 by InFireBaptize

[Alex72 1]

Why this guy is so obsessed with BIS sales?

Just for the sake of having something to talk about?

Dont get it.

[GoOB 0]

I don't get it... Wasn't ARMA II in the top 10 weekly sales on Steam for atleast two or three weeks? One of those weeks ARMA II spent at place number two. I also remember ARMA II selling well in alot of Swedish retailers. So what is this business about poor sales? Sure, ARMA II is no SIMS 3, but I am willing to bet that BI and 505 games are (more than) satisfied with sales... Why else are we seeing an expansion pack?

[Reverend Crast 10]

Small market? I don't know. I only know that I see it on top shelf in my local Game store (it was on 4th place best selling games last week)

[-RIP- Luhgnut 10]

What I think they should have done that would have made things better all around, was to have an Open Beta for 2 months. Which would have helped the bug killing process as well as getting people actually playing the game, and talking it up. People put up with bugs more if they know they are in Beta, but they get a free game for a couple months.

Edited August 15, 2009 by [RIP] Luhgnut

[spec_ops_sniper 0]

I like your theory, but i think they just dont have that many people to advertise it and make those videos they need because there so focused on making the game. Maybe in the future they could look to there community for things like this. kinda like how they got Dyslexi to do that TrackIR 5 preview. and maybe next time Rich they could include you.

[Dwarden 1124]

richie claiming ARMA 2 got no advertising or online audience or support or attention or ... :rolleyes: is quite wrong to be fair ...

let me say the 5k+ man strong STEAM public group before game on STEAM, Twitter, Facebook, Flick, YouTube official channels from IdeaGames (many high views vids were removed as they were duplicate of other channel too) and BI quick look shows total easy over some mil, previews going nearly each 2m for whole year before game was out as the developement progressed, some of community modders got early access or preview or got involved in showcases also, 'semi-official' IRC channel was before release and is constatly active (all the time as part of my signature), we have these forums daily visited by many of us from BI, not to mention PR news releases from both IdeaGames and US PR agency, all our titles are on wikipedia, there was flashgame to win game copies, videos for each faction, official and nonofficial mediatrailers, weapons and vehicles revealed before game went out, quite lot of updates to websites about Chernarus and other game portions, full sized PR package for written and online media and also stuff for community sites, we have out dedicated server, editing tools (being trailed by MLODs sometime in future), we are supported by XFIRE and HLSW and morelikely GSC and i nearly forgot to mention TrackIR linked PR campaign ...

and this is just fraction of what was done before and after release and just not end of all what is being done now for upcoming things ...

Edited August 15, 2009 by Dwarden

[LJF 0]

Indeed, I don't get this small market thing, ArmA2 did really well.

[hamis 0]

Well,does anybody know how many copies are sold this far?

[My Fing ID 0]

I gotta tell ya I'd never of heard of this game if it wasn't for me looking through Fileplanets D2D and finding ArmA. I remember seeing the video and thinking 'damn I wish they'd make OPF2'. I read about how ArmA was supposed to be 'realistic' and figured it was just more hype and buzz like all the 'realism' in shooters seems to be. Read the reviews and found out what it was, downloaded it asap. Really though if it wasn't for that chance encounter I'd of never gotten this game. The demo is on fileplanet, so it seems like that should help. Same time for me I know it's not the campaign or multiplayer but the editor that makes the game for me. I've been playing the same scenario I made over some city for days now