I think ol' Kenny boy has finally gone off the deep end.
“We went and did a tour… around to a bunch of, like, frathouses and places like that. People who were gamers. Not people who read IGN. And [we] said, so, have you guys heard of BioShock? Not a single one of them had heard of it.”
Really? They call themselves gamers and they've never heard of Bioshock? But they've heard of CoD and BF right so obviously Bioshock needs to move in that direction to capture that market even though they're as different as night and day, right Ken?
“For some people, [games are] like salad dressing. Or movies, or TV shows. It was definitely a reality check for us. Games are big, and they’re expensive, I think that’s very clear. And to be successful, and to continue to make these kinds of games which frankly, of the people who make these types of games, there’s not a lot of them, and they haven’t exactly been the most successful with these types of games that have come out in the last few years. I was thrilled because I love them, and I hope that we had some small role in getting those games greenlit… But they have to be financially successful to keep getting made.
Looks like Ken is the only guy on the planet who hasn't heard of Kickstarter yet. His statement and everything he's saying in this article tells me this game is already a disaster and he's hoping they can make it mainstream enough to mitigate most of the losses they're going to take on it. I don't think I'll be touching this thing at all now, even when it hits $5 in the bargain bin - which from the sounds of it won't be long.
“Would I buy that game if I had 60 bucks and I bought three games a year… would I even pick up the box? I went back to the box for System Shock 1, which was obviously incredibly important — that game was incredibly influential on me, System Shock 2 was the first game I ever made. I remember I picked it up… looked at it and I said, I have no idea what this game is. And I didn’t have a lot of money back then. So, back on the shelf. And I was a gamer.”
So don't fucking sell it at $60. Most games have always been drastically overpriced which is why most of them sell so poorly. It boggles the mind that the industry has never got that. Sell them for $20 out the gate and you'll make it up on volume because most people won't think twice about dropping that but yeah at $40, $50, $60 they most definitely will. Jesus, it's not rocket science.
"The horse I bet on was so slow, the jockey kept a diary of the trip." - Henny Youngman