Ghost Master is a great game, but it was just too different from the usual type of game. They should have set it in World War II, and it would have been a hit.

"...This is because the games publishers Empire Interactive didn't feel it had performed as well as it could have done."

I hadn't heard of this game until now. Every review I've just read has been around 80%. So Empire is blaming them for shitty sales or what? Seems another dev house is doing the console port for them anyhow. Kill the company, liquidate assets, pass the port to another company and probably kill their shop after release too. Ugh. Good luck to the Sick Puppies crew.

Ghost Master is a great game, but it was just too different from the usual type of game. They should have set it in World War II, and it would have been a hit.

There was no movie tie in and it wasn't the 15th in a series either. That mean originality, the death sentence to many a game. It wasn't perfect, but it was fun playing with all the spooks.


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If you can keep your head when all about you have lost theirs, it is possible you haven't grasped the gravity of the situation.

Jean Kerr
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"There was no movie tie in and it wasn't the 15th in a series either. That mean originality, the death sentence to many a game. It wasn't perfect, but it was fun playing with all the spooks."

Battlefield 1942 had no movie tie in and wasn't the 15th in any series. Dungeon Keeper, Black and White, Savage... the list goes on and on.

The problem with this game as someone pointed out is that very few people HEARD of it until this. I never knew the game existed. That's not the fault of the developers, but of the publishers who failed to advertise the game in any way, shape or form. Gotta love how they get to blame others for their fuck ups.

I hope the puppies feel better!

Battlefield 1942 - online WWII FPS, like printing money

Dungeon Keeper - a quality fantasy Diablo clone, not a tough sell

Black and White - weak game with mega hype behind it, this is a bad example of a top selling game with an original idea

Savage - this game isn't a #1 seller, I also unfortunately don't think it's done all that well

The point is that very few good, original games do well. Most are rehashes or sequels. But agreed that Ghost Master didn't get much press other than the poorly advertised demo.

Dungeon Keeper - a quality fantasy Diablo clone

ack Dungeon Keeper is only similar to Diablo in that it uses an isometric viewpoint, and then only most of the time.

Dungeon Keeper - a quality fantasy Diablo clone, not a tough sell

Wow you ARE a complete moron! You obviosly never played Dungeon Keeper or you would have a clue.

Did he mean Dungeon Siege?

Heh....Dungeon Keeper is nothing like Diablo. Unless, of course, you also think Theme Park is like Command & Conquer...

This comment was edited on Apr 5, 13:58.

I would say sithspawn hit it... he had to mean Dungeon Seige, not Dungeon Keeper...

I bet this game would have sold like hot cakes in the mid-late 90's.

I bet this game would have sold like hot cakes in the mid-late 90's

meaning with syrup?

This comment was edited on Apr 5, 22:13.

Played the demo and it really isnt that great. I got bored after the first 10 mins. Scaring AIs... uh huh, exciting...

"The point is that very few good, original games do well."

Your 'point' is wrong and has been proven so. You attempted to dismiss the games that I suggested without any thought behind your arguments.

Battlefield 1942 - Online WWII FPS? Online WWII game, yes, certainly. It is not, however and never has been simply an 'fps'. It's a vehicular based game and anyone that has really played it knows that.

Dungeon Keeper - Read closer next time. Not Dungeon Siege, Dungeon Keeper. Great game by Bullfrog, incredibly inventive and sold well enough to have a sequel that also sold well.

Black and White - Cry all you want about how much you dislike the game, it sold very well and it was an innovative game, bringing new concepts to a genre that had all but vanished before it came out.

Savage - Not #1, but well enough that most people know what it is. Again, cry all you want about how much you dislike it, it is an innovative concept that sold well in the marketplace. Games don't need to hit uber status like BF1942 and Half-life to consider themselves successful.

The point is that while you may not like a game, that does not mean it is a bad game. Your opinion doesn't mean squat when it comes down to the number of units sold and profit made. Remember that. These games sold because people liked them. They sold because they were unique for one reason or another. They sold because they added something to their respective genres rather than just rehashing the same crap.

Dungeon Keeper - Read closer next time. Not Dungeon Siege, Dungeon Keeper. Great game by Bullfrog, incredibly inventive and sold well enough to have a sequel that also sold well.

Uh, who's reading what now? The guy calls it a "Diablo clone". That would be Dungeon Siege.

Profit margins may be your only standard of defining success, and you wouldn't be alone, but saying that something unique will sell well and "just rehashing the same crap" will not is a utopian philosophy that doesn't much apply to our particular corner of the universe. Shit, every game is somehow unique. Battlefield 1942 may have had a certain innovative feature -- or, at least, popularized one -- that's now popping up everywhere you look, but that doesn't make it something besides what it is: simply the refinement of a very familiar theme.

You're also defining "success" in terms of, er, black and white. Take games like Syndicate, Privateer or System Shock. All of them were successful by your standards (sold units, spawned sequels, "people liked them") but none were huge hits; their respective design houses are all now defunct and are joined today by Sick Puppies. That's despite the fact that these old ones all have a distinct flavor that's never been duplicated. People will still be playing them years from now (or at least trying to get them to run) by the time Battlefield has long since been rendered obsolete by titles that do the exact same things, only better.

This comment was edited on Apr 6, 04:53.

Weird... this game has only just been released in some parts of the world... I didn't think it had been out all that long anywhere else, either? Not long enough to establish its success or otherwise, I would have thought, unless virtually nobody bought it at all?

Have to say Teddy...

Look at EA. Biggest publisher around who sells more than anyone else. Look at their portfolio. At Christmas (by far the most lucrative time when most games are sold) it was Return of the King and Rising Sun that were in the top 5 sales (at least in the UK but that's a fair barometer for elsewhere) along with some other regurgitated brands. Everyone has their own definition of what deserves to be called 'original'. I'd consider Dungeon Keeper, savage and Black and White as reasonable examples. Now count the 8 (!) The sims games and sequals. And the Bond, Potter, Rings brands thrown at us. I'm not saying they are not fun, but in a counting game of original vs unoriginal, unoriginal derivatives win.

Innovative games do get made, but it's a freaking hard sell to publishers. Costs to make a game are forever going up so fewer risks are taken. Brand awareness is seen as a key route to sales.

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If you can keep your head when all about you have lost theirs, it is possible you haven't grasped the gravity of the situation.

Jean Kerr
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These days, games are or have already become like the music industry. Publishers/record labels keep cranking out the same cookie-cutter, regurgitated, mundane crap because the majority of gamers keep buying it. The problem with companies like EA is that if people keep buying their stuff, they'll keep making it. The difference with music is that you don't buy a CD and then have to wait for five or six updates just to get it to run on what is supposed to be a state-of-the-art stereo. But the point is, if you keep buying it, they'll keep making it. If people had said "I'm not buying Battlefield Vietnam until it actually runs properly!" and did that several times, they'd wake up. But everyone ran out and bought it right away and now they bitch about it.

Parallax Abstraction
Technical Consultant and Potential Future Microplay Owner
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada