Here's why Prey didn't sell better

[Laser Eyes]

I was watching the bonus features that came with the Special Edition DVD of Mulan and it suddenly struck me why Prey was not more successful. The makers of Mulan talked about how they struggled to find the right kind of heroine for their movie. Here are a few quotes from the DVD.

Pam Coats, Producer -

When we read the original legend, it is about a girl who saves her father's life to do the right thing. Well when we read it, we absorbed it, and then we made the really bad mistake of ignoring that. We started off making a movie about a girl who is unhappy.

Dean DeBlois, Co-Head Story -

We explored for a while a character who was tired of her life who wanted to escape a lot ... that she was betrothed ... that basically her destiny was inscribed in big stone tablets in an ancestral temple ... and she was not culturally allowed to break those rules. It didn't really hold up strong because we ended up with this very self-serving character.

Pam Coats -

And we looked at her and went WOW ... this is a character we don't like ... and so what we realised is that we had forgotten the original intent of the legend.

Tony Bancroft, Director -

We decided that the original poem actually had all the elements that we needed. It had a very selfless girl. That's why we really fall for her because you fall for the fact that she cares more for others than she does for herself.

Everybody likes Mulan. She's a great character and the film was very successful.

On the other hand what is there to like about Tommy? The fact is Tommy is an unhappy, selfish jerk who cares only about himself. Far from empathising with him we end up disliking him and who can blame us? It's just my opinion but I think that having a selfish jerk for a hero is the biggest reason Prey didn't sell better.

[Nacho]

I don't think that affected sales...

I know what your saying though but I think the game handled it well enough in the begining that I didn't think Tommy was a jerk. Instead I thought he was tired of the way he lives his life and wants something different. That is something I relate to.

[Damien_Azreal]

I liked Tommy, I felt myself agreeing with him and understanding why he thought the way he did.

He felt as if he was stuck in a rut, he need to change things in his life. And he didn't want to leave Jen behind. A selfish jerk wouldn't have fought through an alien ship to save his girl.
He would've worried about his own skin first.

Tommy put Jen before himself, risking his life to save her.

[dan2091]

^True.. Also
Spoiler:

show spoiler

If he was a selfish he would have became 'the mother' (or the sphere, you know what I mean, right?) but he didn't because he knew it wasn't right.

I don't know if he stayed at the cherokee reservation or if he went to meet other parts of the world. I guess he doesn't cause after finishing Prey it kind of instantly set you to Prey 2...

[Talos]

Prey didn't sell well? 0o

[HazMat]

hallway shooter with no vehicles. they need a outdoor environment with vehicles and tommy needs to be able to take control of talon and fly around. more Indian stuff like music and environments. forget your pride and buy the cryengine 2 and you wont fail. get tommy outside and comfortable being an Indian. if prey 2 is another hallway shooter then toss it and start over. you dont want to listen to this advise then i say ha ha ha, you suck.

[achtung]

The whole thing with his head not moving up and down when you look up and down in a mirror turned me off.

Oh, and it feels very "standard" if you know what I mean.

[Damien_Azreal]

Full body Awareness

That is all I missed in PREY, the game was great... perfect for what it set out to be.

[madhatter man]

The thing that crippled prey was the fact that it was too closely tied to doom 3.

[Nacho]

What do you mean?

[madhatter man]

Here goes, both had:

Bad A.I.
Closed tight corriders with the ocassional big room(s)
uninspried weapons
to short and very easy difficulty
practically no replay value

[peoplessi]

Hah, you are more wrong than you even realize.

[Scream]

Originally Posted by peoplessi

Hah, you are more wrong than you even realize.

For the most part I agree with him, although it wasn't as dull as an id game, which to me are just horrible snoozfests with pretty graphics. I thought Prey was a pretty ordinary corridor crawling shooter. It was fairly polished for what it did, but it didn't do a lot, and there really wasn't a lot of reason to go back and play it again once you finished it. It added a couple of mildly interesting gameplay elements (walking on the ceiling and "portals") but didn't do much with them (especially the portals, which were for the most part just doors). The spirit walking was ok, but for me at least didn't add much to the "fun factor". My favourite addition was the little death world you went to in order to fight back to the land of the living, but there again different people are going to both like and hate that. I preferred that to "die and reload" myself.

Level design was pretty repetitive throughout a lot of the game, and the whole "vagina and anus on the wall" thing was just, well, weird and a little juvenile.

The gameplay was decent, but yeah, it certainly didn't have any Half-Life 2 gravity guns to blow you away (in fact, I really don't remember ANY of the weapons other than the spirit walking bow). Enemy AI was pretty much non-existent, and the few little puzzles the game threw at you were pretty weak and repetitive ("Oh, a door I can't get through. Let me see if there's an explosive pod nearby I can roll over to it and then shoot. Hey great, there just happens to be one right here! How fortuitous!").

I vaguely recall a mission where I got to fly something, but also remember thinking it really wasn't that much fun to do so.

Anyway, for me the game was ok, but nothing special. Not a game that many shooter fans have talked much about, and has been quickly forgotten by most fans of the genre. I am definitely glad I rented it and didn't buy.

[Danule]

the reson it didnt sell well was because it was a medeocore game from a franchise that no one knew.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by peoplessi

Hah, you are more wrong than you even realize.

Actually, I thought he hit the nail right on the head.

[HazMat]

well i hope that prey 2 is has more options in the menu and the gameplay cuz i like tommy and talon. With toruk throwing out their indian hero there is plenty of room for Tommy to go navaho. i will buy prey 2 and play all the way through it so lets hope it is a broader game.

[peoplessi]

Originally Posted by Steve

Actually, I thought he hit the nail right on the head.

He said that those qualities are due the ENGINE - which is fundementally wrong.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by peoplessi

He said that those qualities are due the ENGINE - which is fundementally wrong.

I thought he was referring to the design of the game, which I think he's correct. But Engine wise, no way

[Scream]

Originally Posted by peoplessi

He said that those qualities are due the ENGINE - which is fundementally wrong.

Where did he say that? I see him making a fairly ambiguous statement about the game being "too closely tied to DOOM 3" but I don't see him mentioning the engine at all. I took him to mean that the game was similar to DOOM 3, which it was in a lot of ways (although at least in Prey you could actually see what you were shooting at).

[0marTheZealot]

Prey was a B-grade game hyped as Triple A and sold as such. It's pretty shallow, it's short and it's graphics aren't very good.

As a comparison, HL2 Ep2 took me 5.7 hours to beat according to Steam statistics, Prey took me 5 hours 45 minutes to beat, according to the end game statistics. I rushed through neither game, yet Prey seemed to drag, especially near the end. Ep2 had much better exposition, much better pacing and finally a much better value. Prey was a single game that was nothing more than a diversion for a week; the Orange Box is 3 games with staying power in mods and multiplayer.

[madhatter man]

I was not refering to the engine at all, i just told you why prey and doom 3 are so similar. Some people just like to make up stuff to make the other person seam wrong when they is right in the first place.

[Joe Siegler]

Uh, to those who think Prey didn't sell well. You're wrong. Sold great. It burnt really REALLY hard very quickly, and fizzled out. It didn't have sustained sales over a long period of time. But to claim it didn't sell well by saying "why Prey didn't sell better" seems wrong to me.

[Neptune]

Exactly how well did Prey sell? I really liked the game, was a bit surprised when all the negative press started rolling after release. I'm still a bit baffled at gamespots score, but, eh, I never really agreed with any of their reviews?

[Joe Siegler]

It sold like gangbusters the first month or two. I don't have the numbers here at home, but it sold probably a lot more than you think if you have to ask a question like that.

[naddie]

I bet it sold well upon release. Lots of sales at the time, and the hype from all the magazine previews. I bought a few games like that and ended up disapointed (like the Matrix game, which was hyped up to be good because the people who did the movie also help make the game).

Prey had BOTH a 3DRealms name, and also for people inthe know, it was a game that was announced around 98. I remember tech demos of the Prey engine with the portals and the destructable enviroments. People also know of 3DR for Duke and max payne, so Prey would have flown off the shelves upon release.

Why no staying power? Because of replay value is almost non-existant. Save for the gravity, the abilty to walk upside down, chage gravity, etc... it's just your basic shooter. I enjoyed some of the puzzles, but multiplayer is very boring since it doesn't offer any compelling gameplay (I told ya team deathmatch and classic deathmatch wasn't enough).

Also, I remember people saying "there will be mods that will make it fun". As I said before, if it wasn't FUN to begin with (without any mods), no one will go back to it. Once I beaten the game and played the mutli player mode (v1.0), I uninstalled it. When the new content patch came out, I never bothered to reinstall the game and patch it to see what's new because I didn't want to go through the trouble of installing the game again and patch it. Afterall, according to the patch, it only added new skins and a few maps. No new gameplay or modes, so I decided to leave it alone.

I stressed this before, so I hope George will listen: more multi-player gametypes for DNF, please.

[oak man]

Originally Posted by Laser Eyes

I was watching the bonus features that came with the Special Edition DVD of Mulan and it suddenly struck me why Prey was not more successful. The makers of Mulan talked about how they struggled to find the right kind of heroine for their movie. Here are a few quotes from the DVD.



Everybody likes Mulan. She's a great character and the film was very successful.

On the other hand what is there to like about Tommy? The fact is Tommy is an unhappy, selfish jerk who cares only about himself. Far from empathising with him we end up disliking him and who can blame us? It's just my opinion but I think that having a selfish jerk for a hero is the biggest reason Prey didn't sell better.

Pfft! Haha! We're talkin' about two completely different forms of media!

1. Prey is a game, Mulan is a movie.
2. Personally I didn't think Mulan was a very good movie. In fact I hated it.... Oh! But that's just my opinion...
3. Prey didn't sell well? What?! let's see some charts and graphs!
4. Tommy isn't selfish at all, as stated somewhere above, Tommy put Jen before himself!

[madhatter man]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

It sold like gangbusters the first month or two. I don't have the numbers here at home, but it sold probably a lot more than you think if you have to ask a question like that.

We talking world of warcraft great?

[Remvaras]

Prey didn't make sustained sales and didn't become a staple in the industry because Prey wasn't polished in it's execution.

WARNING – Long post incoming, skip to the end if you're impatient.

From my point of view, and I may be completely off the mark, Prey feels like a game that was made. There were a few good ideas, but the team was just going through the motions of making a game. Puzzles, some textures, some weapons, hey, what else does a game need?

The Orange Box was not made, The Orange Box was engineered. There's something going on in the studio that focuses on entertaining games, how else can you justify 3 terrific and uniquely focused titles coming out at nearly the same time?

If you guys haven't done so, check out the commentary that came with The Orange Box.

There is definitely something to be said about video game engineering as opposed to video game making. Look at World of Warcraft, while I dislike the game, I can recognize that each element was carefully examined then put together by the organized team at blizzard.

I play Vanguard, a game which I feel is better conceptually then World of Warcraft. However, it isn't engineered. It's loaded with bugs and mechanics that are not in the least bit thought out. It's genius and wonderful, but it's a thrown together mess.

Final point for anyone who actually reads these long posts.

An unpolished game can be good, but it's never going to sell as well as a engineered game that everyone can really enjoy.

[avatar_58]

Originally Posted by madhatter man

We talking world of warcraft great?

Nothing on the PC is WOW great, and frankly there probably never will be for some time. (Sales wise of course, not quality)

[0marTheZealot]

Originally Posted by Remvaras

Prey didn't make sustained sales and didn't become a staple in the industry because Prey wasn't polished in it's execution.

WARNING – Long post incoming, skip to the end if you're impatient.

From my point of view, and I may be completely off the mark, Prey feels like a game that was made. There were a few good ideas, but the team was just going through the motions of making a game. Puzzles, some textures, some weapons, hey, what else does a game need?

The Orange Box was not made, The Orange Box was engineered. There's something going on in the studio that focuses on entertaining games, how else can you justify 3 terrific and uniquely focused titles coming out at nearly the same time?

If you guys haven't done so, check out the commentary that came with The Orange Box.

There is definitely something to be said about video game engineering as opposed to video game making. Look at World of Warcraft, while I dislike the game, I can recognize that each element was carefully examined then put together by the organized team at blizzard.

I play Vanguard, a game which I feel is better conceptually then World of Warcraft. However, it isn't engineered. It's loaded with bugs and mechanics that are not in the least bit thought out. It's genius and wonderful, but it's a thrown together mess.

Final point for anyone who actually reads these long posts.

An unpolished game can be good, but it's never going to sell as well as a engineered game that everyone can really enjoy.

That's because Valve is on a whole nother plane compared to 3DR or HH. Easily the best developer on the market. Studios struggle to put out one decent game a year, Valve has put out 6 games of the best quality in the last 3 years (2004 - HL2, 2006- Ep1, 2007 - Orange Box).

[Damien_Azreal]

Honestly... I don't care how well it sold.

I have my copy, I love the game and play it often... that's all that matters to me.

[ultra tree 85!]

Originally Posted by Neptune

Exactly how well did Prey sell? I really liked the game, was a bit surprised when all the negative press started rolling after release. I'm still a bit baffled at gamespots score, but, eh, I never really agreed with any of their reviews?

Scott said on a podcast in late 2006 that Prey(PC and Xbox 360 versions combined) sold a million copies in the first two months, and he thought that it would get up to 1.5 million.

[Laser Eyes]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

Uh, to those who think Prey didn't sell well. You're wrong. Sold great. It burnt really REALLY hard very quickly, and fizzled out. It didn't have sustained sales over a long period of time. But to claim it didn't sell well by saying "why Prey didn't sell better" seems wrong to me.

Why is it that I've never heard anyone outside of 3D Realms claim that Prey sold well?

[Talos]

Originally Posted by Laser Eyes

Why is it that I've never heard anyone outside of 3D Realms claim that Prey sold well?

Actually I've never heard anyone outside of 3D Realms claim it DIDN'T Sell well?! It's just you who said that without any proof of whatsovever

[Laser Eyes]

Originally Posted by TaloS

Actually I've never heard anyone outside of 3D Realms claim it DIDN'T Sell well?! It's just you who said that without any proof of whatsovever

Does it require proof that a game didn't sell well? Isn't that kind of the default setting in the absence of real evidence to the contrary?

And you cleverly avoided answering my question.

[avatar_58]

Originally Posted by Laser Eyes

Does it require proof that a game didn't sell well? Isn't that kind of the default setting in the absence of real evidence to the contrary?

And you cleverly avoided answering my question.

Burden of proof is on the one making the claim. You claimed the game did not sell well, while it's creators think it sold well enough to warrant a sequel. Therefore it's up to you to prove they are lying, logically.

I didn't know that selling 1 million copies equal didn't sell very well:
Source

[Laser Eyes]

Originally Posted by Karthik

I didn't know that selling 1 million copies equal didn't sell very well:
Source

Companies have an interest in talking up their own products. It's common in business. Forgive me if I don't consider quotes from 3D Realms insiders as the most reliable of sources.

When games sell well everyone usually knows it and authoritative statements on sales are easy to find. My point stands - I have never heard anyone outside of 3D Realms claim that Prey sold well.

[wayskobfssae]

Originally Posted by Laser Eyes

I was watching the bonus features that came with the Special Edition DVD of Mulan and it suddenly struck me why Prey was not more successful. The makers of Mulan talked about how they struggled to find the right kind of heroine for their movie....

....Everybody likes Mulan. She's a great character and the film was very successful.

On the other hand what is there to like about Tommy? The fact is Tommy is an unhappy, selfish jerk who cares only about himself. Far from empathising with him we end up disliking him and who can blame us? It's just my opinion but I think that having a selfish jerk for a hero is the biggest reason Prey didn't sell better.

I don't think Tommy's character had anything to do with how well the game did. I had been following Prey somewhat closely since I lurk around 3DR often enough waiting for the big "Forever" but I had no clue whatsoever that Tommy was feeling less than complete, and I doubt the average gamer did either. How many people in a shop pick up a box and go "ohh, this guy sounds emo. I'm not gonna buy this" ?

I was intrigued by Tommy's story the moment he started talking into the mirror. And as far as comparing him to Mulan, suggesting that Tommy should have to be a Cherokee who is proud of his heritage and happy with his surroundings just doesn't make any sense to me. Stories are driven by conflict that must be brought to a resolution. Yeah it's true that we could just have an alien invasion to serve as our conflict, but there's no logical reason it needs to stop there. Had Tommy been fashioned after Mulan, he would've been holding all the cards from the very beginning. I find the idea of a Hero who has to grow beyond himself in order to accomplish his goals a lot more interesting. I also really loved how Tommy gradually discovered the power of the Cherokee as I went through the game, because I was just as mind-boggled as he was. The mysterious "path of self-discovery" was one of the things that made the story so cool.

Ok maybe this is a bad example, because I've known many people call him whiney, but does everyone hate Luke Skywalker? He's in a very similar situation as Tommy when he gets started and has to go through a number of the same trials. All he knows is that he hates his boring life as a moisture farmer and then he suddenly gets sucked into a civil war. And then he's not just dealing with Empire itself. He also has to open himself up to a unknown spiritual world that he's biologically bound to, and also come to grips with his family history. This is bad storytelling?!

Originally Posted by Karthik

I didn't know that selling 1 million copies equal didn't sell very well:
Source

If 3DR says it, doesn't that simply mean that 1 million copies got sold to stores? Does that say anything about how well the stores were able to sell them?

Originally Posted by Remvaras

There is definitely something to be said about video game engineering as opposed to video game making. Look at World of Warcraft, while I dislike the game, I can recognize that each element was carefully examined then put together by the organized team at blizzard.

WoW's breathtaking success rests on two things and two things only.

1. Kickass marketing. (How many game companies have the luxury of controlling not only the game itself, but also the advertising and distribution of the game?)

2. Asian servers. (from what I've heard, China makes up more than half of WoW's subscribers. practically no other MMO has even had the option of doing this)

[madhatter man]

Hitting the one million mark on a game is like hitting episode 50 of a TV series.