3D Realms didn't get much money out of me

[Elmurfud]

I got a brand new (not pre-owned) copy of the Prey collector's edition. for $4.99 at my local Gamestop. Somebody misplaced a decimal I think.

And yes I am bragging.

[John]

No thats about right.

Spoiler:

show spoiler

Joking. Or am I?

[Jiminator]

there is no relationship between the money that 3Drealms received vs the money that you paid gamestop, so really you are crowing in the wrong place. but enjoy the game anyway.

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by Jiminator

there is no relationship between the money that 3Drealms received vs the money that you paid gamestop, so really you are crowing in the wrong place. but enjoy the game anyway.

Indeed. Money we made was already made when the store bought the copy. Retail doesn't work that way. At least not generally.

[avatar_58]

Yep. Gamestop pays 3DR - if theres demand they get more copies and then 3DR gets more money. It's not like gamestop sends envelopes of your money to 3DR marked "Prey revenue" or something.

[groovie]

Originally Posted by avatar_58

Yep. Gamestop pays 3DR - if theres demand they get more copies and then 3DR gets more money. It's not like gamestop sends envelopes of your money to 3DR marked "Prey revenue" or something.

Bwahaha! Thats funny.

[Elmurfud]

Well yeah I know how retail works but it seemed funnier then "some pimple faced dweeb couldn't put a price in right on his sticker gun". Plus that wouldn't fit as a title.

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by Elmurfud

Well yeah I know how retail works but it seemed funnier then "some pimple faced dweeb couldn't put a price in right on his sticker gun". Plus that wouldn't fit as a title.

No I don't think so. I think you meant what you said in the first post. You were quite the braggart there. Then you were proven wrong, and tried to back away.

[decay]

I payed $70 for Prey LE the day it came out and still love the game today, i just wish you guys would hurry up with Duke Nukem Forever!! I need more 3drealms goodness!!!

[fast-1]

What about competitions joe.

[Tedades]

Would be funny if Joe would say: "Hey, I got it for free!"


He did get if for free, right?

[madhatter man]

No he had to give a lap dance to get his copy lol. Jk.

[naddie]

Prey is being sold very cheap now. The standard copy is $20 at Best Buy when I was there a few days ago. So maybe some stores are just trying to get rid of inventory (remember the $5 Max Payne 2 for XBOX blow out at an e-retailer a while back?)

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by fast-1

What about competitions joe.

Huh? What are you talking about?

[madhatter man]

I think he means other game companies. I guess.......I dont know......stop staring at me.....>.>................<.<

[fast-1]

I meant if you say read a gaming mag say pc zone and they are giving away free games and i win one i got proof. Yes they sent me i got my name in the mag.

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by fast-1

I meant if you say read a gaming mag say pc zone and they are giving away free games and i win one i got proof. Yes they sent me i got my name in the mag.

Even then we get money, as those magazines have to pay for the privledge of including full games on their DVD's generally.

[Kalki]

Originally Posted by fast-1

I meant if you say read a gaming mag say pc zone and they are giving away free games and i win one i got proof. Yes they sent me i got my name in the mag.

It's possible the magazine got discounted or promotional retail copies of the game to give away in contests. In either case, the costs would likely have been swallowed by the publisher and 3D Realms got their cut.

[Elmurfud]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

No I don't think so. I think you meant what you said in the first post. You were quite the braggart there. Then you were proven wrong, and tried to back away.

Yes of course I meant what I said in my first post. The eronious part was the title of the thread as it is bait to pull people in to read your thread.

Best $5.00 I ever spent. I was ready to spend the $49.99 to get the collectors edition of the game (though I didn't have it at that moment was in there looking for a new power adapter for my wifes GBA).

The game was great... might be a little short but then again not realy it just goes by fast. The animation effects on world compositing and the portal system were 2 of the coolest programming tricks in VG history to date IMHO.
My only complaint is that I fealt the charecter of Tommy needed to have a more rpeasent attitude all through the game. It is a fps and I wouldn't be that silent in that sitituation, his char didn't seem to be the strong silent type either.

And no it hasn't taken me this long to beat it. I didn't have a dvd player till this past thursday... barrowed a external from my cousin to install UT3. To avoid the why don't you have a DVD player flame posts... I am working on that just got to find a deal I like on a drive I like.

[jtthedude87]

I paid $20.00 USD for prey at best buy. Best $20.00 dollars I ever spent. No Joke.
I guess the reason I though it was so cool is because I'm part Cherokee myself and have never played as a Cherokee dude in a video game before. I'll definatley pre order Prey 2 when the time comes. Can't wait!!!

[fast-1]

Originally Posted by jtthedude87

I paid $20.00 USD for prey at best buy. Best $20.00 dollars I ever spent. No Joke.
I guess the reason I though it was so cool is because I'm part Cherokee myself and have never played as a Cherokee dude in a video game before. I'll definatley pre order Prey 2 when the time comes. Can't wait!!!

Do you look like tommy and do you mean your Native American. What I wonder if prices are lowered say near Christmas time then you buy cheaper. Is that just the shop getting less money, So when they order stuff they get the money back from us the shoppers.

[madhatter man]

Prey just wasn't a high demand game, some even can't face that fact still and blame other games.

[Jiminator]

I believe it sold more than a million copies. I am not sure how that can be considered to be a failure.

[Hudson]

Yeah when I think failure I don't think "a million units shipped"

Unless it's, you know, the Zune.

[Elmurfud]

Well if you sell 1 million units @ $50.00 thats 50 million total... say the game had a had a budget 10 mil on the game plus 2.5 mil for advert and promo. That means that they would be in the black even if they were selling it to retailers at $25.00 per unit. However most games budgets are bigger then that these days so that make the profit margin smaller.

I don't know any hard facts on the game... but if the game was a "failure". It was only due to poor marketing, many gamers have never heard of it or know little to nothing about it. I know they ran magazine spots and promo's on various gaming sites. I am sure they sent promo stuff (cardboard cutouts, posters, etc.) to game stores. There was the demo of course. Perhaps they ran TV spots (I never saw any but that means nothing). Bottom line they did all the standard stuff. Unfortunately that really isn't good enough anymore to grab genre attention gamers are spread far and wide and cross mingle to the point that mass marketing is only getting at slices of the demographic and if your slicing into the wrong pie you may not like the taste of things.

Do I think there is any1 to blame for it's failure? No. I think the growing pains the industry is going through are to blame. I think the same shameless gimmickery that made the collectors edition tin idea an industry standard needs to be worked into the marketing program. This is what I like to refer to as the 'oooOOOooo bright shiney object' effect. 1 method is a "highres" cinematic trailer and no prey DID NOT have 1, that cinematic sequence using the game engine and assets doesn't qualify. Think the teaser for SC II or the mini movie for RF online (mmorpg), millions have seen those. Most gammers even those that don't play mmo's knew what rf online was before the game even came out simply cause that sweet vid went around the net like crazy.
Course it helps if when the game comes out that it is actually good.

Bottom line, Prey was good (great IMHO) but not good enough to be it's own ignition source.

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by madhatter man

Prey just wasn't a high demand game, some even can't face that fact still and blame other games.

Oh yes it was. Prey sold like gangbusters when it was first released. What Prey didn't have was sustainable sales over a long period of time. It sold over a million copies in the first month or so (might be two, I don't recall properly at the moment).

It still sells a little now, and "wasn't high demand" would apply now, but we're now 18 months out from it's original release, and that would make sense.

But to say it wasn't a high demand game is not correct.

[peoplessi]

Aren't there some clauses in the contracts between retail and publisher to cover such issues if the game doesn't sell at all? Or does this fall all to the retail who bought the games? I'd imagine there to be something like that in the contracts.

[naddie]

The game wasn't really a hit. I don't know how you guys sold it as well as you say. All of the retails store I went to (and I go to alot) still had lots of them on store shelves when I got mine on day 1 of release! I pre-ordered with full retail price for the LCE, and I was disappointed. The extra figurine didn't make me feel any better, lol.

I live in Chicago, so it's not like a dinky town that doesn't have a lot of hardcore PC gamers (there are many here in Chicago). But no one seemed to care about Prey. I was hoping to be one of those people "in the know" (you know, like listening to an awesome band no one heard of ... yet).

I travel all over Chicago and suburbs (job related), and stop in retail stores on my breaks. Wallmart, Circuit City, Best Buy, Target. Fry's, Microcenter - busy places (especially on weekends and fridays), but every shelf had LCE prey and regular Prey... this from day 1 release to after a couple of months.

I can't help but think that most of the sales came from the console side. I know the pacing of Prey is better suited for a controller (think the slow walking/running like Halo).

[Elmurfud]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

Oh yes it was. Prey sold like gangbusters when it was first released. What Prey didn't have was sustainable sales over a long period of time. It sold over a million copies in the first month or so (might be two, I don't recall properly at the moment).

It still sells a little now, and "wasn't high demand" would apply now, but we're now 18 months out from it's original release, and that would make sense.

But to say it wasn't a high demand game is not correct.

I think the question of high demand or not is mostly one of view points. The game should have sold in excess of 2-5 million copies easy the first month. 1 million world wide isn't a significant release statistic any more. It's more like average. This game was easily above average.

I wouldn't call it low demand myself though by any stretch. I simply think it should have been a higher demand game. When it comes to new IP's this game was on a level with Crysis (though Superior in the simple fact that it didn't require a super computer to play.) Crysis just got better hype.

[Deep-Space Warrior]

I bought Prey 6th April 2007. (I know that, because i keeped the bill) and in the local game shop it costed 46€. Last week i went to the same store, and what did i saw? Game Prey, a lot of copies. And i looked at the price: 40€.
So here, in Slovenia, the price did not sank very much.

For example: games older then one year, usualy sank up to 30€. I know many cases, but Prey didn't. And i think that says much...

[MegaMustaine]

Originally Posted by Elmurfud

Bottom line, Prey was good (great IMHO) but not good enough to be it's own ignition source.

Little late, but I disagree with you. Prey was good enough to ignite its own sales, just as many other games are. The problem with the industry is that sales are not necessarily associated with a quality product. Sure a quality product is part of sales, but marketing is much more important. Take a look at MP2 for example. Wonderful product with poor marketing. I think box art and the screenshots on the back of the box as well as the captions are more important to game sales than the game itself. The problem with MP 2 and Prey is that these two two titles just did not have the packaging to sell them to the general public. While I love the covers for both of these games, they are not good for telling you exactly what the game is about, and exciting someone about the product inside. The screenshots on the back also don't scream buy this game on either product. Last but not least, the captions on the back are not enough to entice buyers. Hell the back of MP2 has the word "Love Story" on the back. A game that says "Love Story" on the middle of the back of the box just doesn't sound that enticing to most people. If I didn't know what these games were about, and didn't see the 3DR on the box I would not have purchased them. End of story.

[Elmurfud]

Originally Posted by MegaMustaine

Little late, but I disagree with you. Prey was good enough to ignite its own sales, just as many other games are. The problem with the industry is that sales are not necessarily associated with a quality product. Sure a quality product is part of sales, but marketing is much more important. Take a look at MP2 for example. Wonderful product with poor marketing. I think box art and the screenshots on the back of the box as well as the captions are more important to game sales than the game itself. The problem with MP 2 and Prey is that these two two titles just did not have the packaging to sell them to the general public. While I love the covers for both of these games, they are not good for telling you exactly what the game is about, and exciting someone about the product inside. The screenshots on the back also don't scream buy this game on either product. Last but not least, the captions on the back are not enough to entice buyers. Hell the back of MP2 has the word "Love Story" on the back. A game that says "Love Story" on the middle of the back of the box just doesn't sound that enticing to most people. If I didn't know what these games were about, and didn't see the 3DR on the box I would not have purchased them. End of story.

I was speaking factually as to what it did, It was not good enough to be it's own ignition source in the current market, not that quality wise I think it wasn't, but simply that it didn't get the job done on it's own.

Every1 I know loved the box art on the CE, as for the normal box I don't know.

Calling MP2 a wonderfull product is a highly subjective viewpoint, it was entertaining, but not that great, it's art noir meets 50's b grade detective film style was a huge turnoff for many gamers. Indeed that was my only beef about the whole series, if it wasn't for the bad dialog in a dark and seedy fashion (the orrigonal b grade films where dark but were laced with bad jokes) I believe it would have done better. One game like that was a novelty 2 became more of a chore.