uzivatel wrote:
I believe Microsoft does not want to flood
XBLA with games, since that could hurt sales ... if they have to
choose, I see why they do not choose games like DoDonPachi
- its not well known franchise (unlike Castlevania, Sonic, Ikaruga, ...)
- its not classic game people would buy out of nostalgia (TNMT, Double Dragon, ...)
- its not accessible to casual gamers (remember all the people complaining about Omega 5?)
- its not very good looking game (yes, it does matter if you are trying to sell game to crowds)
I cant imagine anyone on my friendslist buying Cave game and if I buy this minicompilation myself, it would be only to support the genre. (I hope Triggerheart Exelica sold well, because I would love to see games like Under Defeat on XBLA)
I dont think MS thinks they would be flooding the market. You either love or hate shmups. There is no middle ground. The die-hard fans would buy 15 great shmups if they hit the marketplace. Then you have those who simply buy games for this virtual ego called gamerscore. So you have 2 groups of people who would be buying games. The direction of technology is moving online and if not now, in the forseeable future The only cool thing i can see about a disc release is for those who like to collect or to have a phsyical copy (booklet, dvd (maybe) artwork)).
Its not a well-known franchise to people who do not play shmups. If you took a poll amongst above-average shmup players and the top of the crop I guarantee you ikaruga and dondonpachi would have similiar numbers concerning familiarity (played, word of mouth etc).
Look at it this way: THE made it to the XBLA and donpachi series is way better than THE as is Ikaruga as is Batsugun as is border down as is gigawing and on and on. I dont know what makes those games any different. I think at the moment, MS is out of touch with the digital market place and are looking to make M$ or put out crappy games. Pick your poison.
I can think of a few games on xbla that werent really great looking and have sold well.
Also where did you hear that Raiden will be region free? Cause as far ive read its up to the publiser and being the game is coming from japan is most likely gonig to be ntsc-j.
Why wouldnt you buy a shmup? if you're a true fan of the genre i would expect just about everyone to buy the game, regardless of it being on a disc, in a seashell or ontop of a mountain.
Maybe if your friends are playing FPS then ya i could see them not wanting to buy a shmup. Again, shmup circles arent that big, but the following itself is rather large and devote.
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