Rome II beating Shogun 2 launch

[daniu]

What you need to be considering before you decide to call Rome 2 a success/failure was whether or not it achieved the sales/player retention it was capable of given it's pedigree and marketing hype, not comparing it to a much smaller title.

Yes, let's do all the analysis not against numbers we have, but against some imaginary ones that we make up freely to fit into our a priori "Rome II is a failure" result.

[alhoon]

That's a very interesting point. While I believe that Attila is clearly the more polished game with better game play and features, the story of the campaign itself is sorta one dimensional and barring significant DLC then it may actually become boring after a while, especially since you only have with Romans, Germans, the Huns, and one Persian faction to choose from.

In general more people love the period of Rome 2 and the game has over thirty playable factions from various different cultures so...I can imagine why people are still playing it.

Personally, I play R2TW because I wait for the "woops patch!" period of 3 months to pass. I pre-ordered Attila knowing that I wouldn't play it for months.

[Tim_Ward]

Yes, let's do all the analysis not against numbers we have, but against some imaginary ones that we make up freely to fit into our a priori "Rome II is a failure" result.

Why would do you an analysis with numbers just because you have them, when you no those numbers present an complete picture? Is it just to fit into some kind of, I don't know, a priori "Rome 2 is good actually" result?

[Tim_Ward]

I pre-ordered Attila knowing that I wouldn't play it for months.

It's not for me to tell you how to spend your money I know, but... why would you do that?

[alhoon]

To show my support for CA. I was impressed after they went out on a limb to give a campaign map editing tool for S2TW. So I pre-ordered R2TW knowing it will be buggy. It wasn't that bad. But CA worked and worked and worked on it and made it very good. So, to show my continued support, I pre-ordered Attila.

I installed it, played a custom battle, said "cool stuff" and uninstalled it. I didn't check the campaign at all, but I expect severe balance issues there. Then, I got stuck in lots of work while I have the chance to finally finish a campaign before a new patch comes out and makes my mods not save-compatible.
If by the time the announce a new game, I'm as satisfied with CA's efforts and with ATW as I was when Attila was announced, I'll pre-order the next one.

[Tim_Ward]

To show my support for CA. I was impressed after they went out on a limb to give a campaign map editing tool for S2TW. So I pre-ordered R2TW knowing it will be buggy. It wasn't that bad. But CA worked and worked and worked on it and made it very good. So, to show my continued support, I pre-ordered Attila.

I installed it, played a custom battle, said "cool stuff" and uninstalled it. I didn't check the campaign at all, but I expect severe balance issues there. Then, I got stuck in lots of work while I have the chance to finally finish a campaign before a new patch comes out and makes my mods not save-compatible.
If by the time the announce a new game, I'm as satisfied with CA's efforts and with ATW as I was when Attila was announced, I'll pre-order the next one.

Well, if you want to support CA that's 100% your decision. I don't share your opinions on the current state of Rome 2, but that's by the by.

However, I reckon you're showing just as much support for CA by buying the game on release day or, better, in the days or weeks after the release. Basically, so long as you pay full price you're supporting the developer as much as you can. By pre-ordering, you're perpetuating an unsustainable and anti-consumer pre-order driven business model, which is the cause of like pre-order exclusive DLCs. And it's not doing developers any favours, because like that doesn't come from them it comes from retailers and to a lesser extent publishers. Consider this 2013 statement from Koch Media, the publishers of Metro: Last Light, about the controversy of over making Ranger Mode pre-order DLC:

"Game makers and publishers now live in a world where offering game content as a pre-order exclusive is a requirement by retail, and Ranger Mode seemed like the best choice since it was a mode for hardcore fans who would most likely pre-order the game, or purchase it at launch in any case," he says. "We rejected requests to make story content or additional missions exclusive. We also rejected requests to make this a timed exclusive."

Basically, retailers apply pressure to developers and publishers (pressure as in, "do this or we won't stock your game") to chop games in to bits in order to incentivize pre-orders. Stop pre-ordering, and they'll stop doing it.

[alQamar]

There are more people playing Rome II right now than played Shogun 2 when it launched! Not bad for a game which, according to certain people here, is dead/failed.


(Yes, I realise that Rome II is free-to-play this weekend, which has boosted its stats, but it's a phenomenal achievement regardless)

You forgot to point out the essential dear friend , most of the day more people play Rome 2 than Attila, despite it is the content-wise worser game. No hope for human race.
From the feedback of my numerous Steam friends most say they refuse to buy Attila at all because of Rome 2, OR they wait for an official sale, probably including the many DLCs - still those play Rome 2.

Another tiny portion says they are completely fed up and finished up with Total War completely.

[Sir Furlong]

You forgot to point out the essential dear friend , most of the day more people play Rome 2 than Attila, despite it is the content-wise worser game. No hope for human race.
From the feedback of my numerous Steam friends most say they refuse to buy Attila at all because of Rome 2, OR they wait for an official sale, probably including the many DLCs - still those play Rome 2.

Another tiny portion says they are completely fed up and finished up with Total War completely.

You think it's strange that more people play a game that has been out for nearly a year and half - and so has been on sale multiple times - compared to a game that was just released? Especially where Attila could almost just be considered a stand alone expansion (like Napoleon has come to have been viewed). And like you said, many held back from buying Attila on release because of what happened with Rome 2's releasee, myself included, but as Rome 2 is right now it is very playable, and I do intend to get Attila at some point, but for now Rome 2 will do just fine.

[Jamoid]

The game has been fixed up fairly well really, I think most people recognise that now. The complaints are more to do with its launch and SEGA's godawful business practice. I play it regularly both solo and co-op and still find both of those complaints entirely legitimate. Because of that I and most people I know won't be buying Attila until it's patched up and on sale, despite it adding a lot of features I want (features that should have been in Rome 2 but never will be).