CA's Recent Forum Visits, Giveaways, ETW Patch Connected to Weak Software Sales?

A few posters, including me, having been posting occasionally on the business side of NTW/ETW. I'm sure I'll get some "Whut iss this eConimic Total War?!? What a wurthles thread.", but a few of you are interested, so I thought I'd pass this along.

I've posted a couple times that CA's recent presence on the board and their attempt to reach out to the "hardcore" fanbase might be due to weaker than expected pre-sales of NTW. SEGA Sammy released their FY2010 Q3 report on Friday, and there's some evidence to support that conclusion. Namely, Sega reports that software sales outside of Japan (primarily meaning Euorpe and the US) were much weaker than expected over the last quarter.

What does that mean?: it means that CA can't be as optimistic about broadening the market for NTW as they once were. It also means they can't simply assume that their base will buy NTW. In order to shoreup sales, they need to make sure they get the base to buy their games (yeah, this should sound just like politics). Essentially, CA's recent overtures are equivalent to a "Get Out the Vote" drive.

That's not to say that CA are cynics and secretly hate you and only want your money. Rather, it's just an observation on the way that market forces can "encourage" certain forms of good will.

Note: I'm drawing inferences based on Sega's recent publications. For all we know, NTW is doing much better than expected. It's simply a situation where a shift in marketing strategy correlates to a general market slump. However, keep in mind: correlation =/= causation.

http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/i...y/meeting.html

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hmm, surprising, and a bit disappointing as I have enjoyed TW games for years.

Do SEGA get money for the pre-sale yet? I haven't be charged...

Originally Posted by ColdFire

Do SEGA get money for the pre-sale yet? I haven't be charged...

Dunno. Sega's done pretty well over the last year, actually. However, like any business, they're always concerned about developing market conditions, so they'll do whatever they need to do to improve the situation. Also, there's no way to know if they're concerned based on NTW specifically, general market conditions, or if they're concerned at all (but they'd be complete idiots not to be).

Originally Posted by ColdFire

Do SEGA get money for the pre-sale yet? I haven't be charged...

No, but they are counted as future sales.

It would help if ETW wasn't crashing all the time.

Check out steam top sellers in steam store, same thing there no NTW on the list.

Thats what you get for ing around with your fan base.

Originally Posted by Caucasus

Check out steam top sellers in steam store, same thing there no NTW on the list.

Thats what you get for ing around with your fan base.

Lets talk on the day of release lol.
But more seriously, you realize this fanbase is maybe 10,000 people and thats an exagerated amount? Most of their sales come from people who are ignorant of what the internetz thinks.
Also, just pointing out. ETW is still 7nth on the list.

Originally Posted by roy34543

Lets talk on the day of release lol.
But more seriously, you realize this fanbase is maybe 10,000 people and thats an exagerated amount? Most of their sales come from people who are ignorant of what the internetz thinks.
Also, just pointing out. ETW is still 7nth on the list.

10,000 people isn't much of a fanbase. Especially for a company that sold over a million units in the 2009 calendar year. Also, even if they were only targeting 10,000 people, if they can make $25 on avg from those people, that's $250,000, which is a dam good return on a few hours of internet posting, DLC giveaways, etc. Regardless, you're totally missing the bigger picture.

Originally Posted by erasmus777

10,000 people isn't much of a fanbase. Especially for a company that sold over a million units in the 2009 calendar year. Also, even if they were only targeting 10,000 people, if they can make $25 on avg from those people, that's $250,000, which is a dam good return on a few hours of internet posting, DLC giveaways, etc. Regardless, you're totally missing the bigger picture.

Thing is though, you never really know which of those fans "will" buy the game irregardless, and which wont.
I agree with you though, It is a fairly good return.

Originally Posted by roy34543

Thing is though, you never really know which of those fans "will" buy the game irregardless, and which wont.
I agree with you though, It is a fairly good return.

True, but there's enough writing on the wall to know when to make an effort. Every ETW owner (at least the ones who still have it installed ) will benefit from the recent patch, whether or not they're reading what's on the innardnets. Plus, go look at the Steam discount thread on the ETW forum where people are saying they might buy ETW for a friend. All of these marketing efforts are intended to have a multiplier effect well beyond the immediate targets.

Originally Posted by roy34543

Lets talk on the day of release lol.
But more seriously, you realize this fanbase is maybe 10,000 people and thats an exagerated amount? Most of their sales come from people who are ignorant of what the internetz thinks.
Also, just pointing out. ETW is still 7nth on the list.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Limited Edition :Available in 3 weeks 2 days 5 hours

Is the current 2nd place best seller on steam.

On 1sth place is Bioshock 2.

Rumour spreads fast. Remember ETW was crashing at the release. And it took them like 5 months to fix it.

Originally Posted by Caucasus

Thats what you get for ing around with your fan base.

Exactly, but it's not great to see just how insincere CA are with their attempt to reconcile themselves with their fans. The evidence would point to that they didn't give a crap that they had lied about ETW and only come to fix things when they realise they've damaged future sales.

Originally Posted by hobopunk

Exactly, but it's not great to see just how insincere CA are with their attempt to reconcile themselves with their fans. The evidence would point to that they didn't give a crap that they had lied about ETW and only come to fix things when they realise they've damaged future sales.

Good observation. A business has an obligation to fix and support whatever product it makes. Most of this negativity and anger by the community could of easily been avoided if CA fixed it's broken product and was forthcoming about it's issues. Now, they have a much bigger obstacle to overcome, and that's fixing a tarnished reputation.

Originally Posted by Caucasus

Check out steam top sellers in steam store, same thing there no NTW on the list.

Thats what you get for ing around with your fan base.

Oh for the love of god, it's not like SEGA and CA were TRYING to fail at Empire TW and get their fanbase to abandon them, gees. IF they don't have the same capacity to make games as they did before then thats fine, but that doesn't mean they are trying to fail

Originally Posted by ccqwert7

Oh for the love of god, it's not like SEGA and CA were TRYING to fail at Empire TW and get their fanbase to abandon them, gees. IF they don't have the same capacity to make games as they did before then thats fine, but that doesn't mean they are trying to fail

yet they seem to be achieving that very thing with each day that passes.

Hehe. Everyone should also note the text in the lower right-hand corner: "Reduction of R&D costs and content production expenses."

That translates to: slashed development budgets and less substantive products. Just in case you were wondering why the DLC has been so awful so far. But it's also a good reminder that CA is driven by budgets and market forces beyond its control.

Originally Posted by erasmus777

A few posters, including me, having been posting occasionally on the business side of NTW/ETW. I'm sure I'll get some "Whut iss this eConimic Total War?!? What a wurthles thread.", but a few of you are interested, so I thought I'd pass this along.

I've posted a couple times that CA's recent presence on the board and their attempt to reach out to the "hardcore" fanbase might be due to weaker than expected pre-sales of NTW. SEGA Sammy released their FY2010 Q3 report on Friday, and there's some evidence to support that conclusion. Namely, Sega reports that software sales outside of Japan (primarily meaning Euorpe and the US) were much weaker than expected over the last quarter.

What does that mean?: it means that CA can't be as optimistic about broadening the market for NTW as they once were. It also means they can't simply assume that their base will buy NTW. In order to shoreup sales, they need to make sure they get the base to buy their games (yeah, this should sound just like politics). Essentially, CA's recent overtures are equivalent to a "Get Out the Vote" drive.

That's not to say that CA are cynics and secretly hate you and only want your money. Rather, it's just an observation on the way that market forces can "encourage" certain forms of good will.

http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/i...y/meeting.html

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It is no coincidence. There's gold in them thar hills!

From a business perspective - I can't say I blame them. However, with each new release of the TW franchise, these types of activities (i.e. Free Stuff, an un-announced patch), will have diminishing returns if the product quality continues to decline.

Will be interesting to see in the coming weeks how this pans out then.

1. NTW is actually as good as they say, we all buy it, and everyone is happy.
2. NTW is not quite as good as they say, sales are lower than expected, hurting revenue.

I am of course hoping for 1, but i must admit that i dont see it happening yet. I'll keep watching this forum for reviews in the weeks after release to gain a better understanding of the title.
If option 2 is the outcome, i pray to whoever is up there that Comical Ali finally understands that his rhetoric sprouting falls on deaf ears, forcing CA to actually make a good game next time.

Since when did anybody think a strategy game like the Totalwars would sell like a mainstream FPS?