rich12545
Posts: 1705
Joined: 10/31/2000 From: Palouse, WA Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: noguaranteeofsanity quote:
ORIGINAL: rich12545 If MG simply stopped supporting Harpoon that would be one thing. But they're not. They're still making patches. If they're still making patches then we should get them. We shouldn't have to pay $35 for future patches to the game. I've never seen that anywhere. For example, Battlefront just came out with a new addon for Shock Force. It included the new patch. Now, Shock Force has been out at least as long as Harpoon CE. I bought the addon. BUT if I hadn't I would have gotten the patch for the base game (for free) and other addons anyway. Battlefront might come out with more patches for the game. Everybody, whether or not they bought any addons, will get the patch (for free). That's the way to do business. You don't charge for future patches. I agree MG gives good service generally. But not this time. So, USS America, don't give me crap about this time. Consider what you have just explained about Battlefront and Shock Force. How do you think Battlefront continue to pay the costs associated with continuing to update the game? By releasing an addon to produce additional income, that would cover the costs. Which is very similar to what Matrix have done, by bundling HCE and ANW, along with other versions of the game, offered at a discount to existing users. You have to realise the financial realities that face Matrix and that they cannot simply continue to support Harpoon without generating any additional income. The alternative is no patches, no updates and development stops. I'd rather purchase the ultimate edition and see the development of Harpoon continue, than see it simply stop altogether. quote:
ORIGINAL: rich12545 I just checked. HCE was released exactly three years ago. Real frankly, in this kind of market, that's way too soon to stop supporting a game. I doubt you will find many games, especially those that cost a lot more than Harpoon with much larger budgets and published by much larger companies such as EA or Activision, that are updated even 1 year after their release. This is even when they usually only publish titles that are guaranteed to have sales in the vicinity of half a million units, yet most have already moved on after a few months and assigned staff to other projects. If you think Matrix could afford to have a programmer working on Harpoon for three years or even indefinitely, with sales figures much lower than that in comparison and without any additional income, you really have no understanding of the reality of the situation and I suggest you remember what Erik Rutins said earlier. quote:
ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins Customers regularly confuse what's possible in terms of pricing and development on mainstream computer games with huge markets and economies of scale that we don't have. Niche markets work differently. When you have a game that has a limited market and is developed with limited funding and a small team (in many cases, just one programmer), it makes a big difference in terms of what you can actually do in a year or two development-wise and how much the game has to cost in order to make it possible for even a single programmer to make a living working on the game full-time. Re Battlefront and Shock Force, you just proved my point. Matrix repackaged Harpoon and added all those old games. This should get them a lot more sales. However they should not force owners to buy this repackage just to get future patches. Battlefront doesn't force owners to buy addons in order to get future patches. MG should simply give those patches for free and not charge for them. When you talk about larger companies like EA or Activision, you're comparing apples to oranges. MG is a smaller niche company and their business plan should be different than those larger companies. It should be geared more toward giving good service and catering to customers because they depend a lot on repeat business. And generally they do. Just not in this case.
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