Tuesday, December 16, 2008

It Ain't Over, Until You Call It Quits

As Commander Peter Quincy Taggart would say,
"Never Give Up! Never Surrender!"

I didn't want to have to come out and post this publicly. I thought about just leaving it as a comment on Brad's previous post, but I wanted to make sure He and all of you would be Quitters saw this.

First off, it is never over until you decide it is. I don't care how bad it looks, what the odds are, what you're going up against, or more importantly how many times you failed. The moment you give up and sell your video game systems, then will this kind of talk be acceptable.

First off, instead of talking about how poorly the game sold, let's examine the poor decision it was for Sega to release this on the PS3. The system is struggling. While the Xbox 360 may not have been the best choice for Japan, all I heard from responses was, "I wish I had a PS3." I'd like to not point fingers, but I think Sega could have planned the game better including advertising and marketing. We are no longer the majority. The kids grew up. The friends I played games with while growing up, don't have the same passions anymore. They have girlfriends, wives, jobs, and quote unquote lives. Young people don't find the same things as interesting as we do. I don't even think they have the same imaginations as we do. I think they've lost that talent.

For those of you who don't have a PS3, I don't want to say you're at fault. Sony released a console that was and still is way too expensive. I'm not sure if I agree with the economy is bad arguement, but it's plausible. But specifically for Brad I ask the question, Would you have paid the price of a PS3 just to play this game? You've been fortunate enough to not have to buy a PS3. Plus, there was a time where you chose to buy a 360 over a PS3, for the games. A valid decision. Straight up, this isn't Metal Gear Solid nor is it Grand Theft Auto. Is Valkyria Chronicles a game that someone would/should pay 460 dollars to play?

If anything this Sony's failure for not getting enough consoles out there into people's hands is more of a deciding factor. To make a console successful, you have to get people to buy it. People have to be interested. It sucks but that's how life is. We can take this experience from the Microsoft/Sony consoles. Sometimes you can make all the right/wrong choices, but still end up on the losing/winning side. It's unfair, no one will argue that. So I ask for everyone to stop the bitching.

As much as we like for something to be popular and be accepted, sometimes it's the rare niche items we treasure the most. They mean the most to us because we're in the select group. While everyone else walks by oblivious, we see something for it's true worth. While that may not be the answer you're looking for, it is something. Don't dismiss it. Pass the word along. Share it with as many people as you can. One by one is how we can make a change.

I can't tell you how we're going to get through this. I can't begin to draw you a diagram or plan the skematics. But I can try to give you hope. I've got an abundance of that. Sometime's I feel that it may even be my curse. Sega has been around a while. They've failed before. They've declined from being a console maker to now just a developer/publisher. But somehow they got back up. I was always worried that they'd just resort to pumping out sonic titles. And yes, they've done that. But with moves they've made this past year, I've never been more excited about what they are doing as I am right now. They've taken the role of the underdog trying to make a difference. There will always be someone rising up to face an seemingly insurmountable challenge.

Wander vs Colossi.
The Fellowship vs The Ring.
Rebel Alliance vs Empire.

That's just how we're built, to fight for what we believe in.
So pick a side.

In case that all wasn't enough....

10 comments:

E. Grey said...

Nicely said, David. Very, very nicely said.

- Skyliner

Anonymous said...

/slow clap

Well said David. Still wish this game had more of a chance that it had.

-dako

Phunk_King said...

There was a moment there where I was reminded of the end of The Matrix when Neo is saying his "I know you're out there" speach ("I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end, I came here to tell you how this is going to begin." and so on).

Anyhow, very nicely articulated. I've sort of ebbed and flowed with the tide of video games since I was a little kid and they still amaze me. I even got my mom interested in playing Okami last weekend while I was visiting her simply due to my enthusiasm for it.

The hope you have may be a curse, and at times a burden but I would rather have that hope than to be hopeless.

Brad said...

There are about 7 million units in North America for PS3.

33,000 is still a fucking joke.

That is 0.4% of Playstation 3 owners who bought this game.

There could be 3, 5, or 10 times the amount of Playstation 3s out there, but there is no changing the fact that people don't want this game. This is the problem. That percentage is pathetic. With that percentage you could give it the North American install base of the Playstation 2 and the sales would still be fucking pathetic.

It's not Sony's fault this time.

This one is on the people.

Chairperson Mao said...

It pissed me off when I heard how low Valkyria Chronicles' sales were.

How the PS3 owners overlooked such a great game and how they were the only ones who could enjoy it.

Inspiring piece of text Mr.Liao.

Adam_Lazzara said...

This is a great post, David. Really made me look at both sides of the argument, while I was clearly only viewing it from one standpoint a few hours ago.

P.S. - Regarding your writing on your friends who more or less have "lives" now, I too have a ton of friends who have grown out of and away from gaming in general...sometimes it makes me wonder if something is wrong with me, considering its still my main hobby to date.

Anonymous said...

Very nice speech, David. Also, nerd references galore make you win so much harder.

Congrats on being awesome.

Still not paying Sony $470 to play Valkyria Chronicles. Maybe after another price drop or two.

Also, Sega has never been one for good marketing. I mean, look at the Dreamcast, which is still and will always be superior.

-Darknezz

Brad said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brad said...

No, I wouldn't buy a PS3 for Valkyria Chronicles. Not just that game at least. Who buys a console for one game?

The point is this is one more AAA exclusive that should push people on the fence to pick one up. No longer are the days where so many more awesome game are coming out on the 360.

There are a ton of current and future reasons why picking up a PS3 is a great choice.

And what's wrong with starting with Valkyria? Better than a lot of the lower tier JRPGs been hitting the 360 over the past couple of years.

First 360 game: Bioshock
First PS2 game: Tekken Tag
First GC game: Metroid Prime
First Xbox game: KotoR
First PS1 game: Dark Forces?
First DS game: Mario 64
First PSP game: Daxter
etc

You got to start somewhere. All of those consoles gave me way way more than the experience I had with my first game.

Michelle said...

The generation coming after you guys, (my generation) are 89% idiots. They like to shoot things and seem them blow up in games in lieu of a great storyline. It is ridiculous and worth fighting against, I agree, but sometimes there are just too many of them.

The only thing we can do now is get in the industry ourselves and shake things up, or hope someone with fresh ideas breathes life into the corpses of overused genres soon.