ORIGINAL: Gregor_SSG
Nice theory of game publishing, but it fails to take into account the difference between the relative and the absolute. The employees of SSG need a certain amount of money each year, just to be able survive and to keep making wargames.
For the record, Korsun Pocket, despite winning awards and stellar reviews, failed this basic test. I was only able to keep working for SSG by subsidising my employment with money from a divorce settlement. This is not a sustainable basis for business!
We have to be realistic about how many copies we are going to sell and that dictates the price we have to charge. The poster who suggested we could sell 40,000 copies with the right pricing was definitely dreaming.
Gregor
Cheers Gregor. But what you're looking for is venture capital, if not benevolent venture capital and it does exist (and I too wish to find it [;)] )
Fear not, myself and many colleagues across a variety of efforts in this hobby feel the same way and I must tell you, the catch cry that war game development is done "for the love of it" continues to wear thin on me.
Of course state of the art AI performance and innovative design does not come at the loss of merely a few hours labour (Aussie spelling for an Aussie).
However, you can't deny the reasonable expectation that by cutting the costs of production, one isn't entitled to expect some flow back to the consumer.
You've just got to look at the issue of increasing volume. Personally, the limited number of scens coupled with an escoteric subject matter, limited the potential of KP. It went so far as you having a confusing battle exacerbated by newbies not even understanding basic NATO iconography.
"Korsun" just didn't logically follow "Bulge" as a well-known campaign in the general war gaming public's eye.
Adam.
