The King of Fighters XIII

[Flabio]

I suspect it performed well enough. Rising Star don't ever expect sales in the 7 figures and don't spend enough on picking up things for release to *need* seven figures.

So yeah, it's not going to touch SF4 or MVC3 for sales in the UK, but Rising Star will have certainly made money on it. The core fighting game community have bought it, I'd say we're looking at 250k?

And now it's cheaper, everyone can enjoy it.

The key is that a game doesn't have to ship 7 million to make money, it just has to balance against costs. In the case of this game, any EU release would've been seen by the deveoper as a bonus so wouldn't be factored into dev costs (the localisation is minimal after all, they've not redone the voices for example). So the costs for the EU release sit entirely on Rising Stat, and their costs are going to not be huge here.

This is actually the kind of game I expect we'll see more and more, games that didn't cost silly money to make, and that target a known but not huge demographic.

[eastyy]

anyone else think the cost for dlc is a bit high ? 400 points for a character just seems a bit much to me

[Paddy]

I suspect it performed well enough. Rising Star don't ever expect sales in the 7 figures and don't spend enough on picking up things for release to *need* seven figures.

So yeah, it's not going to touch SF4 or MVC3 for sales in the UK, but Rising Star will have certainly made money on it. The core fighting game community have bought it, I'd say we're looking at 250k?

And now it's cheaper, everyone can enjoy it.

The key is that a game doesn't have to ship 7 million to make money, it just has to balance against costs. In the case of this game, any EU release would've been seen by the deveoper as a bonus so wouldn't be factored into dev costs (the localisation is minimal after all, they've not redone the voices for example). So the costs for the EU release sit entirely on Rising Stat, and their costs are going to not be huge here.

This is actually the kind of game I expect we'll see more and more, games that didn't cost silly money to make, and that target a known but not huge demographic.

I can only hope so Flabio. It's what keeps me playing with other commitments taking up more of my time recently.

Do wish the games market would slow down a bit. Too many releases for even hardcore fans to keep up with nowadays...

[monel]

I would like to see more low to mid-budget games released, that appeal to older game genres, maybe with a twist. Most of the huge blockbuster games don't really interest me anymore, at all.

[speedlolita]

Well, Skullgirls fits that criteria. There's also Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code 1.07 coming out for PC soon. I wouldn't imagine the Persona fighting game is going to cost an awful lot to develop either.

I currently have no interest in SFxT for example as it looks crappy, UMvC3 holds no interest to me either - although I play it my friend's house.

BlazBlue and Arcana Heart 3 reach these criteria in the UK too I believe - both ?20 on release. Might not be true in Japan, but hey.

The main problem with games with a smaller fanbase is that nobody plays online and if there's no offline scene available to you then there's no easy way to get good at the games.

[Paddy]

Well, Skullgirls fits that criteria. There's also Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code 1.07 coming out for PC soon. I wouldn't imagine the Persona fighting game is going to cost an awful lot to develop either.

I currently have no interest in SFxT for example as it looks crappy, UMvC3 holds no interest to me either - although I play it my friend's house.

BlazBlue and Arcana Heart 3 reach these criteria in the UK too I believe - both ?20 on release. Might not be true in Japan, but hey.

The main problem with games with a smaller fanbase is that nobody plays online and if there's no offline scene available to you then there's no easy way to get good at the games.

Yeah I hear you on that. Not sure whether I feel invested in SFXT depsite the excellent CG promos they put out (shame the game graphics don't reach those levels of quality just yet). I'm sure if the game in't broken and plays well I'll give it a whirl. God knows it has to feel more weighty than UMvC3 which is okay but button mashing friendly.

Give me a more traditional and technical 2D fighter anyday. I could show these whippersnappers true beauty in gaming anytime!

[Shozuki]

seriously guys, wait till try SFxT, its superb. I didnt play a build with the Gem system as this was at EuroGamer Expo, but hot damn its really fun, it basically takes the best parts of Marvel and SF4 which cant be a bad thing!

looking forward to my copy of this though, so is this completely dead online then?

[eastyy]

i enjoyed the melty blood series but really needs a lot of polish now as its looking dated like here is another doujin fighter which is out on xbox 360 now http://youtu.be/-C9dkl-P2gg skull girls looks good but would like a bit more flashy effects to it

[speedlolita]

You can get that Umineko fighter on PC.

Believe me, Melty plays a lot better.

[eastyy]

yeah have that on pc console version has a couple of extra characters though

[monel]

speed, I agree with your earlier post, but I also meant games of other genres made on a lower budget , not just fighters. There are a few on Live I guess, but if you compare gaming to films or music the other fields have alternatives to blockbusters, where the creators spend less and target a certain audience. Online gaming seems to have it's fair share of problems, too. When I used to play a friend at Tekken his connection would screw things up constantly until I just gave up.

[Shoju]

seriously guys, wait till try SFxT, its superb. I didnt play a build with the Gem system as this was at EuroGamer Expo, but hot damn its really fun, it basically takes the best parts of Marvel and SF4 which cant be a bad thing!

Coming off the back of kof 2002UM and now XIII I don't have high expectations for SFxT. I expect it'll compare quite badly to those games. I'll probably still get it at some point though as I'm curious about how it works.

[Flabio]

SFxT sounds like it might be a nice balance between the technical gameplay of SF4 and the silly long combo chain stuff in UMvC3.

That, and a lot of the most vocal people in the fighting game community have already decided it sucks cause of the gems, so there might not be so many stupidly good people playing it online

Soul Calibur 5 is next out anyway...

[Shozuki]

Anyone worried about the Gem system should watch that, you realise they're difficult to use in battle really and dont seem like they'll effect the outcome.

Starts from 4:00

[hudson]

New Patch out for this which focuses on sorting out the online.

The patch notes in full:

• Ranked Match Filtering: One of the most requested additions, players may now set conditions for their opponent's connection. When a player who doesn't meet the standby conditions tries to enter the Ranked match, a warning message will be displayed and the match cancelled.
• Improved Filtering: Filtering functionality in general has seen dramatic improvements. Previously, certain connection data was not filtered sufficiently and the player had a chance of connecting to opponents with poor connection quality. Now, more aggressive filtering should ensure that players are only matched with opponents who meet their filter settings.
• Improved Connection Antenna: The computation behind the players' connection antenna, the meter indicating the quality of a player's connection, has been improved, resulting in a more accurate and consistent measurement.
• Temporarily Saved Custom Match Settings: Players may continue searching for opponents with the same settings as long as the player remains in the PLAYER MATCH/RANKED MATCH menu.
• Character-specific Bug Fixes: "NESTS-Style" Kyo and Iori with the Power of Flames no longer become unresponsive under certain circumstances.
• Additional refinements, fixes, and more.