Do Developers Affect Game Sales?

A twitter contact of mine recently stated, “does the customer care about the game, the publisher, or the developer? I think the MAJORITY care about the game and nothing else.”

While I think he may be MOSTLY right, there is enough evidence to at least have a lively discussion on the matter. Firstly, I’ll agree that the gibbering masses (those that don’t know or care what video game bloggers have to say… not that they should) probably don’t even KNOW what the major publishers or developers are. They seem to be in a constant mode of title parsing, searching for keywords such as “Halo”, “Call of Duty”, or “[whatever]craft”.

That being said, I’ve run into more than a few people who have bought a console JUST because it’s the latest machine from Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo. Blizzard has been a well known name in gaming, as well. Just look at the buzz surrounding Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3. Granted, these are sequels, but people have come to expect a certain level of polish from Blizzard titles. It should also be noted that EA had made a name for itself by locking up the NFL license.

On the more hardcore side of the market, there can really be no argument that people pay attention to the developer or publisher. Before Gears of War became an Xbox 360 staple, I was hyped mainly because of Epic’s past work on UT and UT2k4. I was also previously familiar with CliffyB as a level designer for the some of the best UT maps.

I am most interested, however, in what YOU the Aeropause reader think? Does the publisher or developer affect your game-buying decisions?

UFO Looks Like An Xbox 360 Controller

In a recent chat about Gears of War 2’s multiplayer features, CliffyB spoke with Computer and Video Games about the similarities between the abundance of buttons and design of game controllers and alien space ships?

“I hope if there’s a new Xbox that there’ll be fewer buttons on the controller,” and “This is purely me speculating in my own realm of game development, but if you look at a controller right now it looks like an alien spaceship,”

Cliff goes on to talk about other ways of making controllers interactive and more intuitive: much like the motion control for the Wii, built-in cameras and, well less buttons in general.

I think Cliffy has a good point there, but I honestly have no issues with the current design of the 360 or PS3 controller - but maybe that’s because I’ve been gaming for almost 3 decades. Maybe that’s one appealing factor to new gamers and the Nintendo Wii: They don’t have to sit there for hours fiddling with a plethora of buttons and triggers just to make it through a stage.

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CliffyB Talks Up Gears of War for the PC

CliffyB, gaming superstar and El Presidente of Epic Games, has been hard at work getting Gears of War up to speed to work for the PC. With some help from Tom and the folks at Gamerscore, we got the chance to hit up Cliffy for a little Q and A. All I have to say is that the guy speaks his mind and made me believe that he still knows that the PC market made the company and has not forgotten that. So hit the jump and read what is going on with Gears of War on the PC from the man himself.

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