Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!ucbvax!MACALSTR.EDU!SHBOUM From: SHBOUM@MACALSTR.EDU Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: Your Ultima Quote Message-ID: <82A0491E19FF207BB1@MACALSTR.EDU> Date: 29 Apr 91 09:04:00 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 77 Pariko Rao writes in a previous article... > Just out of curiousity... have you bought Dragon Wars GS? Or Immortals GS? > or Cryllan Mission 2088 GS? or Space Ace GS? or Rastan GS (ok, granted, > that ones a little tough to get ahold of). Just out of curiousity, have you ever SEEN any advertisements for these games??? Ummm... well... errr... > Here's a neat little story. Dragon Wars GS has sold around 600 copies > (it was 500 about a month ago, hopefully 100 have been sold by then). > Will harvey is very disappointed with the sales of Immortals GS, I'd expect > it to be around 1000. Even Victory Software hasn't had a smashing success > with Cryllan Mission (the first or second scenarios), and their game is a > Ultima style game. Nor has space Ace GS done well. Taito dumped all their > computer games, so they're sorta irrelevent. Yea I *do* know the sales are lagging, and that our market has diminished in size compared to IBM, or even *gasp* C-64, but there's another side to the equation here. Advertisement. If we, the IIGS owners do not know about a product that has been produced, who's going to buy it? How often do you see EA pushing a product *in* Incider? Or mail out a news bulletin to all the Apple II owners of EA products - if the Incider method was too expensive. Even right after they produced the Immortal and the Dragon Wars GS, they still did not do anything. Not only that, they make no attempt to have their distributers put them in their stores - so they get even less exposure time. When it comes right down to it, chances are the majority of the people who have bought these programs are the IIgs pirates who buy the good software because they are the only ones who know anything about it... And it really seems silly that if these guys are really trying to save the IIgs market that they would not even try to get their product known to all of the few owners that are left... Who are they taking their advertising lessons from? Apple? > The point - all these professed users don't seem to be buying games. > Accolade dumped the IIgs when their game sales didn't even help break > even (TDII, Grand Prix, etc). A lot of the professional users are 8 year old kids who use the IIgs's in school. Many are like us who go to high school/college who are having enough problems finding the cash to get our GS up to a resonable technological level. {i.e. upgrading the stock 256K GS to 2.25 megs with a hard drive and Zip chip} And thats a lot of money for us to be spending on upgrading our system. I don't see Zip Chip or Quality Computers complaining about weak IIgs sales... > above. And as someone said a while back, in 1989 Origin released all > their games on AII format 1st (remember a ton of 128k dblhires games?) > and almost went bankrupt. That sorta thing wakes up a company I guess. Yea, and how many GS owners were thrilled to see games that didn't take advantage of their computer? Gee. Dblehirses - more goofy color bleeds on my RGB monitor. Even some simple graphics mods with an improved sound system would be better! But no, we got the universal AII version... And I bet a lot of the active II market, which is in the IIgs market, held off buying the software because we wanted the IIgs version. Hey, we paid the extra dough for the Graphics and Sound, right? Granted, its a catch 22, but thats what happens... One more comment about software coming out on the AII format first. Its also kinda really silly to come out with the GS upgrade for Dragonwars over 2 years AFTER the AII version comes out. Most IIgs owners who really really wanted the game just picked it up when the price plummeted AND solved the game... So what does it gain for them now to buy a new version when they have already solved it? Overall, yes, Apple IIgs owners should be buying more software. But its up to the companies to GET THEIR PRODUCT KNOWN!!! {Yes, you too Apple!} Otherwise Joe IIgs User, who lives in Florida 300 miles away from ANY software store that sells II wares, and reads Incider isn't going to know diddly about the IIgs software availble. | Hal Bouma | Send mail to: SHBoum@Macalstr.edu | Macalester College | and SHBoum@Macalstr.Bitnet | GEnie: H.Bouma | ".Sig Under Construction..."