Midway defines “the great game”

In the second part of an essay submitted to Outsourced, chief marketing officer of game publisher Midway, Steve Allison began to talk about changes needed in game development, especially in the next generation era. According to him, a game is considered a success if the game itself performs exceptionally well in sales.

In his own words, Allison said, “A great game is one that is a commercial success. Period.” According to him, review scores do not reveal the commercial performance of a game. In fact, he states that consumers “review games with their wallet.” Allison said that creative games tagged at “$ 59 a pop” don’t get to sell a million units unless plenty of people really love the developers’ work.

He mentioned in passing that a game’s sales potential is strongly within the strength of the game’s overall concept and the only difference between the estimate and the final result is the way the game marketing is executed. Probably “picking bones” with game developers and their games that just pass off as visually appealing and realistic, Allison also said:

Sure, your craftsmanship may be amazing. But if your concept is not a powerful and relevant male fantasy, executed in a timely fashion, at a level that delivers on the promise of your core idea, you’ve probably just delivered the videogame equivalent of an art house film.

In the second part of an essay submitted to Outsourced, chief marketing officer of game publisher Midway, Steve Allison began to talk about changes needed in game development, especially in the next generation era. According to him, a game is considered a success if the game itself performs exceptionally well in sales.

In his own words, Allison said, “A great game is one that is a commercial success. Period.” According to him, review scores do not reveal the commercial performance of a game. In fact, he states that consumers “review games with their wallet.” Allison said that creative games tagged at “$ 59 a pop” don’t get to sell a million units unless plenty of people really love the developers’ work.

He mentioned in passing that a game’s sales potential is strongly within the strength of the game’s overall concept and the only difference between the estimate and the final result is the way the game marketing is executed. Probably “picking bones” with game developers and their games that just pass off as visually appealing and realistic, Allison also said:

Sure, your craftsmanship may be amazing. But if your concept is not a powerful and relevant male fantasy, executed in a timely fashion, at a level that delivers on the promise of your core idea, you’ve probably just delivered the videogame equivalent of an art house film.