Oh, My
N'Gai Croal had an interesting interview with Midway Home Entertainment Chief Marketing Officer Steve Allison.What do they call him--the HECMO?
Here's an excerpt from Allison's comments:
In the past several weeks there has been some interesting banter about changing the way games are marketed as we enter the next generation, particularly when it comes to new IP [intellectual property.] But is this really the case? According to our numbers, the actual success rate of new IP over the past four years is just seven percent. In other words, 93 percent of new IP fails in the marketplace. So while the 90-plus review scores and armfuls of awards create the perception that titles like Psychonauts, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami and other great pieces of work were big successes, the truth is that they were big financial disappointments and money losers.
...So with a success rate of less than 10 percent for new IP, it is not the way we market and launch games that needs revisiting in the next generation. No, it is development that needs reflection, refinement and change. It is development that must evolve in all its various facets, from inception to execution. It is the conception and creation of new IP that must be redefined in this new generation so that we can all pull together to beat the 93 percent failure rate--even as we face significantly higher development costs--by reaching a common understanding that the potential success of any game is wholly dependent on three key factors, in the following order of importance: the true commercial power of the game's high level concept, the timing of the game's release, and finally the quality of the game's execution.
So Allison basically has two big headlines here: 93% of new IP "fails," and the quality of a game's execution is less important than the high-level concept and the timing of the game's release.
And that's a real break for him, because Midway couldn't make a good game if it bit them in the ass.
Take a look at their spectacular line-up from 2006 (all PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, Xbox 360, PS3, and PC titles listed in Metacritic's database):
64 Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War
70 NBA Ballers: Phenom (69)
51 Spyhunter: Nowhere to Run (51)
57 Rampage: Total Destruction (51,47)
65 Robotron: 2084
59 MLB Slugfest 2006 (56)
68 Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition
77 Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (75)
52 The Ant Bully (45,47,51)
69 Blitz: The League
69 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
58 Defender
65 Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (63)
49 Happy Feet (46, 42)
You know what those numbers in front (and additional numbers in parentheses) are? They're the average Metacritic review score. In 2006, fifteen out of twenty-seven games with enough reviews to make the Metacritic database had an average score below 60.
Remember, it's not easy to get an average review score under 60--the universal crap factor has to be very high. Yet over half of their titles last year somehow slid under the low bar. That is stunningly poor.
That includes games they developed and/or published, but you can break that data out any way you want and it's awful every time.
2005? Nine out of twenty-six below 60. Again, NONE above 80.
Let's add those up. In 2005 and 2006, Midway published/developed fifty-three games. Twenty-four had an average review score below 60. None had an average review score over 80.
In 2004, though, fully seven out of fourteen games were above 80. And there were NO games below 60. Hell, their worst average review score was 74!
In other words, their worst game in 2004 was rated almost as highly as their best game in 2005 and 2006.
What were some of those games in 2004? The Suffering (new IP). NBA Ballers (new IP). Toss in a Mortal Kombat and a sequel to Shadow Hearts and you've got a decent game company.
Here's one more amusing little fact: Midway has lost money for seven consecutive years. In 2004, though (with all the new IP at presumably a 93% failure rate), they lost $24M on revenues of $161M. In 2005, when their reviews (aka "quality of the game's execution") went into the tank, they lost $112M on $150M in revenue. In 2006, when "parade of garbage" continued, they lost $77M on $165M in revenue.
In other words, original IP and quality execution were the good old days when it comes to Midway's financials.
In 2007, though, Midway is a train wreck when it comes to making games and making money. Miraculously, they were somehow smart enough to distribute Lord of the Rings Online, which for them must be the equivalent of a ten-year old jumping into a swimming pool with a live wire and discovering nuclear fusion.
If there's anyone we shouldn't listen to when it comes to creating, developing, and marketing games, it's Midway. Based on their reviews and their financials, what exactly would they know, anyway?
Why does this matter? Because this interview is getting quite a bit of play. Suddenly, people in the industry will be walking around sniffing "I said original IP wouldn't work last year" and be spending even more time figuring out how to market crap games.
Both of which are very bad for us.
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