Quote:
Originally Posted by scrapser
Another way for a company to afford developing a niche market simulation is to be a company that has very healthy sales in other genre's so they don't have to worry so much about the budget. You would think Ubisoft is such a company. I have no idea how their financial infrastructure is set up but I bet it is not along these lines. In any case, it's not uncommon for companies to work this way. For example, RANS is a company that produces homebuilt aircraft kits and on the side they also make recumbent bicycles which is a niche market. They can use the same resources for two entirely different markets. I think it would be even easier for a software development house to do something similar as they are not at all different except for the size of the clientele.
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Totally agree...
i guess the issue with the big guns is that the "side ventures" or the niche games just don't get as much attention if you will than the big games for which there is a demand for. Perfect point in case:
Ubisoft with SH5, Settlers 7 and AC 2, now we all know which ones have got the most attention, ie patches etc, SH5 being a niche game...well, i don't need to go on.
I think sometimes it really is counter-productive, certainly for the end-user (you and me) that when a big(er) company has this type of set-up and caters for sideventures (in this case niche games) well, they just don't get the same level of support, do they?
If a small company picked up the licence for SH6, and that company had purely a Simulation background for instance, and had total focus on the Simulation genre of games, nothing else then i would think that is a big plus.
Of course a good team, the more money the better go hand in hand.