Why not give away a DVD of Das Boot with each copy of SHV?

[TDK1044]

I think you might be surprised. 5 years ago I would have agreed with you, but we live in a different era now. Marketing is changing drastically, and I think a good WWII movie is much more interesting to mister casual gamer than a doccy. You're right though. It won't actually happen.

[oscar19681]

What if you allready have the normal version , the directors cut and das boot the original uncut version? Should i pay 52 euro,s as well then? And any true subsimmer should be ashammed not already having any of the das boot version already in the first place!!!!

[Jimbuna]

Then two sales options, one with and one without, perhaps

[Gezoes]

I like it!

Originally Posted by jimbuna

Then two sales options, one with and one without, perhaps

Even better! I'm sure a lot of people will go for it anyway

[TDK1044]

I guess I'm hoping Ubisoft thinks 'out of the box' (if you'll pardon the pun) for once. It's no big deal to Tri-Star/Columbia pictures. They already have multiple versions of the movie pressed. If Ubisoft offered them a half decent deal then there's no reason not to do it. All they'd have to do is ship the DVDs. The movie is more than 20 years old, so I can't imagine that actor residuals are a problem. They just need to push for it.

This all takes me back to 1977, when a friend of mine in London had a great idea for a TV show that everyone told him would never get off the ground because the Agents representing the actors would never allow it because it would make their clients look bad.

The show was called 'It'll Be Alright On The Night', and it was the first ever out take show. It went on to be one of the most successful British TV shows ever. Paul wisely protected his idea, and to this day, any TV company anywhere in the world (starting with the US show Bloopers back in 1982) that wants to make an out take show has to pay him a facility fee.

I've lost count of how many millions he's worth now because of an idea he wrote down on a napkin in the London Weekend TV cafeteria back in 1977.

So come on, Ubi, if you want to increase your sales for the Silent Hunter series, come up with a better idea than this one and make it happen.

[Rapt0r56]

Then two sales options, one with and one without, perhaps

Nice idea, so we bring people the same one quite realistic and believable film to watch closely, but I would personally like it better when a released a kind of an Collecter edition of Silent Hunter 5. With maybe a Captain's Hat, or Knight's Cross.

[DigitalAura]

I think that's a brilliant tied-product marketing campaign. Very plausible. (I'm a Marketing major).

[FIREWALL]

I want something that can really happen.

A cheap plastic AOB/Wiz wheel is something we really might get if we all ask for it.

Or waste their and our time with some dream stuff and get nothing.

[JScones]

Originally Posted by TDK1044

It's no big deal to Tri-Star/Columbia pictures. They already have multiple versions of the movie pressed. If Ubisoft offered them a half decent deal then there's no reason not to do it. All they'd have to do is ship the DVDs. The movie is more than 20 years old, so I can't imagine that actor residuals are a problem. They just need to push for it.

No big deal to Sony Pictures (the entity that would make such decisions)? Essentially you are suggesting that they enter a deal with an unrelated and unestablished product. They have a lot to risk, not least reputation. Besides, what would they get out of the deal, remembering that they are a corporate organisation that exists solely for profit and appeasing their shareholders, and SH5 has no connection with any of their products.

Frankly, just because the subject of both is the same doesn't make it a good match. What such a coupling does is imply to the market that you are trying to capture that SH5 is a video game version of Das Boot, the movie, with the same level of "action and excitement" and characters...so imagine the potential outcry when said buyer finds himself sailing empty seas for hours on end (and with no Johann). I doubt Ubisoft would want to set themselves up for that kind of reaction. And I doubt Sony Pictures would be keen to promote such a very tenuous connection either; they get no return at all for taking on such risk.

This is besides the obvious licensing, production and logistical issues that would have to be addressed. Even a more logical approach of striking a deal with Sony to include a "$5 off Das Boot" voucher makes no business sense for either entity, when you consider market size and potential return on investment.

IMHO Ubisoft has this market sussed out well - offer a standard AU$89.95 priced package as well as a fancy AU$129.95 deluxe package for the more "hard core" players. Ubisoft realises that most of us will buy both, or at least the deluxe edition. By taking this approach they, in very simplistic terms (just to be clear to those marketing strategists that I am being simplistic) double, or at least increase, sales just through milking the same core market.

Hands up everyone that has two copies of SH4.

With this strategy in mind, why would they need all the other hassles?

The real question then becomes, how can they milk the core market more by enticing them to buy the fancier edition?

Someone mentioned including a U-boat Badge. Cost price $10. IMHO a nice incentive for the "should I/shouldn't I" crowd. A DVD including public domain footage and "making of" type documentary grabs a few more. Add a whiz wheel and you've got the hardcorers by the nuts. Charge $40 more for $20 more of product, and there's your obvious strategy.

[Rosencrantz]

Das Boot? I thought everyone have it already...


Greetings,
-RC-

[JU_88]

Originally Posted by JScones

No big deal to Sony Pictures (the entity that would make such decisions)? Essentially you are suggesting that they enter a deal with an unrelated and unestablished product. They have a lot to risk, not least reputation. Besides, what would they get out of the deal, remembering that they are a corporate organisation that exists solely for profit and appeasing their shareholders, and SH5 has no connection with any of their products.

Frankly, just because the subject of both is the same doesn't make it a good match. What such a coupling does is imply to the market that you are trying to capture that SH5 is a video game version of Das Boot, the movie, with the same level of "action and excitement" and characters...so imagine the potential outcry when said buyer finds himself sailing empty seas for hours on end (and with no Johann). I doubt Ubisoft would want to set themselves up for that kind of reaction. And I doubt Sony Pictures would be keen to promote such a very tenuous connection either; they get no return at all for taking on such risk.

This is besides the obvious licensing, production and logistical issues that would have to be addressed. Even a more logical approach of striking a deal with Sony to include a "$5 off Das Boot" voucher makes no business sense for either entity, when you consider market size and potential return on investment.

IMHO Ubisoft has this market sussed out well - offer a standard AU$89.95 priced package as well as a fancy AU$129.95 deluxe package for the more "hard core" players. Ubisoft realises that most of us will buy both, or at least the deluxe edition. By taking this approach they, in very simplistic terms (just to be clear to those marketing strategists that I am being simplistic) double, or at least increase, sales just through milking the same core market.

Hands up everyone that has two copies of SH4.

With this strategy in mind, why would they need all the other hassles?

The real question then becomes, how can they milk the core market more by enticing them to buy the fancier edition?

Someone mentioned including a U-boat Badge. Cost price $10. IMHO a nice incentive for the "should I/shouldn't I" crowd. A DVD including public domain footage and "making of" type documentary grabs a few more. Add a whiz wheel and you've got the hardcorers by the nuts. Charge $40 more for $20 more of product, and there's your obvious strategy.

I gotta say that I agree with 'Scones' sceptism here, if a game/movie combo deal made any kind financial sense, i reckon it would have done a million times over by now- especially with Movie Licence games, i.e. - like Batman vengence being bundled with batman Arkam asylum, its same subject matter but not the same thing.

Im certainly not against the idea, i just dont see it happening...

Another set back is that being 80s flick - Das Boot is a movie that just about everyone has already seen, its been of TV like a zillion times...
This is especially true of us hard core Uboat fanatics here; hands up if you dont own or haven seen Das Boot?
...yet we would be the target audiance for this combo package...
Speaking for myself, i already have the DVD and I'm not sure that I would want to pay for a second copy.

[TDK1044]

Originally Posted by oscar19681

What if you allready have the normal version , the directors cut and das boot the original uncut version? Should i pay 52 euro,s as well then? And any true subsimmer should be ashammed not already having any of the das boot version already in the first place!!!!

You completely miss the point. It's not about subsimmers who represent less than ten percent of total sales....they are a done deal... it's about attracting the other ninety percent to the game and improving that total number.

Members of this Forum and the other subsim Forums are a known quantity. They are all going to buy the game. Some of them will then moan and complain because ideas they wanted in the game are not in the game, and the modders will address some of those issues in the year after release. Been there. Seen it. Have the T shirt.

But in order for the franchise to continue, we need the casual gamer sales to be higher than they have ever been. That's what Ubisoft is looking for. Many of those folks may not have even heard of the Silent Hunter series, but if they see Silent Hunter V being sold with a free movie, that they also may not have seen but which looks good, then the package might interest them.

[FIREWALL]

Screw the other 90%. I'd rather have a Whiz Wheel.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

Screw the other 90%. I'd rather have a Whiz Wheel.

+1

[longam]

action figure