[Squirrelloid]

Apparently all games are niche games by Soyweiser's metric. Hell, even WoW is a niche game. Damn, if niches are that big, what's the point of calling things niche games.

Soyweiser, i tip my hat to you, you managed to take all meaning out of the word niche.


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Regarding TBS being niche - yes, X-Com had a hard time of it because squad-level TBS is pretty much dead (no matter how much I'd love to see a good squad-level TBS game personally). Grand Strategy and 4X games, on the other hand, are still the domain of TBS, because its too hard for a person to play such a game run in 'real time' *and* have the game go anywhere. (ie, massive time compression is necessary for there to be any development, and the scope is so large that it just explodes in your face if its on a timer). Basically, once you get to operational level and above, all military games need to be turn based to be playable by people.

Anyway, the proof is in the pudding here. FfH2 is a hugely successful mod in CivIV. It exists because there is no high-quality fantasy civ-like game, and the following for it demonstrates the existence of a large market for a 4X fantasy game. Now someone just needs to release one that people actually know about and is polished, neither of which really describes Dom3. (Heck, I think more people are aware of DF than Dom3...)

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Re: Combat Mission
Yes, critical reviews weren't that great. But it spawned 2 sequels over the course of 4 years. Since the thing companies are really concerned with is sales, that suggests that there is definitely a market out there. That people obviously bought something that the critics didn't like much means either (1) critics are biased against TBS games to the point they can't get a fair review (so critical reception is a worthless metric) or (2) people who want a TBS game are so starved for games that they're willing to buy something even with bad reviews.

I haven't found actual sales figures yet. But 2 sequels does say something.