Malfador Machinations hits Strategy First!

[dogscoff]

As some of you who follow us pretty closely may have already surmised, Malfador Machinations has chosen not to publish Space Empires V with Shrapnel Games, opting instead to publish through Strategy First and go after the retail market. Although we regret Aaron Hall’s decision, we respect his motivation and wish him the best of luck at retail with a niche product. We only hope he makes enough changes in his game to allow for a broader audience. All of us here at Shrapnel Games wish him a great deal of success.

We will continue to sell Space Empires IV Gold and Space Empires: Starfury until current inventories are exhausted. We want to thank everyone who has supported Shrapnel Games and Malfador Machinations with their purchases of these excellent games.

We have grown to love the Space Empires IV forum community and want to extend an invitation to these rowdy, crazy, and somewhat warped individuals. We would like you to stay with us, and to that end, we will install a Space Empires V forum for you to populate and enjoy! You are always welcome at Shrapnel Games.

Thanks to all who made Space Empires IV a roaring success.

Many other companies would have got all sulky about losing Malfador, but this response is mature and generous. I always knew Shrapnel were a great company, but this response really proves it to me.

[ioticus]

We only hope he makes enough changes in his game to allow for a broader audience.

It's those "changes to appeal to a larger audience" that worry me. Broader appeal almost always means better looking but "dumbed down" for the masses.

[Suicide Junkie]

douglas said:I hope the version they put on the shelves includes the latest patch and applies it automatically.

There is no reason to install an old version of SE4, and then patch... Since they're making a whole new batch of CDs it should be quite simple to directly install the latest stuff right off the bat.

[Antonin]

ioticus said:
It's those "changes to appeal to a larger audience" that worry me. Broader appeal almost always means better looking but "dumbed down" for the masses.

This worries me as well. The masses--i.e., the short-attention-span types who like lots of pretty pictures and giant explosions above all else--tend to hate micromanagement options and complex strategies, which are two of the things that, in my humble opinion, make SEIV so great a game.

We shall see what we shall see.

[Atrocities]

I will be one one of the first to buy the game when it hits the shelves. Nothing better than getting a nice box to finally go along with my disk. If it sells well, a lot of folks might becoming here to get info. At least I hope they do as Shrapnel was the publisher of the game for nearly five years and has a treasure trove of info. Besides collaterally speaking, it could generate sales and awareness for shrapnel games.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Antonin said:

This worries me as well. The masses--i.e., the short-attention-span types who like lots of pretty pictures and giant explosions above all else--tend to hate micromanagement options and complex strategies, which are two of the things that, in my humble opinion, make SEIV so great a game.

We shall see what we shall see.

Not everybody wants to do work when their relaxing. Nor does everybody have a head for strategy. I had more, but it was really sarcastic.

[Renegade 13]

Please, do share. I love sarcasm.

[Instar]

"We only hope he makes enough changes in his game to allow for a broader audience"
That statement struck me as very condescending. No offense, but man...

[Phoenix-D]

Instar said:
"We only hope he makes enough changes in his game to allow for a broader audience"
That statement struck me as very condescending. No offense, but man...

Not really. It fits with Shrapnel's general concept of retail as a place mostly for the shiny titles that sell a million copies and appeal mostly to the LCD, with everything else struggling to even break even.

[Wolfman77]

There is a large user base for the SE games, pretty much all will buy SEV regardless if its online or retail. Retail is the way to get the game infront of as many people as posible. I found the SEII demo on a group diskin the late 90's. I now have II,III,and IV, so it does get the game out there. If they don't overspend on advertising, they should do well. as far as the market for the game, civilization (just to name one) is still making new games, so there is most likely a good market for 4x games. as far as the lasting appeal to the geleral gamers, it needs alot of AI improvement over IV. not just for the opponents, but so you can do less micromanaging (if you want to) and have the computer do things apropriately. Bottom line though is, unless they overspend on advertizing the game will make more money going retail.