OT = How Does Shrapnel Stay In Business

[klausD]

Hi Richard!
May I ask you how many pieces of SE4 Shrapnel has sold? Or is this number a secret?
Thanks very much for the info.
bye
KlausD

[Crazy_Dog]

read this forum all days and post only one or two times a month.....

[Baron Munchausen]

Kinda silly that a simple figure like number of games sold would be a secret, isn't it? I wonder what advantage the companies think they get by concealing this? After all, with music and books it's a point of pride to count how many units are sold and be ranked in the industry lists.

[evader]

you forget people like me who check out the forum but seldom post

[Kloug]

We are here,
I look & listen...as a SEII Veteran I hear what is going on.
Everyday I check in on these Boards & follow the concerns, gripes & such.
The ELDERS are listening....

'He who says the least says the most'

[disabled]

MM made a tongue-in-cheek reference to an RPG they are planning and a few hints at an SE4 Expansion Pack.

Hey Richard, What ever happen to my application with you guys?

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HADRIAN AVENTINE
pacea@solar-outpost.com
http://www.hyperionbase.com

[Richard]

We don't have any contract art work available right now.

Our work comes and goes as games come and go..

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Sarge is coming...

Richard Arnesen
Director of Covert Ops
Shrapnel Games
http://www.shrapnelgames.com

[Instar]

Shrapnel does a wonderful job, in my opinion. They've been really supportive, with a lot of stuff. They give feedback if necessary, which is better than some other companies (It took me WEEKS to get any kind of answer from Blizzard, about my CD key that was for junk, making my copy of StarCraft worthless)

[Atrocities]

Something similar happened to me too with StarCraft. I could not play SC for nearly 6 weeks until Blizzard sent me a new game. I had to send them my old copy though before they would send me a replacement. (The disk was chipped, and the store would not take it back.)

Yes, Shrapnel has done a great job keeping the customers happy, even the rude "one" a few months ago.

I must admit, SE IV has proven to be quite the addiction. I do sincerely hope that an expansion pack (free or not) comes out soon. Or for that matter, info on SEV.

Aaron has his foot in the gaming world’s door now, and getting support ($) to develop other games should not be a problem for him. (Should not be)

The only other site that I have ever stayed this long at, was a trek site devoted to BOTF, that kinda sorta got off topic and became a all in one trek site. It fell apart in June of Last year shortly after Armada was released. The guy that owned the forum could not keep up with the cost of running it, and had to shut it down. That is why I asked about Shrapnel. I would hate to see that happen here, and would hope that I am not alone in that feeling. (Good to know that I am not )

Again, thanks Richard for the feed back and Aaron for such an addictive game.



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"We've made too many compromises already, too many retreats! They invade our space and we fall back -- they assimilate entire worlds and we fall back! Not again! The line must be drawn here -- this far, no further! And I will make them pay for what they've done!" -- Captain Picard STNG
New Age Ship Yards

[Saxon]

A few months back there was a article in PC Gamer called “Where does your gaming buck go” or something like that. It broke down all the costs of a game and why we pay what we pay. One of Shrapnel’s secrets is that they don’t pay a lot of those costs. For example, I paid about the same for SE4 and Armies of Armageddon that I would pay for two games in a game shop. However, Shrapnel didn’t spend big bucks on advertisements or stands at that big gaming convention. 3D accelerated graphics are not something one associates with Shrapnel, which is another production cost cutting. Also, they don’t pay distribution costs, those get covered by the shipping fee we paid getting the games.

All this means that they can survive doing the good work they do on much lower volumes of sales than Blizzard does. Given that they share the same philosophy of games that I do and that they have playable games, I think it is a good model of business and one I am happy to support.

PS I get the British and American Versions of PC games and I don’t remember which one the article was in. Sorry.