Squirminator2k
9 Apr 2013, 23:01
After being harangued by fans for months since it was added as a preorder bonus for Worms Revolution, Team17 finally made Worms Armageddon a purchasable game on the service last month. It sat in the bottom-end of the Top 100 Games on Steam list for less than a week before dropping off and vanishing entirely. The only way someone would know the game is even purchasable on the service is if they actively went looking for it. And why would they go looking for a 14 year-old game on the service?
It also doesn't help that the system specs are woefully inaccurate, reflecting the requirements for Worms Revolution and not Worms Armageddon. The price point isn't exactly great either, and t's been pointed out that the game can be purchased brand-new for significantly less elsewhere - Amazon, for instance.
Releasing Worms Armageddon on Steam could have been a nice little earner for Team17, but they compeltely mishandled the release. By comparison the release of Worms 2 on GOG.com was far better - it was actually promoted, for a start, and the pricepoint is far more reasonable. How long until Worms Armageddon ends up on GOG.com, I wonder?
But back to Steam. Team17 could do three very simple, very effective things to increase sales of WA on the service:
#1: PROMOTE THE BLOODY THING.
Worms Armageddon was released on the service to no fanfare, no celebration, no nothing besides a couple of tweets and a Facebook post. Meanwhile Age of Empires II HD Edition has a nice splash banner on Steam's front page and is predictably the top-selling game on the service right now. Considering AoE2 and WA are both fairly successful PC titles that hail from the same era of PC gaming, Team17 should be embarrassed that they didn't consider spending some money promoting the game.
So promote it. Get the game featured on the front page. Don't wait for a sale to happen for people to realize the game is available to buy on Steam - actually invest in the game now so you can make some money sooner rather than later.
And while we're on the subject...
#2: DROP THE PRICE.
$15! £11.99! €13.99! How are these prices anything other than madness? $15 for a game over a decade old. £11.99 for a game you can buy from Amazon.co.uk bundled with Worms 2 for less than a third of that asking price. €13.99 for a game that has been notoriously pirated and copied and shared and spread across Europe.
For comparison's sake, let's see what else $15 can buy you on Steam:
The entire classic range of Doom games.
Any one of the three PS2-era Grand Theft Auto games.
Dark Forces, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, and the Mystery of the Sith expansion, with change left over.
The Monkey Island Special Edition bundle.
If Monkey Island isn't your thing, $9.99 gets you The Dig, LOOM, and both Indiana Jones adventure games, with $5 left over to buy an old Star Wars game.
Half-Life. Or Half-Life 2. Or Portal. Or Any number of other Valve titles, with change left over.
If you're after a "child in peril" theme, you could buy both Limbo and The Binding of Isaac.
Like Strategy? Introversion's DEFCON and Darwinia are both $9.99 each.
Sonic CD is a mere $5, which leaves you $10 to buy either Sonic Adventure or Sonic Adventure 2, depending on how much you hate yourself.
$13.99 gets you three games from Worms Open Warfare 2 DS developers Two Tribes - Toki Tori, EDGE and RUSH.
A selection of Genesis/Mega Drive games from SEGA.
A stack of Oddworld games: Abe's Oddysee, Abe's Exoddus, Munch's Oddysee and Stranger's Wrath HD.
I could go on, but I think I've made my point - $15 gets you far more bang for your buck from the same era of gaming. From after the same era of gaming. It really isn't a fair asking price.
Arguably more importantly, though, it actively devalues Worms Revolution. In terms of content, WA offers much more value for money - more weapons, more missions, more gameplay modes and better customization, all for the same asking price. Why would anybody choose Revolution when Armageddon can be had for the same price? At a cheaper asking price, it doesn't become an either-or proposition anymore. They can have both. Don't wait for a sale for people to buy this game, when they could easily be buying it now.
#3: FIX THOSE SYSTEM SPECS!
People who do somehow find WA have to be asking themselves exactly why a 14 year-old game needs such state-of-the-art computing tech. WA runs on most computers and laptops these days, and the game should be proudly displaying that fact.
Of course, this may be easier said than done - with the changes made thanks to the updates and patches courtesy of Deadcode and CyberShadow, the launch specs may no longer be valid, so may have to benchmark again. But it's worth it, I think.
WA is a great game. It's also a game that, these days, people tend to remember fondly. "Oh yeah!" they'll say, "I used to play that all the time." They can be playing it again, now, but you have to remind them that the game exists. And importantly, you have to make it worth their while.
Thanks for your time.
It also doesn't help that the system specs are woefully inaccurate, reflecting the requirements for Worms Revolution and not Worms Armageddon. The price point isn't exactly great either, and t's been pointed out that the game can be purchased brand-new for significantly less elsewhere - Amazon, for instance.
Releasing Worms Armageddon on Steam could have been a nice little earner for Team17, but they compeltely mishandled the release. By comparison the release of Worms 2 on GOG.com was far better - it was actually promoted, for a start, and the pricepoint is far more reasonable. How long until Worms Armageddon ends up on GOG.com, I wonder?
But back to Steam. Team17 could do three very simple, very effective things to increase sales of WA on the service:
#1: PROMOTE THE BLOODY THING.
Worms Armageddon was released on the service to no fanfare, no celebration, no nothing besides a couple of tweets and a Facebook post. Meanwhile Age of Empires II HD Edition has a nice splash banner on Steam's front page and is predictably the top-selling game on the service right now. Considering AoE2 and WA are both fairly successful PC titles that hail from the same era of PC gaming, Team17 should be embarrassed that they didn't consider spending some money promoting the game.
So promote it. Get the game featured on the front page. Don't wait for a sale to happen for people to realize the game is available to buy on Steam - actually invest in the game now so you can make some money sooner rather than later.
And while we're on the subject...
#2: DROP THE PRICE.
$15! £11.99! €13.99! How are these prices anything other than madness? $15 for a game over a decade old. £11.99 for a game you can buy from Amazon.co.uk bundled with Worms 2 for less than a third of that asking price. €13.99 for a game that has been notoriously pirated and copied and shared and spread across Europe.
For comparison's sake, let's see what else $15 can buy you on Steam:
The entire classic range of Doom games.
Any one of the three PS2-era Grand Theft Auto games.
Dark Forces, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, and the Mystery of the Sith expansion, with change left over.
The Monkey Island Special Edition bundle.
If Monkey Island isn't your thing, $9.99 gets you The Dig, LOOM, and both Indiana Jones adventure games, with $5 left over to buy an old Star Wars game.
Half-Life. Or Half-Life 2. Or Portal. Or Any number of other Valve titles, with change left over.
If you're after a "child in peril" theme, you could buy both Limbo and The Binding of Isaac.
Like Strategy? Introversion's DEFCON and Darwinia are both $9.99 each.
Sonic CD is a mere $5, which leaves you $10 to buy either Sonic Adventure or Sonic Adventure 2, depending on how much you hate yourself.
$13.99 gets you three games from Worms Open Warfare 2 DS developers Two Tribes - Toki Tori, EDGE and RUSH.
A selection of Genesis/Mega Drive games from SEGA.
A stack of Oddworld games: Abe's Oddysee, Abe's Exoddus, Munch's Oddysee and Stranger's Wrath HD.
I could go on, but I think I've made my point - $15 gets you far more bang for your buck from the same era of gaming. From after the same era of gaming. It really isn't a fair asking price.
Arguably more importantly, though, it actively devalues Worms Revolution. In terms of content, WA offers much more value for money - more weapons, more missions, more gameplay modes and better customization, all for the same asking price. Why would anybody choose Revolution when Armageddon can be had for the same price? At a cheaper asking price, it doesn't become an either-or proposition anymore. They can have both. Don't wait for a sale for people to buy this game, when they could easily be buying it now.
#3: FIX THOSE SYSTEM SPECS!
People who do somehow find WA have to be asking themselves exactly why a 14 year-old game needs such state-of-the-art computing tech. WA runs on most computers and laptops these days, and the game should be proudly displaying that fact.
Of course, this may be easier said than done - with the changes made thanks to the updates and patches courtesy of Deadcode and CyberShadow, the launch specs may no longer be valid, so may have to benchmark again. But it's worth it, I think.
WA is a great game. It's also a game that, these days, people tend to remember fondly. "Oh yeah!" they'll say, "I used to play that all the time." They can be playing it again, now, but you have to remind them that the game exists. And importantly, you have to make it worth their while.
Thanks for your time.