News
Space Giraffe sales disappoint Minter
Michael French Nov 22 2007, 3:47pm
Comments (9)
Live Arcade title outsold by Frogger; famed indie "not seeing a lot of reason to continue" developing games
MCV sister site Develop reports that although Xbox Live Arcade is often touted as a great way for independent developers to make money, it seems Jeff Minter has been discouraged following poor performance of his first game for the service.
In a post on his LiveJournal, the famed indie designer has said he's "not seeing a lot of reason to continue even trying to make games, at this point, when a remake of Frogger, one of the worst games in the history of old arcade games, can outsell Space Giraffe that we put so much love and effort into, by more than ten to one, in one week".
He added: "OK, we get the message. All you want on that channel is remakes of old, shite arcade games and crap you vaguely remember playing on your Amiga. We'll shut up trying to do anything new then. Sorry for even trying."
The game was released earlier this year.
Comments
“Remakes”
Posted by: Matt Sefton - Nov 22, 5:14pm
"Remakes"? That's quite amusing, considering Mr Minter has spent the greater part of his career remaking Tempest - Space Giraffe is just the latest in a long line.
“Re: Remakes”
Posted by: Mr Jiffy - Nov 22, 5:29pm
Minter toys back in pram now!
“Re: Remakes”
Posted by: graeme lee - Nov 22, 5:44pm
sorry but the figures speak for themselves...i have played the space giraffe demo and promptly deleted it...its ****e! whilst my frogger, uno, streetfighter etc. demos are all still there...develop a good game/demo and then feel free to moan about it Jeff!
“Re: Remakes”
Posted: Nov 22, 6:00pm
I relate to his sentiments, but I'm what you'd call a hardcore gamer and I thought SG was ****. But aside from that, make a niche game and it'll sell to a niche market!
“Re: Remakes”
Posted by: Bert the happy fish - Nov 22, 6:09pm
I'd agree that Space Giraffe felt like it was a mediocre game with an overdose of eye candy to try and hide this. Now a decent version of attack of the mutant camels would have gone down a lot better I think.
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved does similar but manages to make a much better game out of it.
“Re: Remakes”
Posted by: xXBADGERXX @ XboxLiveAddicts.com - Nov 22, 8:22pm
I loved Jeff Minter`s games , all the way from Hovver Bovver through the Mutant Camel Series , I got Space Giraffe and thoroughly enjoy sitting there playing it and "getting" his little in-jokes . Maybe it`s because I grew up with computers from the dawn of gaming that I dig his games , but even i must admit , they are hard to swallow for those that don`t understand . Chin up Jeff ....... Llama Llama Llama , Mega Furry White thing :¬)
“Long Tail”
Posted by: Bruceongames - Nov 26, 9:20am
Online distribution keeps a game "in stock" effectively for ever, so Jeff will be making money from this for years to come.
And throwing his toys out of the pram has probably doubled sales.
“Cry baby”
Posted by: RT - Nov 26, 9:49am
And the industry wonders why its not taken seriously within certain circles, like the mainstream, with big babies like Minter throwing his toys out of the pram when things don't go his way.
Yes, Jeff, stopmaking games if this is how you intend to continue to conduct yourself. The industry needs to grow up in many sectors, and you're not helping matters.
“Re: Cry baby”
Posted by: realSFG - Nov 27, 8:18am
Wow, even worse than New Rally X?
I downloaded the demo because of the funny name. But that was all. The game is just nonsense to me. Lots of particles and some cryptic characters and enemies. No fun!
But I'm agreeing with Jeff, the other 8bit games are **** too.
I mean, who the hell pays for a cheap main menu, an emulator and some 15+ year old game??