4 replies to this topic

[Supreme Cmdr]

Since GCES-SE was released back in March, with three further planned episodes a lot has changed here at 3000AD and indeed the gaming industry.

First things first. The space combat genre is dead. Period. End of story. There is no one thing that can be blamed on its demise, but if I wanted to point the finger, I would do so squarely at a couple of things.

• The genre continues to remain firmly entrenched in the niche category. That in and of itself puts it completely outside the interests of publishers who have no interest in the small numbers that a niche category has. For more proof of this, see e.g. flight combat sims and go from there.
  
• Innovation. You simply can't innovate in any meaningful fashion with this genre. Because of that, most of the premise in space combat games is down to gameplay, exploration and the odd feature or two.

That said, the planned Episode 2 is on schedule to be released in late January 2008. The official announcement doesn't go out until early next year, but below are some highlights of what is in it.

Quote

The MSRP is $14.95

We will be selling it directly through our own web storefront where we will also offer a bundle of the original Episode 1
game @ $39.95 for a limited time only.

There are no plans for a boxed retail release at this time. Also due to the lower price point, it will not be offered to
our ESD partners for sale.

FEATURES

- All new sixteen mission single-player campaign scenario: "The Excalibur Gambit". Depending on how it is
played, this gives about twelve hours of gameplay.

- Adds four new player controlled fighters (various classes) for a total of five. All with full 3D cockpits, unique
flight dynamics and weaponry.

- Ability to play the original Episode 1 campaign, "Rise Of The Insurgents" using any of the five fighters.

- Ability to play the new Episode 2 campaign, "The Excalibur Gambit" using any of the five fighters.

- All five fighters are now selectable in the updated multiplayer deathmatch and team deathmatch scenarios.

REQUIREMENTS

- Hardware/Software requirements are the same as the original Episode 1 released on 03/08. See attached.

- Copy of Galactic Command - Echo Squad SE Episode 1, currently on sale via various online retailers.

[scrapilot]

The space combat genre and sims in general are dead? For how long, because things change fast these days. May be long term for the American market. But what about for India and like countries, which has a huge middle class and number of engineers that would be very interested in games that require a lot of figuring out. Also, sim player enthusiasts have not gone anywhere I don't think.

[Supreme Cmdr]

First, those markets don't count since their numbers - not to mention sales figures - are meaningless. Nobody is going to waste their time developing a game for a market where you can't sell a game for more than $5 regardless of how much it costs elsewhere. So why bother? The engineers over there, have enough sense to buy imports or buy their games online. And they had better know English.

Second, when you talk about a genre being dead, it has nothing to do with enthusiasts going anywhere, but rather is related to the dearth of games in the specific genre.

[Magnus]

Its a good thing I saw this post! I was going to pick up Echo Squad today. I'll wait for this to be released to get it at the good price. Can't wait to check it out, been wanting to have some spare cash for it for quite some time.

[starlord]

And here comes GALCOM episode 2. Great news! One more for my collection.

besides, I'm sorry I'm late, but I wish to all here a happy new year 2009, may your projects meet success in this new year.