So games that sold nearly 2 million units worldwide so far are now considered flops? At least the story for the layoffs is that is't due to Tron: Legacy and Epic Mickey being huge flops. I don't know about Tron but despite its failures Epic Mickey has sold nearly two million units which at least to me seems strong.
The problem is that they cost a lot to make. I don't think exact figures have been mentioned, but Epic Mickey apparently cost a bomb that 2m sales hasn't yet hit the targeted returns.
The other thing that is happening is that Disney is getting out of unprofitable video game ventures very quickly. They bought Playdom and killed Acclaim's titles pretty much instantly, preferring to focus on social games.
Epic Mickey took too long to make (read: WAY TOO LONG for the final product that was produced) and sold too few on a system with pathetic margins and ridiculous licensing fees (meaning, the Wii, just a terrible system to make games for if your name isn't Nintendo).
I know that it was already mentioned in this thread but what on earth made them do that?
For a 3rd party Wii game Epic Mickey's sales were astounding to say the least. 3rd party titles don't usually perform well on the Wii (another reason why many developers don't make games for it).
On the other hand there are now a few good cross-platform capable engines out that would have let them easily do versions for PS 3, XBOX 360 and the PC, just like with any other major title out there.
If they managed to move that many units on the Wii, they should have been able to perform great on the other systems as well and would have had the opportunity to provide much better graphics.
Epic Mickey would've sold 10M if it looked like the concept art.
Disney, and by extension, Junction Point made a terrible, terrible decision. Mostly though, gonna go with Disney. Everyone knows it takes Warren Spector FOREVER to make a game.
I haven't played this myself yet, but my sister picked it up and played it.
Her review was that the game is fun, but a let down to be sure. She also said the camera is almost unforgivably bad and has more than once basically just walked her off a cliff.
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the Universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
Author
