Want to increase sales? Use the impulse release as a hard learned lesson, work up what your going to release as new characters and leak word of what they will be so people want to stick around and see them.
Once this is complete, release it on steam at 50% for 2-5 days. Have steam and impulse both selling demigod. When the sale ends, everyone who bought it will be eager to get there mates on vent to use thier bonus coupon. Face up to it everyone already has steam, its vastly more polished and leaves impuse laying bloodied in the dust. You may have plans to upgrade impulse to that level (right now you can't even invite your mate to your game, lets face it all you can do is see if someone may be online, send them a sticky note, and hope they see the obsure little icon before they ragequit and leave the game. Yes, its really that bad - you know it, it leaves you with no option but to pick up the phone and tell them to get thier lazy arse on vent, and tell them to stay away from your sister while their at it)
I know you probably had visions of impulse ruling the world but steam has been with me a lot longer and rome wasn't built in a day, has way more content (both rome and steam), it gets people playing games (mainly steam), it has all the big releases (you could be one of them!), connects me to all my mates, and most importanly, i buy games on impulse from steam all the time. (excuse the pun i couldn't think of a better word.)
I read somewhere on this blog that TF2 had a sales extravaganza, its because it hit you in the face when computer loads steam (those ads have prompted more then one trip down visa card lane from my computer chair.) I bought tf2 because it rated well on metatracker and was so cheap, I haven't even downloaded or installed it yet. The funny thing is 3 of my mates did the same thing but 2 of us still haven't tried it, we just diddn't want to miss out.
Games for under $20 sell x10 as much, and give us a fresh stream of noobs to put through the meat grinder, a good % of whom will bring more noob friends for us to destroy. Even if its only a 2 day window, it will feed us fresh noobs for much longer then that. Lets face it, its all about fun. And fun "is" destroying noobs. (*disclaimer: when i say noobs i mean everyone that is not my friends or me, because your all noobs.)
You guys have to face up to the fact. You had your moment in the spotlight. You failed this time round. Now give us new characters ASAP, make it a free expansion pack with a new look backdrop in game (so you get new reviews), and do what needs to be done for the sake of your fans and your wallet. In this day and age (financial meltdown bullshit etc) its about surviving, not expanding, expanding comes next week, or decade.
And don't try to make your games sell impulse for now (because your game is far better then impulse), get impulse to a standard where it actually contends with the competition, then sign on other game developers and sell thier wares as well. Think of it as the original fight of Internet Explorer and Firefox. Sure everyone used IE and its convenienlty preloaded on your computer like your favourite virus harvester, then firefox was known as the ones who listened (like you guys) and now i don't even have an IE icon on my desktop, but i'm pretty sure it still harvests viruses. I'm just as sure that you guys are looking for a similar result. But you won't get it soon because you lack variety. So put it on the back burner while you still have an asset to cash in.
On another note. This is a team based multiplayer game, WITHOUT VOICE SUPPORT????!!!! How exciting. Back to the future, just hold fire for a sec while i stop and type "HELP!" to my mates. Oh, hang on a sec, let me alt tab, turn vent on, click on demigod, experience a grey screen of demi-death and try to convince the boys to wait for me to reload the game and hope the log in server lets me get back in without a 10 minute wait. And kudos to you! You just allowed me to fully test my patience and now its working fine, Appreciate it! Come again!
You guys better hurry up, starcraft is coming. I'll bet my life, and my cat *i'm all in* that it works at release, they learned all the lessons you guys are learning now, take them for an example on how not to fcuk up. Release a closed beta, then an open beta, then put up a pre-order incentive. Like what happened with dawn of war II, I downloaded open beta, played the shit out of it and pre-ordered it, then got sick of it before it got released and never bothered downloading it. (Maybe thats a bad example but you get the drift.)
I sell houses for a living, this is the way of the world. Team up with the best and go for your life. This is just like selling houses, you make a floor plan, hire the trades, built a house, and use the house to sell more houses (with a lot of marketing cash somewhere in the mix). And in these tough times be willing to cut your commission a bit to get the turnover. You guys even treat your clients like i do, tell them a *slightly* rose colored version of whats really happening so they can sympathise with you while your dealing with the problem of their quality new homes' roof blowing off a day after they get the keys. (for me its usually a mark on a wall or an oven not working, but the whole roof thing probably sums up the release of demigod)
Anyway. Welcome to my first forum post anywhere, ever. I hope you enjoyed your stay (i did this because you let me know why my roof blew off and we all got wet, and couldn't sleep at night because our beds were also wet, and because I had to buy another game so soon because my old one got wet.)
BTW we don't play anymore. Last time demi was mentioned the other guy said "you said lets play a game not sit in a lobby and wait". That said, you do the above and we will surely come and smash noobs for you. And don't bother flaming me because i'm still wet, and your still noobs.
