In the last week and a half or so we've had...
Rage promotion
Solstice redux
Apocrean event and all of its prize boxes
A sale on operation crimson hammer and the guardian armor pack
A steam summer promotion = http://store.steampowered.com/promotion/summer2014faq/
And all of this directly after other promotions ended, and there hasn't even been a major release yet-- and we all know that people are gonna want to buy stuff for that. Is something going on that we should be aware of?
Basically, OOO is trying to throw out whatever content they have, to keep people preoccupied while they do the gunner update or get the next test server ready.
And the steam promotion is because OOO decided to jump on the opportunity to hop on the steam summer sale bandwagon of fun. They did it on the last Christmas sale, so why wouldn't they do it again? I'm just surprised and a little disappointed that OOO hasn't done any flash sales yet for the summer sale as well.
A sale on operation crimson hammer and the guardian armor pack
A steam summer promotion = http://store.steampowered.com/promotion/summer2014faq/
^^^^^^^^^
These are because of the Steam Summer sales. I don't really think Three Rings can choose when Valve puts that on. And not participating in such a thing would be silly.
With regards to the other three - /this game cannot function without a source of income./ You, Fehzor, are one of the most vocal players on the boards about how energy should be phased out entirely, how else do you think they can sustain the game if their previous #1 source of income is largely non-essential now?
Additionally, it usually costs money to make money. Perhaps a large update is on the way and they might want to advertise when that happens. That's not free by any means, so saving up so they have a decent advertising budget to bring in new players when we have new content to mess around with sounds like a pretty good idea.
I have a feeling your post is trying to subtly say that you think Three Rings is in trouble. :s I can point out the Steam player statistics and how this game is doing way better than games that people don't claim are dying again, if so.
Spiral Knights got into the Top 100 games on Steam yesterday. That's saying much.
SK usually hovers somewhere in the top 150. Every time I've personally checked it's been #125 or higher.
Reminder that it regularly outdoes the most recent Call of Duty games, nobody says THOSE are dying. Plural. But again, it can't compete with TF2 despite no marketing budget or entirely different genre (don't tell me hack n slash is anywhere near as popular as FPS right now because lol), SK is clearly dying and a failure. X(
@SkepticRaven
Lol, I never said I was upset. Don't go putting words in my mouth.
I'm quite glad that I'm getting to do Apocrea and I'm actually really enjoying this.... I'm just confused as to why this is happening. Like, is OOO OK? Did something awful happen to them? Are they hurting for money all of the sudden? Are the SEGA executives angry with them over money? Is the art team just producing way too much way too quickly and they're trying to get through it all?
Perhaps the development team needs some ...*rubs fingers together* incentive to poop out those last few lines of code and concepts while not completely destroying game balance, inventory space, and keeping true to SK balance theory.
@Addy
Nope, I'm not subtly saying anything and I realize that they need to make money. I'm just wondering why they're releasing them like this-- on top of each other even. It seems like they'd get more out of their work if they spread it out slightly, and there isn't really any reason to not. Unless of course they have a massive number of artists going? But I don't know this. I'm really just wondering if there is something going on here that we aren't being told about.
"SK is clearly dying and a failure."
I don't know about that. Every time they bring back any kind of content update, the game gets new life pumped into it. People have been saying that the game is dying since forever, and it hasn't ever actually died.
What are you wondering specifically might be going on? That they're desperate for money? Or that they're just testing waters to see how people feel about multiple promos at once and how it affects purchases? This is new ground for them and it's never easy to tell how these things will go.
Perhaps the development team needs some ...*rubs fingers together* incentive to poop out those last few lines of code and concepts while not completely destroying game balance, inventory space, and keeping true to SK balance theory.
More like, most of (if not all) these promos were scheduled months ago by management. Most of the art (especially reskins) was probably made weeks, if not months ago.
Some content releases (like whatever they meant to release alongside the Rage promo) were probably scheduled ahead of time, but when it comes to live development like that, a lot of unexpected things can happen.
I highly doubt the ones making this happen (ex: programmers, artists) are paid depending on how well the game does, but are probably on salary, so a promo going well doesn't necessarily mean the programmers will work any harder. They only see what they signed up for, and I doubt that's a percentage of profits. Because it doesn't work like that in the game industry unless you're top brass or in a personally-led super-indie team.
"Lol, I never said I was upset. Don't go putting words in my mouth."
I never did either. I asked a question. Don't put letters in my comments that aren't there either. I was also adding context to the thread in which other posters may not be aware (since players may or may not be upset).
I mean, when Rage went out the Summer solstice was almost here, and now that it is, we have the Solstice event. OOO decided to bring back Apocrea because it's been 8 months since it's last been out.