Wicked Witches
Debutant
Hi everyone,
We can understand some scepticism or frustration expressed in relation to the release of the trailer. The bottom line is that now is the time where we must rally support for the future of these games! Perhaps there is not a full understanding of the way everything works, so we will try to continue to be as transparent and honest in explaining aspects of the decision making process that goes on.
AFL video games are a small market for publishers. EA had the rights and released games in the 90's and made the decision to cut AFL from its sport offerings. This shouldn't be overlooked as it would be easier for EA to use their back catalogue of technology (both from previous AFL titles and improvements made from titles such as FIFA) to produce future AFL games. Yet they still decided to cut AFL. Acclaim then made a go of it and as the company restructured the titles were not continued. When Sony picked up the licence this was a big boost to continue the AFL games. Again the license was dropped because the market was not big enough.
The fantastic thing now is that HES (arguably the only major AUSTRALIAN publisher) have decided to inject time, money and love into the licence. This is a smaller publisher compared to the previous names and for this title to be seen worth pursing in future, they too will need all the support they can get.
So we have been accused for spam marketing already. The truth is, as a developer, we often make no more or less on how well the game sells. We are primarily a business to business service and we have rarely been involved with the end consumer. Also as a developer we are not responsible for the timing, pricing, marketing or advertising of a title. However we are acutely aware that we all must come together now, to support these games if we are to grow them for the future. This is the sport that we love and that’s why we are doing this! Given this scenario we have decided to create a trailer at our own cost, purely to help see AFL video games be developed in the future and give something to the fledgling community. The same goes for our little embedded facebook game that we put up at our own cost – for light fun for the community during the updates and news.
We have been really happy with the great support we have received here so far, in regards to what we are trying to achieve with the AFL licences and the last thing we want to do is upset a market that have been so terrific and encouraging. However it is still important for us to grow into 1000’s of people seeing our news and released media, such as a trailer.
I am not asking anyone to agree with our decision making process but it would be great for all involved that you continue to be as supportive as you have been. It is important for this title to be a success for HES (TruBlu games) so that AFL games continue to be developed, otherwise there is a chance that it will be a long time before another publisher will consider taking on AFL video games.
If you feel that the future of AFL game titles is important to you we would ask that you spread the word and encourage people to support a completely Australian product. If you think that is unreasonable, then you always have the choice.
We hope this helps people understand our position.
We can understand some scepticism or frustration expressed in relation to the release of the trailer. The bottom line is that now is the time where we must rally support for the future of these games! Perhaps there is not a full understanding of the way everything works, so we will try to continue to be as transparent and honest in explaining aspects of the decision making process that goes on.
AFL video games are a small market for publishers. EA had the rights and released games in the 90's and made the decision to cut AFL from its sport offerings. This shouldn't be overlooked as it would be easier for EA to use their back catalogue of technology (both from previous AFL titles and improvements made from titles such as FIFA) to produce future AFL games. Yet they still decided to cut AFL. Acclaim then made a go of it and as the company restructured the titles were not continued. When Sony picked up the licence this was a big boost to continue the AFL games. Again the license was dropped because the market was not big enough.
The fantastic thing now is that HES (arguably the only major AUSTRALIAN publisher) have decided to inject time, money and love into the licence. This is a smaller publisher compared to the previous names and for this title to be seen worth pursing in future, they too will need all the support they can get.
So we have been accused for spam marketing already. The truth is, as a developer, we often make no more or less on how well the game sells. We are primarily a business to business service and we have rarely been involved with the end consumer. Also as a developer we are not responsible for the timing, pricing, marketing or advertising of a title. However we are acutely aware that we all must come together now, to support these games if we are to grow them for the future. This is the sport that we love and that’s why we are doing this! Given this scenario we have decided to create a trailer at our own cost, purely to help see AFL video games be developed in the future and give something to the fledgling community. The same goes for our little embedded facebook game that we put up at our own cost – for light fun for the community during the updates and news.
We have been really happy with the great support we have received here so far, in regards to what we are trying to achieve with the AFL licences and the last thing we want to do is upset a market that have been so terrific and encouraging. However it is still important for us to grow into 1000’s of people seeing our news and released media, such as a trailer.
I am not asking anyone to agree with our decision making process but it would be great for all involved that you continue to be as supportive as you have been. It is important for this title to be a success for HES (TruBlu games) so that AFL games continue to be developed, otherwise there is a chance that it will be a long time before another publisher will consider taking on AFL video games.
If you feel that the future of AFL game titles is important to you we would ask that you spread the word and encourage people to support a completely Australian product. If you think that is unreasonable, then you always have the choice.
We hope this helps people understand our position.
