The problem is, there have been more "PURE TREK" titles than you can shake a stick at, and about 99% of them have been less than stellar, to put it mildly.
Interplay, and then Taldren were the ONLY ones to make this, admittedly, "niche" game, which IMHO is far superior to ANY Trek game, ever. I even say that SFC3 is far superior to any Trek game, ever.
However, for some reason, those who are enamored of "Canon" and "Pure Trek" decided to come to this "niche" game, this SINGLE SERIES out of ALL Trek games and then decided that it needed to "Evolve" and "Grow" beyond its SFB roots.
Why?
The idea that its 20+ run of playtime is a hinderance is simply illogical. We obviously all have our opinions on the SFB system, and its effect on SFC, but the bottom line is that the first 3 titles were made on the SFB system.
Unfortunately, Taldren bowed to the pressure of the Non-SFB'ers who decided they needed to come "evolve" the one single series of games EVER made to emulate SFB and that started with OP. While the 1X ships were dead-on balls accurate for the most part, the 2X ships were simply TNG cheese in an SFB package. There were/ARE SFB 2X ships, that look nothing like the TNG inspired OP 2X ships, nor do they have all the cute weapons Taldren made out of whole cloth.
Now there is SFC:TNG. I wanted to hate it, as you all know, but it is actually a pretty good game. I still switch off between single player in TNG and OP as neither title has a WORKING dynaverse to date and is therefore mainly unplayable online.
I find it laughable that Taldren went out of their way to form a company that produced EAW, an ENTIRELY SFB based game, but some say that SFB has run its course and SFC should "evolve." Why then, didnt Iplay/Taldren simply make a TNG game in the first place? ANSWER: There are so many Trek/TNG games out there that the market IS saturated with it, SFB/SFC was a new and fresh venture and attracted many who were tired of "twitch/point and shoot" games. On Taldrens website it says SFC1 sold over 600,000 copies, and those are old numbers, I still occasionaly see SFC1 in a bargain bin somewhere on the cheap.
Indeed, how many have we seen on these very boards, such as theSea and many others who, after playing SFC, and having never heard of SFB have gone out and started playing SFB? Taldren even put basic SFB manuals and SSD's on the first 3 game CD's for heavens sakes, it seems obvious where they were headed.
But things changed and they had to go with Activision who took over the Trek lic. And Activision wanted a "simplified and streamlined" (no denials please, Ferell said it and others have said it. It even says it in that pc gamer review) game that was more "accessable (read dumbed down for the masses) with a TNG movie tie-in with Nemesis.
Nemesis has come, gone, and will now silently go to DVD with little fanfare, yet another nail in the coffin that B+B have layed Trek in. Likewise, the "HUGE new fanbase that the move to TNG and the Nemesis tie-in" were supposed to attract have apparently not materialized... most likely due to the general lack of interest in Trek in general these days.
Also, it would be fascinating (tho impossible) to see how many of those SFB fans who bought the 600K+ copies of SFC1 and the 250K+ copies of EAW DIDNT buy SFC3 and how that compares to the number of NEW players attracted by the TNG/Nemesis move. (Granted, OP tanked, but a stand-alone expansion 6 months after the original release was a slap in the face to many. AND a stand-alone expansion with all the same bugs as EAW and with all NEW bugs specific to itsself. If OP had released as a true "expansion" or 1 year after the release of EAW and/or especially in a somewhat playable online fashion I imagine its sales would have come much closer to those of EAW.)
Bottom line, the move to TNG might not have killed SFC, but it sure hasnt HELPED it as predicted by some. If it has only sold 90K copies WITH the TNG move AND the Nemesis tie-in, as opposed to OP's 80K(+/-), which would have, IMHO sold much better if some of the items listed above had happened) then it can be called nothing short of a HORRIFIC FLOP.
Hmmmm, how about, Taldren puts out GaW, andtimes it with a Paramount big-screen re-release of the DVD version of ST:TWOK for a movie tie-in with a ticket in each box... how do ya think THAT would sell, eh?
You would see 30-60ish Trek fans line up in DROVES for a TWOK re-release, and Activision/Taldren could even offer demo disk at the movie theaters (like blizzard did with WC3) with a newly re-worked for GaW Enterprise/Kirk vs Reliant/Khan duel on it!!
Now THATS a movie tie-in and would get all us old fart TOS/TMP Trek fans with plenty of spare cashe to buy the game, most likely in larger numbers than ever before. After all, SFC IS a niche product and many have probably simply never HEARD of it, much less played it.
To close, for those who are dissing old, niche board games, I give you a few examples...
D+D
(complete with EverQuest, DungeonSiege, and all the other D+D/AD+D titles based on it)
Harpoon(currently in release 4)
Battletech/Mechwarrior(currently in release 4, with 2 stand-alone expansions released LONG after the initial release, each with improvements and upgrades to keep it new and interesting.
Give it some time, let Taldren make some well-deserved cash on B9 and whatever Polaris is (???) and then return to its roots, with GaW.
Have a nice day!
Topic: Which SFC game is your favorite? (Read 32215 times)