Beyond the Fallout

[Brother None]

A sales piece/interview with sales director Paul Oughton. Oddly enough, it doesn't actually contain any information on Fallout 3's sales that hasn't already been repeated ad nauseam.<blockquote>“It's always nice to receive positive recognition and to receive this from your customers and peers is fantastic,” says Bethesda’s sales director Paul Oughton. “I had it down as a one-in- three chance between us and two others, so put £20 on each.

“The key to Fallout 3’s success started with Oblivion. The market already had belief in the ability of Bethesda to produce great games. There was a huge amount of goodwill extended to us and retail had the faith to support our aspirations. In the end, the code delivered, the faith paid off and we all have a lovely warm feeling.”

Despite the game’s first week sales, the team at Bethesda had to contend with one of the most congested video game release schedules in history. To ensure the game didn’t disappear into obscurity, the publisher spent much of its whopping £2.5 million UK marketing spend on a campaign that lasted right up to Christmas.

“What we learnt with Fallout is that even with a triple-A rated game you have to compete effectively at retail, not just at launch but in the run-up to Christmas as well,” adds Oughton.</blockquote>

 

[steppenwanderer]

“The key to Fallout 3’s success started with Oblivion."....

no comment

 

[Lord Danath]

“The key to Fallout 3’s success started with Oblivion."....

no comment

You forgot to quote this part

The market already had belief in the ability of Bethesda to produce great games.

Which is even more stupid than the other

 

[Beelzebud]

“The key to Fallout 3’s success started with Oblivion."

They don't realize how arrogant they sound, do they?

 

[DexterMorgan]

£2.5 million UK marketing

That's almost as much as they spent on the license, for UK marketing alone?

Imagine how many talented voice actors and writers they could have hired for that much dough.

 

[Black]

£2.5 million UK marketing

That's almost as much as they spent on the license, for UK marketing alone?

Imagine how many talented voice actors and writers they could have hired for that much dough.

But good voice acting and storyline don't sell homie.

 

[Dionysus]

Hey, that guy actually speaks in complete and coherent sentences. He's even got a sense of humor that doesn't involve talking to disembodied heads.

Anyway, I think he's right about Oblivion being the first step to commercial success. The Fallout license helped, but Bethesda was more widely recognizable than Fallout after the success of Oblivion. Although, you might say that Morrowind was the first step.

 

[Crni Vuk]

£2.5 million UK marketing

That's almost as much as they spent on the license, for UK marketing alone?

Imagine how many talented voice actors and writers they could have hired for that much dough.

But good voice acting and storyline don't sell homie.

so sad ... and yet so true ... Bethesda, Bethesda never changes.

 

[lasix9]

“The key to Fallout 3’s success started with Oblivion.

And this is why I feel a littly iffy about F3. My fear about F3 was that Bethesda was just going to take Oblivion and just jam it up into the Fallout franchise.

While I don't believe they completely did that with F3, it does feel like it at times.

I love Oblivion, but still... I don't know about F3.

 

[bhlaab]

“Unfortunately, we canned the lingerie range and no-one liked my idea of a 17-episode TV series starring me and Sienna Miller locked in vault 101 with nothing to do but each other.”

Wow, someone from Bethesda told a joke that didn't make me cringe.

Maybe they should get their marketing department to design and write their next game.

 

[swampcat]

So if Oblivion didn't sell this much perhaps Fallout 3 could have been different ? But still i don't think they could have made a
Van-Buren Like Project at Bethsoft.....

 

[bhlaab]

So if Oblivion didn't sell too much perhaps Fallout 3 could have been different ? But still i don't think they could have made a
Van-Buren Like Project at Bethsoft.....

Present day bethesda couldnt make elder scrolls arena

 

[Eyenixon]

£2.5 million UK marketing

That's almost as much as they spent on the license, for UK marketing alone?

Imagine how many talented voice actors and writers they could have hired for that much dough.

But good voice acting and storyline don't sell homie.

so sad ... and yet so true ... Bethesda, Bethesda never changes.

Cinematic story telling and presentation is the biggest fad in gaming today, it started with Half-Life, now nearly every developer wants to tell some amazing interactive tale filled with immersing elements and inspirational messages or whatever.
Biggest reasons why these games suck, so many time and effort is spent on creating an interactive "experience" rather than simply polishing the gameplay and base mechanics.

 

[Crni Vuk]

you might be right ... but ... how comes neither Oblivion or Fallout 3 in that case tell even amazing interactive story.

If the story would be at least something like a realy interesting tale ...

 

[Skuzzy86]

im an avid reader of these forums, yet never registered, until i read this interview in games (tm) 82 of Emil Pagliarulo that completely shocked me beyond belief, how he says almost word for word, "screw fallout fans, long live oblivion fans" and finally admits that f3 is, in fact, oblivion w guns, ill type a few quotes :
"We felt obligated by the series, not by the fans in particular, as we're big fans ourselves" - "of course fallout 3 is the sequel to fallout, but beeing made by bethesda, it was also VERY much a sequel to oblivion, we knew --OUR FANS-- would see it as such" he then goes on to say how they wanted to copy oblivions opening into fallout with the whole daylight-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel opening.

somebody has to cruxefy these criminals, they knew all along and never admitted it was oblivion : modern warfare

it pisses me of so much

 

[Eyenixon]

you might be right ... but ... how comes neither Oblivion or Fallout 3 in that case tell even amazing interactive story.

If the story would be at least something like a realy interesting tale ...

The keyword is that they're "trying".
Actually, I'm pretty certain most of it is just PR lines and they really can't make a half-way decent game. But still, so many developers voice it as their focus that I can't help but see it as a problem. Especially when they start using the "immersive experience" line as an excuse for a game's flaws, see CoD4's short ass length for example, the developers actually attempted to justify it by writing it off as some creative decision.
As though all of a sudden they decided that the ten hour game length of previous installments was somehow drawn out and awkward, even though the reviews for all those titles said otherwise.

 

[Public]

They've got a lot of money, for sure, but at what cost...?

 

[Brother None]

They've got a lot of money, for sure, but at what cost...?

Cost to them? None, really.

 

[Crni Vuk]

indeed. Thats the worst thing about all anyway, they feel "ok" and "proud" about what they did. Plot holes, bugs, lots of issues, mediocre gameplay and story. But still proud and confident about their work. When you hear Bethesda talking about its games, it sounds like a win for them in any case.

 

[Hamenaglar]

indeed. Thats the worst thing about all anyway, they feel "ok" and "proud" about what they did. Plot holes, bugs, lots of issues, mediocre gameplay and story. But still proud and confident about their work. When you hear Bethesda talking about its games, it sounds like a win for them in any case.

Maybe because they've sold a few copies, had positive reviews and achieved commercial success.