Anesthetize wrote...
psbox362 wrote...
Anesthetize wrote...
Seems like some good marketing to me.
I don't see how this is a good idea. The whole point of an announcement like this is to get people excited about their game. How do they expect that to happen when so many gamers are drooling over Saints Row 3? Sure, the people that never played SR would be happy over this, but if Rockstar waited a bit (like say until Christmas or New Years), they could've ALSO gotten the SR fans after they had their fill of their game.
Or because GTA is the more established brand, they'll treat SR3 as a preemptive to GTAV. Rockstar couldn't time their release any better. On the back-foot of SR3, Rockstar will be able to judge the flaws and strengths of the game through the public reaction and make it accordingly that their game is stronger. For the flaws SR3 displays, the SR fanbase will always wonder if GTAV will do better in that aspect.
GTA has a bigger and more established fanbase, it was never Rockstar's style to create hype. You never see more than a few trailers and screens leading up to the release of Rockstar games. Rockstar always like to keep their games in the secret. Hype will generate itself, Rockstar don't need to bother.
Well, see. If anything, Saints Row's been showing flaws in GTA. The games have become about drama and gritty realism while Saints Row reminds players that video games are supposed to be fun, via allowing you to shoot octopuses into an old lady's face while you're dressed like an astronaut. That's not to say that GTA4 wasn't a good game, I honestly enjoyed it for the most part, but compared to some of the stuff you could do in Saints Row 2, it just feels a little hollow.
Because of this, I don't think what Rockstar's doing is such a good idea. People have begun to associate Saints Row as, "That game where you could jump out of a stolen helicopter in midflight, naked, and plow some hapless citizen to the ground without receiving so much as a scratch" whereas GTA has become, "That game where the roads are covered in crisco and your cousin keeps calling you, asking if you want to go bowling with him". You can't exactly do a "Who wants to buy the better crime sandbox game?" marketing plan when both games are on completely opposite ends of the spectrum.
So, unless Rockstar has some serious plans for GTA, they could be shooting themselves in the foot on this. What they should be doing is trying to distance themselves from Saints Row and maximize how much attention they can get on their new game, say what's new to the series, and what's been improved since GTA4. Otherwise they're gonna be wasting a lot of time and money trying to win a fight that shouldn't even be taking place. What I'm saying is, by not competing with Saints Row, Rockstar could stand to see a bigger profit and sell more games. After all, there's more than enough room for crime-based sandbox shooters and I'll gladly buy them both, but just as long as they're spaced out enough that I could afford to do so.