Rebirth release date

[Jayeye]

Who says they're in trouble? Apart from people whinging on here (which is understandable but doesn't really mean anything except we're all eager for more info) what suggests they are in trouble?

Long story short: I feel like X:R HAD the chance of being the #1 bigshot game in this genre (due to the lack of actual competition), and now that RSI stole their show, they'll just go on being a small gamedev with nothing more but a little stable fanbase in DACH.
Maybe I'm wrong, but there have been a lot of people posting and desperating here for years even though there was no release date or information - but now that RSI has shown up, Forum activity feels like it had gone back a great deal (at least it does feel so to me).

But they didn't have that opportunity. The release of info has always been under the control of the publishers since the development started (or at least from a long time ago)

By "they", I meant "whoever responsible for their information politics". I heard several times that it was the publisher, but since i don't know it for sure, I just wrote "whoever responsible" and referred to it as "they".

and when Egosoft start on XR projects like kickstarter were not really around.

I wasn't really talking about kickstarter (even though I can't get rid of the feeling that ANY option would be better than being published by deep silver, given that it actually IS them who decided to just be quiet and act like there was no game to tell the world about). I was talking about keeping space sim fans at their game, interested and desperatly waiting - which they won't achieve by keeping their heads low and the information scarse.

Will the number of sales differ to what would have been achieved if the game was released last year? Dunno, but personally I doubt it!

That's just the point, I DO think so. Now that RSI is here (who had a damn lot of PR. I mean they beat some records and have a huge name as their leader - opposed to ES/DS who didn't do anything but raising the number on their release-page every 12 months), X:R will again simply go beyond many people's radar, or some who actually DO hear of it might not care about as they already have RSI ("new" space sim fans are more likely to go there), and even if I'm wrong with everything, the fact remains that NOW there IS competition with what X:R needs to compete first - which wasn't the case before.


Don't get me wrong. I'm no RSI fanboy and I'm not saying RSI was any better than X:R (other than PR - there, they are). What I'm saying is that X:R has lost their chance of creating a rather easy milestone and becoming as famous as they deserve.

[EmperorJon]

Ok, let's look at this.


Little information has been released in a while.
People are complaining that there's no information.

Now let's assume they released all the information when people started complaining months ago.

By now, people would once again be complaining that no more information was being released!

Now, let's imagine this combined with the information being released before the change to a 2012 release date... then a 2013 one...

As has been stated by Egosoft many, many time... there's no information at the moment because the "marketing campaign" hasn't begun yet. Once they're sure the game is ready to have a real release date set, they can start releasing more info.

[pref]

If all the people who are at the end of their patience would have sent an email to Deepsilver instead posting here i bet DS would have sent back at least one new screen

[kilerkg]

The release difference between star citizen and rebirth is likely to be quite significant, so if anything the announcement of all of these space games will boost the sales of rebirth with it most likely being out before them all so people will buy it to bridge the gap. Anyway star citizen is an mmo and rebirth is a single player game so i expect the experience to be quite different. Just sit back and wait for the release, which in the mean time I can actually get some of my assignments done.

Edit
Plus with GTA V now being delayed until September I now have all my eggs in the Rebirth basket

[A5PECT]

Long story short: I feel like X:R HAD the chance of being the #1 bigshot game in this genre (due to the lack of actual competition), and now that RSI stole their show, they'll just go on being a small gamedev with nothing more but a little stable fanbase in DACH.

It's rather difficult for RSI to steal the show, since they don't actually have an act yet. Neither does Egosoft, really.

The show hasn't even started.

When it does, I'll think of Rebirth as act one (2013), and Star Citizen as act two (2014).

[eladan]

But now, when whoever responsible ever decided to release the game, X:R will be lost in RSI's shadows. Like
RSI: BAAAAAM! HERE WE ARE! WE GIVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU DREAMED OF AND MORE! TALK TO THE DEVS! BE PART OF THE CREATION! DECIDE ON ITS FEATURES! SHARE YOUR IDEAS!
...while...
egosoft: hello...? anyone? erm... by the way, we have a game too you know..? ..and we started earlier...

Once again, RSI had to ramp up the PR, and give you as much info as they possibly could, because the public (fans) are the ones who are funding the game.

Egosoft, meanwhile, haven't even started their marketing campaign. They aren't relying on public money to fund development. The push for our money comes later.

Compare the two campaigns when both are finished. You can't, as you just did, compare a marketing campaign which has finished with one that has yet to even start.

[Ketraar]

You can't, as you just did, compare a marketing campaign which has finished with one that has yet to even start.

Well you can, in fact its what most of the time is being done. Here you come with logic and them stuff that needs to make sense... bah!

MFG

Ketraar

Spoiler

Show

Post may contain just a tiny bit of irony

[eladan]

Yeah, damn my sensible, logical mind! Gets me in trouble every time!

[ApatheticEthic]

I doubt the devs can just spill the beans so easily. I am wondering when they're going to actually start marketing though. Are they going to wait until they're sure of the release date? I guess they might do it only month before release.

[strude]

I doubt the devs can just spill the beans so easily. I am wondering when they're going to actually start marketing though. Are they going to wait until they're sure of the release date? I guess they might do it only month before release.

Maybe we need a "Marketing start date" thread?

[Alan Phipps]

@ strude: Heh, just ask the OP to change the thread title - nothing much else in here will change.

[ApatheticEthic]

Pointless speculation thread?

[eladan]

That should be the name of the forum, not just this thread.

[Jayeye]

The release difference between star citizen and rebirth is likely to be quite significant

True, IF they manage to keep their release date this time. Honestly, I don't even have faith in the year they post anymore.

Anyway star citizen is an mmo and rebirth is a single player game so i expect the experience to be quite different.

It's a game with the option for mmo - but also give you the option to play on your own locally or borderlands-style coop. As I've heard from many already that they probably won't make a single step into its open universe, they do compete.

Just sit back and wait for the release

erm... I'm not being impatient or something. I just wanted to share my worries for egosofts future and thought I'd share, since there is nothing else to discuss at the moment.. Unfortunately I'm not as optimistic as most others here.

It's rather difficult for RSI to steal the show, since they don't actually have an act yet. Neither does Egosoft, really.

Agreed so far. But this didn't keep RSI from showing presence and keeping themselves in the news. Of course, there are hardly any infos either, but they do give away little things like early stage concept art on a constant basis and managed to get the community involved. For example they managed to be mentioned in gametrailers.com 's news section - that alone was another thousands of potential new fans there. And even if only a hundred new fans were won that day, these 100 people could have easely been allured to the x-universe, if someone did NOT decide that a full information blockade was the best way to continue after giving away the initial release date.

When it does, I'll think of Rebirth as act one (2013), and Star Citizen as act two (2014).

This will surely be the case for you and me (given X:R IS in fact released before SC) - and from this point of view, finally this genre gets some action! =)
But imagine you're an american spacesim fan googling for a such a game. Chances are you find lots of pages about that one game with a big name as their head, lots of records, a huge active fanbase and regular and constant news from your own country - all while he MIGHT find on page 35 that there once was another such game announced back in 2011 and ever since nothing seemed to have happened. You'd probably not be willing to spend a dime on that since you already found a promising looking game anyway.

You can't, as you just did, compare a marketing campaign which has finished with one that has yet to even start.

There indeed is no marketing campaign for egosoft and therefore there indeed is nothing i can compare.
However, what I can compare is how each responsible head is treating his fanbase and how well they do to keep people excited (and no, keeping people burning for a game does not require a full campaign). And doing so, I just got to the verdict that whoever responsible for this information blockade is the one to blame for the fact that even if X:R is the best game ever made and 1000 times better than SC, still hardly anybody will ever hear about it because all that's left is its most loyal fans.

[Geek]

Maybe we need a "Marketing start date" thread?

We will need a date on the release of the marketing date thread then...

[eladan]

However, what I can compare is how each responsible head is treating his fanbase and how well they do to keep people excited (and no, keeping people burning for a game does not require a full campaign).

Again, the situations are different. Once again, the fanbase is the one paying the cost for making Star Citizen. RSI is obliged to keep them informed of all aspects of the game.

Egosoft and Deepsilver have an interest in keeping wraps on as much of the game as they can before they start to sell it, so that the 'buzz' around the game will help drive sales. There's no point creating that buzz (much) prior to the game being released, and indeed doing so would likely harm their sales.

[ApatheticEthic]

However, what I can compare is how each responsible head is treating his fanbase and how well they do to keep people excited (and no, keeping people burning for a game does not require a full campaign).

Again, the situations are different. Once again, the fanbase is the one paying the cost for making Star Citizen. RSI is obliged to keep them informed of all aspects of the game.

Egosoft and Deepsilver have an interest in keeping wraps on as much of the game as they can before they start to sell it, so that the 'buzz' around the game will help drive sales. There's no point creating that buzz (much) prior to the game being released, and indeed doing so would likely harm their sales.

What buzz? Just about the only people who have heard of Rebirth are the fans of the series. It's one thing to limit exposure to keep expectations in check. I recall the Skyrim devs had to do just that to keep expectations at realistic levels, but even they realized that you need to keep information up to keep people interested. The embargo is sad in this respect. Just a few new screenshots would be awesome.

[eladan]

What buzz?

There's no point creating that buzz (much) prior to the game being released

Just about the only people who have heard of Rebirth are the fans of the series

What's the point in having people talking about a game that they can't even buy yet? Isn't it better to start getting people talking about it when they can actually spend some money on it?

[ApatheticEthic]

No? It takes time to reach people with marketing. Word of mouth also takes time to draw people in. Outside this forum, people are talking right now about other games and not talking about Rebirth. That's kind of a problem.

[Hurracane]

No? It takes time to reach people with marketing. Word of mouth also takes time to draw people in. Outside this forum, people are talking right now about other games and not talking about Rebirth. That's kind of a problem.

It's not really a problem because they don't want to generate any major hype till they get past the major hurdles. Once they have a time-frame set and they know they can hit the target, then they'll start hyping it up.