Heavy Rain's an unconventional video game, with a storytelling-heavy approach that many industry-watchers weren't sure would find footing on the sales charts. But the title sold over 200,000 units in its launch week, and now Quantic Dream's David Cage says the game's on track to sell 1.5 million units by year end.
Quantic Dream's last game was Indigo Prophecy, and despite a positive response from critics, it hardly lit up the sales charts. In an interview with Gamasutra last month, Cage told Gamasutra that he saw Heavy Rain as a test of the industry -- whether the games sector was ready to support and accept a new kind of triple-A game.
"Now I can say, 'Look! The market wants innovation.'," he said at the time. "So this is what we should concentrate on now, and Heavy Rain is a very strong message to publishers to take more risks and support innovation."
So in answer to the age old quesion of "How many suckers are born each year?" The answer appears to be 1 million.
Having rented, played, completed and then realised the truth. No choices made in the game actually had any difference to the story. I'm simply amazed at the level of lying that the gaming press contained with regards to this game. Even the advert implies some amazing branching path through the story, yet if you hang around and do nothing. You will immediately notice all the story characters also waiting about for you to interatct with them like dummies in a shop window. Try to loose a fight and see how long it will loop you through it until you win etc. etc.
And we wonder why gamers are becoming disillusioned with the games coming out these days.
After all the hype surrounding the game, the protracted development and all the rest of it... I was playing this game no matter what, if only to check it out for myself instead of listening to everyone else's ramblings. I was indeed surprised by how linear the game actually is, beneath the illusion of choice, but I kind of suspected as much - just different ways to arrive at the same place.
Does that really make me a "sucker"? For wanting to buy a game and then play it?
I agree with Peter, what we were sold by press and developers versus what the game actually offered was quite a bit differrent. If I purchased the game and thought going in that I was getting exactly what I was told I was getting then I would of felt cheated. With that said, the game was a good rental and look forward to other games that feature similar mechanics and production values.
Having rented, played, completed and then realised the truth. No choices made in the game actually had any difference to the story. I'm simply amazed at the level of lying that the gaming press contained with regards to this game. Even the advert implies some amazing branching path through the story, yet if you hang around and do nothing. You will immediately notice all the story characters also waiting about for you to interatct with them like dummies in a shop window. Try to loose a fight and see how long it will loop you through it until you win etc. etc.
And we wonder why gamers are becoming disillusioned with the games coming out these days.
After all the hype surrounding the game, the protracted development and all the rest of it... I was playing this game no matter what, if only to check it out for myself instead of listening to everyone else's ramblings. I was indeed surprised by how linear the game actually is, beneath the illusion of choice, but I kind of suspected as much - just different ways to arrive at the same place.
Does that really make me a "sucker"? For wanting to buy a game and then play it?