Unigine OilRush Barely Does 800 Sales To Date

[MaxToTheMax]

First of all, I do think this could be a fun game. There are some concerns which I totally understand-- the one-license per platform thing was really "bad manners," and the "beta" should have been a free demo (it is just about the right size for a demo.)

I did encounter some consistent crashing with it, see the backtrace I provided in the other thread.

Despite these problems, the game looks promising and I don't regret preordering. But I can see how for someone else, this would be a dealbreaker. Basically, the sooner you get this fixed and the sooner you get this new download available, the less bad press you'll get.

[allquixotic]

Normally I think people give Michael a lot of unnecessary flak here, but this time I feel a need to raise an objection. Why should I buy Oil Rush? Why should I pre-order it as I've done with Minecraft? Am I supposed to feel like dirt for not throwing money at this game?

Frankly the game, while pretty, simply does not interest me. I applaud the work the Unigine folks have done to be sure. Of course I want the Unigine folks to succeed with their engine. However I just don't do RTS. I don't like the genre. They could have done 80,000 sales to date and I still wouldn't buy it. They could even put tits on it and I wouldn't buy it.

This is not a matter of me supporting Linux. If half-done, uninteresting, buggy games are what I'm being asked to spend money on so it will encourage others to come to the platform, I ask you what others you're talking about. Do we want the platform to be known as a haven for substandard developers to release things that can't gain traction elsewhere? Are we so starved and pathetic for games that we'll buy anything with a penguin on it whether we want it or not to artificially inflate sales numbers? I hope not. It's not my fault this game isn't a hit, and I'm under no obligation to make it one. Imagine for a second that we DO break out our wallets and hemorrhage money to make this game a hit, bad as it is (buggy, crashes all the time, uninteresting gameplay). Developers just might smell money and "me too" because that's what they think we want. And then we'll have GAMES! ...ones that we don't really like.

So here's my proposal to the developers and flamers: You make good games for Linux (i.e. Minecraft, Humble Indie Bundle), and I'll give you my money for them. Make quality games in the genres that I like and I'll throw cash at you. But don't, whatever you do, presume to guilt trip me for not buying something I don't want.

Great post, 100% agreed. I went ahead and pre-ordered "because it has a penguin on it", but I'm regretting my decision. I love RTS games; OilRush is extremely stable and fast at maximum detail on my HD5970 on Ubuntu; and despite all of that, I agree with you!

My main gripe is with the (lack of) gameplay depth. To me, it's not about the graphics, or the sounds, or the voiceovers, or the tits, or the performance, nor do I care (much) whether or not a game can run on open source drivers. To me, it's all about the gameplay.

OilRush simply doesn't have any gameplay, as far as I'm concerned. None! It is completely devoid of interesting mechanics. I was a little more sympathetic last time I posted about it, but the more I play it, the more clear it becomes to me that the "game" element of OilRush is little more than a facade.

Now I am actually an aficionado of the DemoScene, where people create 3d rendering run-throughs with amazing camera angles, awe-inspiring effects, and interesting philosophical or societal commentary. And even lacking of commentary as it is, I love watching Unigine Heaven sometimes just for the thrill of it. But what I dislike is that OilRush tries to be an interactive game, but in fact, it turns out to be little more than a DemoScene. I don't like when things pretend to be something they're not.

[Larian]

I probably wasn't clear enough: there's nothing wrong with getting what you want (and paying for it). However, that's not what has been helping Mac get more games, because eventually if you can't take risks and support games that are not 100% in your confort zone, you're not helping your platform. I'm not saying you (as an individual) have to support Linux gaming - people use Linux for what they want - or even Linux itself, because there's nothing wrong in that. Some people claiming that they support Linux gaming, yet backstabing any decent games that gets released under Linux and inventing a new reason each time is different though...

Miles, buddy, we seem to be embroiled in a massive misunderstanding. If I understand you correctly, you find fault with those who don't want to buy everything released for Linux. I just don't think this is a defensible position. It's not that Oil Rush isn't 100% in my comfort zone, it's that it is 100% OUTSIDE my comfort zone. It's not my thing. If I understand your reasoning correctly, am I not also preventing Photoshop from ever appearing natively for Linux by not purchasing other commercial software like CAD suites? And if I'm wrong, how are these two arguments different?

As to "backstabbing" games, did I do this? (You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.) My apologies if I came across that way. I wrote a post intending to address a logical fallacy which drives me up the wall. That post wandered a bit, yes. But I blame my poor editing and NyQuil.

So far, experiences the scale of Unigine has proved Linux is a cost that never pays off, so I don't agree that there's no "philanthropy" sense in it. Look at LGP, the guy has been losing his own money from day one, and has kept at it for years knowing he would never get it back. You can find that silly, and you can convince yourself that people always acts out of greed, but it's not how everyone works. Doesn't mean you have support them, but doesn't mean you have to paint everyone 100% selfish when the rational decision is obviously not supporting a platform like Linux.

I believe you're overgeneralizing. I'm talking about the way businesses stay in business. If you don't maintain a profit, you go under, unless you have very deep pockets. Otherwise, the mean people come and take away your lights and water. LGP is a special case as they have a benefactor. He won't go broke working at his hobby business. (And kudos to him!) But I don't recall being pressured into buying his titles either.

So you believe everything one said in this thread was addressed solely to you? As for the current build, it's freaking solid for a beta, don't know what you're asking for.

There were enough touchstones in your post that I could identify references to my own. I'm not quite conceited enough to believe it's all about me. But as I said, word of mouth here on the forums has not been flattering. That said, the Unigine guys shouldn't be judged on a beta. I just won't be interested in the game because it's a RTS. I'd like a game that isn't an RTS.

[/QUOTE]
Didn't see it as an appeal to pity. More like a wake up call for any game developer considering Linux for anything else than an inclusion in the HIB, especially for high profile game teams, since Oil Rush is the closest to a high profile day one support we've had in a while. And maybe a wake-up call for anybody that still believe the lack of Linux support from game publishers was only due to their prejudices against the Linux market.[/QUOTE]

As a philosopher, I assure you it was the Appeal to Pity fallacy. Textbook definition in fact. But since you mentioned the HIB, I think we need another one to go just like the last two have. That's good stuff for getting attention for Linux. As for Oil Rush, we're not even close to having enough data to make a pronouncement. At least I don't think we are. What's it been, a week? Maybe two since preorders started, and with next to zero marketing? What kind of numbers do you think it deserves at this point? I've certainly told all my friends who like RTS about it, but that's the best I can do.

It could have been any AAA game, any different genre, and you'd get similar results and endless rationalisations for why said game Linux sales failed.

That statement is as bold as I believe it to be inaccurate. Is the game fun to play? I don't know. It wouldn't be fun for me. I've purchased almost every AAA game Linux has gotten, and look forward to the stuff coming down the pipe. Hell, I was juiced for Primal Carnage until they bailed, and I won't be buying it for Windows as a result.

Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, RTS isn't as popular as you think? Or that maybe after watching the demo video people don't think it looks fun? I'm in both camps, if you were wondering.

[cynyr]

It proves the game looks shiny. Most of us knew that. It does not for example show us that the game play is novel or makes sense. Heck, make it a shiny tower defense game and i probably would have forked over the the $20, but for an RTS, I'd like to run it for a bit as I'm not even sure i like the genre.

the requirement for even an 8600GT on linux seems to be all sorts of odd. Considering about 1/4 of the results for the 2010 graphics survey were "intel"

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=lgs_2010_results&num=1

If blizzards asks for $20 for a new game for a pre-order, Its not much of a chance on my part, same goes for Atari, bioware, and a few other dev houses. While I admit your engine demos look fantastic, they are in no way indicative of game play.

Well since i can't find the edit button, let me add that the hardware requirments does in no way say which drivers will be needed. So it looks like radeon or that opensource nvidia one that i can't remeber how to spell are supported as long as you have one of certain type.

Also no info on which libC you need (not all of us run ubuntu) or for that mater any other system libs. I hope you are not bundling them as that is just asking for a huge security hole later...

[cynyr]

game play

OK, wait until the release. We have our own quality level (take a look at Heaven benchmark, for example) so I would better prove that the game worth attention by a good release rather than words.

It proves the game looks shiny. Most of us knew that. It does not for example show us that the game play is novel or makes sense. Heck, make it a shiny tower defense game and i probably would have forked over the the $20, but for an RTS, I'd like to run it for a bit as I'm not even sure i like the genre.

the requirement for even an 8600GT on linux seems to be all sorts of odd. Considering about 1/4 of the results for the 2010 graphics survey were "intel"

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=lgs_2010_results&num=1

If blizzards asks for $20 for a new game for a pre-order, Its not much of a chance on my part, same goes for Atari, bioware, and a few other dev houses. While I admit your engine demos look fantastic, they are in no way indicative of game play.

[stqn]

With all the articles about Unigine Heaven running at 5 fps and how great the graphics are and stuff, I just assumed my hardware would never run anything made with this engine and didn't bother reading anything about Oilrush.

Am I wrong? Could I play this game on my Core i3 with the open-source Intel drivers?

[MisterIO]

"Crappy game"?
Even in beta, the game shows more promises than anything the competition has in the tower defence 20$ budget. Do you call any game "crappy" unless it retails at 50$ and is supported by a massive EA ad campaign?

Yeah yeah, exactly what you said, that's why I love "Europa Universalis III"!

[miles]

I was considering pre-ordering, but now I think I am going to not pre-order the game just out of sheer spite for that whiny rant.

Do you really believe peer-pressure will increase pre-orders of a game that won't be released until at least June?

ROTFL obviously you do believe in it... I never saw a more retarded attempt at blackmail!

[miles]

Actually I doubt I've ever asked for crappy games for Linux, what I(and I guess most of the other people you're talking about) complained about was that top tier games weren't made for Linux too, that's all. The solution to that is to make a top tier game for Linux too, period. Otherwise I'm simply gonna keep my Windows partition that I never use except for games. That said, I wish the best to their game engine, it's hopefully very good and they'll find a great market for it, sure I hope so!

"Crappy game"?
Even in beta, the game shows more promises than anything the competition has in the tower defence 20$ budget. Do you call any game "crappy" unless it retails at 50$ and is supported by a massive EA ad campaign?

[miles]

Well, why shouldn't I get what I want? This argument is really bad. If I bought a game that was released for Linux, this does support Linux gaming. Or is your definition of support to buy whatever is released for Linux whether one actually wants it or not?

I probably wasn't clear enough: there's nothing wrong with getting what you want (and paying for it). However, that's not what has been helping Mac get more games, because eventually if you can't take risks and support games that are not 100% in your confort zone, you're not helping your platform. I'm not saying you (as an individual) have to support Linux gaming - people use Linux for what they want - or even Linux itself, because there's nothing wrong in that. Some people claiming that they support Linux gaming, yet backstabing any decent games that gets released under Linux and inventing a new reason each time is different though...

This is a business offer and the folks at Unigine most certainly want me (and whoever they can get) as a customer. Realize that they are making this game (and their most AWESOME engine) for multiple platforms. They didn't develop Linux support out of some sense of philanthropy. They hope to sell licenses, and cross platform compatibility sweetens the deal.

So far, experiences the scale of Unigine has proved Linux is a cost that never pays off, so I don't agree that there's no "philanthropy" sense in it. Look at LGP, the guy has been losing his own money from day one, and has kept at it for years knowing he would never get it back. You can find that silly, and you can convince yourself that people always acts out of greed, but it's not how everyone works. Doesn't mean you have support them, but doesn't mean you have to paint everyone 100% selfish when the rational decision is obviously not supporting a platform like Linux.

You have an interesting definition of "support." Consequently, I would appreciate you getting out of my wallet. You have no idea what I paid for the HIB. I believe your statements say more about your own habits than they do mine.

The 15$ comes from the HIB numbers, don't worry, nobody cares about your bank account...

What part of "I don't like this kind of game, and should not be guilt-tripped into buying it" did you miss? This wasn't about the game not being done or being done poorly (Although several people in the comments section gave me that impression of the current build.)

So you believe everything one said in this thread was addressed solely to you? As for the current build, it's freaking solid for a beta, don't know what you're asking for.

I take issue with "Boo hoo, they haz only sold 800 preorder in a week" appeal to pity.

Didn't see it as an appeal to pity. More like a wake up call for any game developer considering Linux for anything else than an inclusion in the HIB, especially for high profile game teams, since Oil Rush is the closest to a high profile day one support we've had in a while. And maybe a wake-up call for anybody that still believe the lack of Linux support from game publishers was only due to their prejudices against the Linux market.

It could have been any AAA game, any different genre, and you'd get similar results and endless rationalisations for why said game Linux sales failed.

If they can't get 10 times more preorders between now and June, they'd better call it quits - they should still get good sales on PS3, considering the qualities of the game compared to the competition, and turning to the Mac market, which has always proven more welcoming, should help them too. Meanwhile, "Linux" gamers will sure find plenty of reasons why the lack of sales wasn't due to the market, but entirely to the game developer...