Despite receiving many positive reviews and stirring up a ton of controversy, Epic Games and People Can Fly’s over the top action-heavy shooter Bulletstorm was not a financial success. This news comes straight from Mike Capps, president of Epic Games.
Bulletstorm was something of a parody of the shooter genre, as demonstrated by the Duty Calls trailer and accompanying free-to-play game. Wisely, Bulletstorm never itself never took itself too seriously, instead focusing on solid, innovative gameplay and grandiose amounts of vulgarity, which ultimately got it in trouble with Fox News.
Despite receiving a huge marketing campaign as well as many incentives for potential purchasers (such as access to the Gears of War 3 beta), Bulletstorm failed to meet Epic Games‘ financial expectations. Speaking to Kotaku, Capps said simply that the game, “didn’t make money for us.”
Fortunately, there is a silver lining: Capps believes that People Can Fly put out an amazing title, and that he can’t wait to see what the studio does next.
“The studio has shipped AAA content, the next thing we do with People Can Fly will be great.”
While it would have been easy for Epic to have People Can Fly focus on something more traditional (i.e., Gears of War content, mobile games like ChAIR’s Infinity Blade), Capps remains happy that they took the risks they did. Take, for instance, the skillshots that Bulletstorm introduced. Focused on rewarding gamers for their creativity by giving them points for each kill made, the skillshots awarded ever more points for ever more creative kills. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough to sell the public on the game.
Finally, as with Homefront, Bulletstorm is an example of an original IP that found it difficult to compete with other, more established, franchises. It released very close to the competition, with titles like LittleBigPlanet 2 and Dead Space 2 hitting store shelves around the same time, and Killzone 3 releasing literally the same day.
Did you pick up Bulletstorm when it released back in February, and if so, were you glad you did? Are you surprised that the title wasn’t more successful?
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Source: Kotaku
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As a rep from Sony told me, they likely would have helped with Bulletstorm’s promotions for PS3 had it not released at the same time as Killzone 3. It’s almost guaranteed that the extra promotion would have helped its sales. Either way, it’s good to hear that, even though it wasn’t a financial hit, the studio is still being backed. Maybe there’s a shift happening in the industry that is allowing for more creativity, even in major titles.
While I can’t validate that it would have made sense, afterall IIRC Bulletstorm and Killzone 3 released on the same day. I know I picked Killzone 3 over Bulletstorm, (though I did purchase the latter early last week). It’s a shame Bulletstorm didn’t release during the less crowded Summer season, it really is a fun game and it deserves more sales. I hope People Can Fly gets the funding for a sequel; maybe they’ll make up some of the money through DLC sales.
Major credit to epic, and just another reason to admire the attitude they take to their games. Aside from the sheer amount of fun and creativity they expressed in the lead up to Bulletstorm, to hear them say that they put out a great game regardless of sales is something more people should realize. Split/Second, Blur, and Homefront are all examples of publishers seeming to think that dollars earned is more important that credibility earned. Hopefully Epic realizes that the amount of money they put into making People Can Fly a recognizable name, and a studio to look for for new ideas, as an investment, not a waste.
I agree I have to give props to Epic on this. It’s always great to see support going to developers with great ideas. Though the game wasn’t a commercial success I hope to see more of what People Can Fly will offer and I won’t make the mistake of waiting until their game drops to $40 next time.
lol EPIC FAIL
After reading many reviews, I’m interested in buying the game, but not that interested and always told myself I wouldn’t buy it until it dropped in price. I’ve no problem paying full price for great games, but personally, I like a bit more substance in my games beyond just “shoot this thing, now do it again only better”. Nothing against that, I’m willing to bet I’ll have a lot of fun with Bulletstorm, but compare it to a game like The Wicther 2 or Arkham City, where the story and characters offer so much more and you can see why I and a lot of people would rather wait until Bulletstorm has dropped in price.
everyone i know bought this game for the gears beta and as soon as it was over they traded it in or sold it.. i dont know one person that played this game more than a few days lol.. it was fun but was strictly a renter title
I blame a good portion of the low sales on the box art of the epic edition the game (which seems to be the only edition you can get around here). Every time I see this game on shelves I have to do a double take to remind me I’m looking at Bulletstorm. The cover makes it look like it’s a DLC pack for a B grade ATV game. Also, I thought Bulletstorm ruled, but not by enough to sustain the strong following that I’m assuming they were banking on.
It’s a shame. I wish more people appreciated the game instead of getting it for Gears 3 BETA. I thought the studio was very creative and courageous, even, to take such a wild approach to the genre. In our generation, most people lack imagination and originality, therefore, they can’t see the true potential of this game, which relies heavily on the player and player’s own vision; some say it’s repetitive, while it’s really the player themselves being repetitive, not knowing how to play a game using ways other than point and shoot (in this case, point, pull, kick/shoot).
It’s a shame.
Yeah it was a good game. I didn’t care for the online much though, mainly because not too many people were into it. I wish it would have been given a better chance because I would really love to see Bulletstorm 2. I still have my copy and I’m not trading it in. I like the approach they took and I think it has a special place in my game collection. Hopefully they can come up with something else that’ll get more people to support it.
I was really glad I picked up Bulletstorm. I got the game through Gamefly, but I almost kept it (money got tight). I am going to go out and buy the deluxe edition of the game as soon as I have a little cash left over because it needs CULT status in the gaming community.
I tried this game out and really liked it alot. I loved the added challenge of being creative with how you take people out and the fact that it didnt take itself seriously was refreshing. I however, never bought it because I didnt think it would have lasting appeal
The thing that would have made it a must buy for me would have been expansion of the co-op aspect. Split screen option would have been a nice touch (though I believe they said it wasnt possible? Not sure why…). Playing a game that makes you laugh is more fun with other people than when youre alone. They could have made the campaign co-op as well and given extra points to players for co-op kills (ie flare gun then the other player kills the enemy mid-flight). They couldve also added competitive co op to the campaign with bonus points to the top scorer of the mission. With those additions this game had potential to be a must-buy for co op fans. Not saying it would have turned it in to a best seller, but it certainly could have helped.
THAT is wat u get for pissing off PC gamers People Can Fly. Tho I recently finished Bulletstorm on PC, it wasn’t really a terrific game if u think about it (I returned the game after 2 days). It’s repetitive, the plot and characters shallow, its jokes r lame and gameplay relies too much on quicktime events + ‘innovative’ kills. I did enjoy the first few hours but after a while it just feels being dragged on and on with the worst plot ever. 6/10 from me.
The game was alright, definitely a rental. Unfortunately there was way too many glitches (getting stuck between your AI players, checkpoint save on top of an obstacle that gets you stuck, etc.) which makes me wonder how rushed they were to put out the game at release date. Almost seems like they didnt even test the game out. Bad first player shooter? Not even close Turning Point takes that title.