The License Game
Announced officially a couple of days ago Cryptic is following up City of Heroes with Champions Online, based on the old pen and paper superhero RPG. Except for Godlike I’ve never been into superhero games (and even then I’ll admit I haven’t actually gotten around to doing anything with Godlike other than reading the rules and wondering when we can fit 65 hours in a day so I can finally play all the games I want to play), so I can’t say I’ve ever dabbled in Champions. That said, I never got the impression that it was ever that big.
While being an official version of the PnP game is sure to please its existing fanbase, and maybe make a few folks curious about its origins, I’m willing to bet that for the majority of players they won’t even get the association. Already right before the official news hit and it was still nothing more than whispered fancies folks were talking about it like it was some sort of original IP, unaware of its tabletop roots. Which leads me to ponder…
Does attaching your game to licensed property that isn’t megawhopping huge like Star Wars or Harry Potter or Max Headroom (he’s still big, right?) make any type of difference? Sure, you won’t be out the big bucks like for one of those properties, but at the same time that’s money that could have been put someplace else.
I would hazard a guess that for most games that do tie into some almost famous license the key driving force comes from the creator’s love for the particular license, rather than the idea that sales will increase exponentially. In the case of Champions Online, that seems to be the case. Or at least that’s the way it’s being spun.
But then what about the old Jane’s games? Did that really make a difference? Weren’t most gamers buying them because for the most part they were good sims, not because of their name?
Have you ever bought a game simply because of the license? To show your fanboism?
Hi,
There’s a single good reason to go with an existing IP when making a computer game : you already have a working design to start with.
When you’re a computer programmer wishing to make a really good game all on your own you have to be good at two things : programming and game design. Not many people are really good at both, so using an existing IP, even when relatively unknown, gives you a flying start.
Greetz,
Eddy Sterckx
Comment by Eddy Sterckx — 2/26/2008 @ 8:59 am
But in most cases you’re dealing with experienced developers that have already proven themselves. Cryptic didn’t need the Champions license to base a working design off of, they already had City of Heroes. And no one would accuse Relic of needing design work, but that didn’t stop them from doing WH40K. And to think somewhat differently, Combat Mission began life as Squad Leader, but obviously the lack of IP didn’t hurt the game.
In theory, yes, it should be a great jump start. But in reality it seems like the folks who are using the licenses could do just fine by themselves…
Comment by Scott — 2/26/2008 @ 8:54 pm