GR: Future Soldier delayed until 2011.

[Poita]

Warcloud.

Other peoples opinions not being to your taste does not give you justification for making personally demeaning comments. If you don't like a persons post just skip it. No one is 'forcing' you to read it.

The fact is that GR has been on a shift towards style over substance since GR2 to the point that it is only GR in name now. I'd say that is grounds for complaint. Sorry if you don't like our point of view but we like to express ourselfs on the matter, especiall when it concerns the bastardisation of the best game we every played.

[=warcloud=]

Warcloud.

Other peoples opinions not being to your taste does not give you justification for making personally demeaning comments. If you don't like a persons post just skip it. No one is 'forcing' you to read it.

The fact is that GR has been on a shift towards style over substance since GR2 to the point that it is only GR in name now. I'd say that is grounds for complaint. Sorry if you don't like our point of view but we like to express ourselfs on the matter, especiall when it concerns the bastardisation of the best game we every played.

Don't be such a drama queen, i'm entitled to an opinion, a reply etc etc, if ROCKY or a mod dislikes me for whatever reason then i guess i'll get a ban?. There was no malice or the likes, so sit back and relax dude. This sort of banter is common on chat game forums. just because some don't get what some wanted or something has changed that they don't like, to put it simply, then it's undestandable that angry emotions fly and gamers are feeling despondent etc and want to air their views dislikes etc etc, but a continuation of stupid remarks and drivel is over the top imho and why should we who like a said product or a fresh change/new direction, or something a little bit different etc, be made to feel some what disparaged by remarks as "kiddies" etc etc. It's every where you go now days, i'm having the same issues with stupid immature remarks on the official Splinter Cell Conviction forum.

[=warcloud=]

Warcloud, No one is 'forcing' you to read it.

You can't always know what has been said in a thread unless you read it, think about that ok, thanks.

The fact is that GR has been on a shift towards style over substance since GR2 to the point that it is only GR in name now..

That's not a fact, that's just your and others opinions.

[NoQuarter]

Oh Lordy, I seem to have unintentionally ruffled Warclouds feathers with an all-inclusive term of endearment... sorry about that.

I do however, find it somewhat ironic in that in voicing his displeasure in other board members manner of posting, he exhibits the same juvenile delinquent/idiotic stupid immature mannerisms he professes to take issue with in the first place.

Warcloud, little tip here -for what it's worth. Consistency breeds credibility... and you have just been found to be lacking in both.

____

Apologies, all others.

[JohnTC02]

I have asked you all before to keep this a clean debate, now you've all made your point here let's get this thread back on topic, unless you want me to start deleting your posts.

[=warcloud=]

and you have just been found to be lacking in both.

Ditto.

[Kimi]

I can now confirm that the beta is delayed as well. If you want to read the full message we put together, it's up on the website.

[Rocky]

No surprise really considering the delayed release date, thanks for the confirmation Kimi.

[FifaJay]

Thank you kindly Kimi for letting us now earlier than later.

Made a typo above.

"now=Know"

[Poita]

Yeah Kimmy ooooo and thank's for being a girl with a cute sounding name so all the cancelations, delays, game changing er . . changes are more palatable.

Oh and Warcloud. Insulting someone direcly isn't banter. Thats just you being uncivilized. And hmmm, I don't seem to have a problem skipping over most of your posts. Try it, it gets easy with practice.

Now, GR1 had gimping (substance) later GR had sliding which in now way that i was aware of affected the way I played (style). QE2

[Rocky]

Warcloud and Poita, ignoring a moderators instruction is not permitted. A warning has been applied to your accounts.

To avoid further warnings, try not to comment about other members of the forums.

[Scott Mitchell]

I think E3 will show us how bad the damage really is...

I mean, is it being delayed because there are too many other games being released around that time; because it's not on track to be completed by then; or a combination of the two.

The press release is kind of conflicting and implies any of the above can be true. The Ghost Recon Future Soldier presentation at E3 will be very revealing...at least I think so.

[NoQuarter]

That Very Competitive Environment just keeps getting more difficult for Ubi to compete with. Once they think they have all of their content, multi, and buzz polished and/or um, visualized, IW comes along side and then laps them -leaving them in the distance -again.

Sad to think of the next installment of the GR franchise as just an Also-Ran but then this has been an on-going tragicomedy for so long now that it would be out of character had it (current game direction & time management issues) not occurred.

[Pave Low]

I mean, is it being delayed because there are too many other games being released around that time; because it's not on track to be completed by then; or a combination of the two.

The press release is kind of conflicting and implies any of the above can be true

Yes, it is interesting that initially it was stated

Ubi CEO Yves Guillemot said: "Due to a very competitive environment we've decided to move the game out of the Christmas quarter into the March quarter."

"It will also provide additional time for our developers to realize their ambitions."

yet in the latest item posted it's portrayed as

While we would love nothing more than to bring you the game we’ve been working hard on earlier rather than later, it would only be a disservice to both the community and to our team to release GRFS before it is ready. Being granted more time means that we will now have more time to work on final tweaks and polish, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that!

so....was it delayed so it doesn't have to compete with other games for peoples Christmas list....... or because it wouldn't be ready when originally planned

or perhaps is it that it would have been ready for Dec 10 as originally scheduled ... but they now aren't so confident that it would be of an equivalent level to compete with the other Holiday season" titles, so is now getting extra features and more "polish" than was original planned/budgeted eg to turn it from just a "good" or "great" game to "blockbuster"

sounds a little like the devs had more ambitions for GR:FS originally than they were being allowed, yet now are being allowed to implement some stuff that may have been on the cutting room floor

"GR:FS the Developers Cut" anyone ?

[CR6]

sounds a little like the devs had more ambitions for GR:FS originally than they were being allowed, yet now are being allowed to implement some stuff that may have been on the cutting room floor

I hope that is the case Pave. I hope the devs have some unique ideas that will set the next GR apart from the rest of the fray.

Unfortunately, even since GR2 I have felt there has been an unfortunate trend of Ubi brass looking at other successful military shooters (especially the CoD series) and directing the development of new iterations of GR to be more like the competition (scripted storyline, hero character, use of vehicles) instead of honing in on what made the GR a unique gameplay experience.

So it's more a matter of GR "catching up" to other games rather than either setting the standard (which is now MW2) or carving out its own style of gameplay. I do see gamers salivating at the thought of a next Modern Warfare or Halo, but Ghost Recon? What could Ubi do to make it so that gamers crave the next game in the series?

Also want to mention that feature creep tends to be detrimental to a game. A decision to delay a game this early may give enough time to implement some new features successfully. However, I think more games are successful when they are able to stick to a singular vision and execute on that.

It's probably a given that Halo Reach and CoD Black Ops will own the sales this Christmas in this genre. Don't see EA backing down with the MoH reboot though.

In the end, Ubi is making a responsible decision to their shareholders by delaying GRFS. Its sales will likely be better in spring 2011 once gamers start to fatigue from Black Ops, MoH, and Halo Reach and are looking around for their next fix.

[=warcloud=]

Delays are nothing new, Ghost Recon Future Soldier will be awesome, for me anyway hehe. More time for tweaks, polish, creative development. Really looking forward to this game, and hope to try out a demo in the not too distant future.

[MeanMF]

Unfortunately, even since GR2 I have felt there has been an unfortunate trend of Ubi brass looking at other successful military shooters (especially the CoD series) and directing the development of new iterations of GR to be more like the competition

They're doing the same thing this time, except they're now also taking ideas from Killzone and Halo. Unfortunately for them, both of those games have sequels coming out that surpass the games that GR is trying to catch up to.

In the end, Ubi is making a responsible decision to their shareholders by delaying GRFS. Its sales will likely be better in spring 2011 once gamers start to fatigue from Black Ops, MoH, and Halo Reach and are looking around for their next fix.

I'm not convinced of that. They delayed Splinter Cell Conviction the same way, but they ended up releasing it during a terribly slow period for video game sales. With no competition to speak of it ended up being the top selling game for the month, but with only 486k sales in the US that's nothing to be happy about (in March that would have been good enough for 7th place). And how much are they really making on those sales? The game was being discounted $5-10 within a couple of weeks, and now it's already down to $45 after a month.

If they had released in November or December when more people were buying games, maybe they could have sold more - sure they wouldn't have made the top 10 for the month, but still actual sales might have been better. And maybe they wouldn't have had to cut the price as quickly. Also they don't have the playing field to themselves unless they release very early in March - Gears of War 3 comes out on April 5th.

[Scott Mitchell]

@MeanMF - It's a good point...when I saw that SC: Conviction topped the charts for so long but then read the actual sales figures I was shocked. If I'm not mistaken, the DLC for MW2 on the Xbox 360 alone doubled all of the sales for SC:Conviction...and then the DLC came out on the Playstation 3 and outsold SC: C by double again.

GRFS is still up against some heavy competition next year...almost all of the media outlets that traveled to Paris for the media event compared GRFS to Gears of War. Gears of War 3 is due to release around the same time as the revised GRFS release date. With a big name like Microsoft backing GOW3 (meaning, I'm sure there are going to be some deals made to give GOW3 a lot of media blitz) GRFS is going to be in the same position it was in with a pre-holiday release.

BT

Something funny I read in a different forum. For the sake of the author, I won't post their name...

"Who cares if some aspects of the game are unrealistic, i would sacrifice awesomeness for realism any day of the week. Besides MW2 is one of the most realistic FPS games on the market."

Oh...what a hoot!

[CR6]

I'm not convinced of that. They delayed Splinter Cell Conviction the same way, but they ended up releasing it during a terribly slow period for video game sales. With no competition to speak of it ended up being the top selling game for the month, but with only 486k sales in the US that's nothing to be happy about (in March that would have been good enough for 7th place). And how much are they really making on those sales? The game was being discounted $5-10 within a couple of weeks, and now it's already down to $45 after a month.

Well, it's possible that Convction could have sold more before Christmas, but in my opinion that would have been because there weren't many other similar games like it. (It's closest competition was likely Ubi's own Assassin's Creed 2.)

Moving Conviction to spring and getting #1 spot gives Ubi marketing some bragging rights (not sure how they will maximize this though) whereas if you look at NPD data for Dec 2009, Conviction wouldn't have even cracked the top 10.

Also, the reason Ubi moved it wasn't because of "competition" reasons, but rather to boost it's profits for what would likely be a weak quarter (similar to why movie studios move summer blockbuster "tentpole" releases to a different month to spread out their profits).

Anycase, the latest figures from Ubi's investor's briefing last week indicate Conviction has sold 1.8 million copies, which means it likely has made a profit. And that is mainly sales for the 360 (I'd be curious about how many PC sales there were with the DRM). Why they haven't announced a PS3 version is beyond me.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/18/assassins-creed-2-ships-close-to-9-million-conviction-sales-re/

GRFS has way too much competition this Christmas, and the next GR is not even on the radar for most of my gaming friends, whether casual or hardcore. Even if it has to compete with GoW3 next year, it is "different" enough from a sci-fi shooter that it will stand out better during that time frame.

[MeanMF]

I'm a little wary of that 1.8 million number. I'll bet that it's shipments and not retail sales. That would explain the rapid drop in retail price - lots and lots of copies sitting in warehouses.

[Johnny]

Yeah definitely.The stores always buy more than they need.The store where I get games has Conviction at $49.99 already.Thats where Rogue Warrior was around the same time after release. Doesnt sound like much, but a $10 price drop in such a small amount of time says something,not to mention the huge "ON SALE" stickers lol.

[Kimi]

I'm not convinced of that. They delayed Splinter Cell Conviction the same way, but they ended up releasing it during a terribly slow period for video game sales.

iirc Conviction's delay meant a massive redesign of the game, not just a few months.

[MeanMF]

iirc Conviction's delay meant a massive redesign of the game, not just a few months.

Haha yeah I should have been more specific... I'm referring to the last round of delays, not the major overhaul. The first announcement was for a November 2007 release date. That got shelved. Then at E3 the game was re-announced for November 2009. Then it was later pushed back until February and then April 2010 for "a bit more polish".

[CR6]

I'm a little wary of that 1.8 million number. I'll bet that it's shipments and not retail sales. That would explain the rapid drop in retail price - lots and lots of copies sitting in warehouses.

Yeah, I kinda am wary about that distinction too, but several other articles from reputable sites say that Conviction "sales" were 1.8 million, and AC2 "shipped" or sold 9 million (depending which article you read)

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28603/Ubisoft_Posts_Losses_As_Assassins_Creed_II_Nears_9_Million.php

[Scott Mitchell]

Ubi Kimi hosting a few polls to gauge community feedback to the news of the GRFS delay. Read about it here.