According to Gamesindustry.biz, only 2% of gamers consider the publisher or developer when purchasing a game. Graphics, gameplay, and price all beat it by a lot.
I have a question about the way the poll was conducted: did they ask people to put down only their #1 consideration? Because I’d be happy if publisher/developer was consistently #2 on people’s lists. I know I only consider publisher/developer after gameplay.
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I’m confused. Why is publisher/developer important, other than my blatant Sega fanboyism?
“Those who want to find more information about a game they are interested in are most eager to find out about graphics (40%), price (39%), and gameplay (38%). The publisher/developer is only interesting to 2%.”
I’m interested to know how they were able to get data from 119% of their responders. (Math is hard, let’s go shopping!)
I also didn’t see Designer on the list at all; did they not even give that as an option?
Brad:
From a gamer’s perspective, think of the publisher as an uber-reviewer: if you find reviews of your favorite games and the reviewer gives them all 10/10, then you might be inclined to try other games that that particular reviewer rates highly, since the two of you clearly have similar tastes in gaming. In the publisher’s case, when they like a game they shell out $10M or so, compared to a reviewer paying $50.
Developer is the one who actually makes the game, so why WOULDN’T you follow a developer that you like? The only hazard here is that a company that dumps all its staff and hires new ones will probably not make games that are consistent with each other, so there’s no guarantees. But if you follow a developer with low staff turnover, if you like one of their games you’ll probably like others.
Really you want to follow the lead programmers, artists and designers of a game. Unfortunately, if their name isn’t Will Wright or Sid Meier, you’re unlikely to see their name anywhere :P
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