Jaffe On Twisted Metal: "Not A Dud, But Not A Hit, Either"

I've noticed games are starting to have the effect movies have had for a while now in terms of gauging what's a hit. There are people that are already considering TDKR as a dud because it failed to match The Avengers in terms of revenue. Even though one had 2D pricing and the other had 3D pricing as well as other variables (the Aurora killings, the long awaited hype train for the Avengers...and many more).

It's a shame that we too often view a game as a bust because it doesn't sell in the multiple millions.

2 up, 0 down

True, LV. Funny that most of the films that I really liked never made it big in the box office.

0 up, 0 down

It turns out my college costs have went up, and my financial help has not.

I won't be able to buy video games for a while...

This is a game I planned on purchasing but no way to now.

0 up, 0 down

If you're in the States, BestBuy has had a gamer reward zone promotion that still is running until Saturday: $40 off Twisted Metal (both Limited and standard edition). I'm going tonight to pick up a copy.

Only thing is you have to log in to their website (myrzdotcom), activate your rz account if it's your first time logging in, and claim the offer.

0 up, 0 down

Hmm will have to look into it
Thanks

0 up, 0 down

Maybe it would've been a hit if it didn't have those STUPID IMPOSSIBLE RACES!!! Why take a formula that's tried and true then do something like that to it.

1 up, 1 down

I agree, while the new TM was good.. It wasn't the TM from my childhood that i loved. By adding stuff it made it worse. Remake Twisted metal 3 but with new maps an it sells like crazy. I think doing what they did alienated the older TM lovers.

0 up, 2 down

Read this one yesterday. That Jaffe really likes to tweet. The game did just fine. I just snagged it a couple of days ago. Some of the best days of my life were spent playing TM2 and 3 so I really had no choice but to pick up the reboot at some point. Once you get a hold of the foreign mechanic and controls the game really dose rock. The balance is all there. I wished it would have sold a little more, but it doesn't sound like anything to be concerned about.

0 up, 0 down

It was (and is) a hit to me. But I guess that doesn't always pay the bills.

Although I do agree with fatelementality (that's a mouthful) that the races suck...

---

Last edited by PoopsMcGee on 8/1/2012 12:22:03 PM

0 up, 0 down

I don't think it's that the younger generation don't know much about it. With TM and Max Payne I think they just waited too long to come out with them. Had TM came out in 2009 or 2010 I think it would've sold a crap load of copies. It was these years that gamers were asking and wanting a new Max Payne or TM. I think it was the long wait that killed interest for sequels.

Personally I'm going to get TM..but only when I see a price drop b/c I know I won't touch the story more than likely and it'll be all MP action for me.

0 up, 1 down

Sony shouldn't have dumb down the EU version.... Just sayin

0 up, 0 down

I played it for a bit but it just didn't feel the same as the old days. Plus the online was just horrible. Plagued with disconnections and not being able to join rooms made a lot of people jump ship. Hell the update to fix it still hadn't come out. Sony just didn't give it good support.

0 up, 0 down

Maybe it was Jaffe not supporting it.

0 up, 0 down

I disagree....I think it felt gameplay wise exactly the same as classic Twisted Metals. If they'd been given more time to do backstories for more than three characters, scrapped the frustratingly difficult race segments or at leat improve them and add more to the customization of individual vehicles...this game would've been unstoppable. As far as online play goes, I've never really had any issues and the fact that this is one of few 4-player split screen multiplayer experiences this generation speaks volumes.

2 up, 0 down

I'd like to add i'm a long long time reader but I've never taken the time to sign up until now. Feels great to join the community ;)

2 up, 0 down

Welcome to the community.

0 up, 0 down

TM isn't the kind of game that would sell well any more. Sorry Jaffe, but it is just not. It is not a car version of MW3. The only people who wanted to play it was the people who remember the older titles.

I remember them, didn't really care much for them. the TM reboot didn't interest me one bit.

0 up, 0 down

age had NOTHING to do with it!
hell $ony held a launch party 7 weeks before the game released, they had a competition you had to answer a few questions and within 5 minutes they already had 3 times the number of people they could accept!
yea, that tells me there was PLENTY of interest in the game!
hell even when they announced the winners there was hundreds of people begging on the message boards for entry.
hell they even had security guards out the front turning people away because there name was not on the list!
there was PLENTY of interest for twisted metal!

it flopped for 2 simple reasons.
1 it sucked hard donkey balls!
2 wheres the support?
wheres the DLC?
wheres the patches?
wheres the community events?
$ony and the devlopment team clearly did not have everything poured into this, because if they did it 1 would of turned out a hell of allot better polished than it did!
2 would of had FAR more support than it has!
the game comes out and weeks later jaffe announces his leaving the studio and opening a new studio.
yea, not a good look for the game you just released days ago!
3 far more marketing, i mean even for a $ony game this got bubcas!
$ony at least normally have fliers at game stores, posters and sometimes even signs at bus stops and shopping malls.
TM received NO advertisement what so ever!

so sorry dude, but dont go blaming the "casual" for the fall of TM.
theres pleanty demand for this game, it flopped because the fans wanted it more than the developers and publishers did!

0 up, 0 down

Look, I didn't own a Playstation or a PS2. I got a PS3 mostly as a Blu-Ray player back when players cost as much as a PS3, and ended up using it more for gaming than anything else. My last console was an NES (an upgrade from my Atari 2600). For most of two decades I was strictly a PC gamer.

I'm not a young gamer -- but I wasn't familiar with the Twisted Metal franchise, either. And let me tell you a problem I saw with ALL the marketing and commentary -- it was all about "Hey, Twisted Metal is back! Remember how much you loved it?!? Well, it's back and even better!!!"

Now if you hadn't heard of Twisted Metal before, that's not marketing at all. Frankly, as someone who likes racing games and car shoot-em-ups, Twisted Metal was right up my alley -- but it felt like I was completely ignored in the marketing, in an attempt to "bring back" old fans of the franchise. But I'm NOT an old fan of the franchise.

To this day, I haven't seen a trailer or ad for the game that looked like it was written for someone who had no prior knowledge of the franchise. Maybe that's fine, because I saw enough to know I might like it, and I played the demo and thought I might like it, but I have to wait for it to hit the budget rack. But it's a missed opportunity.

Don't assume every PS3 owner is a longtime Playstation fan. Heck, don't assume we know ANY classic Playstation characters or franchises - I recognize those that were cross-platform that I may have played on my PC back in the day, but that's about it. I'd have been a huge TM fan, and a huge Sly Cooper fan, if I'd heard of them back when they came out -- but I only heard of each when PS3-specific games came out. With Sly Cooper, the re-released trailers from the original games, so I was "sold" on the series just as players were originally sold on them - for TM, as a new game rather than an upgraded classic, that sale wasn't made. It wasn't even attempted.

0 up, 0 down

I really thinked it was the online IMO. Here is a direct quote from Mr. Jaffe himself

"@Sn0rg3 I have zero plans to work on twisted metal again. I have to assume the same goes for Sony, but I really do not know. My gut however Tells me that twisted fans will love what we are cooking up next :-). And I would love to return to the twisted metal world one day,just Via different play mechanics or a different medium altogether. But straight up car combat is not in my future."

He later states:
".@lewis_wood1 @Sn0rg3 The market for car combat just isn't as big but way beyond that: I'm just not that interested in going back2that well. Hoping to do some custom levels on my own or Little Big Planet Kart Racing Battle Mode tho...does that count?!? :)" (July 18-19; Twitter)

So, for now...NO MORE Twisted Metal :(

1 up, 0 down