NG.DEV.TEAM announces Gunlord for NeoGeo and Dreamcast!

[elmagicochrisg]

I was under the impression that the DC conversions of the NG Dev Team games sell in the area of 3000-5000 copies. Having 1/3 or 1/4 of the copies as "limited editions" seems like a lot to me - though I guess something like 1/3 or 1/4 of the total copies of Borderdown were "limited editions". I know they need to make it worth their while financially to get these different inserts and things pressed and printed, but when I hear the words limited edition for a game, I think in the realm of a couple hundred copies.

They should've just called it the 'special edition' then. That would've solved everything...

[CD AGES]

Dark: just so we are all on the same page. You are refering to the Limited Edition and not the Collectors Edition (aka: Dragon Box) correct?

They should've just called it the 'special edition' then. That would've solved everything...

I couldn't agree more with this statement!

And if you ask me. I feel like NG Dev is really milking the DC fanbase with respects to how many versions and bundles Gunlord can be purchased

[CD AGES]

Actually now that I think about it, 1000 units makes more sense now, considering there are 3 ways to obtain the limited edition SKU (by itself, as a double bundle with a standard version of Gunlord and as a "Dragon Box" which is essentially the double bundle with a DVD box slipcase and a mini poster. NG dev... have you no shame lol!)

[dark]

Yeah, I'm sure the 1000 copies is going to just be a "pool" of copies for NGDT to put into whatever copies of the dragon box / double bundle are ordered. That'll draw it down, but yeah, maybe special edition would have been a better descriptor

NG dev... have you no shame lol!

Haha, of course many people here have preordered the dragon box, and I myself am looking to get a copy of the limited edition (I just like the box art more)

[CD AGES]

Well I'm def not one of them (and even if I had the cash to drop for it I wouldn't) the price difference between a double bundle and dragon box is... well... shady! The difference between the 2 is a box and a poster lol! What the fuck does NG DEV think they are selling this to, NEO GEO consumers? LMAO!!!

[dark]

Just checked out the description. Looks like with the dragon box over the double bundle, you get 3 posters, the DVD cardboard case, an "exclusive postcard", and stickers. And you pay 30 euros more for these items. Ah well, I'm going to allow myself to pay 10 euros more for a different cover graphic and soundtrack.

[CD AGES]

Wow! When I bought the limited Edition of Fast Striker, I got stickers for free. Looks like they wanna charge now

[dark]

Oh you know what - on the double bundle page (and the LE page, and the normal edition page) they say in a different space that you get a pre-order bonus sticker set. But on the dragon box page, they don't say that at the top, and list stickers as an item you get in the package. I don't really care about stickers, but maybe they are different, or you get more of them with the Dragon Box

[CD AGES]

Yeah neither do I, But I sure like freebies at the end of the day

Anywho, I'm just still very turned off by the amount of bundles NGDT made for this game! Limited edition, standard and even newcomer bundle make sense but that's about it. And I find this Quite surprising considering I recall reading an interview where Mr. Hellwig stating that he was rather dissapointed with the sales of FS on Dreamcast! This really never made any sense considering only a few months later, their direct store had reprint editions of FS in the "Coming soon" schedule.

Here's said interview

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1 ... hp?print=1

[dark]

Yeah I read that interview too. I got the impression that Last Hope (the first NGDT release) sold a lot of copies quickly and then trailed off, while Fast Striker didn't have that significant of an initial bump, but sold more steadily. Even without the dreamcast versions, they still tend to sell through all 150-200 of their MVS (and later, another 150-200 of AES) stock for their games.

Not taking into account the manufacturing costs of making the custom PCBs/cartridges, and also that they spend several years making a game, and also that they aren't able to instantaneously sell all of their stock... - at 439 Euros a piece for 150MVS and 150AES copies of a single title, they are looking at 131,700 Euros (US$173,758) per the neogeo stock. In the most ideal situation, of 200MVS and 200AES at 439 Euros, they are looking at 175,600 Euros (US$232,195). That's really significant side cash if this is something the team does as a hobby.

edit: ok, they don't sell the MVS copies at the same amount as the AES. I got the 439 from Fast Striker AES, but Gunlord MVS is 319 Euros. They make a lot less, but I think it's still a pretty good return for a niche market like this. Unfortunately from reading the interview again, it sounds like NGDT do this as a full time job, and while that money sounds pretty good, considering it takes maybe 3 years for them to finish a title, and that the income is going at least two ways, that 131,700 Euros for three years divided by two turns into 21,950 per year per member of the team. Assume the DC release doubles that, each of the two members would make roughly 44K per year - except that the packaging and pressing and custom PCBs and hiring more artists and a musician would take several thousand out of that.

edit 2: lol I don't really know why I did that back of the hand loose financial analysis. It might have something to do with the fact I am in a library studying from my finance textbook atm.