Interplay and Volition's Second Attempt

Interplay and Volition's Second Attempt

Freespace 2: Sci-Fi Sim of the Year Edition
by: Chucker - April 14, 2000 for Freespace Watch

The Problems

When Freespace 2 was first released, it was well received in the gaming community with several reviews applauding the game for its originality and outstanding qualities. Unfortunately, relatively few people bought the game when compared to many other newly released games such as Quake 3 by huge margins. This was due to the lack of advertising for Freespace 2 by Volition's publisher, Interplay. There were no television commercials or site banners, and there were few magazine ads. I myself didn't know it even existed until I heard about the release of the Freespace 2 1.20 patch.

Another problem was Freespace 2's availability in stores. Many software retailers apparently held no confidence in Freespace 2, and many had only one copy in the entire store. In one software store I went to, there wasn't a copy of the game anywhere. In another store, I managed to find one hidden behind a Tomb Raider 3 box on one of the shelves filled with Tomb Raider games.

These problems meant a lot of financial grief for Interplay. If you would like to know specifics, Orange wrote a mini-editorial about Interplay's losses due to their lack of support and predictions on how well they could have done if it was done properly the first time. It can be reached from the articles index.

Interplay's Solution

Many reviewers acclaimed Freespace 2 for its originality and excellent features, with most having declared Freespace 2 as the Best Space-Sim game of 1999. Due to this response, Interplay decided to do like Half-Life did and re-release Freespace 2 with more extras added to attract more people to the game. Freespace 2: Sim of the Year Edition included:

• Freespace 2 (Patched to version 1.20)
• 12+ new user-created missions
• The single player Templar campaign (Converted from multiplayer)
• The single player gauntlet missions (Converted from multiplayer)
• New multiplayer validated missions from Volition
• MP3 files, wallpapers, and other miscellaneous downloads from the Internet

Some people felt they were being cheated having bought the original Freespace 2 release, but a great majority of the new features can be downloaded from the Internet, excluding the Templar campaign.

Results

Interplay's decision to re-release the game is a success. Computer retailers feature the game near the front with its own shelf dedicated to it, and many magazines run FS2 ads every issue. People are being exposed to it more, and as a result a new influx of people are being introduced to Freespace and its fan sites on the Internet. However, not all of the faults have been remedied. Interplay STILL doesn't seem to realize the full importance of advertising to Freespace's future. What they have done is definitely good, but it's not good enough! Maybe someday they'll realize that games don't just sell themselves, but that people have to know of the game's existence! Despite that however, the SOTY edition is selling quite well at the moment, and I hope it can stay that way.

My Expectations for the Future of SOTY

I'm going to step out on a limb here and try to predict the future of the SOTY release. Basically, it all depends on if Interplay actually wakes up and advertises the game in the way it should have been in the first place. If they do, a lot of people who've never considered the game will be able to hear how absolutely outstanding it is and will buy it. If they don't, well, Freespace will still sell well, but a lot more slowly than it could be and eventually it could stop.

What WE Can do About it

Since Interplay isn't doing well in the advertising of FS2, we can help out a little. Tell your friends, acquaintances, schoolmates, and anybody else you can think of about Freespace. If we can spread the word enough, Freespace will finally be recognized for the ingenious work of art it is.