Press Release: GALCIV DELAYED!

MarkG · January 28, 2003, 17:00

Quote:

Montreal, Quebec. January 28, 2003

Publisher Strategy First and Developer Stardock announced today that the release date for their upcoming 4X space-based strategy game, Galactic Civilizations, has been updated to March 25, 2003.

The decision to hold back the release of Galactic Civilizations came after the recent delay of Quicksilver/Infogrames Master of Orion 3.

"Gamers have been waiting a long time for the next generation of space based strategy games to arrive. By ensuring that these two games come out at different times, players will have the opportunity to get to know each of them," said Brad Wardell, Project Lead on Galactic Civilizations at Stardock.

"As a result of our close relationship with Infogrames we've been given this unique opportunity that will benefit both of these games and their fans," says Steve Milburn, Director of Marketing for Strategy First. "They are so
different in so many ways that we feel the best thing for fans of this genre is to give them time to enjoy each game on its own."

Asmodean · January 28, 2003, 18:00

On the GalCiv site (www.galciv.com) Galactic Civilizations project lead, Brad Wardell, has posted this extra info:

Quote:

For the past few years the strategy genre has been dominated by real time strategy games. Gamers who have been looking for strategy games that focus on depth and empire building have had far fewer options to choose from in recent years.

But in 2003, that's changed. With Masters of Orion 3 (MOO3) and Galactic Civilizations, a new opportunity to demonstrate the viability of turn based strategy games has arisen. Last week, MOO3 went gold which put its release date right near where GalCiv's was planned.

Both games being released at retail at the same time would have harmed sales of both as most gamers can't afford to buy two games at the same time. With both games coming out at different times, it increases the odds of both games having a good retail performance. And Stardock, with its successful commercial software products such as Object Desktop, can afford to keep developing the game during this time.

Stardock plans to use the additional weeks of development time to iron out remaining playability issues, add more polish type features, and add minor features that were originally planned for GalCiv 1.01. Stardock has budgeted several months of development time after release to add new meaningful features to the game based on requests players make.

As a result of this change, there will be a public beta 5 of Galactic Civilizations to existing beta testers. Non-beta testers can pre-order the game from their favorite retailer by clicking on the purchase button.

Of course, I'm very happy with the fact, that BETA 5 is coming.

Asmodean

The Templar · January 28, 2003, 21:26

AHHHHH! Game developers are killing me! Last semester, Vice City came out a month before exams. Now GalCiv has been moved to about a month before exams. I suppose I could buy MoO3 to get it out of my system, but why?

Jamski · January 29, 2003, 03:28

They WANT you to fail your exams ! I mucked up the revision for my final college exams playing Civ1, so they (the software firms) have been doing this for years. Uneducated people are more likely to be unemployed. Unemployed people have more time to play big stratagy games like Civ MoO etc. They just want to increase future sales by keeping us out of a job.

-Jam

BigFurryMonster · January 29, 2003, 16:54

It's a strategic decision: GalCiv =or= exams.
See?
The game has more depth than you realize.

GodKing · January 29, 2003, 17:23

Good one BFM

notyoueither · January 29, 2003, 23:27

Damn! I should have sent that beta form in.

Oh well, I have some other important matters to tend to anyways...

Jamski · January 30, 2003, 03:54

More important than playing games ? WTF ? Give me just one example please.

-Jam

The Rusty Gamer · January 30, 2003, 03:58

I guess this is all my fault. I had no idea they would actually take me seriously. See here.

Jamski · January 30, 2003, 04:16

That's it !

I'm getting on the next plane to Kiwi-Land to get you. Never joke with game developers. Remember that they spend all their time out of the real world, which makes it likely that they will follow ANY RL suggestions that sound interesting.

(Incase New Zealambers have an even stranger sense of humour than me, I'm not _really_ angry

)

-Jam

Felch · February 25, 2003, 18:40

Well, it'll give me time to save some money up at least. Hope the extra time goes to good use.

notyoueither · February 26, 2003, 21:49

Just opened up MoO3. Inside is a card advertising Gal Civ with the note it is available March 26. Good move.

Of special interest is that the Infogrames logo appears beside that of Stardock and Strategy First. Very interesting.

Asmodean · February 27, 2003, 04:37

Yeah...Strategy First is owned by Infogrames.

Asmodean

notyoueither · February 27, 2003, 20:13

Well there you go. I learn something new today.

asleepathewheel · March 1, 2003, 22:31

Strategy First is owned by infogrames?

well, that would explain the HOI debacle. Very much the same release procedure of Civ3. Release, then send out patches every few months.

Urban Ranger · March 2, 2003, 06:07

Sadly, most game companies do that nowadays, starting with MicroProse years ago but the main culprit is M$.

SSG and SSI release solid games though.

Alex · March 2, 2003, 18:14

Hm, this delay is good, because I'll have time to leisurely follow how other players react to MOO3 (and a few days are not enough to do it), therefore I'll be able to make a more informed decision wrt which game I'll buy. But I have to say that GalCiv looks really interesting now...

vee4473 · March 7, 2003, 21:12

the delay is bad.

I've already decided to buy Galciv instead of moo.

I think the idea that Galciv is delayed because Ig doesn't want to compete against itself with moo3 is bogus, because they are described as two very different games, therefore I don't think they compete against each other.

At least they are 2 different games to those who are interested in these types of games and read about them.

I guess IG knows that the overall box description will make the casual buyer think they are the same type of game..."so lets not make them choose in the store"...let's put a month or so in between 'em so that when the casual dude who bought moo3 shows up a month later, he will give galciv a chance after having put moo3 on the shelf to collect dust."

maybe i am off base here.

I just can't stand these release decisions...as if the marketers are so omniscient about who will buy what and when...they aren't.

They give their opinion just like everyone else.

RELEASE IT!!!!

Draginol · March 9, 2003, 18:58

This post is pretty old. It wasn't recently delayed. It's already in manufacturing now with availability on the 26th of this month. Just over 2 weeks from now.

The dleay worked out well for everyone. IG was nice enough to put a flyer in the MOO boxes and we had time to finish Stardock Central.

vee4473 · March 9, 2003, 19:33

I was talking about what I thought was a more recent decision to delay until the 26th so as not to coincide with moo3.