LionXavier
It Wandered In From the Wastes

Well, I can't really question that; ovbiously, making a mod of their previous game was way cheaper than making a proper game from scratch. What I can't totally understand from a business standpoint is the move of buying a franchise to make a game with hardly any resemblance to its games.terebikun said:First, I didn't say that top-down is dead, but I will say that from a business standpoint, Bethesda's decision to use Oblivion mechanics over the old ones was the better move.
Then they could have been better off by making the next installment of Oblivion/TES instead of wasting money on another franchise just to make a clone of it. If it REALLY were a matter of names (like those who explain the success of recent top-down games by it belonging to a particular brand affirm) then, judging by the considerable amount of money the Fallout name cost to Bethesda, there really aren't excuses for not making Fallout 3 in the line of its predecessors. At least, not others than the mere will of its owners.Because, like you said, if it were a matter of names, Oblivion at the time had a larger fanbase to draw on.
Unfortunately, we'll never get to know that. And no, I doubt any judge would accept someone's imagination as evidence.Not that top-down couldn't have sold well, but FPS was going to sell more. For proof, try to imagine a Bethesda-made top-down F3 outselling the current one. I just can't picture it.
The only thing that fanbase/brand loyalty explain, if anything, is the guarantee of a number of sales, by logic no more than the number of sales of the previous game (and that is considering that EVERYONE who bougt it liked it enough to buy the new one, which is a stretch). If the new installment sells more than the previous did, then the phenomenon goes far beyond simply fanbase loyalty. That is what contradicts those who affirm that top-down is dead/outdated/unprofitable and attribute the success of recent games that have it to just the fidelity of fans; those who consider that that's the only thing that allows companies to be able to afford making their game with such a horrible and outdated PoV.Second, fanbase and brand loyalty are one of the biggest reasons sequels can outsell their predecessors, especially considering the first days of release. People are more likely to buy things they are familiar with. This is true in any media. I don't know how this contradicts anything.