Analyst Downgrades Majesco

[fitbabits]

Again, while over on the new Next Generation (http://www.next-gen.biz) website.

JMP Securities analyst Ingrid Ebeling downgraded Majesco today to market perform from market outperform citing weak sales of Psychonauts and Advent Rising.
You can read the whole article here (http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=302&Itemid=2).

You know what really gets me? The fact that a flaccid piece of shite like Batman Begins (the game) has probably sold more that these two titles put together. It's failures like these (and I use the term relatively) that give me cause for concern where new and refreshing designs and concepts are concerned.

[Tricky Thumb]

Batman Begins and Advent Rising were both horrible failures in my opinion. Psychonauts is of course a great game, but by no means a heavy hitter in terms of longterm value.

[Deadend]

Advent Rising was at least fun when it worked right. Batman Begins was not fun no matter what.

[Hellstorm]

Pssst. Console owners don't give a crap about Tim Schafer.

[GunnyMo]

Psychonauts was brilliant. The concept of Advent Rising was awesome; it's execution blew chunks. Any "namebrand" item will sell no matter how bad it is. It's sadly the nature of things. Personally, I think this voice actors strike is a good thing. Game publishers should tell these whiny actors to fuck off. I think if the focus is taken off of how expensive and cool your voice talent/celebrity likeness is then great games like Psychonauts would sell better.

[Triprotic]

Psychonauts is a fantastic game, but it would never sell well, it's not mainstream enough. Shame really, games like it wont get made too often.

[dr_qwandry]

yet another gem for me to own. Although I congradulate Tim for making a rather smooth transition from adventure to action.

[Nikells]

Psychonauts is a fantastic game, but it would never sell well, it's not mainstream enough. Shame really, games like it wont get made too often.
From what I've seen of it (the demo), Psychonauts is a pretty straight-forward platform game.
I mean its a very funny, well written platformer but to be honest I was tired of jumping about collecting assorted bits of crap 7 years ago.

[thecrazyd]

Well then you have not played enough of it. While the generalities of the gameplay are not a jump forward, it holds its own very well, and even grows in depth as new abillities are unlocked. What is inovative is how every level plays totally different. From playing in an Escher painting, to playing a board game, to playing as a giant monster destroying a city, the game just works, and the story is byond excellent. You are judging a game from playing the tutorial.

[Heretic Machine]

I don't see how it's not "mainstream" either... It just doesn't have the marketing to get higher sales.

[Lodin]

Oh joy! I guess this means Double Fine is pretty much doomed then?

[slink-jadranko]

And Psychonauts has jumped straight to being one of my top ten games of all time. I admit I'm biased, as Grim Fandango also reigns there. I hope they do release it in Europe where I suspect it might do better. Hope so at any rate.
Has it been aadvertised suitably in the States?

[Wyrm]

I havent seen an ad for it.

Advent Rising, on the other hand, is a steaming pile of shit. Great story, horribly executed with super duper show stopping bugs. Got to love that one.

[if76]

Ok let's be fair Advent rising was not a critical hit any more than Batman Begins was.

Psychonauts is probably pretty damn good but nothing really looks appealing about it other than the gameplay. Yes that should be enough but c'mon. They might as well try to market a game starring Care Bears. The main character looks like the thing from Bugs Life...or was it Antz.

For Psychonauts to succeed it would have had to have phenominal reviews. It got 8's accross the board.

[*Legion*]

Pssst. Console owners don't give a crap about Tim Schafer.

And PC owners were really keeping him swimming in money, eh?

[jeffool]

I loved the game. But I'm one of those Schafer fans that actually did attempt to keep him swimming in money on the PC. And Doublefine doomed? Nah. In fact, they're hiring (http://www.doublefine.com/jobs.htm).

Though it's important to point out that the professional rankings are good. In fact, 91(XBox), 90(PC), and 85(PS2.) (From gamerankings.com (http://www.gamerankings.com).) Though the player rankings are lower. (7.9, 7.5, 7.1, respectively.)

[Ghost_Saint]

He's kind of jumping the gun. The Xbox version of AR is out, but the PC one just came out today(which means no one has got it yet since it's still an hour before any store opens as I'm typing this). Supposibly the PC version will be a lot more stable than the Xbox version since they've had more time to clean it up, and the frame rate thingy won't be much of a problem because you can just scale the graphics and everything else unlike on a console.

[Grimgrock]

I never noticed what the big deal was with Advent Rising. They had big trailers for it before.. a showing of ROTS but it didn't look at that great (I think /yawn sums it up). I couldn't even tell what kind of game it was. Any information would be great.

[Varsity]

Just so long as Pyschonauts still gets a European release...

[EGO]

Both of them are "okay" games with a bit above average advertising (a couple of TV commercials run for like a month, maybe?), what do you expect?

Critical acclaim doesn't matter (luckily for some, unluckily for others). It only matters on your resume if you're a game developer. Sales matter to publishers and they control the budgets, the projects that get started and the advertising that push the sales.

[Royal Fool]

Psychonauts was awesome.

I am the Milkman.

[netcraazzy]

I never really gave Pyschonauts much thought because it looked like a pretty bland platformer, I might have to check it out though if what you guys are saying is true. The last platformer I played that truly impressed me was banjo kazooie.

[bait]

Psychonauts was better than I expected. It even had a small hint of adventure gaming with a couple of puzzles.

It was a nice change of pace. Thumbs up. I paid full price for it new...if you want to see more of this type of game, encourage your friends to pick it up.

I've always said PC gaming was better and will be better when it's not "mainstream". Mainstream means you need to appeal to Joe six Pack shopping at Wal-Mart. His taste in games probably doesn't match mine.

[fahrvergnugen]

Psychonauts is fantastic. You really, really need to pick it up.

Probably the best game I've played in '05.

[Racknahm]

I had to walk 2 and half miles to get Psychonauts for the PC. Circuit City nor Compusa had it for PC.
Unfortunately, Psychonauts has only sold around 14,000 copies last time I checked.

[Hijinx]

Just started Psychonauts the other day. After I finish I'm going to reinstall Grim Fandango :D

I also played Advent and I still enjoyed it inspite of some glaring issues.

[mister_slim]

Watching the minimum sales targets go up and up is depressing. Considering Majesco was actually taking some chances (picking Phantom Dust when MS decided not to release it in the US, for example), it's not surprising analysts are questioning their future.

[Philo]

Game rankings matter more than you'd think. As a matter of fact, I think many big-time developpers are obsessed by it to a fault: they're gonna put stuff in a game which is gonna raise the ranking but won't necessarely make a better game for the majority of people. (One easy example: online features.)

A great ranking with poor marketing still means your game will sell very little. But pour millions of dollars in marketing and get a crappy rating, and your game will sell way below your expectations. If you want that magic 'mass market' niche position, you'll need good rankings AND good marketing.

Now, this is in relative terms, of course. I'm sure EA is disappointed in Batman Begins figures, but they probably sold more than Psychonauts ever will.