Larian Studios Forums Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga / Flames of Vengeance (English) Divinity II - The Dragon Knight Saga Status update - June 9th 2011

Yes. Maybe. But only in those areas were credit cards are common. Or paypal or so.

Here in Germany, for example, people are still relatively conservative. That's why Germany is still one of the biggest if not THE biggest PC market in the world - whereas everywhere else it's already gone the way of the console.
Which also means that credit cards and other payment methods are still not *that* common - at least not as much as in other countries.

Germany has still a huge boxed market. And UI'd only want it.

Many people who wanted to play both Drakensang games were incredibly annoyed (at least they expressed it so at RPGWatch) that both games are ONLY available in digital format ( = commercial downloads) in North America and in other non-european parts of the world.

With the digital distribution on the rise, a printed manual becomes luxury - it becomes something where people say : "Oh, wow, a PRINTED MANUAL !!!"

There are two ways :

- way of the mass market
- way of the specialized or/and high-quality market

An in-between might be possible, but I rarely see it. Middle-tier companies often do that.

I'm not a businessman and don't have any data to back up the following theories, but this aims to at least present a possible (but probably far from optimized) way to offer both digital downloads AND physical goods, while mostly maintaining the monetary advantage of digital only.

First, offer digital downloads. No reason not to.

Then, you could offer a physical copy of the game. Box, manual, all that stuff. But you could charge a higher price (something like $5-10 more, USD), to cover the cost of production and materials and all that stuff. Also a shipping fee, of course, if you'd sell it online (instead of, or in addition to stores).

Those who just care about the game can buy the digital download, those of us who value physical products have our desires met. To compensate for the availability of digital download, produce a minimum of the actual boxed game. The biggest problem here is finding the "sweet spot" between producing too few and having it be scarce (leading to many players who want a physical copy not getting it), and too many, leading to them sitting in a warehouse, unsold.

Of course, the idea is far from optimal, since I'm sure it's even harder than I would imagine to set up the physical production and then distribution of a product (especially if Larian does it themselves, if that would even be possible in the first place). Still, it IS a way to satisfy all parties to some extent.

Announcing a new game at Gamescom is probably already hard to do with all the big boys around and announcing their new projects ( THQ recently: http://3ds.4gamers.be/nieuws/6306/1/Grote-THQ-aankondiging-op-Gamescom) but if you want to be in the picture then you must convince the gaming press so they are willing to hear the Project D announcement.

Here some ideas. Maybe to expensive, but it might trigger something else. ^^
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Someone already said something about chocolate/pralines. That's a good idea imo. Larian is the only 'big' game studio in Belgium (next to the multiple smaller devs but they do mainly iphone games / small jobs for EA etc.).

You can do something towards the gaming sites that release previews, news, etc. Make a small box (size of a bongo box or something) put in something that's known from Belgium like a few chocolates. (Many chocolatiers can personalize a praline with a taste, color, etc.).

Also put in a small but fancy voucher that invites the press from those websites to come and hear about the announcement. No long textes or such. Keep it simple. Like "Hunger for more of these delicious chocolates? come visit us at the business area at Gamescom" for example. (just saying something ^^)

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As your booth is located in the business area you probably will not reach the gaming public. Find some people who are willing to do:

A) A flash mob. It's popular and everybody gets happy from it. Afterwards give flyers to the public with an website linked to Project D. Do something like Arenanet with their GW2 announcements. Keep a blog or such. No long textes, make small movies.

B) If Project D involves dragons, find a supplier who sells those carnaval chinese dragon thingies. Find some people to run with it around Gamescom. (Maybe a personalized dragon?)

C) I don't know how the Larian Booth looks like. So if it's all fancy and tight why not decorate it with stuff you can hire for a weekend? Things that are found in the previous games or in projec D. Like well I don't know how it is called in english but: - Zo een naamplaatje dat buiten hangt bij iedere winkel die je ziet in de Divinity games -. Some barrels, ropes, boxes,... you got the idea.

Hope this helps. =D

I'll say it again when it comes out if I remember it, but for France, sending one box of the game to Marcus might be a good publicity. He is probably the most popular video games journalist in France (my girlfriend would marry him if she could).

http://chezmarcus.fr/

Aah yes, Marcus, so many memories from his days on Game One. I think I would marry him if I could too!

^

Yeah and while you're here Axel, care to spill just a tiny bit of information of what we could expect from the next Divinity game? Such as the features...please?

So,have you guys already decided what you are going to do at Gamescom?

I started writing another update, but stuff got in between. Short of it - yes & no Need to decide this week, but somehow things keep on popping up. We've got a big competition thing press conference tomorrow which we somehow got involved in courtesy of my big mouth, and are now scrambling to set it all up in time. You'll see tomorrow

Hey nothing wrong with having a big mouth, sounds like it might be good publicity for you. Having said that a big mouth can be a bad thing; I really needed to keep mine shut today at work. I won't go into that.

Haha now I know, that Gameland event and your contest! Looks cool though and a good promotion for Larian! :o

True I posted the news in the General Forums but please find all about it here.

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