Home Gaming N++ isn’t selling well, and that’s making its developers sad

N++ isn’t selling well, and that’s making its developers sad

3 min read
34

nplusplus

I loved the hell out of N+ on the Xbox 360. It was one of my favourite downloadable, Xbox Live Arcade games on that system, and the number of hours I spent piloting that little stick ninja around the myriad obstacles that want to kill him are immeasurable. And yet, I’ve not thrown down the $20 to pick up the latest incarnation of the once-upon-a-time flash game. It seems that not many people are, and it’s making the game’s developers rather sad. Sad enough for a bit of a whine.

Speaking frankly on NeoGAF, Metanet’s Raigan Burns lamented the game’s poor sales performance, blaming it on a lack of marketing, and on reviewers not wanting to give the game a go.

“This is something that we’re really frustrated with — we just expected that, since (IMO) the game is pretty decent/significant/interesting, we would be reviewed by everyone. But it appears that these days, unless you know someone at the publication, they’re not necessarily going to review your game!” he opined, adding that they didn’t have the time to get the game in to press’ hands.

Unfortunately, this is sort of a by-product of the rush we had at the end — our plan was to finish the game, then spend a month contacting press. Sadly we were all-hands-on-deck trying to finish the game right up until launch (we cut the launch trailer literally the day before launch) which means we didn’t have any time to contact press.”

n-plus-plus_011

As an aside, Raigan thinks indies are spending too much on marketing and advertising.

“we are sadly competing in a market where some indie devs spend literally half of their budget on marketing; IMO this is a sick and sad degenerate strategy to pursue, but O guess that’s just life under post-capitalism,” he said.

Mayhaps, had Metanet spent a little more on said marketing, they wouldn’t be in the situation they’re in now. The $20 price point hasn’t helped either. I love N and its successor, but even I’m hesitent to plonk down $20 on something that looks like a flash game – even if it has got a million levels and an editor. Perception is key – and it doesn’t matter how good the game is if it doesn’t hit the right price point. Idealism? Probably.

“Possibly we were also a bit idealistic, we figured that everyone would be able to see that N++ was something special, a game with a very high level of craftpersonship put into it; we figured that with only 3 people, we would rather put all our energy into making the game exceptional and hope that this would make it stand out and attract attention, but sadly a lot of people seem to be dismissing it as “essentially N+”.”

According to Burns, Metanet needs to sell five times as many copies of the game to break even.

“Anyway, the net result has been that the game isn’t selling very well; if we’re lucky then lifetime sales on PS4 will let us break even, but this is a stretch (it would require us to sell about 5x as much as we have thus far, not impossible but not easy either).
We would really appreciate it if anyone willing would write to Kotaku/Polygon/Edge/IGN/etc. to ask them to please review this damn game! It’s a bit horrifying that we’ve spent so long making something that we think is quite special, only to have it fall on mostly deaf ears.”

Last Updated: August 19, 2015

34 Comments

  1. Kromas,powered by windows 10.

    August 19, 2015 at 11:07

    My copy of ARK cost $20 so this game …. hell no.

    Reply

    • Ottokie

      August 19, 2015 at 11:16

      Used the same comparison when I read/red/saw the price xD

      Reply

    • Pariah

      August 19, 2015 at 11:43

      This.

      Reply

  2. HairyEwok

    August 19, 2015 at 11:09

    $20 for this game….. Skip.

    Reply

  3. The Sten

    August 19, 2015 at 11:10

    Isnt it ironic that a game where ur a ninja who is powered by gold is given such a crazy price tag and then doesnt sell?

    Reply

    • Jonah Cash

      August 19, 2015 at 13:58

      Just like real gold at the moment…

      Reply

  4. Dutch Matrix

    August 19, 2015 at 11:10

    Again I say: Why buy an almighty console to play a game that can run on a Nokia 2210?

    Reply

  5. Gavin Mannion

    August 19, 2015 at 11:10

    I was a massive N+ fan and spent so many hours on it… but N++ looks like N+ and I’m not spending $20 on that.

    Maybe if he stopped whining so much about the big guys not reviewing his game and actually put some effort into contacting the media and working with them he could drop the price to a reasonable $10 and sell bucketloads of copies.

    Reply

    • Geoffrey Tim

      August 19, 2015 at 11:13

      I’d buy this for $10, no questions asked.

      Reply

      • Dutch Matrix

        August 19, 2015 at 11:14

        Remember this when all you can play is Metal Gear Solid on a cellphone, and your console is gathering dust…

        Reply

        • Gavin Mannion

          August 19, 2015 at 12:56

          It’s a remake of a flash game.. it’s not worth $20

          Reply

  6. Hammersteyn

    August 19, 2015 at 11:11

    Patience dammit, I’d buy it but….

    Reply

  7. Umar

    August 19, 2015 at 11:12

    What?….If you don’t know anyone in the industry your game won’t be reviewed? Ahh right, as always, it’s the big bad media outlets that are shady and at fault…..

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      August 19, 2015 at 11:16

      They should’ve approached the SABC, they want to tell good news!

      Reply

      • Umar

        August 19, 2015 at 11:17

        NO…SABC should’ve approached them…no actually, tell one of the actors of 7 de laan reading this to write to SABC so they can review it.

        Reply

        • Dutch Matrix

          August 19, 2015 at 11:18

          Ek sal so maak!

          Reply

          • Umar

            August 19, 2015 at 11:18

            Dit is reg. You must maak dinge right.

          • Dutch Matrix

            August 19, 2015 at 11:23

            Yes. I will blow up any dev making this type of game…

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            August 19, 2015 at 11:35

            If you blow up a stick man game do you get a splinter cell game?

          • Deceased

            August 19, 2015 at 11:48

            XD

  8. Alien Emperor Trevor

    August 19, 2015 at 11:15

    We all know everyone’s waiting for it to be “free” on PS+. Shame, if only they’d released it on PC – then they could’ve blamed piracy. 😛

    Jokes aside though, what’s the point? That they made a game and nobody bought it? So what. Do we owe them something because they chose to make a game? No. Good movies/books/songs can make no money, bad movies/books/songs can make a ton of money – games are no different. That’s the risk THEY assumed when making one. Saying “but my game is awesome this is so unfair!” might technically be true, and yes it sucks, but… you know… welcome to reality.

    Reply

  9. Her Highness the Hipster

    August 19, 2015 at 11:20

    This feels all too familiar… game developers who don’t reach out to the press and then moan about exposure and claim it’s favoritism or some sort of conspiracy. UGH!

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      August 19, 2015 at 11:23

      WHY DO YOU HATE THEM SO?!

      Reply

      • Pariah

        August 19, 2015 at 11:42

        THEY DIDN’T SEND OREOS!

        Reply

        • Alien Emperor Trevor

          August 19, 2015 at 12:07

          But Oreos are like, the McDonalds of biscuits. :/

          Reply

          • HvR

            August 19, 2015 at 12:09

            it also McDonald’s biscuits

  10. Umar

    August 19, 2015 at 11:20

    I was never involved in the procurement of review copies…Jeez guys, I didnt know you have to actually register on neoGAF, make a thread and ask readers to ask Kotaku if they can review your game. Tough life….

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      August 19, 2015 at 11:25

      “Hey guys, I just created a new chocolate.”
      “Oh cool, where are we going to sell it?”
      “I dunno.”
      3 months later…
      “Our chocolate isn’t selling. Nobody likes us.”

      LET’S ALL WONDER WHY!

      Reply

  11. Deceased

    August 19, 2015 at 11:47

    Played the fuck out of the first game ( flash ) – didn’t do the second one ( #notapeasant ) – won’t get this one ( #notapeasant )

    Reply

  12. Craig Lotter

    August 19, 2015 at 12:22

    $20 for stick men? Ha, ha, that’s funny. To be fair though, complaining that they worked too close to the deadline and then completely forgot about marketing is just silly – consumers have literally a million choices – so you better put some effort in making sure that your product is out there!

    Reply

  13. WitWolfy

    August 19, 2015 at 12:43

    Well the game doesnt look so good to begin with.. Who plays these types of games anyways! Looks like a Facebook flash game IMO.

    Reply

  14. Ryan Souders

    August 20, 2015 at 18:48

    Not to sound like a dick, but perhaps if they want the game to sell better, it should be ported to Xbox One and PC as well. Building a fanbase for your game on the Xbox 360, and then making the sequel a PS4 exclusive will only alienate a large chunk of said fanbase. I loved N+, and as soon as I heard about N++, I was excited, but lost interest when I found I couldn’t buy it on Xbox Live or Steam. I’m sure many other fans of N+ feel the same way.

    Reply

    • Horace Kelly

      February 20, 2016 at 09:17

      Exactly how I feel

      Reply

  15. Callous

    September 12, 2015 at 13:34

    LOL Now you know to release it on the xbox next time where it belongs. Dumb ass. You know how many N+ fan boys you drove off when you pulled that Ps4 exclusivity bullshit? Get the fuck out of here. You know why you’re not making money

    Reply

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