Is Keen not a profitable series?

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DHeadshot
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Post by DHeadshot »

TerminILL wrote:also quoting the post directly above you is one of the Great Forum Sins, we all know who you're talking to.
No it's not - it has to be done in case the above post is deleted or changed!
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Post by guynietoren »

Well maybe not a publicly expressed effort.

But that thought is curious if we have an ID insider petitioning our interests.
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Post by Apogee1 »

it is by far more complicated than you think. Trust me...I know.
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Last edited by -MegaTrip: on Thu Apr 12, 2012 3:45, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by DHeadshot »

The music is the best bit about Keen GBC! The guy who wrote it is world-famous for his work on the music of other games, most notably the Official Commodore 64 version of Ghosts'n Goblins!
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Post by Lava89 »

-MegaTrip: wrote:I'm sorry, I'm not trying to derail the thread here. I just had to let some of that out. I'm not making this a habit. Please resume talking about Commander Keen :p
No, you're fine! :) In fact, you've kind of revived this thread. And you're entitled to your opinion like everyone else :)

I'm not sure if I can agree that Keen GBC was an attempt to revive Keen. You'd think ID would have given the game a little more "umph" and put it on the PC or home consoles with some more muscle behind marketing and assets (such as having current gen graphics).

Don't get me wrong-- graphics and marketing don't make good games, but according to economics, putting more resources behind a product indicates to the public that the company cares enough about it.

For instance, I think its safe to say that Return to Wolfenstein was given a pretty good effort to revive the series.

Also, even though I'm sure a good number of people here would say that modern gaming as a whole has gone downhill, retro gaming is very much in at the moment!

Mega Man 9, Sonic Generations and New Mario Bros were huge efforts of retro fan service and there's always tons of retro game compilations being put out. Also, there's the virtual console and GOG. None of these things would exist if there wasn't a demand for older games, otherwise it would be a waste of effort and companies want to tap into what they think can profit off of.

So again, that goes back to my original question: why not Keen?

I can't accept that its just the market (as explained above) or the obscurity of the character (that's what reboots are for).

It can't be even the fact that Keen is a platformer, since a new Keen doesn't have to be a platformer. Look at Duke Nukem-- aside from the pogo stick, Duke 1 and 2 had virtually the same gameplay as Keen (you jump on platforms and you shoot things), yet they translated that into a very successful FPS. Metroid Prime is the same way, they even threw in some platforming elements into it. Yet not even a Keen FPS has been attempted, when that is the most successful genre at the moment.
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Post by RoboBlue »

DHeadshot wrote:The music is the best bit about Keen GBC! The guy who wrote it is world-famous for his work on the music of other games, most notably the Official Commodore 64 version of Ghosts'n Goblins!
Is that why he re-used some of the music from Gex 3?
Lava89 wrote:Mega Man 9, Sonic Generations and New Mario Bros were huge efforts of retro fan service and there's always tons of retro game compilations being put out. Also, there's the virtual console and GOG. None of these things would exist if there wasn't a demand for older games, otherwise it would be a waste of effort and companies want to tap into what they think can profit off of.
The big successful retro reboots are all from series that never disappeared, and were all console games. For some reason PC games never caught on as well as console games did, and aren't as well-remembered. On top of that, Keen is still owned by a big company with other, more profitable priorities, and similar franchises in the console world have fallen prey to the same circumstances (Battletoads, Alex Kidd, and E.V.O., to name a few).
Lava89 wrote:It can't be even the fact that Keen is a platformer, since a new Keen doesn't have to be a platformer. Look at Duke Nukem-- aside from the pogo stick, Duke 1 and 2 had virtually the same gameplay as Keen (you jump on platforms and you shoot things), yet they translated that into a very successful FPS. Metroid Prime is the same way, they even threw in some platforming elements into it. Yet not even a Keen FPS has been attempted, when that is the most successful genre at the moment.
There's no way an FPS based on a kiddie-looking franchise like Keen would sell well. I challenge you to name two successful kid-friendly FPSes, if you can even find two. :P
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Post by Lava89 »

RoboBlue wrote: There's no way an FPS based on a kiddie-looking franchise like Keen would sell well. I challenge you to name two successful kid-friendly FPSes, if you can even find two. :P
I decline your challenge, being that I probably won't find those type of first person shooters, as you said. My basic point was that Keen's profitability has nothing to do with the fact that Keen was a platformer. If companies wanted to make Keen work they'd fit him in whatever genre of the month they wanted him in.

But lets go back to the original question, do you believe Keen is profitable?
Last edited by Lava89 on Mon Feb 06, 2012 4:35, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by RoboBlue »

I don't believe Keen is any more profitable than a completely new franchise would be, and it's hampered by the fact that Id has other things to focus on.
If another company shows interest in Keen, Id will expect more money than a new franchise could reasonably be expected to deliver.

In short, a bargain bin Keen clone would actually be more profitable than a new Keen game.
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Post by Lava89 »

RoboBlue wrote:I don't believe Keen is any more profitable than a completely new franchise would be, and it's hampered by the fact that Id has other things to focus on.
RoboBlue wrote: On top of that, Keen is still owned by a big company with other, more profitable priorities
As I mentioned before, this thread has very little to do with what id software personally wants to do with Keen. If they thought Keen was profitable they'd just farm him out to other companies. Which leads back to my question as to why this has never happened.
RoboBlue wrote: In short, a bargain bin Keen clone would actually be more profitable than a new Keen game.
This is an interesting idea....so I guess what I could ask is this....what does Keen have that distinguishes him from other game series'?
Last edited by Lava89 on Mon Feb 06, 2012 4:43, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by RoboBlue »

Lava89 wrote:As I mentioned before, this thread has very little to do with what id software personally wants to do with Keen. If they thought Keen was profitable they'd just farm him out to other companies. Which leads back to my question as to why this has never happened.
Probably because it failed once already, and they don't care at all.
Lava89 wrote:This is an interesting idea....so I guess what I could ask is this....what does Keen have that distinguishes him from other franchises?
The pogo stick. :dopekeen
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Post by Lava89 »

The one thing a company would have to consider is that making a new Keen game would open the door to the existing Keen fanbase. Something a bargain bin clone wouldn't be able to tap into, which makes me wonder, how profitable are we?
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Post by RoboBlue »

We who? The PCKF?

I'd imagine that a game targeted solely at our forum would be pretty obscure. :P
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Post by Lava89 »

Lava89 wrote:a new Keen game would open the door to the existing Keen fanbase.
:dopekeen
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