What is bohemia's real business plan/direction for the ARMA game engine in the future

[AVIBIRD 1]

I know ARMA is like legos and burger king (have it your way) but this zombie thing is killing me and most of the new clientele are worse then the typical run and gun console players that usually play battlefield,COD,GRAW RB6 ect at least they were into a military game and not RPG/MMORPG. What's next for DAY Z adding vampires that you need to stake in the heart or werewofls that you need to cap with a silver bullet to kill.

I am happy for BOHEMIA and there recent success financially and with expanding the game engine use for other games ie take on helicopters, command carrier, and now Iron Front Liberation 1944 however, this has me very concerned about the future of the real tactical shooter presents in the market. I have been a long time supporter of bohemia going back to the split with codemasters and have always been in bohemia's corner. Bohemia said that ARMA 2 was going to be the last game in the series a while back so when AO,BAF/PMC content was announced as well as ARMA3 people stopped thinking about the statement the company made a while back. What is the real long term direction (market plan) for the company? Is it outsourcing the game engine to other developers to use as they see fit. Is it making more RPG/MMORPG titles? Lets face it real tactical shooters like ARMA is a small target market. Why do you think all the others have changed the fundamental game core? To capture a bigger piece of the market share. I truly hope we are not seeing this shift from bohemia. Only time will tell the truth.

[PuFu]

I know ARMA is like legos and burger king (have it your way) but this zombie thing is killing me and most of the new clientele are worse then the typical run and gun console players that usually play battlefield,COD,GRAW RB6 ect at least they were into a military game and not RPG/MMORPG. What's next for DAY Z adding vampires that you need to stake in the heart or werewofls that you need to cap with a silver bullet to kill.

I am happy for BOHEMIA and there recent success financially and with expanding the game engine use for other games ie take on helicopters, command carrier, and now Iron Front Liberation 1944 however, this has me very concerned about the future of the real tactical shooter presents in the market. I have been a long time supporter of bohemia going back to the split with codemasters and have always been in bohemia's corner. Bohemia said that ARMA 2 was going to be the last game in the series a while back so when AO,BAF/PMC content was announced as well as ARMA3 people stopped thinking about the statement the company made a while back. What is the real long term direction (market plan) for the company? Is it outsourcing the game engine to other developers to use as they see fit. Is it making more RPG/MMORPG titles? Lets face it real tactical shooters like ARMA is a small target market. Why do you think all the others have changed the fundamental game core? To capture a bigger piece of the market share. I truly hope we are not seeing this shift from bohemia. Only time will tell the truth.

1. day-z is a mod. One designed by a BIS developer in his own time afaik, but still a addon. A2 is still the lego of games. It didn't change anything, you can still can have your private games just as you want it.
2. TKOH is, at least in POV, a commercial R&D project, that had the scope to develop further the engine, and test a certain market for further possible games.
3. Carrier Command is NOT using RV generation engine.
4. Iron Front is not developer by BIS, but by a third party game developer who licensed the engine from BIS.

i really don't understand the point you are trying to make here? The fact that BIS is running a business?

[nettrucker]

Well we should be glad that things are expanding for BIS I wouldn't worry too much. ArmA III is going to be a further developement of ArmA II. Iron Front liberation looks pretty cool, have seen a gameplay video and in the end it is ArmA.

DZ has definetely helped to gain new players. It shows you just, how you can achieve something completely different regarding the normal core play.

Furthermore I'm actually glad they didn't stop with ArmA II. I've played BIS games for ten years now and I'm not getting tired of playing it. It's the game of the games in IMO.

Nothing has really changed apart from new players discovering ArmA and the awesomeness of the game.

ArmA can be everything you want it to be . . . you know that . . . so what's the big deal?
cheers.

[AVIBIRD 1]

i really don't understand the point you are trying to make here? The fact that BIS is running a business?

Yes BIS is running a business that was satisfield with it's market share of the tactical shooter population. As we know this population of players has been on a steady decline for years. The overall market demands are small compared to other game types so the overall profits have been minimum over the years. How can you not see or understand my point. It's hard to walk away from the money once you get a taste that is my conern for the future of arma as we know it. Only time will tell how this how thing will play out.

[[FRL]Myke]

...and another ranting and whining thread from my old friend. So far, what are your contributions to the armaverse, i mean, beside those threads and posts in here which moves absolutely nothing?

Or in the words of another great man: "Don't ask what BI can do for you, ask yourself what you can do for BI".

[NoRailgunner]

Well DayZ is imo a popular mod because Zombie themes are actually popular. AFAIK persistent database and looting stuff is new to public Arma MP. Imo BIS could use these newly / tested knowledge/insights and add it to A3 MP - for example: a player selects a faction (NATO/Resistance/Iranian Forces) and plays (alone/in team) through certain missions on Limnos. Just imagine this as big pvp/tvt or coop mission on Limnos..... survive/adapt/win. Why BIS should change the core military part of its cashcow or even replace it? Can someone be 100% sure that on A3 release people will still like to kill Zombies or play "horde mode"/"fraggfest" ad nauseum?

[Nicholas]

Bohemia said that ARMA 2 was going to be the last game in the series a while back so when AO,BAF/PMC content was announced as well as ARMA3 people stopped thinking about the statement the company made a while back.

I had always thought that this was just a rumor, not official. I had never seen any official statement.

[Defunkt]

I had always thought that this was just a rumor, not official. I had never seen any official statement.

Indeed, I think they once said that they didn't wanted to be limited to the milsim genre only and somehow that's passed into legend as the certain end of ArmA.

[Flash Thunder]

They're doing great obviously and BIS is leveraging multiple projects to further R&D their engine platform RV. You got VBS and TKOH.

The strategy for Arma 3 this time around is playing it safe, more development time, and testing for a more stable launch to avoid negative press and further disregard towards the Arma franchise.

DayZ exposing more people to the Arma franchise and increasing sales dramatically.

If BIS partnered up with EA or Activision I would start to worry but as of now BIS has grown a lot since I joined the forums in summer 2009.

Also happy that talented people in the community are being acquired by BIS to work on projects for salary that they used to just do for fun and on their own time.

Great stuff!

[Jedra]

BIS are not a Charity, they have to make money. They have it harder than most though as they need to continue to please the core fans while also trying to attract new customers. Games like ToH and Carrier Command will help them expand their market (especially as the latter is to receive a console release). Also by releasing stuff such as Take On Rearmed they are trying to attract people to the Arma market by cross polonation.

Ultimately though they have to make money, which means attracting new customers so in some respect they have to keep one eye on what is going on in gamer world and try and apply some of that to make their products more attractive without straying from the core ideals. I guess the alternative, if they want to stay niche is to go to a subscription model.

In the case of DayZ I imagine the sales boost would have been unplanned and somewhat of a nice surprise, but it will have opened their eyes as to the possibilities. You can bitch and moan about the new guys coming in, but without them BIS would find it hard to survive. Most will move on to other things, but some will stay and perhaps go on to make the next killer mod...