MovieChat Forums > Grim Fandango (1998) Discussion > A Lament about the commercial failure of...

A Lament about the commercial failure of this game

posted 18 years ago by american_atrophy
5 replies | jump to latest

Having just played through Grim Fandango again after a two year hiatus, I'm just going to have a bit of a rant. I find it incredibly disheartening that this game is a black spot on the financial books of Lucasarts when it is clearly the most superior product they have ever produced. Its a tragedy that games like doom ship millions of units, when this ships hardly any at. Sure, computer games are not by any means high art with the exception of a very few (all that springs to mind are this and the gabriel knight games), but I do believe they are unjustly overlooked sometimes. But I suppose when we live in a world where The Da Vinci Code is more popular than something far superior like Kavalier and Clay, what can you expect? Everything has its market worth, but sometimes this seems disproportional to its intrinsic value. It just makes my shoulders slump when something as good as Grim Fandango is swept under the carpet.

And as much as I loathe Lucasarts these days (I want to write them a letter, but I know its totally pointless), I guess they're a money-grubbing corporation as well, and as much as we may love their older games, and I think its naive to think they give a damn about what we think. As long as they bring in the dollar, they get their christmas bonus.

End of rant.

[–] kgriggs75 18 years ago

I've actually bought the game 4 times. I bought it when it came out, then I had to buy a second copy a few months later(kid scratched it to bad to be played), I bought my dad a copy for christmas,and I bought a new copy a couple of years ago. I just fineshed the game again, so i could help my wife through it because she wants to play it. They defenatly got there money out of me for it, but for some reason it didnt sell well then. My guess is that there werent enough computers in houses back then.

[–] Pancakes_House 18 years ago

There were plenty of computers... Myst was the all-time top selling videogame at the time, and it was a PC game. And the current all-time best-seller is The Sims, another PC game.

The truth is, there just isn't a market for games like this. Wasn't then, and isn't now. Tim Schafer's followup to Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, was just as much a failure, and it's almost as good. Most videogame players just want an adrenaline fix, there just aren't enough gamers who want a thoughtful, well-written games. It's a shame.

[–] loyal_lumpling 18 years ago

It is a shame, a tragic one. Finally we get a computer game with an itelligent plot and wonderful dialogue, and no-one's interested. I've just oreded Psychonaughts and can't wait for that. Grim should've marked a change in the game world, but it's gone un-noticed. if only more people realised what a good game form it is, video games could soon catch up with movies, maybe even over-take them. Ok, it's a little far fetched, but it could happen. The best computer technology is already used and created for games (bar the super-duper CGI, but games are where it's roots lie) - how long will it be before the best plots are too?

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ollesvensson 18 years ago

Well, at least those who liked the game really liked it and so did the critics. It's kids (and adults too for that matter) who only feel comfortable playing CS that will destroy they little life and hope there still is when it comes to games being as well scripted as some films.