Misleading statements made by a computer games publisher

[Steelgrave]

Hello, MR and welcome to the forums!

[Jarhead0331]

I hope you like our next game from them. Flash Point Campaigns: Red Storm.

Hello.  Day one purchase.

[Mad Russian]

Hello, MR and welcome to the forums!

Thanks. I'm a little late getting here.

Been really busy this past 18 months working on games for you guys to play. I hope to bump Matrix' numbers up to 500%....:)

Good Hunting.

[Bison]

Hello, MR and welcome to the forums!

Thanks. I'm a little late getting here.

Been really busy this past 18 months working on games for you guys to play. I hope to bump Matrix' numbers up to 500%....:)

Good Hunting.

Awesome. 

[GDS_Starfury]

I hope you like our next game from them. Flash Point Campaigns: Red Storm.

Hello.  Day one purchase.

Ive been enjoying getting away from WW2.

[Staggerwing]

It's about damn time Mad Russian! Good to have you here!

[MikeGER]

Hurra, Mad Russian is here  :)
...wait until you guys see his outstanding scenario design, the upcoming FC (series, i hope) will be a new classic i bet 8)

and btw, if i would be about to buy into Slitherine, i give a damn about sales numbers bragging
its all about ROI and EBIT ! 
and the hard number in the Financial Statements of the past years.
(and even those can be 'doctored' -without breaking a law- by company purchases and shifting accounting between subunits of the group. Stunts pulled by the CFO and his specialist layers accountants)     

[SgtRock]

Who cares? If they make games I like, I'll buy them, if not, I won't. Is Matrix the same company it was 5 years ago, no but, neither is BattleFront or any other company.

I've seen this comment a couple times already.

I care, and I'll tell you why:

Because it has to involve the PC wargaming niche as a whole. So many developers have rushed over to Slitherine, like they're the  Second Coming of Christ or something, and now most of the market is under Slitherine's influence. If Slitherine fails, then all of these developers have to either start publishing their own games again, or find another publisher, or go to Steam.
Let's be honest, it's the developers that create the games, and it's their ideas that become the games.

So, it's pretty worrisome. I care for the hard working developers here. The developers are a larger part of the wargaming niche  than people give them credit for. The publisher is a much smaller part than people give them credit for. 

But feel free to sit behind your computer screen a say: "I like them if they make good computer games. If they don't, I wont buy them. I don't care about anything else."
Sure, that's all good and fine for your wallet. But if these developers disappear, or are influenced to create shallower games by their publishers, then the wargaming niche and the games we all love to play will die out.

Your wrong, If Matrix/Slitherine closed today Gary Grigsby and others would still make games only they would be sold/published by someone else.  Just look at Fury Software makers of Strategic Command Series, they are currently sold by Battlefront but, their new games will be sold/published by Matrix/Slitherine. Many Developers are going to Matrix/Slitherine because they are the largest seller/publisher of wargames and can offer things smaller publishers can't. In another few years the Matrix Games name will likely just go away as Slitherine consolidates the web sites, forums & purchasing systems. If Slitherine continues to keep developers happy they'll stay, if not they will go elsewhere.

[Nefaro]

Ive been enjoying getting away from WW2.

Likewise.

[Dolan50]

I'm not a fan of Slithereen/Matrix either.

They fumbled the ball as far as I'm concerned with the Actung Panzer Operation Star(GTOS) series.

Matrix made a lot of empty promises about selling the game at a higher price,but that they would keep the game updated and current so you wouldn't have to learn the patching process and also offer any new DLCs for the game the same way.

So far the only promise they kept was selling the base game for a higher price then anyone else.

No support,no new DLCs for the game being sold by them,no updated version of the base game-Nothing!

One of the moronic and idiotic reasons they gave for lack of support for the game was-they didn't have exclusive rights to the game.
I guess what they actually meant was they didn't have the right to exclusively gouge you.
Leaving you with no other choice but to eat the garbage they are exclusively serving you and over charging you for!

They obviously don't like competition.Especially,since it means they would have to actually work for your dollar.

I wasn't pleased with the way they handled APOS(Go figure)and I'm very sceptical of their business practices,motives and sales figures also.


Hopefully,they will never publish anything I would actually want and only "they" have the exclusive rights to it.Then that could actually kind of suck!!
They can run their shop however they like and see fit,just not with my cash.

So to me this is just another example of typical corporate BS.Exact exclusive rights,buy out or undercut the competition till they are no longer a threat to your way of doing business.Then raise the price while gradually lowering the content,quality and service.
At the same time feeding you bunch of garbage about how great their product is and no one or any one else for that matter does it better and how lucky you are to have a great company like this to serve your "niche" gaming needs,Ad infintum-nausea etc...(Rriight!Blow some more smoke up my ass.I can still see some daylight and I can still remember what it looked like).

Stroking your ego and pick pocketing you at the same time.Nice try and no thank you,Slithereen/Matrix.Find another sucker,I'm not swallowing none of that garbage!

[Huw the Poo]

Well said, Dolan.  Lack of support is one of the reasons I don't like them too, and that example you gave is horrid.  Like you, I refuse to do business with them after learning the hard way.

They used to be shady with prices too, many years ago.  I can't remember what, exactly, it was.  Something to do with the VAT charge I think.

[Mad Russian]

I'm not a fan of Slithereen/Matrix either.

They fumbled the ball as far as I'm concerned with the Actung Panzer Operation Star(GTOS) series.

Matrix made a lot of empty promises about selling the game at a higher price,but that they would keep the game updated and current so you wouldn't have to learn the patching process and also offer any new DLCs for the game the same way.

One of the moronic and idiotic reasons they gave for lack of support for the game was-they didn't have exclusive rights to the game.
I guess what they actually meant was they didn't have the right to exclusively gouge you.

Leaving you with no other choice but to eat the garbage they are exclusively serving you and over charging you for!

Since I was involved with Panzer Command Ostfront (PCO), a game that they also didn't own the rights to I may be able to shed some light on this.

Matrix is a publisher not a designer/developer. In the case of PCO they had a similar issue. Several of us worked on the game update. A patch. But it dragged on and on. 3 years worth of on and on. In the end we made so many changes to the code that we were given credit for it, and paid, and they released what started as a patch as a new game. For free to previous owners of the series. That's not price gouging.

In fact, they paid not only the owners of the code but the entire patch team turned developers.

Any software company, pick any name you like and insert it here at any time you like, is in the same boat. Things change with software development. If you don't own the code there is only so much you can do. Where this all comes to burn a hole in gamers is in the support areas. For me  personally, I WILL NOT buy a game from a company where the game is released with so many bugs in it that it won't play. I'm not paying the company to beta test for them. I'm just not.

So, we all have our issues with game developers as well as publishers. I would say you are looking at the wrong problem. Matrix can't give you what it doesn't have. I would look at who the developers of your games are. If they do updates, expansions, patches, etc. you can feel confident in buying more of their products. If they don't, then you make the decision of whether or not you want to buy any more of their products.

They obviously don't like competition.Especially,since it means they would have to actually work for your dollar.

Matrix doesn't work for your dollar now. They simply sell other people's games. As has been pointed out, if it wasn't them it would be someone else. The same rules and restrictions would require the next company to make a profit as well and they would not have any more control than Matrix has if they didn't own the code.

Hopefully,they will never publish anything I would actually want and only "they" have the exclusive rights to it.Then that could actually kind of suck!!
They can run their shop however they like and see fit,just not with my cash.

They do. They sell games. We either buy them from their site or we don't.

So to me this is just another example of typical corporate BS.Exact exclusive rights,buy out or undercut the competition till they are no longer a threat to your way of doing business.Then raise the price while gradually lowering the content,quality and service.
At the same time feeding you bunch of garbage about how great their product is and no one or any one else for that matter does it better and how lucky you are to have a great company like this to serve your "niche" gaming needs,Ad infintum-nausea etc...(Rriight!Blow some more smoke up my ass.I can still see some daylight and I can still remember what it looked like).

Stroking your ego and pick pocketing you at the same time.Nice try and no thank you,Slithereen/Matrix.Find another sucker,I'm not swallowing none of that garbage!

As has been pointed out, there are other places for you to buy your games.

I have games for sale at Matrix. I hope to have more soon. I may well have games for sale at other locations as well. I don't see the issue. If you like what they sell, buy it. If you don't like their products. Don't buy them. A healthy dose of reality on how the system works and what is and is not reality is also a good thing when buying a product.

Pricing is a whole other issue.

Good Hunting and Good Gaming to you!!

[Dolan50]

I'm not interested in getting anything published by them,and I do buy my games elsewhere.

So,I have no vested interest in spouting or chanting the party line.

The subject was about misleading statements by gaming companies.
Matrix mislead its customers about APOS as I stated above.
With that said they no longer have my support or cash.

I have no doubt that people will have other opinions contrary to mine,but that doesn't concern me.I'm not interested in what the collective thinks.
You make a game I like and support it in a equitable fashion,you get my praise.
If you don't,then you get my two cents worth of contrary opinion.

[Herman Hum]

So, we all have our issues with game developers as well as publishers. I would say you are looking at the wrong problem. Matrix can't give you what it doesn't have. I would look at who the developers of your games are. If they do updates, expansions, patches, etc. you can feel confident in buying more of their products. If they don't, then you make the decision of whether or not you want to buy any more of their products.

Matrix doesn't work for your dollar now. They simply sell other people's games. As has been pointed out, if it wasn't them it would be someone else. The same rules and restrictions would require the next company to make a profit as well and they would not have any more control than Matrix has if they didn't own the code.

It is correct that a publisher does not own the source code.  It's not like they can conduct a Ninja operation and take the source code from the developers.  Basically, the only decision a publisher gets to really make is to either accept or reject the code as presented to them.   They can request (not demand) changes, but really cannot do much else other than reject whatever is offered to them.  They can't fix bugs or add features.

That being said, they remain part of the problem because they accept whatever is placed before them regardless of the condition of the game.  One prominent example is Naval War Arctic Circle, published by Paradox.  The game came out in such a monstrously buggy state that there were many reports of customers unable to even start the game.  After only six months, Paradox announced that there would be no future development for the title and recognized all the problems in the game.

Now, it would be easy to praise Paradox for this course of action. However, the game is still listed for sale under their catalogue.  They are quite willing to continue to take the cash for a game which even Paradox recognizes as faulty and bug-ridden.  It's like finding contaminated food in a restaurant, having the health authority shut the business down, and then allowing them to re-open and sell the exact same food because they had warned customers and it is 'buyer beware'.

[Staggerwing]

Mad Russian, I am a big fan of the work you and others did in creating the 'update' that eventually became PC: Ostfront. May I be so bold as to ask what you are working on now?