If you haven't heard of CrimeCraft, it wouldn't be a surprise. Many games get made and barely make a blip on the radar. In an attempt to drum up some more business and awareness, Vogster, the game publisher, recently changed their MMO action shooter CrimeCraft into a free-2-play model last month, a sign that they are struggling with the game’s receptiveness in the marketplace. It’s unfortunate when things like this happen, after all, most developers have the best intentions to make great games. In this case, the failure of this game hits home, since I actually met with Vogster to help them plan for the launch of the game. Even then, it seemed that the writing was already on the wall.

I thought I’d share with you my perspective on what went wrong.

When I met with the relatively new game developer / publisher back in 2008, I could tell that everyone in the office was feeling quite confident. And rightfully so. They had millions of dollars in the bank. They were building an ambitious MMO game. They had a number of secret projects in motion, which involved some interesting creative talent, including a well known comic book artist. Their most recent title Robocalype, a DS game, was also well reviewed on IGN. However, while I truly admired their enthusiasm and passion for gaming, I found it surprising that a company had so many games in development, while having minimal exposure and understanding of the US gaming market.

For a first time PC developer, attempting to make an MMO as your first game is an overly ambitious task. I asked them whether they thought that their game could stand up to the heavily hyped APB, and surprisingly, they weren’t familiar with that game. In many ways, it didn't matter to them.

It seemed that Vogster was heavily financed by overseas entities in Eastern Europe, which allowed them to be quite aggressive in their development efforts. This funding also fueled the belief that they simply needed to spend money on marketing and word would get out that they had a potential hit. I found this to be particularly misguided, as they also happened to have just launched a DS game which got some rave reviews. Unfortunately, because no effort was put into launching the title, it mostly flew in under the radar. At the time, Vogster believed that it could win over more gamers by doing marketing several months after the game launched, which has almost never happened before in the gaming industry. Even back then, it seemed clear that the company didn’t seem to have a firm grasp of the gaming landscape.

Fundamentally, there’s nothing wrong per se with the game CrimeCraft. It’s an arena based 3rd person shooter, designed around gaming elements like building up your character, playing with friends, and PVP. The overall concept is unique enough to stand out in the marketplace, as there are few games like that. However, as with so many foreign owned companies that try to tackle the biggest gaming market in the world, the good ol USA, too many just don’t realize that it takes a keen understanding of American gamers and their tastes. Ultimately, CrimeCraft came across as too generic to stand out. Even the name of the game seemed to be cloned from the popular World of Warcraft, as a number of people have commented online.

But making a successful game also takes requires strategic understanding of the publishing environment. Vogster wasn’t able to secure any real interest in any of the major online or print publications, so coverage of the game was limited. Even now, only 5 sites reviewed Crimecraft, with GameSpot being the only major gaming outlet, and the game was unable to secure enough previews for buzz to grow. Vogster was forced to spend more money than necessary to buy 2 page ads to generate awareness, which are running til this day. Unfortunately, ads typical only generate awareness, as they don’t do a good job of convincing people to actually buy the game. All this leads to significant challenges on the retail side. Retailers use consumer buzz as an indicator of how popular a game might be, which determines whether they will stock the game (especially a new IP) and how much to order. In this case, Vogster simply wasn't able to secure any major direct distribution deals, so it had to partner up with THQ. Even then, THQ was only able to convince Best Buy to sell the game, which effectively limited their distribution down to less than 20% of the overall market.

But I always questioned why Vogster wanted to force people to buy a boxed copy of a game to begin with. A game like CrimeCraft would have been better suited as a free-2-play game, where you give the initial experience for free, allowing them to gradually build a large online community, and improve the game. Then it’s possible to start selling enhancements, add-on packs, and such via micro-transaction. Instead, what Vogster launched with was a business model that mirrors a couple of major MMOs like World of Warcraft, and Lord the Rings Online, which force you to buy a boxed copy, then sign up for a monthly subscription. Only the best of the breed can command that type of pricing, and Vogster simply didn’t recognize that their game couldn’t compete at that level.

So what you have today is a game world that feels empty, because few people bought the game. And a game that’s suppose to be designed around MMO PVP, that’s a killer death knell.

Thing are in pretty bad shape right now for Vogster. They recently announced major layouts, cutting all development and publishing efforts of all their other games, to focus on CrimeCraft. Vogster was banking on the game to be their major hit, and elevate them to AAA status, but unfortunately that didn't happen. Vogster finally switching to free-2-play might be just a little to late. It could be possible that the game might get a second life, but given the amount of bad publicity (or no publicity) it’s been getting, and the fact that the holiday season is now here, people have their sights on games they really want to play. I fear the worse for this publisher.

Sometimes, having heart and dedication to the art of making games just isn’t enough. And in this case, even a big checkbook wasn’t enough.