<>@2 \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ *4@3 AMIGA GAME SALES - WHY SO LOW? *3]5@4 by Converse / A51 *1]1@2 /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ @1 ]5 Ahh, so you've decided to read on.... ]1 The question on most peoples lips is, of course, ]5"Why are games sales figures so low?"]1. The real answer is that there are many reasons for the lack luster sales. The main reason, which is what I always end up coming back to, is piracy. Long time Amiga addicts will remember the often told story that piracy kills a format off. Remember when Amiga Format, CU Amiga. etc. kept telling us that piracy may one day kill the machine. Well now, about 3 years later, sales have died off, but the strange thing is, the mags don't give piracy a mention any more. It's all this shit about, ]5"Oh, they've gone to the PlayStation and PC, they don't like the Amiga coz we won't upgrade."]1 But, the truth of it is that, piracy has killed the Amiga, and the criminal thing about it, is that it's ]5STILL]1 killing the Amiga. Totally. I remember not so long ago, I had approximately 20 friends who used Amigas for gaming. Not one of them had actually bought an Amiga game in their life. It was so bad that I was the odd one out coz I always bought games. I found that whenever I used a pirate copy of a game, I got bored with it after 5 minutes or so, but when you actually ]5BUY]1 a game, you learn to stick with it that little bit longer mainly because you don't want that hard earned 20 quid to go down [4 the drain. You then find that you actually get to like the game because you've given it a chance. I admit, I'm not interested in games whatsoever now, in fact I haven't had a game on my screen for several months now. Anyway, moving back onto the main subject - piracy. Yes, it killed the Amiga. The Amiga commercial game scene is dead and it is highly unlikely that it will ever recover. There are, however, other reasons for the naff sales of Amiga games. The PlayStation for one, the PC is the other main reason. But when you go slagging off the PC telling your mates it's so behind, remember this. CD-ROM took off about 3 years ago on the PC. The PC user base relied on hard drives before that. The Amiga is only just making the transition from floppy to hard drive. CD-ROM is off the ground, but nothing more than that. To be fair, the Amiga has been a hobbyist machine for some time now and it's users are mainly comprised of young people who don't have the cash to buy a PC. This is what's pushing the Amiga market underwater. It also goes a long way to explaining piracy.... think about it. Time for another set of figures, me thinks.... Gloom. How many copies did it sell in total? ]51,000?]1 Nope, go down a bit... ]5500?]1 Erm, go a little lower.... ]5250?]1 Well.... no, a bit lower I think..... ]5150?]1 This is getting a bit embarrassing. I'm so embarrassed that my face is as red as a beetroot when I tell you that it sold ]5118]1 copies. So far, I've managed to avoid using words such as "shite sales" and "disgusting figures", but that, in my opinion is disgusting sales. I wasn't a fan of the game myself, but I'm sure it deserved more than that. Realistically, about 15,000 copies of that game are lying around in peoples disk boxes....... Hmmm. The next article in this Beyond The Frontier special explains about who is to blame for these sales..... Be There!