OOTP 17 Announcement

[Lions]

The football sim got on the plate because someone who had already been working on one and had done most of the research and testing already came to him with it. There was a lot to be redone, but the basis and enthusiasm was there from a programmer who just needed a company framework within which to realize his dream.

I'm sure if someone with the same passion and background for a basketball sim came to Markus, he'd seriously consider adding it to the mix, too.

[Cole]

Right, I don't think the business model is going to be sustainable for a lot longer without a major overhaul. Myself, and likely the rest of you guys will be buying regardless, but I think it's tough to bring new customers in without flashy new features to roll out year after year.

I have to say that in my opinion, from someone who has been on the inside of the company, this statement is false.

First off, the OOTP 17 doesn't appear to have any huge new flashy features, but there are always great incremental strides in each version and honestly, the faster processing speeds alone make it worthy for the 'diehard' OOTPers, imo. In addition, the MLBPA license will also be huge in drawing in significant customers.

What you have to keep in mind is that the hardcore, diehard, forum posting, PEBA-playing members of the OOTP are a very, very small fraction of the total fanbase. So yes, some of those who have been supporting the game for years may not see a great incremental improvement each year to warrant buying, but that is greatly overshadowed by the number of new players who are finding the game due to stuff like the MLB licensing.

I won't provide you specific numbers, but I can tell you that sales for OOTP have increased significantly in the last couple of versions and especially so in OOTP 16 with the MLB license, it provided a huge spike in sales - a really, really significant percentage.

I believe there's still a lot of untapped market of fans who would enjoy this game but simply haven't found it yet. I think that will continue to grow with the MLB and MLBPA licensing and presumably a larger push of support from those organizations to promote it.

Also, just so everyone here knows, I am no longer working for Out of the Park Developments.

Brad Cook left his post as PR/marketing for OOTP Baseball and I was actually offered to take that over too in addition to FHM 2 and text writing duties, but it wasn't something I was able to do at this stage of my life for a few reasons. On top of that, my life has been extremely busy lately and I may soon have a career change coming up that would take up even more of my time, so I decided to also pass off my FHM2 and text writing duties too.

It was the perfect time to distance myself since Brad was leaving too and it would allow them to go out and hire someone new for the post, which they have done with Rich, who I think will take the company in a great direction.

I loved my time with the company and they are a great group to work with. It was hard to leave it behind, but now with two kids and busy at my full-time job, I just wasn't able to give them the effort they deserved. I hope for nothing but the best for the company and I honestly think there is still a lot of growth to be had.

[Evas]

Well I am glad to hear that the MLB licensing agreements are paying off. The healther OOTP is, the better it is for everyone, including us.

Hearing that the market for OOTP has broadened is actually somewhat of a relief. I was starting to worry about the future of OOTP, given how incremental the changes seem to be from our pretty hard core point of view.

But if the market is opened up wide enough, people buying every 2nd or 3rd version should be more than enough to sustain things in the long term.

[John]

Cole makes a really good point. What we're losing in terms of sexy "bullet point features," we're gaining in terms of subtle refinements that make the game eminently more enjoyable. It's hard to pitch, but I see it when I boot up the beta version of the game (which I had to do quite a bit to prepare for an upcoming Road to Release). There's not that one new feature that leaves you gobsmacked, but everything just works better. Very quickly, I find playing with the old version laborious because I've become used to the myriad new little enhancements that make the experience so much smoother.

Cole's also right about the effect that the MLB license had on sales. That was a big, big deal. It exposed tons of people to OOTP who otherwise would never even have known about the game. Even if 1% of those people ultimately made a purchase, that's a big honking deal considering how many new eyeballs you're drawing. I expect some of those newcomers are going to remain loyal customers, further boosting the game's base. Add that to the refinements being prepped for FHM3 and the upcoming football simulator and I'd say things are looking reasonably rosy for OOTP Developments.

[KenH]

Pretty sure I'm getting an extra copy of the game for pre-ordering, right? That's such a good way to have die-hard fans like myself evangelize the glory that is OOTP. Already know who I'm giving it to

[Bill]

Pretty sure I'm getting an extra copy of the game for pre-ordering, right? That's such a good way to have die-hard fans like myself evangelize the glory that is OOTP. Already know who I'm giving it to

You get 2 licenses with the game. You do not get an extra copy to give to another person to my knowledge.

[KenH]

Oh. Well shoot.