Army of Two will respond to fist bumping, poor European sales blamed for precisely that |
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| BY Jamie Feltham Oct. 31st, 2009 | More on: |
As creative director Alex Hutchinson from EA Montreal takes us through a demo of Army of Two: The 40th Day at the Eurogamer Expo 2009, he explains that the original title sold an impressive 2.6 million copies worldwide, but the vast majority of these sales (70% to be exact) are from America. What does the ex-Maxis dev and the rest of EA blame this on? The tone of the game, apparently.
While an American audience felt at home with the foul-mouthed, wise-cracking banter of the original game, it was apparently too much for European gamers. So when coming up with the sequel, the devs wanted to be sure they struck the right balance for both audiences this time round. How to measure this balance? Why, fist bumping of course.
A lot of the attitude and dialogue that Salem and Rios produced in the first game was reflected in the moments where the player would have them clash fists, or annoy each other for a laugh. This kind of interaction was completely optional however, and the folks at Montreal have embraced that for the sequel. This means that if you continue doing these things in The 40th Day, then the pair will keep up their banter as usual. If however you’re not bothering to slap hands every time you land a headshot, then the game recognises that you’re more of a serious player, and cuts the chat out in favour of a more serious tone.
So now not only do we have gameplay options that cater to your style in nearly every shooter, there’s dialogue for your tastes too. Another pleasant announcement was the presence of not only 2-player split-screen, but being able to take 2 players on the same couch online.
Army of Two: The 40th Day hits January 12th next year, with more fist bumping action than you can shake a stick at.
October 31st, 2009
at 1:38 pm
That’s pretty slick. I dig it.
October 31st, 2009
at 2:02 pm
I kind of thought that the banter was mostly worthless with the exception of the cut scenes.
October 31st, 2009
at 4:02 pm
I somehow doubt that Euro gamers, unless they mean the Swiss or the Vatican , would be put off by most any kind of swearing or coarse behaviour.
October 31st, 2009
at 5:38 pm
I doubt it’s about the cursing or violence, but the game was based after 9/11 rigth? Maybe it was the “Go America, kill everyone and then fistbump!” energy that didn’t suit everyone outside the US?
October 31st, 2009
at 7:06 pm
Hmmm, being Europian the main thing here both in the press and among people playing games was simply that the first one was a mediocre game. I myself never looked at it for that reason. It was mostly precieved as something with mediocre gameplay mechanic’s and a weak storyline. I never really heard many people complain about something very specific such as fist bumping. Infact I didn’t even know that was in there :)
November 1st, 2009
at 6:52 am
The bumps were not a problem and I laughed every time Salem and Rio smacked each other around. Their banter was appreciated, but several of the characters personalities were questionable. Clyde never came across as a real villain, just a misfit that tried so hard to be a bad*ss but ended up looking *sshole.
November 1st, 2009
at 6:53 am
And while I’m not a French European I still love to fart and curse.
November 1st, 2009
at 4:02 pm
@ Syron
Huh?, how would the Swiss be bothered by it? What do you know of Swiss culture? Switzerland recieves titles from different distribution channels (movies an games) as well as get exclusive releases on uncensored/mature versions of games (Germany is who is cracking down on game violence). I live and work between the U.S. and Switzerland. A huge chunk of my gaming library titles are Swiss/German/French/Italian localized titles. Army of two was sold there, it just did not do well as many people felt the characters were too pretentious or douche baggy and yes the fist bumping was a huge part of it (there were/are reviews that reflect that). At the same time there was not a lot of advertising for the game in Europe either. I’m not saying it is a bad game, the game just was not introduced into the market properly (or evenly). It just kinda appeared on the shelf like many low budget crap-ware titles do. That draws caution to gamers and a cautious gamers won’t buy until they try.