[Henke]

Have anyone been following this company? Apparently they have 6 adventuregames that are planned to be released this year. Evil Days of Luckless John, Tanita, The Dead Mountaineer's Hotel, Inhabited Island: The Earthling, A Stroke of Fate and "The Bad, The Ugly, and the Sober". Seems like it could be good games too. Are these only going to be available in Poland or what???

[kelmer]

Evil Days of Luckless John has already been released in Spain, so in this case it's not going to stick to Poland

[hern]

Akella is not from Poland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Akella is from M/F Russia

[Jackal]

I hate to say it, but Russian (or Russian-produced, anyway) games have a notoriously lousy track record for getting international releases. There's no reason why all of these shouldn't be released around the world, but I wouldn't hold my breath on most of them. I'd say Dead Mountaineer's Hotel has the best chance of being distributed internationally at some point.

Tanita has also been released in Russia, and is currently looking for international publishers.

Luckless John has been picked up by Playlogic, so it should be appearing elsewhere at some point. Where will be up to them. (Incidentally, by all accounts it's only an adventure in the loosest sense of the word. I think the same is true of Bad, Ugly, Sober.)

[Ariel Type]

"The Bad, The Ugly, and the Sober" is told to be a pure adventure, with a bunch of mini-games. Though I really doubt it will be any good. Actually, the only interesting titles by now are "Tanita" (which is out, and it is really good) and "A Stroke of Fate".

[Crapstorm]

Originally Posted by Ariel Type

"The Bad, The Ugly, and the Sober" is told to be a pure adventure, with a bunch of mini-games.

That's like saying Coca-cola is pure water with a bunch of sugar and bubbles.

[kuze]

Originally Posted by Jackal

I hate to say it, but Russian (or Russian-produced, anyway) games have a notoriously lousy track record for getting international releases.

Quite a few Russian adventures are based on Russian fairy tales, books or animations that the rest of the world hasn't seen or heard of (Братья Пилоты - The Pilot Brothers, Петька и Василий Иванович - Petjka & Vasiliy Ivanovich, both very successful adventure game series). Thus I imagine there wouldn't be much interest in those games anyway even if they were released outside of Russia.

[Henke]

I don't see why a game that is based on something with a Russian origin (or whatever) can't be sold to other countries. A good game is a good game.

[stepurhan]

Originally Posted by Henke

I don't see why a game that is based on something with a Russian origin (or whatever) can't be sold to other countries. A good game is a good game.

Perhaps there is an external knowledge question here. If the game is based on something that someone Russian would be expected to know then some of the puzzles could be related to that expected knowledge (hampering non-Russians)

[kuze]

That I doubt - I've only played a few of them for a short time, though. It's more like the humour in these games relies on prior knowledge of the originals. Also, the games aren't that good - the publishers must realise that, they are only popular in Russia because the "franchise" itself is popular and wide-known.

[Crapstorm]

Do people still hold a Cold War grudge towards Russia or something? I don't see what the problem is, especially nowadays, with marketing games, movies, etc. that have a foreign cultural basis. Japanese entertainment projects, for example, have a huge following outside of Japan. Even in cultures that have historical feared and despised Japan. Is it just that samurai and ramen noodles are intrinsically cooler than Cossacks and borsht?

[kuze]

That is a valid point. Maybe after some agressive marketing children will watch the Pilot Brothers before sleep and play the game on their Nintendo DS. If the game gets published now without a warning, however, it will get bad to acceptable reviews and just sit on the gameshop shelves collecting dust. Just my opinion, though.

Actually, I'm looking through the games right now and some of them seem more enjoyable than I remember... maybe I should get a few and play them again.

Here is an excerpt from a review of one of these games:

Petka and "Vich" (whose real name is Vasiliy Ivanovich Chapaev) are historical heroes of the Civil War in Russia. Because the Soviet citizen were fed with endless stories about the brave Chapaev and his friends, the reaction was adequate and produced tons of jokes about Chapaev, most of them pretty dirty. The Chapaev of the jokes is a rude, horny idiot, always accompanied by brainless Petka. For a not-Russian player it will be extremely difficult to understand the fine mixture of classical Chapaev-character and ironical references to the "Great October Revolution". That means, most of the game's jokes are a waste for anybody but the Russians themselves. From technical point of view, the game has little to offer. The graphics, music and interface are nothing special.

[DEMON]

Its also about mentality. If the content is aimed at certain group (nationality, age...), its hard to assume whether it will sell good enough when marketed to another market.
And, as mentioned above, about knowledge of the franchise.

[Israfel]

I'm skeptical of the idea that non-Russians wouldn't appreciate them, too. KOEI's games, particularly Dynasty Warriors, are ridiculously successful and I doubt many westerners are all that familiar with either the history or the book the games are based on.

The games might or might not do well if they were widely published, but I doubt their being distinctly Russian would be the determining factor. (And speaking just for myself, as someone with an interest in Russian history, I would *love* to play these games)