After Action Reporter

The long-awaited sequel to Conquest of the Aegean, the hard-core real-time wargame, is out. Battles from the Bulge can be bought from the Matrix store for.. what.. this is a typo, right? … ok so it’s not. Right. Well. If you wish to buy BFTB you can go and buy it for EIGHTY US DOLLARS. Yes, $80. Note, this doesn’t even get you a printed manual!

I really wish I knew what those guys at Matrix Games smoked. They like to wring their hands about how wargames are so niche and hard they are to make and how much loving work goes into them and oh we’re such precious little snowflakes. But this just doesn’t wash with me. If Steam can put up weird little niche games and then cut their price to the bone while seeing sales lift 31000% (yes, that’s right, go google it) and great profits to their devs, then why can’t Matrix get creative with their niche?

I’ve blogged about this before and nothing has changed and nothing is likely to. I guess I’ll give up on any plan to play BFTB this year. Hell, based on Matrix’s strategy of keeping prices high until simply removing the product from stock I doubt I’ll ever play it.

I just wish wargames developers would start courting Impulse (or vice versa). Those guys know how to sell games.