Alphadream files for bankruptcy

[Xiahou Dun]

IDK they got a professional tennis player on board with high quality CGI puppet that lost to it. They tried hyping it all right.

Sure spin-off stuff is smaller but they're still profitable enough? Nintendo games do have high production values but it never seems to be quite the same as the so-called tumple argh games. I wish I can get an accurate estimation of production costs for Nintendo games, it'll give me a lot of perspective.

 

[YoshiFlutterJump]

Let's not play the "this is Miyamoto's fault" game alright? Especially with AlphaDream. The only M&L game not to include "original characters" was Paper Jam and AD themselves flat out said it was their own decision to do that for that game.

I never even understood where all the Miyamoto hate comes from concerning Mario RPGs. Paper Jam had nothing to do with him, and for all we know, neither did Color Splash. What happened with Sticker Star was Miyamoto's remedy to Super Paper Mario's failure to acknowledge its Mario heritage, and while maybe that was a tad overboard, it was also entirely understandable.

 

[Xiahou Dun]

It's easy to blame one thing for a more complex set of problems.

Also it takes two to tango. It's not like Miyamoto has a stranglehold on the IP.

 

[Glowsquid]

Look, we also don't know what kind of internal financial management issues AlphaDream had. We can't lay the blame entirely on the 3DS games past Paper Jam alone, because they very well may be the symptoms of an ailing company using desperate, low-cost measures to earn what they lost back. The article itself even mentions management but I can't exactly tell what because of a poor Google translation.

This states they wasted a lot of money and time on the 3D feature of Dream Team: if *that* posed so much problem, I can't see AlphaDream transitioning well to HD development. (the account is a very reliable reporter of niche Japanese gaming industry news so I'm going to assume it's not nonsense). A recent job posting had them asking for people with Switch/PS4 experience so that may be part of the "rising costs" mentioned.

The whole BiS remake situation is just baffling to me. The Superstar Saga remake did low numbers (it topped out at 72k in Japan and while I don't have hard numbers for other territories, it didn't appear to do particularly well in the west either as it never topped NPD's 3DS chart) and while I presume it *could* have eked out some small profits due to the heavy asset reuse and corner cutting, following-it up with a game that had even less reasons to be remade while the Switch was out at the time was just a really stupid move.

 

[Mcmadness]

IDK they got a professional tennis player on board with high quality CGI puppet that lost to it. They tried hyping it all right.

Sure spin-off stuff is smaller but they're still profitable enough? Nintendo games do have high production values but it never seems to be quite the same as the so-called tumple argh games. I wish I can get an accurate estimation of production costs for Nintendo games, it'll give me a lot of perspective.

Well for the sports games Mario Tennis always seemed to be the most well received of the bunch so I'd imagine that factors into it.

 

[Xiahou Ba]

The whole BiS remake situation is just baffling to me. The Superstar Saga remake did low numbers (it topped out at 72k in Japan and while I don't have hard numbers for other territories, it didn't appear to do particularly well in the west either as it never topped NPD's 3DS chart) and while I presume it *could* have eked out some small profits due to the heavy asset reuse and corner cutting, following-it up with a game that had even less reasons to be remade while the Switch was out at the time was just a really stupid move.

i think they thought that because bowser's inside story is their best-selling game, it would mean that a remake of that game would also copy that success. that's my only speculation why they chose that instead of remaking partners in time.

 

[Mcmadness]

I feel like a new game with recycled assets would have done better for them. Maybe not MUCH better but the longtime fans would have probably picked it up.

Though if their financial troubles were as bad as they apparently are, might not have saved them in the end anyhow.

 

[Pokerninja2]

I have to wonder if AlphaDream knew their days were numbered, and tried remaking what is often considered the best Mario & Luigi game as a sendoff for their fans even if it didn't make them enough profit. If that's the case, then looking at the sales numbers, it must be heartbreaking to them.

 

[Xiahou Dun]

while I presume it *could* have eked out some small profits due to the heavy asset reuse and corner cutting, following-it up with a game that had even less reasons to be remade while the Switch was out at the time was just a really stupid move.

Who knows, it might be just their last breath as well as how they're remaking Superstar Saga (to be fair, that remake generated some buzz and the timing of the second remake was just really bad as well as the oddly skipped Partners in Time). I still don't know what decline they're really going through but the Dream Team's struggle with drawing sprites suited for the 3DS "3D" feature is a piece of the puzzle that makes sense to me.

I feel like a new game with recycled assets would have done better for them. Maybe not MUCH better but the longtime fans would have probably picked it up.

Though if their financial troubles were as bad as they apparently are, might not have saved them in the end anyhow.

Yeah, might not have been worth the effort if they're going to go bankrupt anyway.

Wish we knew they were in a really bad spot financially. I mean, again, we got hints but at least bankruptcy would be more anticipated.

Well for the sports games Mario Tennis always seemed to be the most well received of the bunch so I'd imagine that factors into it.

I was impression it tends to be just as good as golf. In terms of Metacritic scores, Mario Strikers Charged had a respectable 79 score, World Tour has a very similar score of 78, Power Tennis had another very similar 80, Toadstool ditto 81. Aces had 75 (to be fair it was probably judged before the patches); this doesn't match Mario Golf 64 and Mario Tennis 64's spectacular 91 though. Mario Super Sluggers and Mario Sports mix hover around high 60-69 range, which is decent, not bad, but decent. Norm just seems to be high 70s though and I can't say Mario Tennis did way better than Golf or Strikers at least Metacritic wise. Sales, however, might be a different story.

 

[Glowsquid]

One thing I saw pointed out is that AD's last game was not the BiS remake but a mobile game published by a company named ForwardWorks; ForwardWorks was notorious for thoroughsly cocking up the release of a Disgaea mobile game at great cost for its creators (though I don't know the specific) so that might also played a part.