Which is why it’s the leader in the grand strategy game market, and why it’s gone from six employees to around 255 across the world since Wester took over in 2004.
If this talk had come
out in 2010 instead of 2013, it should’ve been required viewing for the EDC.
Everything about it is
the counter example to the 38 Studios deal. Don’t make what the big
studios are making, those require experience and resources you don’t have.
Identify your market, identify your audience, and saturate it (Wester discusses
wanting to sell his game to all of the subscribers of World War II Magazine).
Avoid the typical marketing strategies; instead of an expensive 3D animated
trailer, Paradox released one for their flagship Europa Universalis game suggesting “this game
probably isn’t for you,” defying the customer to prove them wrong. Don’t leave
a game incomplete.
In many ways, it’s the
opposite strategy that the states here have been pursuing. Right now, we’re
seeing strategies focused around “economic competitiveness.” But of course, the
way to be competitive is to just throw gobs of cash at a company; witness North
Carolina pulling in MetLife jobs with a $96 million payoff or our own success
of attracting business with 38 Studios. Or how CVS demands money to stay in the
state, even though it’s been very successful.
Rhode Island simply
can’t compete with states like California, New York, or Texas. We can’t even
compete with Massachusetts or Connecticut. But even though we’ve consistently
failed trying to play this game, that’s what’s being pursued by our so-called
leaders.
Samuel G. Howard
- A native-born Rhode Islander,
educated in Providence Public Schools, went to college in North Carolina and a
political junkie and pessimistic optimist.