14 DAY TRIAL // Brad Wardell, who is the chief executiveoOfficer of game developer and publisher Stardock, has projected that in the long term its 2010 fantasy-based strategy game Elemental: War of Magic will end up losing money for the company despite the fact that the initial release was pretty successful and turned up a profit.
In an email message sent to gaming site Gamasutra, the CEO has stated, “Elemental made its money back on day one and has continued to be profitable to this point.”
He added, “However, based on our projections we anticipate by the end of second quarter 2011 that Elemental will end up losing money overall as our objective is to spend what is necessary to ensure that the game meets the expectations of our customers.”
Stardock has said that it will be offering those who bought the game at launch free access to the first two full expansions of the game in order for them to have the gaming experience they were expecting from Elemental.
The concept of the game, billed as a spiritual successor to Master of Magic, attracted a lot of strategy-minded gamers, but the game disappointed when it was released.
Elemental was buggy and a lot of the game mechanics did not work as advertised, most notably the magic system and the A.I. opponents.
Since then Stardock has delivered one major update and a lot smaller ones for the game, aiming to constantly improve the way Elemental plays.
Recently, Starock has hired both the creators of the very popular Fall from Heaven mod for Civilization IV and Jon Shafer, the leading designer for Civilization V, to work on Elemental: War of Magic.
Stardock has been widely praised for internally developed Galactic Civilizations II and for the Ironclad made Sins of a Solar Empire and Brad Wardell says that continuing support for Elemental will show customers that the company cares about its customers and about the quality of its products.