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Strategy boss: Listening to hardcore audience has killed RTS sales

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Listening to feedback from hardcore RTS fans has driven complexity up and sales days in the genre.

That's according to Ubi Shanghai boss Michael de Plater, dev lead on Tom Clancy's EndWar.

"Strategy games have almost suffered by listening too much to their hardcore audience," the exec told VG247.

"Every iteration, from Command & Conquer onwards, added stuff and added stuff and added stuff, which has just upped the complexity. If you watch the sales, they just go down and down and down.

"They're just selling to [an increasingly] narrower audience."

EndWar has offed the shackles of dozens of shortcuts and resource management by aiming for a stripped-down take on strategy with a console focus and voice commands.

The approach will bring RTS to a wider audience, de Plater added.

"We would very much hope and like this to be consistent in its success with the other 'big three' Tom Clancy franchises like Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell," he said.

"It's important for us to reach a wider audience with it as well."

EndWar release on November 7 for PS3 and 360.

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Tom Clancy's EndWar

PS3, Xbox 360, PSP, PC, Nintendo DS

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Patrick Garratt

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Patrick Garratt is a games media legend - and not just by reputation. He was named as such in the UK's 'Games Media Awards', the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award. After garnering experience on countless gaming magazines, he joined Eurogamer and later split from that brand to create VG247, putting the site on the map with fast, 24-hour a day coverage, and assembling the site's earliest editorial teams. He retired from VG247, and the games industry, in 2017.

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