Strategy boss: Listening to hardcore audience has killed RTS sales

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.