Successful and Unsuccessful projects

Successful Project: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (2009)

Call of Duty Modern warfare 2 has become one of the most successful project of all time, generating of $550 million in its first 5 days of sale. One of the reasons why it has become so successful is the success of its predecessor and its promise to build and improve on the original modern warfare games qualities, which has been somewhat achieved. However there are some that say certain aspects of the original game should not have been tampered with and a few of the new additions have taken away from the overall experience of the game and in particular the multiplayer aspects of the game. Aside from these criticisms the game has been well received and in my opinion deserves its success.

Unsuccessful Project: Going Overboard (1989)

Generally considered as Adam Sandler’s worst film, Going Overboard was always going to struggle with success receiving terrible reviews and not being able to capture any interest from a very limited audience this film was doomed to failure. Not even Adam Sandler fans enjoy this film with a lot of them posting terrible reviews on sites such as imbd.com. After watching the film myself I felt as if a small part of my life had been stolen from me and that I would never be able to get it back, I couldn’t even laugh at how bad the film was never mind the terrible and badly delivered gags, which if anything made me gag. This film is one of the worst I have ever seen and deserves to be as unsuccessful as it is if not more unsuccessful.

Jack Farrell

successful and unsuccessful project management

Successful project

Grand theft auto series:

The grand theft auto series started off on the PC platforms as a 2D sandbox game, it was then ported onto consoles starting with the playstation 1. Ever since the franchise went 3D with grand theft auto 3, the game was described as the best selling game in 2001. The later releases for example Vice city, San andreas and GTA 4 have also been just as successful if not more, making this franchise an achievement globally.



Unsuccessful project:

Conflict denied ops:

This game is the next installment of the conflict franchise, the game had some promises that will keep you waiting in anticipation, but when the demo was released, the anticipation was gone and the games reviews didnt help its sales either. Conflict denied ops had features that were already used in other first person shooters but it wasnt well done with this game.

Unsuccessful and successful projects

Unsuccessful games

Project name: Realms of Darkness

Developer: Mystical FX

Publisher: Grandslam video Ltd

Format: Amiga and pc.

In 1991 a company called Mystical Fx develop a game called ‘Realm of Darkness.’ This game was an arcade role playing game.  The unique thing about this game was that it combined both isometric and 2d views into one game. The game was ten months into development when it was shelved. Why was it shovelled?

The answer to this question is two fold.  First the team that was developing the game did not have much experience. This led them to making bad project management decisions like making unrealistic millstone deadlines. Poor games design that lacked detain and direction, These factor lead to the project running behide time.

The other factor was the publisher, Grandslam was a small publisher. It had a few hits under its belt ‘The Running Man’ and ‘Pac Mania.’ Some months into development grandslam went to the developer and ask if they could cut their monthly payments. The developer agreed to this on the understanding that all monies owed would be paid back in full.  The monies owed was not paid back this was a breach of contract on their part. It was at this point that the publisher to take direct control of the project and remove one of the developer director. This was on the understanding that he would still receive his share on the royalties on release of the game.  The remove director was not happy with this and took legal action. But then was pressure by the remaining director and the employees not to pursue this action. ‘Realms of Darkness’ was beginning to take shape, but the staff where not happy because of late payments of the salaries.  The publisher was not giving the project its full support.  Some months later the project was shelved.

To sum up

The development team did not have the experience to develop such a big project and the lack of financial support coursed problems with deadlines.  Because of the publisher lack of support and the fact they removed one the director, lead to a fundamental break down of the project.

Successful and unsuccessful Project management

An example of good project management

James Cameron’s Avatar

A film that is a good example of good project management is James Cameron’s Avatar, a film which began production in 1994 and was released late 2009. As James Cameron already had huge titles under his belt such as Titanic, the film automatically had a huge reputation and high expectations from the beginning. The film itself won many awards including being the highest grossing film of all time worldwide. One of the main reasons for the success of the film is due to the ground breaking visual effects, and as the film was released in 3D along side its 2D release this again was a breakthrough in filmmaking technology.

An example of poor project management

Section 8

A game which shows an example of bad project management is Timegate Studio’s section 8. The game itself scored average reviews from various publications but was merely found to be a copy of previously developed games, but with some flaws in game mechanics and not much more of its own individual aspects to offer. Also the game is very heavily based on its multiplayer aspect, and due to poor sales and player interest the online numbers are very low. Due to this fact finding a game itself is hard enough, and as the game is nothing ground breaking and has been done before gamers will take their interests elsewhere.

Successful and unsuccessful Project management

Game with successful project management

Resident Evil

A game that has demonstrated excellent project management is the Resident Evil series. it has been one of the most successful games within its genre. The reasons to why one would think it has excellent project management are due to its global success. The game has had really good reviews although it has started to go downhill with the latest instalment Resident Evil 5 as it does not have elements of horror anymore and does not have the fear factor.

An example of unsuccessful project management

Dragon Ball Evolution

A film with bad project management would have to be Dragon Ball Evolution. I believe it was poorly executed and that it was rushed. I felt the film was going to be a disaster when I first found out about it, and it turns out I was right. I believe that it would have worked if it wasn’t a live action film, but as a 3D animation it would have a success.