Jane's WWII Fighters

Jane's World War II Fighters is a World War II era European Theater of Operations Combat flight simulation video game. It is part of the Jane's Combat Simulations franchise. The game was considered a commercial failure, and contributed to the end of the Jane's Combat Simulations line.

Jane's WWII Fighters
Developer(s)Jane's Combat Simulations
Publisher(s)Electronic Arts
Director(s)Beth Comstock
Producer(s)Steven Matulac
Designer(s)Nathan Cummins
David Luoto
Programmer(s)Ken Allen
Artist(s)Terry Fowler
Nicholas Corea
Chuck Eyler
Composer(s)Don Veca
SeriesJane's Combat Simulations
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Release
Genre(s)Combat flight simulator
Mode(s)Single-player, Multiplayer

Gameplay

The game is set during the U.S. American termed "Battle of the Bulge" in 1944 and 1945. The game featured famous fighter aircraft from World War II. It also featured a virtual museum, where aircraft profiles, interviews with fighter pilots such as George Unwin, Günther Rall, and others could be viewed.

Development

Reception

Sales

Jane's WWII Fighters was released in direct competition with Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator, and became a commercial flop.[2][3] In 1999, Computer Gaming World reported that the game "appears to have been murdered by Microsoft's brand recognition." Its lifetime sales in the United States reached 60,943 copies by October 1999, which drew revenues of $2.58 million.[3] Speaking anonymously to Bruce Geryk of GameSpot, an ex-staffer for Origin Systems remarked that the game "spent some serious cash, and did not sell." He attributed its failure to Combat Flight Simulator's dominance of the World War II flight simulation field during 1998, and called WWII Fighters' performance "the death knell for Jane's products", after which the brand unraveled.[2] Following the May 2000 bankruptcy of Jane's Attack Squadron developer Looking Glass Studios shortly before that game's completion,[4] Electronic Arts declined to finish the project,[5] and instead opted to exit the flight simulation genre.[6]

For the week ending April 29, 2000, WWII Fighters appeared at #10 on PC Data's weekly computer game sales chart in the United States, with an average retail price of $25.[7] It climbed to #8 the following week,[8] before exiting the charts for the May 7–13 period.[9] PC Data named it the country's ninth-best-selling game of May 2000.[10] By October, its sales in the region had reached 166,971 units for the year 2000 alone, which accounted for $2.5 million in revenue. Mark Asher and Tom Chick of Quarter to Three remarked that WWII Fighters "did a good job of trying to convince us that flight sims aren't dead" that year.[11]

Critical reviews
Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
PC GamesB+[12]
PC Gaming World8.5/10[13]

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated WWII Fighters for its 1998 "Simulation Game of the Year" award, although it lost to Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit.[14] It was also a finalist for Computer Gaming World's 1998 "Best Simulation", GameSpot's "Simulation of the Year" and IGN's "Best Simulation of the Year" prizes, all of which ultimately went to European Air War.[15][16][17] WWII Fighters received further runner-up positions for "Best Soundtrack" and "Best Graphics" from IGN, and "Best Sound" and "Best Graphics (Technical Excellence)" from GameSpot.[15][17] However, it won Computer Gaming World's "Special Award: Musical Score" prize. That magazine's editors wrote, "Unmatched aircraft graphics, amazing special effects, top-notch AI, and accurate flight modeling really pulled you into the experience. Multiplayer on Jane's Combat.net is a blast".[15]

gollark: The well-known "beware apioforms" video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MeyArZuHlA) spawned "beware apioforms / they strike at night / you will never see them coming".
gollark: Sorry, mid-August.
gollark: They were catapulted back into (greater) prominence after the release of "beware apioforms" in late August.
gollark: "Apioform" began to be used as an insult-type thing soon afterward.
gollark: This helped popularize the word, and was quite fun.

References
  1. "WWII Fighters Ships". GameSpot. November 23, 1998. Archived from the original on June 13, 2000. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  2. Geryk, Bruce. "PC Gaming Graveyard; Jane's A-10 Warthog". GameSpot. Toward Multiplay. Archived from the original on August 18, 2000. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  3. Brown, Ken (October 1999). "EA Scraps Jane's A-10". Computer Gaming World (183): 44, 46.
  4. Asher, Mark (August 2000). "read.me; Looking Glass Shuts Down". Computer Gaming World. No. 193. p. 34.
  5. Berg, Gordon (September 2000). "Rage Against the Machine". Computer Gaming World. No. 194. p. 140.
  6. Atkin, Denny (July 2002). "Jane's Attack Squadron". Computer Gaming World. No. 216. p. 76.
  7. Fudge, James (May 14, 2000). "The Sims still on top". Computer Games Magazine. Archived from the original on May 2, 2005. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  8. Fudge, James (May 22, 2000). "The Sims in top retail spot in U.S." Computer Games Magazine. Archived from the original on May 2, 2005. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  9. Ho, Jennifer (May 24, 2000). "Millionaires Double-Up to Dominate Sales". GameSpot. Archived from the original on February 17, 2002. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  10. Fudge, James (June 13, 2000). "The Sims on top of May 2000 retail charts". Computer Games Magazine. Archived from the original on May 15, 2005. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  11. Asher, Mark; Chick, Tom. "The Year's Ten Best-Selling Games". Quarter to Three. Archived from the original on February 2, 2001. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  12. Mahood, Andy. "Jane's WWII Fighters". PC Games. Archived from the original on October 7, 1999. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  13. Takeda, Kenji (February 18, 1999). "WWII Fighters Review". PC Gaming World. Archived from the original on October 7, 2000.
  14. "Second Interactive Achievement Awards; Personal Computer". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on November 4, 1999.
  15. Staff (April 1999). "Computer Gaming World's 1999 Premier Awards; CGW Presents the Best Games of 1998". Computer Gaming World (177): 90, 93, 96–105.
  16. Staff. "The Best & Worst of 1999". GameSpot. Archived from the original on August 17, 2000. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
  17. IGN Staff (January 29, 1999). "IGNPC's Best of 1998 Awards". IGN. Archived from the original on April 4, 2002. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
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