Cost headache for game developers

Twas a very interesting read. The figures for Halo 3 were astounding and just shows if you pull off a blockbuster game it really does pay off, even if the game is not necessarily as good as it should have been.
 
It sucks that the smaller companies are struggling, I expect if this continues we'll see more and more buyouts from the likes of EA and less variety of games in the long term.
 
If you have some common sense its not hard to maintain a good game, all they need is a good idea and a great script. They could even have side projects making casual 2D platformers.
 
This is one reason why I'm giving up gaming on the 360 come mid 2008. Games are taking so long to produce now that the wait for them is getting silly. Thanks to GPU advancing at a silly rate, the demands from consumers for realistic visuals is making a lot of smaller companies struggle hugely. I just cba waiting for titles anymore, GTA4 is a good example.
 
Kainz said:
This is one reason why I'm giving up gaming on the 360 come mid 2008. Games are taking so long to produce now that the wait for them is getting silly. Thanks to GPU advancing at a silly rate, the demands from consumers for realistic visuals is making a lot of smaller companies struggle hugely. I just cba waiting for titles anymore, GTA4 is a good example.
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Get a Wii and DS instead?
 
i blame the pirates

darr!

and rubbish games.. they spend 14 million on graphics and marketing and 1 million making the levels and story, hence u end up with a pretty game with 10 hours gameplay... no wonder its difficult to recoup it if people dont want to buy it.

also companies are now having to realise the cost for providing down stream patch AND essentially - Online Server Support. there is little/no downstream revenue from it (apart from goodwill towards the next title in the series, but that could be years off) so what does it cost to provide stable, fast good quality online servers ?
 
Kreeeee said:
Get a Wii and DS instead?
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I say get all of em :D Be greedy you are bound to always have something to play then. I used to always read game site pluggin games, getting me excited only to be waiting 2 years for em to be released

Piece of advice stick to just game reviews like me :) That way you will never be disapointed unless it has been released in the US miles ahead like rockband and MOH H2 for the wii :D
 
We dont need great visuals, we just need great gameplay, better ideas. Their are far to many companies focusing on graphics. The Handheld Market is the best place to start really.
 
Kreeeee said:
Get a Wii and DS instead?
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I am tempted for a DS, but tbh I want to concentrate on that thing we call life :) I've become a lazy goit since I got the 360. Prior to the 360, PC Gaming was so slow and stale that I had time to visit the gym etc whilst playing the odd decent game. When the 360 arrived it all changed as good titles were all over the place :D
 
Think this is why some smaller companies are developing games for PSN and Xbox live arcade. The developers have to give a % to Sony/Microsoft but I would think a fair majority would go straight to the developer so making a game quite profitable without a "middleman" to take profit away from them.
 
Interesting read :) I definately think PSN / XBLA is the way to go, then fund some of the bigger titles on the back off the success on any downloadable games so developers should try to fund the big releases with money they are making currently of their smaller releases (idealised I know, and not always real world) - i.e. keep releasing network / downloadable games until you can easily afford the risk of bigger titles then rinse & repeat.

Some of the games on PSN (as would be the case with XBLA if I had a 360 I'm sure :)) have given me a lot more fun in playing them than some of the major, disc based, releases.
 
msmalls74 said:
Think this is why some smaller companies are developing games for PSN and Xbox live arcade. The developers have to give a % to Sony/Microsoft but I would think a fair majority would go straight to the developer so making a game quite profitable without a "middleman" to take profit away from them.
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And don't forget Wii Ware titles will start rolling out next year for new downloadable Wii games, mainly from small developers.
 
Kreeeee said:
Get a Wii and DS instead?
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Because Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3 had speedy releases? :p.
People don't understand what goes in to games. Good things come to those who wait.

Companies release a game early and get hounded, they release a game late and get hounded. The only way to get away with it is to release either a cult classic or surprise hit these days.
 
Midway must be hurting bad as Stranglehold cost $30M to make and has not sold well at all (its only really a Max Payne clone with John Woo's name on but still enjoyable). Then Blacksite is average at best and must have cost a lot as its another Unreal3 licenced product and has sold so badly on all formats that you can now pick it up on the PC for £12.99 a month after its release!!
 
AWPC said:
Midway must be hurting bad as Stranglehold cost $30M to make and has not sold well at all (its only really a Max Payne clone with John Woo's name on but still enjoyable). Then Blacksite is average at best and must have cost a lot as its another Unreal3 licenced product and has sold so badly on all formats that you can now pick it up on the PC for £12.99 a month after its release!!
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Might teach them for releasing crap games!
 
Introversion is a small company thats doing well for itself. Defcon and Darwinia are both innovative and unique games, and they are only around 50Mb each, as opposed to the 8.5Gb of Supreme Commander or the 7.5Gb of Viva Pinata.
Plus, all of their games have been very simple graphically. The Defcon install is 59Mb, 57Mb of which is sounds.

So, you certainly don't need graphics to stay afloat.
 
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