Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Game Developers Fear Hollywood-ization of Gaming

Posted by Zonk on from the let's-do-lunch dept.

While the new generation of console hardware is something to look forward too, CNet has a story discussing the possible downsides to more beefy machinery. In specific, the increase in development time that next-gen games will require may "Hollywood-ize" the games industry even more than it already has been. Warren Spector, from the article: "Once hardware guys give us the capability to do something spectacular, someone's going to spend the money to do something spectacular...The quality bar is going to be raised. Someone is going to spend $20 million or $30 million or $40 million, and the rest of us who don't have deep pockets like that are going to have to find some way to compete."

6 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Thankfully .. by .milfox · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Graphics quality isn't everything, same as how in hollywood, FX aren't everything. A movie / game can be awesome in appearance without being 'intresting' in plot at all.

    IMHO, plot and world matter MUCH more than the FX or graphics, so .... :P Think about how, say, Napoleon Dynamite or Blair Witch got immensely popular without mass amounts of money spent in their production. The same applies to games.

    1. Re:Thankfully .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I dunno, I barely had the patience to play Bards Tale when I was 13. Think I only did so out of sheer boredom and long winters. If computers had good online connectivity in those days, I wouldn't have bothered.

    2. Re:Thankfully .. by .milfox · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't know about you. My favorite 'mainstream' game recently has been Morrowind, a game which has no expensive voiceovers, etc .. just all plot and a very immersive, detailed world.

      Apparently I'm not the only one, considering how popular that game has been. So I think there *IS* a market for it, and one that is being filled.

      Also look at things like civ, etc, which aren't graphics/effects heavy but still very popular.

  2. My God.... by Jason+Scott · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They fear the "Hollywood-ization" of the Gaming Industry?

    What, is it 1985? Even by the middle of the 1980s, budgets were being blown on insanely stupid ideas trying to keep up with movies, buying movie licenses or paying stupid development costs to make the next Pac-Man or Donkey Kong.

    ALL of the game companies, and I mean ALL: Atari, Taito, Nintendo, Gottlieb... they all spent TONS of money developing INSANELY dumb games trying to get blockbusters instead of focusing on good gameplay and letting people work out games other ways.

    This is nothing new; just another article acting like there's something shiny and dew-like under the sun.

    The Gaming Industry has been polluted for decades.

  3. It will settle out quickly. by supabeast! · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Those crazy effects will only cost a lot at first - shortly after people will create new tools that drastically lower the cost of implementing those effects. In other words, all three Lord of the Rings movies were made for less money than Terminator 2, and the effects look a lot better. Expect the same thing to happen with video games.

  4. The bar HAS ALREADY been raised. by Guspaz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The quality bar is going to be raised. Someone is going to spend $20 million or $30 million or $40 million, and the rest of us who don't have deep pockets like that are going to have to find some way to compete.

    Half-Life 2 cost $40 million to make, and is arguably one of the best single player games ever made. It looks to me like the bar is already set, and at $40 million to boot. The person quoted in the article better FIND some deep pockets.

    That said, a game doesn't have to cost that much to become popular. There are a few mods out there that are more popular than a lot of "blockbuster" games, and yet cost almost nothing to make. The trick seems to be making your first game low-budget as a startup company, and then using the proceeds from that to fund a big-budget followup.