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The Videogame Industry is Broken
GameDaily is running an interesting opinion piece running down the ways in which the gaming industry is just broken. The author cites soaring costs, huge risks, a reduction in creativity, and a stagnation in market growth as just some of the signs of this crisis. From the article: "The next-gen systems require publishers to place very large bets with each title. This will mean decreased risk taking and just regurgitated sequels of big brand franchises. How many publishers will take risks with multiplatform original IP? This is clearly not good news for the consumer as innovation has driven our industry from the beginning. The irony is that the amazing tools, capabilities and quality of the new systems may very well doom what is most important, which is the game itself. Reconciling what a creative team wants and what the executive suite needs in terms of profits will be a growing challenge for many companies."
It's funny that these opinion pieces continue to crop up, where all they do is criticize what is wrong with the industry. Sure there are tons of sequels, certain games are going to cost more in the future, and there are plenty of other far from pleasant possibilities on the horizon, but there can be plenty of positives too. However, most magazines would rather A) focus on Big Game Franchise X cover stories, and B) complain instead of showcasing things that are interesting.
At the end of the day, magazines and web sites are conduits to much of the game info that is out there, thusly helping to shape a lot of its readers' tastes, as well as often indirectly instilling interest in new areas of gaming. On the rare occasion, there'll be an interesting bit in a mag or on a site that focuses on aspects of the industry that could rejuvenate, or at least provide an acceptable alternative to, what this op-ed chastizes, but often times these mags simply don't go that route.
One could argue that they do this because they are just giving their readers what they want, but if readers aren't exposed to obscure game / trend X, how do they know if they want it or not in the first place?
Yes, the industry is "broken" because games get larger and larger and require huge budgets and thousands of man hours to complete...so the little guys are shut out because they can't compete or lack said budgets and the pubs don't want to take a risk...blah blah blah...
With the next generation development costs are increasing rapidly
So go develop a DS game or something for the XBox Live Arcade that's fun and original, and then you can get your funding, FFS. If you really have something insanely fun and interesting then you'll have no problem getting backing for it. Do it on a smaller scale and watch the doors open for the bigger deals. What the hell is an unproven "independent" trying to accomplish by making a $20 million game, anyway? Prove that you're worth the money and publishers will make sure your game gets to market...it's not like they don't fund all sorts of crap that sells anyway (see any of the Matrix franchise games for examples of this).
Growing the market - Where will the growth come from? Will the size of the hardcore audience suddenly double and triple or do we need the broad base of the mainstream to grow the business? The answer is obvious and so far the winners seem to be Microsoft with Xbox Live Arcade and possibly Nintendo with its easy to use and enjoy Wii games.
Again, sigh....this guys has answered his own damn question.
The availability of online services for all three next-gen titles will help ramp up creativity. If the companies are smart, they can release "mini" dev kits, and liscense content for cheap (or free!) online distribution. It would be great to see would-be developers crank out a level for a potential game (probably with dumbed-down graphics and no voice acting/SFX) and let people play it and see if they would be interested in playing more. If so, then they have more of a reason to continue with this original idea and put out a full fledged game. Or, for smaller developers, make a longer, better game, stick it on the online portion of a console(s), and if it sells well then they can go on to make a full game with industry backing.
The Wii itself is going to be helping the little guy. While we can expect a plethora of FPS and Lightsaber games (ohpleaseohpleaseohplease), the dev kit for the Wii is a mere $2000! This means that a group of friends (or another small, interested party) who really want to get into this can pool their money and get some capitol from a rich uncle to start creating something.
Is there a terrible price difference between purchasing a console instead of a PC,
The answer is yes.
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It's only more expensive if you need to make something with a fully orchestrated soundtrack, state of the art graphics and plan on hosting a million MMORPG users.
But the reality is that it takes a few hours, moderate programming skill and marginal artistic abilities to throw together a flash game. In that sense, costs have been dropping like a rock.
Same for music - without trying, you could spend a fortune mastering an album using the very best equipment. The thing is, do you need to?
The analogy even carries over to movies. The costs are going up for whizz bang special effects and A-list actors. But you can put together an independent film with little more than a camcorder and a decent PC. (The example that comes to mind is Clerks - the original one was done for around $100k as I recall... today you could probably make the same movie for less than half with digital technology).
Ultimately, I think the economics will work itself out. The market for special effects laden fluff products is shrinking. In the end, it just means we'll see less of them, and more of the cheap stuff that isn't necessarily blockbuster material (but might turn out to be).
It's totally false to assume that the industry is broken. You have to compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges. The PS3 will, yes, require a tremendous amount of money to get your job done but for the Wii it's the opposite size, with a technology that is similar to the Gamecube. Nintendo has made their console perfect for the newcomer in the console industry.
Don't forget that a DS devkit is only 2,000$, which mean that a small company can start on this console with primitive 3D graphics (2k polygons instead of 100k on a ps2) to gain experience and make some cash before moving to something bigger (where they could potentionnaly make more money).
The real problem in my point of view, it's the PS3. The game price will be as high as during the golden years of the SuperNES and no one will take risk (as someone already mentionned). However, with a devcost near the one of the GameCube ("old-gen" budget), it will be a joke for the developers to make games for the Wii.
Having worked in the game industry for a few years, I'll sum up the problem with the following real example:
Doom sold 3 million copies for the PC last year.
My Little Pony Sold 1.5 million PC copies last year.
I know that your team has an excellent concept for a new title which will reawaken a sleeping portion of the market. However, if you make a game which mixes Doom and My Little Pony, we estimate it will sell 2-2.5 million copies next year.
As crazy as it sounds, it happens, and is the real problem. Lawyers and marketing 'experts' run the game publishing area, just like in the movies.
When this started, innovation mostly died. The only titles that buck the trend (and end up being much better) are those which are self funded, and don't need to sell their souls to get paid to finish making the game.
'Nuff said.
Actually, no. They 'magically' have the same price because most of them are owned by the same publisher (Ziff Davis). There is very little competition in the UK computer-related magazine market these days - ZD have bought most of it.
Big game houses will have this problem. Smaller outfits, with lower overheads (maybe only a few full time employees) will often be able to offer a superior game at a much lower cost.
There was an article not too long ago about "shareware kings" where individuals or small groups make products and rake in the money.
$750,000 won't even pay for EA's advertising budget, but that is damn good pay for a few friends.
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