Cost of Game Development is 'Crazy' Says EA

GamesIndustry.biz has the word from Alan Tascan, general manager of EA's Montreal studio, who has gone on record saying that development costs are 'crazy' in this next-gen world. From the article: "When asked whether he'd agree that it's larger companies like EA which are driving bigger game budgets, Tascan replied, 'I think a lot of [other companies] are spending even more money. It's people who want that, it's not EA per se ... I said to some of the guys here, "The gamer is not buying lines of code; you have to promise him enough entertainment for him to put his hand in his pocket and buy the game." It's a lot of money, so you need to give him a show, and we're just here to deliver the show.'"

Comments

Re:Cry me a river...

[Pojut]

If I had mod points, so would you.

+1, Insightful.

Re:Meh.

[crabpeople]

"They profit in only one way: people like and buy their games."

This is only because they buy a franchise (C&C, battlefield, uo, simcity) and thusly buy every fan that that game has had. Those people go out and buy the new sequels that EA has put out, and if they are like me, find them all to be shit and sware off the companeis future releases. I am sure some people pay but thats just because they dont know any better and even if something better does come along, EA buys the company and runs it into the ground. It's similar to windows. It works, but its far from ideal and people buy it because there isn't another viable option in whatever genre the game is in (not to mention they have exclusive licensing for whole generes such as american footbal and hockey).

EA is a cancer at worst and an exericse in mediocrity at best. That some people perfer mediocre games to no games isn't much of a surprise but it doesnt mean that just because their games are popular that they are also well designed.