>If anyone is to blame, wouldnt you point the finger at the millions of people who just eat up all the derivative crap we see rehashed again and again? When the likes of a Katamari Damacy consistently outsells Madden and the Sims, maybe then we would see a change in how games are selected and developed. Until then, you'll have to look to the independent publishers to bring you those cool offbeat titles.
Stated perfectly. I've said it for years, and you can't imagine how many times on boards i've been flamed for stating this simple fact of business and common sense. Why would they try to make something new and original if GenericSportsGame2012 or SequelGameWithAFewNewFeatures13 sells 100X more? Simple math.
It's an interesting thought I just had, staring at the low amount of interest and sales my new "Arcadia Project" has had since being announced a few days ago(http://www.stormcloudcreations.com/arcproject. htm), and wondering why publishers are cautious about non-formula or "risky" titles.
The fact is, many general level gamers are pretty apathetic these days and don't really want much originality or want to stand up and offer support to smaller developers, forcing them to assume huge financial risks or prostitute themselves to publishers (many of whom don't want much original, because of reason A at the start of this paragraph). It seems that way anyway. I hope i'm wrong.
I posted about my project on Slashdot (hopefully it gets approved and gathers some interest) as a new way to fund and create games, called micro-funding. It's a way to allow people to pre-order the game at a lower price, use the money to create the game (lowering the risk for the dev and allow for more creativity and risks), and (a twist of my own) offer a chance for those users to actually influence the design of the game as it is created.
Several projects have used variations of this theme (Mount and Blade, for instance), and I think it will be the future for small/indie game development, bypassing publishers (and the need for discussions like this) altogether.
Slashdot Mirror
Stated perfectly. I've said it for years, and you can't imagine how many times on boards i've been flamed for stating this simple fact of business and common sense. Why would they try to make something new and original if GenericSportsGame2012 or SequelGameWithAFewNewFeatures13 sells 100X more? Simple math.
The fact is, many general level gamers are pretty apathetic these days and don't really want much originality or want to stand up and offer support to smaller developers, forcing them to assume huge financial risks or prostitute themselves to publishers (many of whom don't want much original, because of reason A at the start of this paragraph). It seems that way anyway. I hope i'm wrong.
I posted about my project on Slashdot (hopefully it gets approved and gathers some interest) as a new way to fund and create games, called micro-funding. It's a way to allow people to pre-order the game at a lower price, use the money to create the game (lowering the risk for the dev and allow for more creativity and risks), and (a twist of my own) offer a chance for those users to actually influence the design of the game as it is created.
Several projects have used variations of this theme (Mount and Blade, for instance), and I think it will be the future for small/indie game development, bypassing publishers (and the need for discussions like this) altogether.