Eyeopening article into gaming's biggest problem, rising costs.

Here's the article in question. I am frankly shocked by this news. I knew costs were a problem but I didn't realize it would be this bad.

What are your thoughts on this?

edited 3rd Jul '12 5:19:12 PM by Kostya

Goddamn

that's orders of magnitude bigger than I thought it'd be. O_o

and now I really want to see a bunch of smaller developers making games for smaller costs, going with past technology rather than the best facial animations. More Lone Survivor, less Mass Effect 3.

And seriously, 200 million for Co D?! What are they using it all for?! It doesn't show in their gameplay, that's for sure.

edited 3rd Jul '12 4:05:23 PM by Enkufka

I honestly think that, given the lack of talk about the PC gaming market and such, we may see a shift back towards the PC. That, and Indie developers and games are only going to continue to proliferate.

Will some developers simply downgrade? Hard to say, since that's a risk in itself, and risk-taking may not be the best thing to do right now, as nice as it is.

I think the cost for some PC games will probably be higher. I always hear about how they're so much nicer and more advanced than the consoles so logically they need even more money.

Honestly with numbers like these I'm not surprised mobile gaming is such a big thing. It's becoming one of the only sane options.

As someone who has been gaming since the days that a team of a dozen or so guys putting out as many games per year was the norm, I ain't surprised at all.

Yeah, I can also see Indie games being the next big thing. Might be looking at another videogame crash, with only the strongest (or leanest) surviving it.

I knew games are getting ridiculously expensive to make. Kingdoms Of Amalur needed three million to break even. Dead Space 3 wants to sell five million to continue the franchise. The latest UFC game didn't make a profit despite being the ninth bestselling game of the year.

What are we getting out of all this money again? Better graphics? Why is that so important? We got people to look like people and not masses of polygons in the PS 2 years, and that was good enough for me. I'd rather have more gameplay features and some extra content than prettier visuals. That's just me though. And yet everyone is going for the photorealistic look.

No surprise here. I kept talking about the rising costs of games constantly. And its why I predict a second crash.

Yeah, and the problem with graphics is no one is willing to go back. The Gaming industry is in BIG BIG trouble.

I give it 5 more years until it all goes toppling over.

edited 3rd Jul '12 4:39:45 PM by Thorn14

It's no surprise that indie and mobile gaming are more popular...price are spiraling out of control....

Still...I already thought it was bad...this articles shows way worse situation...

This quote from Matthew Karch interested me especially:

At this level of cost and labor, what is the right way to spend money?

Sigh, more doom and gloom.

The AAA model is collapsing in on itself, but gaming isn't going to "die" as long as people are buying games. The business model is in a serious upheaval caused by costs of AAA, yes, but also by competition created by disruptive technology.

Simply saying "Nintendo can control costs" is ignoring that Nintendo's fortunes have plummeted for the last few years and the Wii U is currently not predicted to reverse them.

I refuse to crystal ball too much because trust me, if you told me six years ago people would be playing games on phones, I'd have told you you're a madman. But I think the shift is going to be towards far less epic, budget-breaking titles, smaller studios, and a LOT more games on different platforms.

The console gaming industry might well be gone in ten years, but gaming won't be going anywhere unless people wake up one morning and decide they don't want to play games anymore.

That feels more like an article meant to shock people than anything else to me. It looks like they only bring up the extreme examples, and forget that there's a whole bunch of games in the full range from those AAA games to single-man indie games. All games aren't going to become impossibly expensive to produce.

Granted, I only skimmed it.

edited 3rd Jul '12 4:41:56 PM by Feather7603

Yeah, but the thing about PC games is that you can fix problems after you start selling with patches and mods. You can't do that with console games and so that QC will have to be tighter; and PC games from what I know seems to be more flexible: for example, you can have free browser-based MM Os, which is an impossible format for consoles; finally, P Cs are not designed for just gaming, which means that you can have smaller, cheaper games designed to be played while you are waiting for something else at work (for example).

edited 3rd Jul '12 4:44:29 PM by IraTheSquire

While I do not think a crash will happen, I do think that developers should decrease budget costs for next gen, even if it means limiting themselves in how much power is actually used for the games. After all, it is ultimately up to the game itself.

Nobody's saying gaming as a medium is going to crash and burn, but remember that AAA big-budget games are what people first think of when gaming is mentioned.

On the plus side if AAA titles do all die off at least people will stop trying to copy off eachother thus forming all major titles into some sort of homogenized blob of singularly basic gameplay mechanics.

Yeah. Gaming won't be gone but you bet you're ass we wont be seeing any Uncharteds or Resident Evils or whatever.

@Rebochan: If gaming is nothing but cellphone angry birds crap and the occasional good indie game, then gaming may as well be dead.

edited 3rd Jul '12 4:50:55 PM by Thorn14

I used to think the Wii U was a really dumb idea. But now, I think if Nintendo does this JUST right, they could have a success story.

Assuming there isn't a casual bubble that will pop.

Feather: It still notes that 120 developers shut down this gen. Hyperbole or not that is a ridiculous amount. Also it leasts numerous examples from a wide range of publishers so it's clear to me that this is a very widespread problem. The main thing that should be taken from it IMO is that this is only going to get worse next generation if there's another giant jump in hardware power.

Shirow: That's the big thing. AAA titles are considered the jewels of the gaming industry in many scenarios yet they're becoming impossible to make.

AAA games are also the ones investors put the most confidence in. They also attract the most buzz and the most hype, which lead to sales.

Without AAA games, most investors will torch and run.

This is common sense really. There's consistently been an emphasis on bigger and better hardware, but without any means of making production cheaper that just corners them into making more expensive games. And they aren't even selling those expensive games for any more than the cheaper ones from the PS 2 era. They're running faster and faster in a vain attempt to stay in the same place, so it's no surprise they're burning out. They brought it upon themselves though, with the meaningless hardware oneupmanship.

edited 3rd Jul '12 4:58:55 PM by Clarste

While it's rather well known I don't think people grasp the truly staggering numbers involved. I mean 1 million copies of just about any AAA title gets it deemed a failure? I would have at least expected it to break even on that.

edit: It's also fueled by consumers that demand nothing but the most advanced stuff available.

edited 3rd Jul '12 5:00:50 PM by Kostya

So, rather than outright crash, it will merely contract. We'll see shuffling nameplates in offices, changing ownership of studios, and maybe if we're all lucky, we might come out of the shuffle with some stronger game developers who write games that are fun to play without being overly bloated.

I must admit that, if there are any AAA titles I think will be good and would not be the death of it's developer, I'd go with Nintendo. But even then, things may change, and Nintendo's second parties still aren't immune to be shut down.

Cing...

If no more AAA games get made, it doesn't mean gaming will be less fun. Just that it'll be smaller. As a gamer I'll still be happy.

I'm more worried about people's jobs though. There are more and more people getting degrees related to the gaming industry every day, and now people are saying the industry might suffer a partial collapse? Sucks to have ambition, I guess...