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 Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 8:09 pm
Joystiq.com Cost of next-gen game production is a burden on developers  Game developers always have a sizable stack of things to worry about when working on a new project; things like: Is my game going to be any good? Will people buy my game? Am I making Vampire Rain? Is it too late to cancel? Of course, financial worries are always present for developers, who have a growing number of costs to deal with during the creation of a game. However, according to a recent report by BBC News, budgeting woes have escalated into a full-blown panic among developers due to the growing cost of making games for next-gen consoles. To put things in perspective, the article gives the example of Namco, who, in 1982, made Pac-Man for nearly $100,000 (today, it would be about double that amount, due to inflation). According to BBC News, the average PS3 game costs nearly $15 million to make -- and that's before any marketing is done for the game. Not only is this bad news for gamers, as it almost ensures our store shelves will be stocked with sequel after buyer-recognizable sequel, but it's also bad for developers, who could go belly up after one unsuccessful title. As technology continues to improve and game consoles get more sophisticated, we wonder how this price spiral will continue to affect the industry. Will there be more safety-ensuring corporate mergers? Higher quality games? Most worryingly -- will there be too few games released to sustain the industry? The video game crash of 1983 was due to there being too many games on the market -- will a situation on the opposite end of the spectrum lead to another crash? For all our sakes, we certainly hope not. Joystiq Article
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Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 8:43 pm
You know what's sad? It can take a quarter to play Pac-man and it's even longer than Heavenly Sword. =/
Ask the guy who beat Pac-man...I think it was like almost a day. So yea sad.
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Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 8:53 pm
[Xera] You know what's sad? It can take a quarter to play Pac-man and it's even longer than Heavenly Sword. =/ Ask the guy who beat Pac-man...I think it was like almost a day. So yea sad. There's also the fact that the guy probably had to start over and over and over. There are no save spots on pac-man. If you were able to play straight through without having to start ALL over, I wonder how long it would actually take. Also...didn't Sony cut the cost of their development kit for the PS3 in half some time ago?
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Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 9:22 pm
Canis Lupus the LoneWolf [Xera] You know what's sad? It can take a quarter to play Pac-man and it's even longer than Heavenly Sword. =/ Ask the guy who beat Pac-man...I think it was like almost a day. So yea sad. There's also the fact that the guy probably had to start over and over and over. There are no save spots on pac-man. If you were able to play straight through without having to start ALL over, I wonder how long it would actually take. Also...didn't Sony cut the cost of their development kit for the PS3 in half some time ago?
It was 22K.
Now, it's around 12.5 to 15k.
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 10:13 am
Aren't they losing money like that?
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 12:25 pm
Nter Aren't they losing money like that? Maybe they've been seeing this too and are trying to do as much as possible to prevent this possible crash? I don't know...but is that inflation to $200,000 considering the technology? What if we hadn't advanced to that level of technology back then until now and we still had the same inflation rate today...I wonder how close to $15 million it would have been. I think the technology has to be taken into consideration.
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 12:40 pm
This seems like an unfair comparison, Pacman, a game with bleeps for sound that was probably programmed by three dudes compared to Heavenly Sword which has a soundtrack by a name composer a orchestra, Name voice and mocap actors (by name I mean Andy Serkis), and a production team of god knows how many, Renting the mocap studios and so on a so fourth can really add up quickly. So this really seems like a unfair comparison... What's next, them comparing a barebones Ford Fusion to a fully loaded Lambo?
OF ******** COURSE ONE WILL BE MORE EXPENSIVE!
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 2:25 pm
Part-Time Viking This seems like an unfair comparison, Pacman, a game with bleeps for sound that was probably programmed by three dudes compared to Heavenly Sword which has a soundtrack by a name composer a orchestra, Name voice and mocap actors (by name I mean Andy Serkis), and a production team of god knows how many, Renting the mocap studios and so on a so fourth can really add up quickly. So this really seems like a unfair comparison... What's next, them comparing a barebones Ford Fusion to a fully loaded Lambo? OF ******** COURSE ONE WILL BE MORE EXPENSIVE!
Doesn't matter, both gamer we're respectively fun.
Difference, it took 100k to make a fun game back then,
It takes 15 million to make a fun game now.
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 2:39 pm
Nter Aren't they losing money like that? Well, if it cost $15 million to make and the game retails at $60, Sony would break even after 250,000 copies were sold and given how barren the PS3 is with great games, I would think Heavenly Sword would sell enough copies to more than break even, though I find the game to be mind-numbingly repetitive and just not much fun...
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 2:43 pm
Sheik026 Nter Aren't they losing money like that? Well, if it cost $15 million to make and the game retails at $60, Sony would break even after 250,000 copies were sold and given how barren the PS3 is with great games, I would think Heavenly Sword would sell enough copies to more than break even, though I find the game to be mind-numbingly repetitive and just not much fun... Yeah, the game's sold nearly 700,000 copies, so Sony got back at least double from what they put in, maybe a teensy bit less with consideration given to shipping and packaging and disc production, but still, they've made money. Although, on the other hand, millions of Pac-man machines have been sold worldwide, so, I'd think Atari still made more money off of Pac-Man than Sony did off of Heavenly Sword...
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 2:44 pm
Daxelman Part-Time Viking This seems like an unfair comparison, Pacman, a game with bleeps for sound that was probably programmed by three dudes compared to Heavenly Sword which has a soundtrack by a name composer a orchestra, Name voice and mocap actors (by name I mean Andy Serkis), and a production team of god knows how many, Renting the mocap studios and so on a so fourth can really add up quickly. So this really seems like a unfair comparison... What's next, them comparing a barebones Ford Fusion to a fully loaded Lambo? OF ******** COURSE ONE WILL BE MORE EXPENSIVE!
Doesn't matter, both gamer we're respectively fun.
Difference, it took 100k to make a fun game back then,
It takes 15 million to make a fun game now.
So we go back to basics with no saving capabilities, half a sound card, and primitive processing...gotcha. smile
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 2:52 pm
Canis Lupus the LoneWolf Daxelman Part-Time Viking This seems like an unfair comparison, Pacman, a game with bleeps for sound that was probably programmed by three dudes compared to Heavenly Sword which has a soundtrack by a name composer a orchestra, Name voice and mocap actors (by name I mean Andy Serkis), and a production team of god knows how many, Renting the mocap studios and so on a so fourth can really add up quickly. So this really seems like a unfair comparison... What's next, them comparing a barebones Ford Fusion to a fully loaded Lambo? OF ******** COURSE ONE WILL BE MORE EXPENSIVE!
Doesn't matter, both gamer we're respectively fun.
Difference, it took 100k to make a fun game back then,
It takes 15 million to make a fun game now.
So we go back to basics with no saving capabilities, half a sound card, and primitive processing...gotcha. smile We've gotten spoiled is what it is. We expect too much anymore.
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 3:00 pm
HistoryWak Canis Lupus the LoneWolf Daxelman Part-Time Viking This seems like an unfair comparison, Pacman, a game with bleeps for sound that was probably programmed by three dudes compared to Heavenly Sword which has a soundtrack by a name composer a orchestra, Name voice and mocap actors (by name I mean Andy Serkis), and a production team of god knows how many, Renting the mocap studios and so on a so fourth can really add up quickly. So this really seems like a unfair comparison... What's next, them comparing a barebones Ford Fusion to a fully loaded Lambo? OF ******** COURSE ONE WILL BE MORE EXPENSIVE!
Doesn't matter, both gamer we're respectively fun.
Difference, it took 100k to make a fun game back then,
It takes 15 million to make a fun game now.
So we go back to basics with no saving capabilities, half a sound card, and primitive processing...gotcha. smile We've gotten spoiled is what it is. We expect too much anymore. That's not exactly what I meant. What I'm saying is, there are some games that just can't be played in a 2D manner. I know Daxel is pretty excited about Burnout...imagine a racing game like that in 2D or a lot of the racing games now. Drifting, navigating, etc...it's just not suitable. Also, trick games like Skate, or some skateboard, or bike-related game. Ramping, grinding. Now, if it was said to go back to the N64/PS1 era...maybe a even a little earlier than that when 3D started beginning, I wouldn't really mind as much because you basically have the same capabilities, just not as much detail. Pacman hardware...just no...it was a great achievement for it's time, and still is as it sets a big stepping stone in gaming history, but technology advances.
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 3:01 pm
Canis Lupus the LoneWolf Daxelman Part-Time Viking This seems like an unfair comparison, Pacman, a game with bleeps for sound that was probably programmed by three dudes compared to Heavenly Sword which has a soundtrack by a name composer a orchestra, Name voice and mocap actors (by name I mean Andy Serkis), and a production team of god knows how many, Renting the mocap studios and so on a so fourth can really add up quickly. So this really seems like a unfair comparison... What's next, them comparing a barebones Ford Fusion to a fully loaded Lambo? OF ******** COURSE ONE WILL BE MORE EXPENSIVE!
Doesn't matter, both gamer we're respectively fun.
Difference, it took 100k to make a fun game back then,
It takes 15 million to make a fun game now.
So we go back to basics with no saving capabilities, half a sound card, and primitive processing...gotcha. smile
*bangs head against wall*
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Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 3:03 pm
Canis Lupus the LoneWolf HistoryWak Canis Lupus the LoneWolf Daxelman Part-Time Viking This seems like an unfair comparison, Pacman, a game with bleeps for sound that was probably programmed by three dudes compared to Heavenly Sword which has a soundtrack by a name composer a orchestra, Name voice and mocap actors (by name I mean Andy Serkis), and a production team of god knows how many, Renting the mocap studios and so on a so fourth can really add up quickly. So this really seems like a unfair comparison... What's next, them comparing a barebones Ford Fusion to a fully loaded Lambo? OF ******** COURSE ONE WILL BE MORE EXPENSIVE!
Doesn't matter, both gamer we're respectively fun.
Difference, it took 100k to make a fun game back then,
It takes 15 million to make a fun game now.
So we go back to basics with no saving capabilities, half a sound card, and primitive processing...gotcha. smile We've gotten spoiled is what it is. We expect too much anymore. That's not exactly what I meant. What I'm saying is, there are some games that just can't be played in a 2D manner. I know Daxel is pretty excited about Burnout...imagine a racing game like that in 2D or a lot of the racing games now. Drifting, navigating, etc...it's just not suitable. Also, trick games like Skate, or some skateboard, or bike-related game. Ramping, grinding. Now, if it was said to go back to the N64/PS1 era...maybe a even a little earlier than that when 3D started beginning, I wouldn't really mind as much because you basically have the same capabilities, just not as much detail. Pacman hardware...just no...it was a great achievement for it's time, and still is as it sets a big stepping stone in gaming history, but technology advances.
I WAS MAKING A STATEMENT.
I WASN'T DISSING ANYTHING.
*goes off to pray to Cthulhu*
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