Epic Boss: Games Business is "Shockingly Immature"

[Hevva]

Epic Boss: Games Business is "Shockingly Immature"

Mike Capps has highlighted that while gaming startups tend to be "entrepreneurship gone right," being part of a relatively new industry can have practical drawbacks.


It goes without saying that gaming, as a medium and an industry, is fairly new compared to other entertainment and art media. As with any industry, there are growing pains for both the groups involved and the culture at large to deal with as the medium and industry expands. According to Mike Capps, president of Gears of War studio Epic Games, one such problem area is the practice of maintaining a solvent business while building games.

In an interview with GamesIndustry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-12-07-epic-win-interview?page=1], Capps expanded on what it's like to run a business in gaming. "Our games industry is shockingly immature from a business perspective, because so few folks have business experience before coming in, or an education for business," he said. "It's awesome because it's entrepreneurship gone right, that's what our industry comes from, and that's really exciting, but there's not a lot of sharing, there's not a lot of great game business 'how to' books."

"We try to share and people listen to us, for some reason, and we try to learn as much as we can from everybody else and their mistakes," he added.

Capps also spoke about Epic's new IP, due for a reveal of sorts at this weekend's Spike Video Game Awards [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114241-2011-Spike-Video-Game-Award-Nominees-Announced] this weekend. "It's something radically different for us," he said, adding that he's feeling a little "nervous" over how fans will recieve the game.

"New IP, new game...We love Gears, it was a great trilogy, we've gotten a lot of great compliments and a lot of great fans," Capps continued. "We're still supporting Gears 3 very strongly, but I've got guys that have been on it since 2001, and some of them need a break and to try something new."

Hopefully the design and game business literature available to new developers and publishers will expand as the industry does, giving new artists the kind of varied resources and information available to budding filmmakers and musicians. As for the new IP, Capps has said before that he "bets [the] entire company" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112352-Epic-Games-is-Targeting-the-PC-Again] every time he launches a new game, so a few nerves are to be expected. How "different" it will be is anyone's guess.


Source: GamesIndustry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-12-07-epic-win-interview?page=1]





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[Fappy]

Epic Boss: Games Business is "Shockingly Immature"

You think?

Is there really anything else that needs to be said?

 

[Aidinthel]

*snip*

That's not what he meant.

"Our games industry is shockingly immature from a business perspective, because so few folks have business experience before coming in, or an education for business," he said. "It's awesome because it's entrepreneurship gone right, that's what our industry comes from, and that's really exciting, but there's not a lot of sharing, there's not a lot of great game business 'how to' books."

Different kind of immaturity.

 

[Gibboniser]

Epic Boss: Games Business is "Shockingly Immature"

You think?

Reading the post would probably help.

 

[Bobbity]

*snip*

That's not what he meant.

"Our games industry is shockingly immature from a business perspective, because so few folks have business experience before coming in, or an education for business," he said. "It's awesome because it's entrepreneurship gone right, that's what our industry comes from, and that's really exciting, but there's not a lot of sharing, there's not a lot of great game business 'how to' books."

Different kind of immaturity.

He knows that, silly. He's just taking advantage of the double meaning implicit in the title.

OT: I agree, and on both counts.

 

[Something Amyss]

Where's the shocking part? The immaturity in business has been pretty evident for ages.

 

[iLikeHippos]

Well, yeah. The interactive medium also known as games haven't grown all too much. I both praise and blame the capitalist system for its position today. Immature since they often do not dare try anything new and expand their limitations, but mature as in developed and refined more in some genres in such a great way, I have little ways to phantom an additional improvement from now.

 

[Alandoril]

The games industry will never mature as long as its recruitment policies are clique based.

 

[Irridium]

The industry is immature in far more than in terms of business.

Look how it deals with issues like sexism, racism, and other controversial issues.

I'd say it just is, in general, immature.

 

[Radelaide]

I am genuinely surprised by this shocking dis-- okay, I can't keep on with that.

Initial reaction: No, you think?

 

[Vicarious Reality]

>one such problem area is the practice of maintaining a solvent business while building games.

lol what, i thought solvent was the stuff you clean rifle barrels with



On topic, i am even more confused, what was this article about? It seems like a long comment about how game companies are new? What's the difference from old companies?

 

[Monsterfurby]

Having worked in a management position in the industry, I can only agree with every single word. There are things going on there that would have every business student dying of laughter of depression, depending on their appreciation of utter disaster.

 

[Otaku World Order]

It's strange to think of a medium that's over thirty years old now as being "immature". But then, the industry has made some very rapid changes in the last decade or so.

 

[RA92]

He has a point. Epic has some very cool business practices, like releasing a freeware version of their engine so that former modders can make standalone games. This creates a preference for their engine in the industry.

I wouldn't say the same about their game releases, though. GoW isn't my type of thing, but since it's popular, good for them. But beyond that, the development of UT3 and Bulletstorm were rather misguided.