Activision Boss Predicts Rising Game Development Costs
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
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Well, I am no expert, but let me say this:
Old games - crappy graphics, mediocre gameplay (for the most part) <=> cheap costs
Modern games - better graphics, better gameplay (for the most part) <=> higher costs.
New generation equipment - better graphics, better gameplay (I hope) <=> even higher costs.
Isn't it like gamer greed? I mean we (as gamers) want more of everything, immersions, pixels, story, etc, etc, etc. It costs more to add those extra details. That plus the costs of training staff with new equipment and there you go. I think it's common sense for prices to go up, not endorsing it, but it's the "greed for more details" that's making this emerge.
Old games - crappy graphics, mediocre gameplay (for the most part) <=> cheap costs
Modern games - better graphics, better gameplay (for the most part) <=> higher costs.
New generation equipment - better graphics, better gameplay (I hope) <=> even higher costs.
Isn't it like gamer greed? I mean we (as gamers) want more of everything, immersions, pixels, story, etc, etc, etc. It costs more to add those extra details. That plus the costs of training staff with new equipment and there you go. I think it's common sense for prices to go up, not endorsing it, but it's the "greed for more details" that's making this emerge.
WHAAAT?!
Do you...mean to say...that considering console generations' consistent history of rising development costs...
...
...this generation will result in...YET HIGHER DEVELOPMENT COSTS?!
[small]No shit, my dog could've told me that.[/small]
Do you...mean to say...that considering console generations' consistent history of rising development costs...
...
...this generation will result in...YET HIGHER DEVELOPMENT COSTS?!
[small]No shit, my dog could've told me that.[/small]
No shit the cost of development is going to increase. It's not like we're, you know, moving on to more complex and advanced technology and therefore must have more complex and advanced code as well or anything.
Nothing is faster than the speed of stupid.Th37thTrump3t said:
No shit the cost of development is going to increase. It's not like we're, you know, moving on to more complex and advanced technology and therefore must have more complex and advanced code as well or anything.
OT: I love how the article points out that Activision had $4.8 Billion in revenues last year. How about telling us what their profit margin was? You know, how much they made per dollar spent? That would be a more telling figure in my opinion.
And why must costs go up? Are your in-house developers not capable of learning the new hardware/software? Does that require that more developers be hired? Will it take longer to code? I might understand if they were talking PCs since there is great variety of specs from one unit to the next and the software must work adequately on all (or at least a majority) of them. But console specs don't really change over the life of the device. The console I buy on launch day will have the same specs as the one bought a month before the next generation is released. Add to that the fact that console specs typically lag PC specs by at least three years....
If the games you are creating for PCs now have not required massive increases in development costs and most of the code is the same(beyond the bits that tune it for specific consoles) then where is this massive cost increase coming from? The need to incorporate more heavy-handed and useless DRM that does nothing but piss off legitimate customers?
