Cliffy B: Horror Genre Doesn't Fit the $60 Disc Market

[Sylveria]

We don't need to go all digital, we need publishers to realize that a niche genres like horor aren't suposed to appeal to everyone! I don't really like Horor anything and trying to tack action onto a horor game isn't going to appeal to me when I've got so many full action games to chose from.

I've been saying this for quite a long time. Game studios are doing the same thing Hollywood is, thinking a movie NEEDS to cost $200million and NEEDS to make $500million. So what do they do? Make all their games emulate the last big seller since that is the safer bet. End result is we're stuck in an industry with a bunch of big budget but uninspired, samey muck.

We're going to see some really bad times in the industry when the modern-shooter burnout really starts to take hold. The big companies can only seem to survive from block-buster to block-buster and if those stop selling 5million+ they've got no consistent income from smaller financial gambles to survive on.

 

[PunkRex]

I love it when a popular developer says something others have been saying for a while. Instead of peeps being thankful and saying:

'Hey, maybe others will start to listen to us now he's saying it to'

they say:

'What a glory hog, he's just jumping on a band wagon others have been pushing for even longer... AND HE'S WRONG ANYWAY!'.

Look guys and gals, it sucks that it takes big names to make wankers in suits actually listen and its totally justified if you're mad but you don't have to be so smarmy about it.

 

[VoidWanderer]

I think there should be a rule that all AAA studios who THINK they know horror, should have a week marathon of Japanese Horror and after all the counselling, the ones not sent permanently insane should make the games.

Agreed?

 

[Winnosh]

Horror being something only for rental makes no sense. People will watch a horror movie over and over until they memorize every scene and still get scared by it. Older suspense games IE silent hill, and older RE were also replayed constantly. People know what's coming in Eternal Darkness and still get scared. Same for Fatal Frame.

Good Horror keeps you coming back because it's done well.

 

[Treaos Serrare]

whats that, the sound of someone relevant? Nope just Cliffy B.

 

[Covarr]

I didn't like either Amnesia or Slender, but he's got a point (albeit not the one he thinks he has). Let's look at this strictly from a business perspective:

To do a decent job at horror requires risks that no sane company will take when they're investing an AAA budget; they'd rather do the same thing that's been proven to work by about a thousand games already, which is why so many "horror" games are really just action games with a horror setting. A smaller budget allows studios to cut their losses if it doesn't work out as well as they'd hoped.

P.S. Thanks

 

[DrOswald]

We don't need to go all digital, we need publishers to realize that a niche genres like horror aren't supposed to appeal to everyone! I don't really like Horor anything and trying to tack action onto a horror game isn't going to appeal to me when I've got so many full action games to chose from.

Well that's what he's saying. It's hard to do Horror properly when you have to make sure everyone buys it and everyone is having fun, or your game is labeled a failure and your team is fired.

I don't understand why it has to be online and publishers can't just have smaller budgets to release smaller games at smaler prices to earn back smaller (but more guaranteed) profits. Why do they have to bet the damn farm each time in simply to justify making the game at all?

Physical media is the problem. A game needs to be a Juggernaut to compete in the physical market for many reasons. Here is how it goes:

Physical media has a high cost for each additional unit. (This includes cost of packaging, shipping, disk printing, etc.)
In order to offset the high cost of each additional unit, the price is set high. ($60)
Because the price is high, we demand a better game for our money.
Because we demand a better game, they spend more developing the game.
Because they spent so much money developing the game, they must sell many units.
Thus, all major releases must have wide appeal.

Other major problems:
Limited shelf space (if a game is not expected to sell well or to only appeal to a small audience no one will stock it.)
Very short window to make a profit before the game is removed from shelves in order to make room for new games (usually just a few weeks.)
Must anticipate demand. Misjudging demand can result in massive lost sales or a massive inventory of worthless physical discs.
Pre release marketing is vital. (The game does not sell on how good it is as much as it sells on how good the marketing was pre release. Also, if there is no hype do not expect any physical store to shelf more than a couple copies. Also, if it does not sell well they will remove it from shelves in a couple weeks or less.)

How does digital solve this?

No additional per unit cost.
No competition for shelf space.
A far greater window in which to make a profit allowing the game to sell by word of mouth and stand on the strength of the game not the marketing.
Less emphasis on marketing, especially pre release marketing.
Anticipating demand is far less important.

Basically digital download allows niche titles to compete and it mitigates risks. It allows for creativity to be the driving force behind development instead of risk mitigation and it allows a studio to, as you put it, not bet the farm on a single title.

 

[Absolutionis]

There are still people around that think the Dead Space series is supposed to be a scary game?

To make a movie analogue, it's the difference between a thriller and a slasher. Anyone can make a slasher so long as you add enough gore and the occasional dismemberment. A thriller actually requires the talent to know when to add blood/gore and when to simply do nothing.

Dead Space is just an action game. You're a super-powered Space Marine disguised as an engineer (just like Doom) wielding an arsenal of brutally bloody weapons disguised as mining tools.

When a game like Dead Space 2 gives you a grenade launcher and super-armor right from the beginning, it's not trying to be scary. When a game like Amnesia punishes you for fighting or even looking at the monsters, it's trying to be scary.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

First off, whats with all the hate directed at Cliffy B? Seriously? I mean I only played the first Gears of War, and didn't bother with the other two sequels, but why do people hate him?

Now then, yep most of that seems accurate. However I would argue that the horror genre shouldn't be forced to appeal to everybody and that individual horror games can appeal to different groups of people.

 

[DSK-]

It seems making good games from previous interations of well-recieved FPS games is also harder. A la UT3.

 

[Little Gray]

Read: Horror requires a talented team at the helm and none of these AAA game developing clowns would know talent if it bit them in the ass.

He is actually saying that what people consider horror is so varied that its pretty much impossible to make a AAA pure horror game and still make your money back. There is just not enough people who like the same thing in horror games. What people find scary is a very subjective and delicate subject because if you go even a tiny bit in the wrong direction it completely ruins it.

Its the same reason that you dont see actual horror movies anymore. All you get these days it thrillers that try to go for the cheap scare tactics.

 

[Strazdas]

well thats just fucking stupid...

a good game is a good game regardless of its genre...if the length/content is fair then its worth $60

Thats the problem really. only like 1% of games nowadays are worth the overpriced 60$ Games like Deadspace are more towards the 30-40$ category in my opinion.