Yeah, I don't see any of that as a good thing. Enhanced visuals do not mean better games. Often it's quite the contrary, because you have to skimp on content in order to accommodate all your enhanced visuals.Fanghawk said:
EA: Triple-A Industry Reduced to 25 Studios
- Thread starter Fanghawk
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This news doesn't surprise me since probably 60-70% of the 50 or so 360 games on my shelf are cult classics that failed to set the world on fire and pretty much quickly became bargain bin fodder.
Small indies are great and all but they can't fully fill the shoes of the game studios that went tits up this gen. I'm pinning my hopes on a big return of the mid tier flourishing again with a healthy mix of indie, crowd and publisher funding sources.
Small indies are great and all but they can't fully fill the shoes of the game studios that went tits up this gen. I'm pinning my hopes on a big return of the mid tier flourishing again with a healthy mix of indie, crowd and publisher funding sources.
Well, at least he's not blaming gamers for this one. I don't entirely know how TVs could play a big part in it, but then again I'm not a market or industry analyst so whatever.
The wording he uses implies that his numbers aren't exact, that he's "guesstimating" at best. Still, it wouldn't surprise me if his numbers were off...certainly wouldn't be the first time.V da Mighty Taco said:
Truth therein. This reduction in the number of studios is not a good thing, and it's just a diagnostic of how bloated and unsustainable the business model is that 80% of the industry vanished in a few years. Also, if it's true that the move to HD forced 80% of the developers to focus on MOAR GRAPHICS, then it's no wonder that creativity in all other areas (sound design, level design, art design, gameplay mechanics, narrative, etc) has taken a nose dive.Mick P. said:
Again, even if the same number of people are working (which is seriously doubt considering the amount of layoffs we've seen just this year), losing 80% of all studios can't be a good symptom. AAA crash is almost imminent at this point.
Is that picture actually Richard Hilleman, or is that someone cosplaying as Pickles from Deathklok. Seriously, cut that goddamn hair; you're embarrassing yourself.
As for the statistics, perhaps he is right, but perhaps he should look into how many smaller studios and indie studios are around now. Perhaps there's less AAA studios because AAA games today are a much more dangerous venture, and that AAA game budgets are bloated to the point where making one profitable is incredibly tough.
He's the chief creative officer... isn't he supposed to be smart? This news kinda falls under the 'erm... duh' category.
As for the statistics, perhaps he is right, but perhaps he should look into how many smaller studios and indie studios are around now. Perhaps there's less AAA studios because AAA games today are a much more dangerous venture, and that AAA game budgets are bloated to the point where making one profitable is incredibly tough.
He's the chief creative officer... isn't he supposed to be smart? This news kinda falls under the 'erm... duh' category.
Why are only console games included? Also, what does AAA status even mean here?
The Creative Assembly, Relic, and Firaxis all make excellent games on the PC and they probably aren't AAA games by cost definition. However, I find them graphically excellent and really fun to play, so what does it matter?
The Creative Assembly, Relic, and Firaxis all make excellent games on the PC and they probably aren't AAA games by cost definition. However, I find them graphically excellent and really fun to play, so what does it matter?
Yeah, but if the whole point of reducing the number of AAA studios out there is to reduce the cost of producing top-quality current generation games, I don't think they are quite doing that. If the studios that are remaining have more people working at them, that means more money has to be put down in order to pay those people, so you are probably paying the same or possibly more by having more people on board for each studio.
Granted, I supposed the payoff is that with more people working, you can divide the work up better and get the right people working on the parts of the game they do best to make a really good game. That's probably where the EA Chief Creative Officer is saying the industry is now stable due to the reduce studios. That is, assuming these studios will be smart and use their employees reasonably so the game can be as good as they can make it, so its really up in the air still if any of this is true or not.
Granted, I supposed the payoff is that with more people working, you can divide the work up better and get the right people working on the parts of the game they do best to make a really good game. That's probably where the EA Chief Creative Officer is saying the industry is now stable due to the reduce studios. That is, assuming these studios will be smart and use their employees reasonably so the game can be as good as they can make it, so its really up in the air still if any of this is true or not.
Actually that variance is probably accounted for in the form of the number of two to four man studios that closed down (there were a number of them). So while it may seem that there is a number variance the 125 studios does not mean that all 125 held average size teams. These numbers imply that many of them were undersized.RJ 17 said:
This AAA business is killing creativity. When budgets become bloated, the less likely that publishers are willing to take risks. Then we get crap like the Syndicate reboot, MOH:Warfighter and FUSE which shows all the signs of trying to play it safe but ultimately failing to do much to distinguish itself from the head of the pack.
This is like a parent finding a kid complaining about there being not many brownies left after you watched him stuff his face full of them, and that there's still chocolate all over his face when he complains about it.
I do hope this little talk was aimed at fooling investors into thinking everything is OK with the triple-A industry, because it certainly isn't fooling gamers. The way he twists the facts to suit his point is rather clever, but the facts still remain: triple-AAA is unsustainable in the long run, and while CoD and other 10 million-plus sellers may float it for awhile, eventually the whole house of cards will come crashing down.
Development costs rose from 3-6 million USD for a PS2/GameCube game to an average of 25-35 million USD for a 360/PS3 game, and that is not even counting marketing costs, which pushed many titles well beyond that. At this rate, there is no way the industry can survive, let alone take even a slight increase in development costs. Particularly in companies like EA and Activision, where the split between development, administration, and marketed tend to favor administration and marketing.
Development costs rose from 3-6 million USD for a PS2/GameCube game to an average of 25-35 million USD for a 360/PS3 game, and that is not even counting marketing costs, which pushed many titles well beyond that. At this rate, there is no way the industry can survive, let alone take even a slight increase in development costs. Particularly in companies like EA and Activision, where the split between development, administration, and marketed tend to favor administration and marketing.
So EA says.. yeah I don't trust EA
But yeah many big AAA studios are dead, taken over by bigger ones and little is left. Many IP's that 9 years ago we're huge are sadly not that big anymore or ..well
Recession hurts hard.. and there are certainly other factors to. After all EA has closed down many of their absorbed studios. And the IP's.. well not all made it out alive.
But yeah many big AAA studios are dead, taken over by bigger ones and little is left. Many IP's that 9 years ago we're huge are sadly not that big anymore or ..well
Recession hurts hard.. and there are certainly other factors to. After all EA has closed down many of their absorbed studios. And the IP's.. well not all made it out alive.