Just Cause Creator: $60 Games Don't Make Sense Anymore

[Shim3d]

We NEED to focus on making current graphical technology cheaper & easier to access for developers rather than "improving" it and ending up with everything else sacrificed for the sake of wonderful lighting.

This should be obvious; I'm sick of games these days being essentially long walks down very pretty corridors. If Square Enix couldn't practically make Final Fantasy VII with today's "superior" technology, it's obviously NOT superior technology and no amount of particle effects will convince me otherwise.

 

[Shuu]

We need clarification. Is he saying that games are too expensive or not expensive enough?
The fact that he has a point either way speaks volumes to the dangerous place the AAA industry is looking at right now, that companies can't reasonably be expected to keep selling their current product at this price, while consumers can't reasonably be expected to keep buying said product at the current price in large enough numbers to sustain them.
...I am quite fearful for the new generation.

 

[Mikeyfell]

In my opinion (FLAME SHIELD ON!) I don't think it would be so great of a loss for the industry if developers stopped making AAA games all together.

Now hold on, put your torch and pitchfork down. with the cost of development so high nobody can afford to make a game that's good, or if they do make a game that's good they'll never break even.

Tomb Raider sold over 5 million copies and was "disappointing"
And that game was good

Resident Evil 6 sold over 6 million copies and didn't live up to expectations.
And that game was a steaming pile of shit

And even the Triple A games that do sell well and are good barely stand up to the really good Indi games like Paper's Please or Minecraft.


So maybe if the whole industry just dialed it back a little (Maybe make a couple double A titles?) that would be good for everyone.

 

[Mikeyfell]

The 'throw darts at the wall and see what sticks' business plan doesn't really work with darts costing tens of millions of dollars.

I wish I could just "Thumbs up" this post, but you basically hit the nail on the head.


The choice turns into: Play follow the leader and copy the last popular thing, or gamble millions of dollars and possibly the whole company's future

 

[mrjoe94]

Yea, we need more multiplayer F2P's which require either 100 hours to get anywhere or massive amount of money, way more than $60.

Alternatively, more $1 mobile and facebook crappy games!

If that fails, just make a indie physics puzzle platformer and act all pretentious about it!

Because who needs proper lengthy, story-driven single player experiences these days!

:/

Play Loadout, you can't actually progress directly by using money in that game.

 

[Funyahns]

Could always cut back a bit on the graphics? Photo realism graphics are not always the best choice for gaming

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

How about game publishers stop spending millions on massive budgets for marketing? How about instead of holding events that the majority of people cannot get to due to proximity/happens during work hours/etc, stop spending money on Billboards and posters, signs, TV commercials and other old forms of marketing. How about we instead utilize the internet for marketing on a cheaper scale and getting more attention from the wider internet using audience than the dwindling TV audience.

I hope then that you will be happy when games start making Platinum Games levels of sales since they are reliant on Internet and word of mouth as advertising. That is assuming that people also don't use adblockers and other such software thus blocking what adds Platinum puts out. I'm sorry but TV, Conventions, billboards are still the best way to get your name out.

How many games in the past years have sold millions by word of mouth alone? From Demon/Dark Souls to Just Cause 2 to Pokemon in its early day. That's right, even Pokemon got popular in North America due to word of mouth.

The Witcher is another case.

Point is, viral marketing and word of mouth do more per dollar than the TV, Conventions and Billboards you think are still the best way to sell games. Look, Cable TV ratings are down to the lowest they've been across the board in 20 years thanks to on demand television and YouTube. And Cable TV's audience is aging rapidly so they aren't even in the target demographic for gaming. Conventions only reach the die hard fans who probably knew of the product already, and Billboards only seem to be utilized by the major usual releases. Most of the games I mentioned sold 1+ million due to word of mouth and online gaming media.

Like I said before, the marketing budget is killing the profits of major game franchises. 2013's Tomb Raider sold 4.5 million and couldn't generate a profit for Square Enix because they spent so much on marketing in useless areas.

Platinum Games is also not the best example if you want to look at a company with low sales. Most games they make for Nintendo exclusively flop due to PG's niche game direction clashing with Nintendo's appeal to the masses marketing as of late. Otherwise Bayonetta sold 1 million+, Vanquish sold 1 million, and Metal Gear Rising sold over 1 million. The first 2 due mainly to word of mouth and the gaming media. The rest of their library are Nintendo exclusives, or in the case of Anarchy Reigns, a successor to a Wii title that had no business being on the Wii in the first place due to its content alone.