Games Costs

[Anonymous]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4442346.stm

Nothing much new, but just in case anyone didn’t know the realities of the costs involved.

[Anonymous]

big woop, wanna fighth abouth ith?

Same thing was said at the start of the last console generation, and, while the prices did rise, output from the industry didn’t decrease – it increased.

There are still unexplored markets in the games industry, lots of them.

Anyway, even if the worst comes to the worst, and the industry implodes (unlikely in the extreme), The expertise and the demand for games to be made will still be there. A new distribution model will emerge – and that may even be a good thing.

Actually, come to think of it, a new model is emerging – online distribution. Ireland isn’t much a part of it yet, but once we have omnipresent wideband (at the very least) internet infrastructure in place, it will become obvious.

bla, bla bla bla bla-bla.

bla.

[Anonymous]

That is probably one of the most schizophrenic replies to a topic I have ever read……
The beginning and end are like something that was written by a semi-trained ape, but the middle was pretty well thought out and intelligent. :D

[Anonymous]

Yeah, the the costs involved these days go beyond the affordable. Try start up a new games company over the last few years and you would have needed somewhere in the region of several million expenses to do a console game. This was do-able, if very hard.
These days you’re talking about 10s of millions, which is unrealistic for a new company.
The chances are, we’re going to be left with a small number of large companies…EA, Take2, Sega… controlling everything. This leaves a much smaller model for innovation to emerge as the marketeers will be flooding the market with the proven models, tiger woods golf, need for speeds, sonic, gta 47. Surely games are better than that.

As for online distribution, I’m hearing very little about it these days, sure its the future and means more return for the developers, but its all for naught really if developers can’t afford to create the games. They’ll still need the funding from the publishers so you’re still locked within the small circle of giant publishers making the games they insist on.

The demand will always be there, but will the playability??

[Anonymous]

But if they use an online distribution model they would not need publishers, they could rely more on money from capital investment, couldn’t they?
Not saying that raising 10 mil investment would be anyway easy, but at least if there distribution is sorted they won’t have to rely on publishers.

[Anonymous]

Look at Ragdoll KungFu for an example. $20 dollars a pop, and selling like hotcakes, with no publisher overheads (except maybe a cut to valve for Steam distribution). And the game cost about $3 to make.

If a start-up can manage something similar (I’m aware Lionhead isn’t a startup, but Lionhead didn’t develop RDKF), and turn a tidy enough profit, they can plough it, aswell as investor funds generated by initial success back into development and produce something larger and more concerted.

This is not my ideal model, but it’s a step in the right direction. It remains an ultra-high-risk industry to be a start-up in, though.

That is probably one of the most schizophrenic replies to a topic I have ever read……
The beginning and end are like something that was written by a semi-trained ape, but the middle was pretty well thought out and intelligent. [/quote:410d61fa2c]

I choose to take that as a complement.

*rips off own head and plays football with it*

I hate football. Ooh! Cakes!

[Anonymous]

And the game cost about $3 to make.[/quote:c005d95650]
That must be one of the funniest things I’ve read here.

PostPosted: 13th December 2005 12:40 PM Post subject:
But if they use an online distribution model they would not need publishers, they could rely more on money from capital investment, couldn’t they?[/quote:c005d95650]
Have you tried to get money out of investors?
-So what do you want to do with my money?
-I’m going to make a game.
-Really, will it sell?
-I think so.
-You think so…what have you got to back this up?
-Umm…its similar to another game and I’m great so of course it’ll sell.
-Hmm…i’ll keep the money and invest in someone else thanks.

[Anonymous]

-So what do you want to do with my money?
-I’m going to make a game.
-Really, will it sell?
-I think so.
-You think so…what have you got to back this up?
-Umm…its similar to another game and I’m great so of course it’ll sell.
-Hmm…i’ll keep the money and invest in someone else thanks.[/quote:e72c8c5d82]

Yeah, well if you make a proposal like that about ANY business idea to an investor they won’t invest.

[Anonymous]

Okay, so i gave a bad case, but i didnt want to type lots. Point being, trying to entice an invester to believe that you, especially as a new company, and will to give you lots of money is going to be really tough with the money involved these days.

[Anonymous]

Ragdoll, if I’m not mistaken (which I very well might be) was made on the side by a team within an existing company. It was cheap to develop because the company had already purchased all the equipment it needed for other projects.

[Author]

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