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Denver, 9:01 PM
Tue Dec 15
64 posts in the last 24 hours
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07/20/09
07/20/09
Obviously one has a much bigger market though.
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Games don't have a box office, even at 4x the selling price of a DVD, games are just about breaking ahead as the most-grossing type of media each year. So they have to reap higher profit margins back on each licence they sell over films, which by the point it's on store shelves is pulling-in pure profit. Should be interesting to see development costs in 10 years time, though. We'll look back at $15 million and wonder how they survived...
07/21/09
Also games are getting longer and longer which is slowing down game sales. The industry is pretty much hurting itself.
The following are games I want (that are to be released this side of Christmas)
FallOut 3 Ultimate Edition
Tiger Woods '10
FIFA '10/Pro Evo '10
SvR'10,
Assassins Creed 2
Splinter Cell Conviction
Heavy Rain
Uncharted 2
Shadow Complex
COD: MW2
Just Cause 2
Batman Arkum Asylum
Alpha Protocol
Dragon Age
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2
It would cost me in the region of £600 to buy these games but I don't have that kind of money to throw down on games. I still haven't picked up inFamous or Prototype and I NEED them games.
I will buy Assassins Creed 2, FIFA, Smackdown and Splinter Cell on release day. The rest I will pick up when I see them in the 2 for £20 (or less) section. This means the developers won't see my money. What it also means is that I will have another 11 games for my backlog - so when GOW3, Tekken 6, FFXIII, GT5, DC Universe Online, Bioshock 2, The Agency, Modnation Racing, Ghost Recon, RUSE and what ever else that I want comes out I won't be buying them new either.
So from this point forth, most developers won't see a penny of my money which is a shame for them.
If Games were retailed at £10 I would be able to buy all those games for less money than I will be spending on the 4 games I mentioned. The developers would all get a slice of the pie and at that kind of price, I might be more tempted by games that aren't on the list. Even if new games were £20 it would be much better for developers as Game/GameStop wouldn't have as many people selling back their used games because in order for Game to make money on it, they would only be able to give £4-£5, more people would be able to afford the game, etc.
07/20/09
07/20/09
For additional weapon skins $5
For extra maps $10
For a hard mode $5
For extra multiplayer skins $3's a pop
07/20/09
07/20/09
But there won't be a patch for that.
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07/20/09
It can be done tastefully--MGS4 gave Snake an iPod, which ended up having tons of downloadable songs and over a dozen in-game podcast walkthroughs. It felt very natural--even to the point that when you used it, it muffled the game's environment around him.
He also had Regain, an energy drink out of Japan that would restore his life.
There was a subtle one that the baddies used a certain brand of cell phone, but it was virtually non-existent, treated as nothing more than a device to use--unlike 24 where Sprint just forces Jack to waggle the brand in front of the camera.
07/20/09
Yeah, MGS4 had even more than that.
Playboy was licenced for the nudie mags, a brand name noodle and a japanese sugar pack for healing items. Apple computers all over the place on Otocon's plane as well as a PS3, and snake uses the sixaxis to control MkII.
07/20/09
07/20/09
I'm on the consumer end of the this debate. When I see a game like Modern Warfare 2 looking to make another $400 million sales, I don't want a game that only had $40 budget. I want it to have a $150 million budget. I want as much for my $60 as I can get.
07/20/09
Mocap was first, 3D scanning is next to become popular, right now it's semi-procedural fast editing/addition of detail to maps (starting basics are the FarCry2 editor, or iD's new stuff).
Also, bury down support for ShaderModel3.0, get access to individual MSAA/CSAA samples. This will simplify the content pipeline.
07/20/09
I'm sure that development costs can cause that as well, but there are certainly some planned decisions to make games the way they are. I also believe that not all DLC that comes out was made after the game was done and requires you to pay for it because the developer spent extra cash in order to make it. Sometimes companies are just greedy.
07/20/09
I for one want shorter games, even if the price to me, the consumer, doesn't decrease. I rarely want a game to go longer than 20-30 hours. That is well worth my $60.
07/20/09
I think money is just part of the reason. I also think that there are a lot of older folks who play games, who have families, jobs, etc., which takes away their time from playing games. That makes shorter games more important, I mean especially if the iPhone takes off as a platform. Shorter and shorter attention spans, battery life and ultimately bang for the developer's buck.
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07/20/09
I wouldn't complain about contentful games, except that if I can't see the ending (be it for lack of time or interest) I feel a bit gypped. So if that stuff is packed into replay value or whatever, then fine, but I don't want the main game to take >10-12 hours. If it's < 8 hours (e.g., HotD:O), then I prefer a $40 price tag.
07/20/09
After all, they need to pay distributors, manufacturers, licensing to Sony/Microsoft, etc. A lot of hands touch that money on the way from the retail back to the developer and publisher.
I'm not saying that they're not profitable but probably not as profitable as you might think.
As for comparing to the movies, movies have earnings that reach way further than box office - after US and Int'l box office, Pay-per-view, commercial licensing, TV rights, DVD sales, etc the profit a movie makes is usually far more than just the box office take.
07/20/09
Even at $60, that's $6/hr - probably less money than you'd spend to go watch a movie at the cineplex.
07/20/09
07/20/09
Not very unlike from sever FPSes that host about 60 or in the case of games like mag 256 people at a time. If it were possible to have a game that's not an MMO that has a finite story and each person experiences it from the viewpoint of a collective set of characters but together (the time frame probably would best be an hour I guess as it requires free time and people with time).
If that exists, and the game costs like the average ticket price then we might end up having games with high production values that perhaps can make money in the short term - it won't have the long tail DVD chain sales as in films unless it's a good concept and it can be broken down into a single player experience later.
A zombie game or an outbreak game would be a decent story to perhaps give this a test.
There of course would be overhead costs like hosting the game and managing it and making sure it runs fine. But larger groups of players, simultaneous experience and day 1 experience probably would have an interesting effect on say pirated games, the whole actual movie-game comparison and the interactive experience.
07/20/09
07/20/09
As for owning the content, I guess they could get something for their experience - a log, footage or something. I mean if it is a cinema game and works like a cinema then you wouldn't own the game (As the experience is purely when you play/watch etc) but when you look at the traditional gaming side that would cause an argument/dissent for obvious reasons. So instead of walking away empty handed the player could keep a video of their experience or something?
I don't know about renting by the hour, if it exists wouldn't it rather be priced like a cinema (I guess genre's and stories can vary by letting say the player die and just become a viewer or come back in some other form or do what the ghostbusters did in the sense that so long as someone's alive you can be resuscitated).
For such an experience, it would be pointless to pirate because then you'd be playing a different experience. The DVD release could be a single-player release based on the movie's story from say the point of the rallying NPC.
It would be a different experience. Coming to think of it now - do single player games with MP features normally have better single player or better MP? I mean if they go this way they have time after the release with the MP to tweak and improve the single player that perhaps the 'DVD release' might be more enjoyable than it usually is?
07/20/09
Interesting idea, but I can't see it flying. Soooo many people WHINE incredibly about the cost of games as it is. If you figure the dollar per hour of entertainment value from most games, it is incredibly cheap entertainment. I have been reading so many cases lately where people complain about AAA games that will keep them occupied for 50+ hours costing too much at $50 or $60.
I think if you were to charge the same price as a movie for a game that lasts that same amount of time (regardless how good the experience is) people will be up in arms.
For some reason people expect that they should have endless hours of entertainment for negligible cost. But that's called a rock and a stick, not software.
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07/20/09
I could see this being complicated to pull off if you wanted it to be an engaging MP experience like a movie where each player plays their part, and not just end up being a big war game/drama sponsored by Coke.
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The cut is probably closer to $40 per copy at full retail. Which still leaves them about $8 million in the hole. Eventually they should be able to break even, but it doesn't look like Ghostbusters will be starting capital any additional games from the studio (which is why most studios do licensed games).
07/20/09
You need to subtract the retailer cut (20%), the licensing fees (5-10%) and marketing ($3-5MM). Not to mention some of the sales were NDS and PS2 at a lower retail.
07/20/09
No, it's more of 400,000 units x approx. $35-$40 US (NOT $60)
Don't forget the costs of disc, packaging, marketing/public relations, licensing, logistic/transportation, inventory etc.
Even downloadable games are not 100% profit: server hosting, internet connection, hardwares etc.
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