Call of Duty dev: “games are becoming harder to make and more expensive to make”

Infinity Ward’s Mark Rubin, currently working on the upcoming megablockbuster Call of Duty: Ghosts, is disturbed by what he perceives as the high cost of entry into the AAA gaming space.

[Majin-vegeta]

Ahahhahwh coming from copy and paste dev??xD

[Xsilver]

lol u beat me to it.

[Army_of_Darkness]

Harder to make?! but every other developer is saying how easy it is to develop games on next gen consoles?!
And much more expensive? ? So this is why we have a lot more indie games coming out on the ps4 right?? Yeah makes perfect sense.. ..
We certainly believe you Activision. .. ..
Your dog in cod ghost clearly shows your expensive and difficult development cost;-)

[Xsilver]

15 million just to create that dog smh.

[Hydrolex]

lol exactly ! If Rockstar said that, then I would have read the article, I didn't even open it

[karl]

he beat every one of us ot it..

i think at this point every gamer out there knows about call of duty and how cheap they are when making the game... this ppl

[xActionBasturdx]

Lmao i literally just said that in my head before i even clicked the link lol

[3-4-5]

If they are saying that their minimal work is hard/difficult, they are just admitting they aren't that great at their job.

Just because it's harder for them doesn't mean it is for others.

Look at what other dev's do with the little money they have and you give a huge budget to a dev and they just make new maps.

[joab777]

Imagine being a company not named rockstar or infinity ward...and almost guaranteed a billion dollars for every $200 million dollars spent. U might hav to spend $300 million now.

[abusador]

Has to be coming from the company who makes the most profit and rapes in dlc, Smh. &uck you &itches.

[cunnilumpkin]

Call of Duty dev: “games are becoming harder to make and more expensive to make for everyone else but us, we just keep using the same engine and assets from 12 years ago, in fact, with all the child labor we have working around the clock to write our ridiculous story lines, and code our 12 year old software, we actually spend less money on every call of duty game we create, ghosts is going to be our cheapest yet and will have a total production cost of around $400...

...yes, four hundred dollars

then we will spend 200 million on advertising, we find this to be the best possible way to make games"

1. its a simple blueprint, use the same engine for at least 20 years, lie and say it is a new engine everytime, people are dumb, they will believe you

2. use child labor, they are small and you can fit 5 at a desk and have them code and write story lines around the clock

3. spend 99.99% of your budget on advertising, people believe everything they see on tv

4. DLC DLC DLC

that's it, that's how you make it in the video game industry

[xKugo]

^ This is so true, it almost hurts. People are literally so incapable of making a decision for themselves without allowing someone to make it for them, they listen to everything they are told on TV. Make a catchy commercial that's funny, set it to run over and over and over and over on the most popular networks and people will buy it because they'll anything if they see it enough.

OMG, Mom the new Call of Duty is coming out. I want it!! I want it!!!

[HammadTheBeast]

I think it's usually "what are all my friends playing". This year GTAV is taking the turn, so CoD will probably have slightly lower sales.

[F4sterTh4nFTL]

Why so many disagrees, I found it funny and kind of true.

[N4GDgAPc]

Because he is wrong. From what I'm reading here seems like no one here knows what it takes to make a video game.

Just because there using the same engine on multiple games doesn't mean it doesn't take time. To finish a game every 2 years as big as this AAA title they have over 200 people or more working on this.

You think they can just cut and paste and be done but its not that easy. Even though they use the same engine its never the same. Its highly more optimized. They had to change the engine to carry over to next gen. Add new mechanics to the engine that they added to the game and etc.

I bet this game still cost between $40 to $60 million to make. Maybe more. And add about another $20 to $40 million for advertisement. Since they like advertise the crap out of the game. But surprisingly I haven't seen as much advertisement like before. I wonder if there doing less because the game really doesn't need it as much anymore. All the call of duty players already know its coming out without advertisement.

[NarooN]

As if Activision has to worry about money with how much they make off CoD every year...Get real. "Disturbed" my ass, lol.

[Hufandpuf]

It's hard to take the gaming medium seriously. Whenever someone comments on something, they just get slapped in the face and what the person actually means is just disregarded. Can we just grow up, through out the childish grudges and listen for once instead of pointing fingers and calling names?

[Hicken]

Even taking into consideration what he actually said, it's somewhat ironic given how accessible game making has become. All three big players in the console industry are making their systems more available than ever, and the PC and mobile markets provide plenty of opportunity to prove skills. If you've got the talent and/or the vision, publishers will take a gamble on you.

Prove that gamble was worth it, you'll have your AAA shot.

It might seem harder, but at the same time, you can be more successful more BELOW AAA than ever before, as well. Which would- or could- allow you to fund your own AAA venture.

I really don't know what a cod dev could really know about the situation I'm the first place, though.

[admiralvic]

While I agree some of these comments are immature and unneeded (especially Cun's), it isn't like everything said here is on the money either.

Like the dev claims games are becoming harder to make, yet next gen consoles (or at least the PS4 and I believe Xbox One) were made with developers in mind. I also recall someone saying that making the PS4 / XB1 closer to the PC results in lower development time and lower costs in the end. So if all of this is true, then games are not becoming harder to make, nor are they costing more money.

Like here's an article about 2k saying it will be cheaper http://www.digitaltrends.co... .

The other remark mentions smaller studios trying to hit the AAA mark, which is harder to do. However, I wouldn't say every small studio is trying to do that and many of them are content simply making games that they like for the people that enjoy them. This is certainly the case with NISA published titles, a lot of indie devs, The Behemoth, Aksys, Platinum Games, Atlus, Gung Ho, Suda 51 and those are just off the top of my head.

Finally we have the quote about realistic graphics, which isn't exactly true either. Maybe in terms of the huge budget games like God of War, but there are plenty of people that would defend Vanillaware as having amazing visuals, though they're far from being realistic. Same with a lot of games, like Okami, Windwaker, Rayman Legends and plenty of other stylized games.

So ultimately this developer is saying games are harder to make, but other developers are saying they're going to become easier next gen to make. That game costs are going to rise, though other people in the industry say they're going to drop. That small time developers want to make a successful AAA title, though I would say more small time developers try to be unique / do their own thing, than trying to cash in / make a game that will sell millions of copies. And finally people want better and more realistic looking games, though plenty of stylized games are praised in terms of art and other games like Hotline MIami do fine without any sense of the term "HD".

[Rezka]

I'm sorry but I find the article title very funny

[USMC_POLICE]

I didn't hear rockstar make a statement like this. I'm glad they out sold cod in a 24 hr period. Copy and paste is so hard poor Activision.

[annus]

Rockstar didn't need an official statement to say games are getting more expensive. Look at their timeline of games and the budgets. GTAV was the biggest game budget to date.

Bigger budget = bigger team = more effort = 'harder' to make. People are always expecting more.

[USMC_POLICE]

Right I agree but they made a better game than the ones before and they made more money than before so it paid off. Call of duty reuses almost everything since cod 4.

[N4GDgAPc]

Lets see you make a game using copy and paste and see how it comes out.

Lot of work still goes into making this game. They probly reused assets in previous games but every game reuses assets but a lot of it is brand new.

Even though its the same engine it has changed completely compared when it first was used.

No game can be copy and paste. It takes a lot of time and effort.

[Summons75]

Oh? Is that why you put no effort or work into your games? You guy sound like lazy middle schoolers. "Wahh, being successful requires work and effort...that's for newbz! You mom sucks!"

Oh, right their game targets lazy middle schooler and junkies. It would make sense they have the same mindset.

[Shadonic]

Harder ? Wtf all you have to do is change the setting and add in more skins and stuff and it will sell itself.

[Transporter47]

NO you guys are just lazy!!!!! can't even get a new engine by now....

[palaeomerus]

If you have a really scalable engine you don't NEED a brand new one, and besides that they've been updating the engine including the renderer all along. It started out as a variation of the Quake III for God's sake.

[Darkfist]

lol

[biRdy]

I think the thing is that its more and more easier to create games, so its harder to create something that stands out.

[tawak]

in short, they want a price increase.

[FragMnTagM]

ding ding ding. We have a winner. CoD Elite comes to mind. They sure as hell tried with that.

I wouldn't be surprised to see something along those lines to come around again.

[90Supra]

The quote should read...

“games are becoming harder to make on the same engine after all these years..."

[strigoi814]

One word "quit"

[Subzero200]

“games are becoming harder to make and more expensive to make”

then stop making them.

[brich233]

I think they realized they have to work from the ground up when making new games, to bad they spent 8 years copying and pasting.

[xbone180]

lol what do COD devs know about developing games and a budget? copy and pasting of the original creators game over and over again every year does not count.

[SpiralTear]

They make a ton of money by selling annual, barely improved releases of a stupidly popular franchise, then they complain about them being "more expensive to make"?

Sorry, Rubin. I don't buy that statement for a second.

[DigitalRaptor]

I suggest they try stepping out of their comfort zone for even a minute. That way they will really understand the pressures of risk taking, creativity and innovation.

Damn, Infinity Ward. damn!

[AceBlazer13]

Well the first comment sums it up nicely.

[Matt666]

No your just lazy IW/Tryarch/Activison. How about actually getting off your ass's and try to make a descent game for once