Former Visceral Dev: Horror Games Are Expensive To Make and Hard To Sell

According to former Visceral Games developer Zach Wilson, horror games are expensive to make and hard to sell to the general public, which wants them but does not buy them.

[ccgr]

Not a fan of horror games/movies in general

[Deep-throat]

Stick with your weeb "games" then.

[Artemidorus]

It's his opinion respect it or leave.

[Lord_Sloth]

Disliking horror doesn't automatically mean he only plays Japanese styled games. Sporting a C.C. avatar doesn't mean he can't enjoy Red Dead like the rest of the world.

[UCForce]

"Sigh" Really ? That's just disrespectful.

[UltraNova]

Gtfo dude.

Damn...some people...

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Don't be a dick, comments like that are the cancer of this community. I'm sure no one wants to hear that from someone named deepthroat.

[jc12]

@Artemidorus: That's rich coming from someone on this site. No one respects anyone's opinion on this site...unless it's generally pro-Sony in nature.

[cfc83]

Not the biggest fan of the genre myself. Any 'horrors' i do like tend to not be that scarey really, such as Until Dawn or Alan Wake.

[blackblades]

Me to, I try to avoid them. I can say dead space was good, game and anime movie. Also you guys disgreed just because someone emotionally can't handle horror wtf. You people got issues.

[Jackhass]

Well, they've always got a buyer in me.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Well if it's good then ppl will flock

[Rebel_Scum]

Not really. There's heaps of games I like but haven't bought and I'd say that would be the same for a lot of other people. Most people don't have time or money to play every game they like out there.

[AnubisG]

Time and money is the biggest reasons why I have to pick and choose what I play. I'm sure many others are in the same boat so i'd say you hit the nail on the head.

October and November I would love to buy at least 7 games but I probably will be able to get one....maybe two.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Do you always have a super simplistic view of the industry?

[TejasTV]

You do the same thing so slow down there buddy.

[Krysis]

You are as clueless as ALL of your comments.

[UCForce]

So do you.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

What about the newest Resident Evil? It was good but sold poorly.

[gantarat]

since when 4 million sold poorly ?

[KaiPow]

A 5 hour horror game is hard to justify it $60. I'd love to see more mid-sized studios tackle horror games and release them for $30-40

[DanteVFenris666]

Took me 22 hours for evil within 2 plus there is tons of reason to replay.

[-Foxtrot]

Classic Mode is a long challenge its self

[ShaunCameron]

The $60 of now is not the same $60 of 2012-13.

[InTheZoneAC]

it's not 5 hours and these games are meant to be played more than once.

[datriax]

Likely the case at EA. The kings of bloating budgets and wasting money. Plenty of horror games have been great successes for far less budget.

Nice try though.

[NeoGamer232]

This was from a Visceral devt talking not EA.

And they built a lot of good games. They just didn't get the sales to match the expense of building their games. It is a disappointment when any good developer gets shutdown.

And just because games like Outlast are good does not mean that everyone can build them on a shoe string budget.

[TheColbertinator]

Hard to sell for FPS chumps who needs thousands of bullets in a campaign

[FallenAngel1984]

Then don't bloat up the development costs so much. You can make various horror titles that don't brake the bank.

[bigmalky]

Or marketing costs. The amount of money publishers waste on it is ridiculous.

Gamers always flock to the genres they like. Budget properly for a good game and fans of that type will see it previewed/advertised at a lower cost and probably buy it. Profit?

[Skankinruby]

A damn shame if true. Horror games are an awesome rush it'd kill my interest in gaming if they died out

[Elda]

If it looks interesting enough I will buy.

[Seraphim]

outside RE as a kid I've never been much of a fan. Having said that Dead Space was more than just a Horror game to me and I definitely supported all 3. I even have the Plasma Cutter from the SE of Dead Space 2. Since Dead Space 3 I think the first horror game I bought was Evil Within which I just bought. To a degree he definitely has a point. However, as a gamer I see that a lot of games, regardless of genre just don't gain the sales they should. That's an industry wide and consumerism problem.

[Hardiman]

Well in Dead Space's case I loved part one but the other two especially part three were not good. I love horror games and it seems if they are good products then people will respond.

[AnubisG]

Dead Space 3 was a shooter and lost everything that made the first one great. The second one was pretty good in my opinion.

[gantarat]

DLC Awakened Bring Horror element back ( i think that visceral want to make in main game)

[isa_scout]

Dead Space 1 was a masterpiece, 2 was good, but I couldn't even finish 3 because I was so disappointed. I still remember all the beginning letters of each chapter in Dead Space 1 spelled out "Rachel Is Dead" or something like that. Awesome game.

[gantarat]

1 - Nicole is Dead.
Exraction - Warren Lies.
Mobile - He will betray.
3 - Brother Moons are Awake.
Awakened - RIP.

[Knightofelemia]

To bad EA doesn't sell the Dead Space franchise I would be down for Dead Space 4 its like the only other game EA crapped out that I actually liked. I like horror games but I want something that will make me jump and say holy shit.

[AnubisG]

They don't sell anything. They run everything to the ground and move on.

[Tru_Blu]

One trophy I'm proud of is beating dead space 2 on hardcore. You only get 3 saves and if you die it's back to the last save. Man it sucks that franchise is dead.

[FunAndGun]

That trophy made me stop trophy hunting! No joke!

[bluefox755]

They don't have to be big budget, set piece simulators to be good. Look at Amnesia, cost about $400,000 to make, and it's one of the most loved horror games ever.

[gantarat]

Amnesia is run and hide and didn't have a combat

[Automatic79]

Love Horror games. Not sure why the budget for Horror games can't remain in the guidelines of last generations budget or even along the line of titles from Indie developers. Dead Space, Condemned, Outlast 1 and 2, Layers of fear, Resident Evil 4, were fantastic Horror games. We can receive great experiences without huge budgets.

[gantarat]

Judge from Quantity I'm sure RE4 and Dead Space have hige budget (back then)

[Automatic79]

Show us

[PaulFiend]

Dead Space games were amazing and left on a cliffhanger.
I want more DS from Visceral. :(
Sad stuff.
BTW I've bought all three games with all DLCs for PC, PS3 and XBOX360.

[AnubisG]

You shown support to Visceral games only to EA to close them down. That's got to hurt. I only purchased all Dead Space games for PS3. But DS3 should have been a rent instead of a purchase.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

So I'm assuming Dead Space 3, by far the worst in the series and most focused on shooty shooty, was cheaper to make? Yawn..

[gantarat]

Recently Replay Dead Space 3 i think game have 5-6 location place from 19 chapter (from lunar colony to alien machine in underground on tau volantist)

[UKmilitia]

I dont like the genre but god damn i loved dead space,what a game.
would love to see it on ps4 pro/xb1x

[Goozex]

Sony needs to remaster or reboot siren series. Those were classics and unique

[opinionated]

He said it’s hard to sell survival horror at EA because of their projection spreadsheets that determine success. He doesn’t say why it’s expensive though or if there is enough of a market without EAs crappy standards.

Dead space 1 was huge success because EA had little to do with it besides funding, they had no spreadsheet to go on, they took a chance and got out of the way. The sequels had the EA thumbprint all over them and people can sense that shit. They threw 60 million at dead space 2 and pressured visceral to go above and beyond their vision that worked. Three was a joke and I don’t blame visceral.

They mention Bethesda and Evil Within 2 in the article but their expectations could be completely different or more realistic from what he’s used to at EA. Maybe they just take chances and get out of the way.

[GeraltOfRevia]

I think what hurt the evil within 2's launch is the late announcment and releasing it during a very crowded quarter. I just finished 2 chapters but I can tell it's a good game so had it been released in February (for example) then it would've done a lot better.

Another major issue with games (and movies) is how much they cost, companies like CDPR managed to make a massive game like the witcher 3 for a lot lower than what smaller games cost and they did it in less time so if they want to see more profit then they need to bring the budgets and development time down (where it's possible).

[ShaunCameron]

But CDPR is subsidized by the Polish government, though.

Aside from the late announcement, TEW2 released around the same time the first TEW did. Mid-October.

[XStation4pio_Pro]

yeah... good luck explaining that to the people on this site.

[Artemidorus]

Truth is they milk games to a point we pay to play, can't really do that to a single player.

Some have made ending DLCs and it hasn't gone down well.

[windblowsagain]

Why would horror games be more expensive then other games, statement makes no sense.

How the fuk a game costs 60million is beyond me.

Either your wasting money, or your staff cost too fuking much and are taking the piss. What are they premership football players.

[G20WLY]

Not to mention the mental money EA spend on marketing.

[kevnb]

Scary games simply just aren’t usually scary, they are simply just the typical bland story based games for the most part these days. If you want to make a story based game the story actually has to compete with games like red dead redemption and uncharted.

[psuedo]

Most "horror" games are to actiony. We need more psychological survival horror. Running from enemies rather than fighting them is better.

[AuraAbjure]

That's how Alien Isolation was- you couldn't kill Aliens even though shotguns kill Xenomorphs in the movies.

[gantarat]

because game is Alien: Isolation not Aliens: Isolation

[sk8ofmnd]

I remember being terrified of the 1st two silent hills... Or even like the first 2 fatal frames... I feel if someone did either 1 of those games justice in a recent build they could be amazing

[BenjaMan64]

It... kind of makes sense. People have different ideas on what kind of horror they like. Some may be fine with jumpscares, and others may not find them entertaining at all. Others may like horror games where you can only run and hide, while some may prefer horror games where you can fight back.

[Fist4achin]

Ahem, horror fan here and if its good, i will support it!

[JEECE]

Maybe horror games just make more sense for indie devs at this point.

[bennissimo]

And here I was just yesterday opining to a friend that Dead Space should get a reboot. The first game was amazing. One of my favorite games on any platform, ever.

[senorfartcushion]

The success of Resident Evil 7 says otherwise

[gantarat]

RE 7 is still AAA game. budget lower than RE 5 and 6 but still expensive to make (use new engine,vr)

nowaday we see horror game (mosty run&hide or walk simulator) from indie developer than big publisher.

[senorfartcushion]

They changed both Dead Space and Resident Evil 6 into action-horror games to appeal to more people and Capcom were still met with success after going back to their horror roots.

[AuraAbjure]

I bought dead space 2 full price right when it came out! Same with F.E.A.R and Alien Isolation.

[Duraji]

Pretty sure it's been indie studios (you know, the ones with not a lot of money) that have been the kings of horror games lately, so I really don't see where this "they're expensive" crap comes from. Just another excuse from an industry that is spending way too much money to the point where it feels the need to put in gambling systems in order to even make enough profit.

[gantarat]

budget high or not depend on scale,lenth,time to development and people to make it (also marketing too)

[jc12]

Since when are horror games more expensive to produce than any other type of game? I would think all AAA game production is difficult and expensive, regardless of genre.

[CrimsonWing69]

It sucks because I really loved The Evil Within 2 and it also sold poorly probably killing the series off.

I feel like theres a lot you can do with that series as anything is possible in a mind, but yea it failed to sell and it didn't look like it was a budget title...

I personally didn't think Dead Space 3 was awful at all, but it definitely was the third best in the series. 2 was godly and 1 was really close.

[InTheZoneAC]

why is a dev making excuses and talking about how they're expensive to make? Nothing about DS1(linear single player) screams AAA budget, but it's still a great game.

And don't say it's expensive to make when more money goes to advertising.

[C-H-E-F]

lOl point taken, RE7 VR is still only 1 hour from the beginning, SUPER DUPER BACKLOGGED THAT ONE!! lol

[Tross]

Capcom would like to have a word with this guy, lol.