Game budgets are out of control - and it's killing what gamers want: innovation

Industry Insight: "Games are expensive because publishers make them expensive," argues Halo Anniversary head

Game budgets are out of control, reckons Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch, who argues that triple-A titles are expensive "because publishers make them expensive".

[DA_SHREDDER]

I honestly think the main thing thats hurting this gen is devs either trying to do too much with limited hardware specs, or are just trying to make a quick buck. Either way the consumer loses.

[bwazy]

Look at MW3... Now Look at Gears 3 and Uncharted 3... Now look at MW3 again.

SOMETHING IS VERY VERY WRONG AND ITS NOT MONIES OR SYSTEM SPECS!

[sashimi]

Casual gamers....games are only a passing interest to them. They also only play what their friends are playing and they only buy like 1 or 2 games a year and that'll usually be call of duty and something else...Developers see this and think oh lets make more fps games or tack on MP since CoD is so successful.

Surprise surprise they actually don't sell as well and its only CoD that does CoD sales.

[beast242tru]

stfu man. im verry happy with what devs are doing now some devs are mehhh but then others are like wrking real hard and making things happen

[Rainstorm81]

Its the same thing that hurts the Movie industry, instead of taking a chance and doing something new and innovative....The business heads rather do what "they think" will guarantee sales.

9 times out of 10 it doesnt work, thats why we see many companies attempting to replicate the success of other successful games, and usually fail at doing so.

and because of the budget they want the sure thing.. im just hoping next gen ends up more like the ps2 xbox, GC generation where many devs werent afraid to innovate

[RXL]

nobody to blame but your little brother

[ShaunCameron]

AWWW! The downside of the XBox 360 and the PlayStation 3 being in the marketplace.

[Rainstorm81]

yea cause pc and wii games are soooooo innovative /S

I think innovation is at the same slow pace on all platforms on majority of big budget titles

[ShaunCameron]

But the PC and the Wii has yet to bankrupt a developer/publisher. Can't say the same about the HD clones.

[nycredude]

Shaun

If it wasn't for consoles most of these developers would be making peanuts on pc games sales. Most games sell better on consoles.

[Number_13]

what about this? http://ogrebear.com/?p=2170
Thats 3 pc studios shut down.

[Somebody]

@Number_13...

You're using that? That's Sony! SONY, a console publisher shutting it's PC studios during the early years of the Next Gen War. They burnt those studios during a time it needed enough resources to fight off the X Box 360. The same goes for Microsoft and several PC studios under it. It's even sadder. Sony dropped those studios due to sales. Microsoft dropped it's PC studios almost for no reason at all. Do you know what those PC games studios did to Sony (it's in that article you've shown)? They make MMOs that provide Sony with a steady flow of income every month for years before the PS3. They are NOT bankrupting Sony at all. You could say those PC MMOs actually fund part of the PS3 development cost. Where do you think Sony have the billions to make it?

Now Sony is crawling back to the PC with Planetside 2. After they shut down the original studio and title several years ago due to dwindling subscribers, thanks to WoW. Microsoft is crawling back with Age of Empire Online, after it dissolve the original developer right after they finished Halo Wars for the X Box 360.

Hmm. You could say both publishers killed off their PC studios early so that now they can make their own MMOs for their own benefit since they hold the titles. No need to share those money with some lowly PC dev.

@article :
Look at Red Faction Armageddon for all platforms. It didn't sell well. The whole franchise officially died. I don't think poor PC sales is solely to blame for this one.

Now look at the Witcher series for the PC. They didn't do well in the first month but the developer persevered. They waited. They even have the nerve to patch up the first game and make it better. Still it didn't sell in the millions but it's enough for the developer to make brand new game from scratch to make a sequel. They are making a game engine with what ever money they got with no fuss about sales returns. Crytek on the hand bitch around when Crysis didn't reach 1 million and then went console. Of course the game have passed that mark since then but no one seem to care. The Witcher 2 didn't break the 1 million sales point until several months later but it was expected and CD Projekt were patient enough. Not really sure about the budget but not bad for a PC exclusive.

That's the danger of having too much budget and expecting quick returns.

[Rainstorm81]

@somebody

"Where do you think Sony have the billions to make it?"

Seriously? you think any MMO made Sony Billions? Sony is also in Movies Music and other various technologies including gaming, PCs/laptops , TVs and much more.....Thats where the money comes from

[palaeomerus]

If gamers were actually consistently buying what the author claims they want would there really be a problem to complain about? Gamers are buying what they want most of the time, and Publishers are hiring devs to make it. This is nothing but a small group of gamers assuming that their desires somehow represent the true desires of all gamers despite all of the massive evidence to the contrary.

[Tony P]

But you assume that gamers at large even know those other games exist. That's often not the case.

There's a reason games with 50 million dollar marketing budgets get bought more than indie games and that's because the publishers can afford to drown you in marketing materials.

There are hundreds of games most gamers will never hear about-- unless you're part of the minority, scouring game enthusiast sites and publications.

So how can the gaming public make a fair choice when they don't know their options?

[multips3fan]

lol actually activision is probaly going to be the ruler of the game industry. there milking their franchise to death .mw3 will sell like crack. then blkps 2 come out 8 month later.mw4 in development.releases .call of duty popo 5 in development. lol activision spend less n gains more soo it depends

[madjedi]

Exactly why the hell is n4g submitters quoting saber interactive on 6 or 7 articles by now, which have nothing to do with halo anniversary edition btw. I never heard of them before last week, they are not a 1st tier developer, so why are so many journalists asking their opinion on these issues.

They are more important developers, that could discuss these topics than a unremarkable dev studio, whose games i have never heard of.

@title The first part is fairly valid, not every innovation is successful or even a good thing for every demons souls, heavy rain, la noire, catherine are games that tried to innovate and no one bought it, or people hated what was changed or the games turned out shitty. For as much as gamers bemoan the lack of "innovation", not everyone wants their games to change, change isn't always for the better in games.

Gamers should specify what innovation means to them, or what should be innovated in certain games or genres. And not just stupidly screaming we want innovation, without giving any details of what should be innovated or reasons for it.