With games becoming this expensive to make, are studios still going to be able to take risks and innovate?
Big studios will double down on risk averse behaviour. AAA games in general will see cost cutting. I am really not that interested in most AAA titles anyway, they were already pretty samey and that’s going to get worse along with more aggressive monetization.
But lucky for us AAA games aren’t the only ones available :)
these are some wild reported costs:
One publisher said it spends $164 million on pre-launch development costs and $55 million on marketing
Another publisher said budgets range from $80 million to $350 million, with marketing costs of up to $310 million for the biggest games
A third publisher reported costs of between $110 million to $350 million for recent releases
A fourth publisher said budgets ranged from $90 million to $180 million with marketing ranging from $50 million to $150 million. Its most expensive game cost $660 million to develop with a marketing budget of $550 million.
I believe the numbers. I have been watching the ever growing number of people, “helper studios”, increasingly famous voice actors performance capturing costs, and those giant marketing budgets.
And I agree games with all this going on are very impressive. But I think on balance I’d rather have more interesting game designs than those massive production values.
And I agree games with all this going on are very impressive. But I think on balance I’d rather have more interesting game designs than those massive production values.
unfortunately it increasingly reads to me like a vicious cycle: people expect more of games, so costs increase and games become more comprehensive, which in kind makes people expect more of games. it also means we get a more homogeneous experience from AAA games, since they now have to include features they weren’t previously expected to. (open-world stuff in particular feels symptomatic of this)
If I were asked to list my favourite three games, I’d say
1 - To The Moon, 2 - Mario Kart DS, 3 - Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead is an utter work of art, but To The Moon is a beautiful thing put together by one guy with some help for the soundtrack.
As you say, games don’t need an enormous budget to be good, they just need to be interesting. Trouble is, interesting doesn’t sell the power of the latest hardware.–
The first game, maybe…
Then you already have an engine and an entire world full of assets to remix.
What they’re really doing is letting that work go to waste. Make an iron man game. Same engine? Of course. You already did the work. Hulk? Go for it.