Epic expects next-gen dev costs to double.

[Guild McCommunist]

The concern with constantly grabbing big-name people for voices is just another example studios erroneously thinking they NEED to spend big bucks to make a return.

The Portal series used an opera singer for Glados, for crying out loud... and people fucking LOVE it.

In all fairness they use her for a lot of things. She's also the announcer on TF2 and Dota 2.

EDIT: I think she also does some voice acting for Half Life 2.

EDIT 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_McLain

Actually she's only Broodmother and Death Prophet in Dota 2, the announcer is someone else.

 

[Rydian]

Yeah, her and the dev team fell in love with each other and she got so excited to take part in things. It was fun to listen to the developer commentary for P1/P2 (moreso P1 when she was relatively new to the situation) and hear about both sides being so excited.

 

[Hadrian]

This is why I feel that MS & Sony are more reluctant to move on to the next gen or maybe have consoles that are that much more powerful. Normally there isn't that much of a shift for the first couple of years in a new gen.

So... we'll only get a new CoD game every other year?
What a shame.

Doubt it, it sells so well it's worth the extra costs for Activison, that's if they ever use a new engine.

I wonder if the xbox would have made it out of generation 6 if it hadnt been for Halo.

Helped massively, MS mainly bought the game so it can tout the Xbox online capabilities. Half the people on the first two weeks of the Xbox launch apparently bought the game along with the console. Also I reckon the Xbox grabbed a lot of Sega fanboys after they went multi-platform, when Sega made an Xbox exclusive title is was mostly a lot better than the ones for GC/PS2.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Helped massively, MS mainly bought the game so it can tout the Xbox online capabilities. Half the people on the first two weeks of the Xbox launch apparently bought the game along with the console. Also I reckon the Xbox grabbed a lot of Sega fanboys after they went multi-platform, when Sega made an Xbox exclusive title is was mostly a lot better than the ones for GC/PS2.

Well the first game didn't have online play on the Xbox IIRC, it was only the second game that really made the system skyrocket.

 

[BORTZ]

Well the first game didn't have online play on the Xbox IIRC, it was only the second game that really made the system skyrocket.

Yeah I've always wanted to build a time machine to go back in time, stop microsoft from acquiring bungie and then seeing if the Xbox still makes it.

 

[bowser]

I wonder how much it's costing to make Half-Life 3...

...probably a billion dollars D:

 

[shakirmoledina]

I want to say that the increasing cost of games is not just graphics. Nowadays games are almost held to a similar standard of movies...

Not saying graphics aren't important but the methods used to accomplish good graphics or resources needed for such graphic generation is not worth it.
consider something like witcher 2, excellent graphics but i doubt it was that necessary. and see how many bugs were there and how problematic the game was (according to me in gameplay and graphics optimisation).
Not every game has problems when it has good graphics but sometimes whenever time is short, priority is given to the wrong thing. compare uncharted 2 against 3. How many problems were there in 3 which many got frustrated with; read DetroitDJ review on gamefaqs for the full... rant.
Immersion yes, and uncharted 2 reached that level. ff13 tried to reach that level and they did but spoil the game.

note that the reason why next gen will be more expensive is mentioned to be the video creation time. why is it so difficult? is it the music? is the engine that complicated? was the video so advanced? what is the benefit? is it worth it? I am just asking but I don't feel I see that much benefit when you put that much effort. Maybe the engine was still quite new and therefore there was a specialized person for each area in the engine.
then again, why make an engine if there are still so many people required to make it work. engines simplify repetitive tasks and all that.

It's just that I program in php and when I use the MVC architecture, I feel I make my work faster. yet I feel we can improve it by quickly creating queries and therefore shorter times for advanced creation. if we want more features (new) then the mvc 'engine' needs to be optimised even further but as said before, its a process of improving all the time.
if time is increasing with increased features, the engine is failing in one part.

 

[DSGamer64]

Sorry. Does the term "familiarize" work better for you? Plus, costs will only increase at first. They'll eventually decrease over time.

No, costs don't decrease. The bigger the game, the more expensive it is. The more advanced the technology, the longer it takes to make the game, therefor the cost is higher.

Which means games are going to start getting more expensive again for consoles if the PS4 and Xbox are both considerably more powerful then the Wii U is, if not then I doubt developer costs and game costs will rise more then 25%. Soon we will be back at the 100 dollar a game situation that we had in the 80's and the gaming industry will crash because of it. There is too much over saturation in the market right now when it comes to games and platform choices, which won't help things.

 

[DSGamer64]

I heard somewhere that video games, adjusted for inflation, were actually more expensive back in the day than they are here.

(citation needed)

Yes, back in the 80's games were upwards of 100 dollars or more, then dropped dramatically around the NES and Genesis era, and since have slowly been creeping back up as developer costs have increased and the hardware has become more complex. It's simple economics really.

 

[narutofan777]

maybe this is a good thing for a company like Square Enix. they have been so slow at finishing games. now I always hear about that they should have the time to finish a game. well in the last few years we've had 4 assassin's creed games. 3 mass effect games. 2 hardcore RPG's demon's soul, dark soul. 3 uncharted games. and we're about to have 3 bioshock games, the third coming in 2013. and most of these games I'm listing are TOP RATED games. Final fantasy versus 13 has been in development for 7 years and if it doesn't come out in 2013 it will be 8. that is horrible. if you add the average of each score from these games its more than 85%. WOW so many good games while SE were being so relaxed with their time.

Square Enix is so freaking slow. so should next gen costs more to develop, it will change how SE creates games. That would be a good thing.

prey, was in development for 10 years. WOW. final fantasy versus 13 is catching up to it.

OMFG.

 

[Clarky]

maybe this is a good thing for a company like Square Enix. they have been so slow at finishing games. now I always hear about that they should have the time to finish a game. well in the last few years we've had 4 assassin's creed games. 3 mass effect games. 2 hardcore RPG's demon's soul, dark soul. 3 uncharted games. and we're about to have 3 bioshock games, the third coming in 2013. and most of these games I'm listing are TOP RATED games. Final fantasy versus 13 has been in development for 7 years and if it doesn't come out in 2013 it will be 8. that is horrible. if you add the average of each score from these games its more than 85%. WOW so many good games while SE were being so relaxed with their time.

Square Enix is so freaking slow. so should next gen costs more to develop, it will change how SE creates games. That would be a good thing.

prey, was in development for 10 years. WOW. final fantasy versus 13 is catching up to it.

OMFG.

hitman absolution
dragon quest x
bravery default flying fairy
sleeping dogs
heroes of ruin
dues ex human revolution
kingdom hearts 3d
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Dungeon Siege III

and that is just some of the stuff they have put together in the past year

 

[Guild McCommunist]

hitman absolution
dragon quest x
bravery default flying fairy
sleeping dogs
heroes of ruin
dues ex human revolution
kingdom hearts 3d
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Dungeon Siege III

and that is just some of the stuff they have put together in the past year

Well a lot of those, to be fair, are just published. Sleeping Dogs, Heroes of Ruin, Deus Ex, and Dungeon Siege III are all from SE's non-Final Fantasy area.

 

[Clarky]

Well a lot of those, to be fair, are just published. Sleeping Dogs, Heroes of Ruin, Deus Ex, and Dungeon Siege III are all from SE's non-Final Fantasy area.

Aye true but im under the assumption SE put there money into making these happen. As long as SE are putting out stuff and doing business as normal no one should really give a monkeys ifit takes SE one year or 10 to put out a shit Final Fantasy game

 

[Disorarara]

When a few people working in their spare time can fire up XNA and make Terraria and get 200,000 sales in their first week...

I'm dumbfounded at how so much money needs(?) to be spent to develop for consoles. Profit is what you get over your expenses, so cut your fucking expenses.

There's no excuse for this kind of shit beyond the licensing/tools to actually get the shit onto the system in the first place, and we KNOW those aren't nearly that much.

People hold different developers to different standards. People have come to expect that independent developers don't have a lot of money therefore the games mostly released by them are 2D games or RPGs that don't really push any graphical boundaries. A huge game studio like Epic is expected to always be at the forefront of technological development (as are a lot of other developers who mostly develop first person shooters) and that requires more and more resources (which cost more and more money to acquire) as technology moves forward.

 

[Rydian]

Yes, because every entry from well-known publishers is good, right? And nobody expects an indie game to be good, because they never sell more than big-name games?

That's the type of thinking that needs to die if game companies want to make good money.

 

[Disorarara]

Yes, because every entry from well-known publishers is good, right? And nobody expects an indie game to be good, because they never sell more than big-name games?

That's the type of thinking that needs to die if game companies want to make good money.

I have no idea where my post implied any of that.

 

[Rockhoundhigh]

The jump from one console to the next is usually pretty damn drastic. There's never any industry sustainability being kept in mind when console makers decide the only way to beef up their consoles for the next generation is to just add so much raw horsepower that nobody can afford for a few years to buy or develop for your hardware.

 

[Rydian]

I have no idea where my post implied any of that.

I was pointing out that the thought "more money in a big company means a good game" is retarded.