Off Topic: A Sad Note About PC Games

[Richard]

No the market is cyclical, however there is a major shift going on that won't change unless folks change the overall business model.

With computer and video gaming becoming a larger business it has attracted more folks who are interested in it as just that, as a business and not as a hobby or community. These few companies and retailers are making it a very hostile environment for small or medium developers or publishers to ever make money in retail.

Consoles do well because they are relatively cheap and deliver fast paced games folks can get into and folks also don't have to worry about configuring their console or installing a game.
Since they have such a large audience folks can make a killing by making console games, and that is where the money is so companies like lemmings are jumping that way.

This might change eventually but for now small and medium developers need to relize that the Online venture is the only real way to go as long as you have a strong game title. Without the deep pockets of major publishers they will never survive in retail long enough to ever see a dime of royalties. Less than 1% of the games sold in retail today ever make their development teams a dime in royalties.

[Growltigga]

Richard, this is interesting but given the lack of synergy you are highlighting for the big companies, I would query how sustainable their existing business model is. Thinking about this rationally, even the most demented development team is not going to go with a market maker that gives them nil to low returns, isn't this where the smaller and mid-sized companies can make good returns by (a) profit sharing with the development teams and (b) selective but intrusive marketing techniques (similar to how the mobile phone companies started back in the 80's) in order to ensure profile

[Richard]

Possibly but I have seen very little cooperation between development teams in the past like this. We tried launching an Academy of Strategy and Wargame sciences to pool together money for such a venture but no one was seriously interested.

I have actually talked to developers and shown them the hard facts about retail and still told "well that's nice". I think the main reason for that is there is still this rock star persona to retail. To be honest we had planned on getting into retail shortly after we opened shop but after rejecting 15 seperate offers because they would have screwed our developers over we seriously don't try anymore, except maybe foreign retail.

The large companies, like I said, can take the hit over the long haul and can fund games to the 2 to 3 years it typically takes to gain profitability. And if a developer gets lucky (like say the guys who did Kohan) enough to get funding that way they are set for awhile, but their are still at the win of a publisher deciding that it no longer wants to do their specific genre because it isn't profitable enough.

There may be another alternative besides Online sales to the small and mid guys but right now I don't see it. I think it will take some real disaster stories (ie some well known but small company going under due to retail pressures) to get these guys to relize that the time to act is now in getting a viable alternative to retail going. For niche titles to survive this needs to happen, they just can no longer compete at retail (at least not in the US).

Luckily I think we have proven (and some other indie companies) that if you keep your costs down and deliver a good quality game a year that you can easily guarantee your existance in the long term.

[Gromitt]

Forgive me if this has already been said but isn't a large issue money. I'm not talking about how much it costs to produce or market a game or even how much the game costs for that matter. Lets talk about the system. Most of these games are being sold to kids, ages ? to 16, working part time jobs. It's a hell of a lot easier to fork out $300 for a console that $1500 - $3000 for a computer.

[dumbluck]

Heh. That's what mommys and daddys are for.

[Richard]

Actually I already made that point .

And that is why console games tend to swerve more to the arcade, that and the fact that the current controls for console don't work well with hard core games. I once tried Railroad Tycoon II for the Playstation and it was painful, well not as bas PzG for the Playstation .

[Saxon]

The demographics of the market are different than many people think. First of all, computer games are not just for kids any more. People my age (31) grew up with games and still love them. We also now have the cash to buy them, which was more than I can say for when I was young. Second, we have moved well beyond Pac-Man and it has become respectable to play. The Sims, Flight Simulator, the Tycoon games and Everquest have seriously changed the way society looks at games. PC Gamer ran an article on older gamers and it was filled with people over 50 who spend a lot of time on computers. A repeated comment was that Quake was a bit too fast for them, but these other, more thoughtful games were right up their alley. This market is only going to grow.

Also, the place of games in our lives has changed. This web link http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/ent...00/1752522.stm
Goes to an article stating that people in the UK now spend more money on games than on renting movies. Admittedly, they also say that consoles are where the action is, but it points to a real change in the role computers and computer games, in one form or another, play in our lives.

Grommet has a point, buying console is cheaper than getting a computer just for games. However, the number of households which already have a computer for other reasons is quite high. Adding a game to the existing computer is relatively cheap. Until consoles have full web surfing capabilities, folks who want to use the Internet and send email at home have to get a computer. For them, getting a console instead just adding games to their Internet machine doesn’t make sense. I could be wrong, but I think this is a big market. How to get the money in that market to the people who create the games is the key to ensuring good games keep coming.

Richard, where do the development teams get the cash to pay their staff? If only 1% of games in retail return money to the developer, how did the games ever get put together in the first place? I don’t know the business, but it seems to me that no matter how much you love a game, you are not going to be working long on it if you have no pay cheque. You mention development costs in the millions, and lots of the games look it, yet you say the developers don’t see any money. I have a feeling I am missing something.

Tigga, I think you have made up my mind on how I will play my Empire. You had best hope you don’t fall to us, your furry people will be cleaning our sewers with their toothbrushes while my Discipline Lords read motivational speeches over a megaphone. And get back to work, damn it!