I just want to jump in here for a second. To the people saying that the industry needs money, that the industry is underfunded and needs to find new sources of revenue in microtransactions and day one DLC, or DLC at all, I point you toward three cases: The Witcher 2, Deus Ex: HR, and Skyrim.
Now, what's unique about all three of those cases? They were all profitable, they were all critically acclaimed, and they were all respectful enough to not launch with cut content, day one DLC, or short, 10-15 hour game times. And, of course, all three were AAA titles. Two of those games provided free post launch support in the form of additional content added via patches, TW2 and Skyrim. Why, then, can all three of these games, two of which were in development for quite a few years, be so successful? Why isn't Bethesda, CDProjekt Red, or Eidos scrambling to milk their consumers out of every last dime? Why aren't they going bankrupt due to "Piracy" or "Games being too cheap", despite the fact that all three games were hugely popular on the PC, known for it's piracy problems?
Three reasons: First, they were good. Really good. Some of them might not have been your cup of tea but the fact is it is undeniable all three of them were high quality in some or all fields. Quality products (often, but not always) sell. Of course, quality does not guarantee popularity, nor does popularity indicate quality, but a quality product is more likely to sell then a low quality product.
Second, strong management. This industry suffers from a Blight! of mismanagement. Games that should not be green lit are green lit all the time, and publishers are astounded when they don't sell. THQ is currently crawling for it's life because it made a prolonged series of poor management decisions when funding games. A more recent, and tragic, example can be seen in the demise of 38 Studios. Kingdoms of Amalur allegedly sold over a million copies. Over one million copies for a brand new IP, at the end of the console cycle, in a saturated market of high quality RPG's. Surrounded by Skyrim and ME3 it still sold one million copies. In any other case that would be astounding, that would be a breakout success, 38 Studios would be high on life at the moment as they'd be already working on a sequel (DLC). Why did they crumble? Why were so many people suddenly financially screwed? Not because of pirates, not because of overexpensive development costs, but because of mismanagement. The management of 38 Studios decided that they would put so much money into their game that it would need to sell 3 million copies to break even. That is
astounding. Whoever was in charge there should never work in this industry again, at least not in a management position. Amalur, no matter how good, was never going to sell 3 million copies. And 38 Studios isn't the only studio suffering from mismanagement. It can be seen in nearly every failed product, publishers who either pushed the developer too hard or not enough (being a publisher in this industry requires hitting a sweet spot between respecting the developers abilities and knowledge and knowing when to put your foot down) and developers who overblew their budget. This isn't to even talk about the millions and millions of dollars spent on marketting. Speaking of marketting costs...
Finally, and perhaps the biggest reason those games did so well, was that they had a dedicated fanbase. Look back at the most successful developers of this industries short history and what do you see? Each and every one of them fostered a die hard community of fans who would take a bullet for them any day. It can never be overstated the power a strong, loyal, large group of dedicated fans can do for your products. CDProjekt has done loads to earn their fans.
There's a reason even knee deep in cultures that support piracy the act of illegally downloading The Witcher 2 is so frowned upon. DEHR, months before release, was not very high on most people's radar, and then the game got leaked. All of a sudden fan videos were popping up all over youtube, people were discussing how good it was on video game forums across the internet, and hype built for the game where before there had been only cynicism, for how could a game even come close to the depth of the original Deus Ex in 2011? Skyrim, of course, was helped along by the loyal fans of both TES series and Bethesda in general. Indeed, Skyrim had a large marketing campaign, but the power of those fans in the early days, the content and word of mouth they created, is no doubt a large part of the reason Skyrim reached such a mainstream success, a genre that very rarely sees such sales. And that's the key, word of mouth. You can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing, or you can cut that budget and develop a band of loyal fans who will do that marketing for you
for free. Loyal fanbases are a goldmine. They not only buy your game, they sell it for you too! Bioware should know this all too well. DAO sold based on word of mouth generated by the early adopters, early adopters who were familiar with Bioware's name and the high quality product associated with it. A name that over the last two years has become tarnished greatly with disappointment after disappointment.
For an additional example of how a company can become hugely successful, all while treating their consumers with respect, look no further than the juggernaut known as Valve. For years Valve supported TF2 free of charge. They carried this philosophy over to the L4D series, they released numerous updates for the Counter Strike series, and they're challenging the leviathans of the ARTS genre with the upcoming release of DOTA2 by offering all heroes for free, something League of Legends does not do. All the while they've managed to turn huge profits off their games through continued sales of the main product and the most ethical F2P systems you can find in this industry. Critics point to Steam, but Steam, while hugely successful, does not negate the fact that they've managed to both turn a profit from their games alone
and treat their consumers with respect by offering free content, quality products, and microtransactions that don't amount to "Pay 2 Win".
So to sum it all up: The argument that the industry is dying, that game development costs too much and developers must find new ways to make money, is nothing more than a scarecrow, put up to defend mismanagement, unethical or shady business practices, and other failings on the part of the developers and publishers. Numerous examples exist debunking this myth, and it's perpetuation only helps the questionable companies continue their practices without change.
Modifié par TonyTheBossDanza123, 14 août 2012 - 10:22 .
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[inappropriate discussion removed]
