I agree with @MeachtheMonster

[Rekkapryde]

Hence the bubble rushing towards bursting.

Less and less games are “proven worthy” of big budgets. That number will continue to dwindle.

Even the most successful and proven studios are under major pressure to cut costs

No ones denying this.

But this ain't a Disney case where they are throwing 200 million at B and C list characters.

Dunno what cats are gonna do either.

The only reason games like Spiderman, TLOU, God Of War, GTA, etc get insane budgets is they are proven IPs. And they improve with each iteration. But that innovation costs if you want top tier talent to make it.

the minute you start putting out Subpar shyt, it won't take long to kill that same proven IP. It's a catch 22.

But like Gizmo said, it's not just AAA games, its really ALL games.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

No.

Smaller game flops you only lose a couple mil or you take a bit longer to break even.

This is untrue














I could honestly list a dozen more from this year alone. Developers i like…. There are far more indie studios shutting down more often then there are big AAA studios shutting down or in hot water. The entire game industry is in turmoil as you can see from this past year.

 

[Rekkapryde]

Trash devs are rarely the problem is the people who come up with the game. Like anything else gaming is not impervious to cash grabs and poor execution.

The real problem is tools are easily accessible by everyone and visibility/marketing has never been easier.

Nah, trash devs are definitely a problem, but the biggest are the suits by far. We've seen suits completely ruin and botch established franchises trying to copycat and imitate because another title is doing something rewarding. It's to the point that one bad game can take out a studio. You gotta let cats do their thing without interference because quality is what makes people come back to titles.

We all see this Suicide Squad game about to bomb due to interference by suits wanting to monetize it on some GAAS shyt. That game will kill Rocksteady. It's fukkin ridiculous.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

No ones denying this.

But this ain't a Disney case where they are throwing 200 million at B and C list characters.

Dunno what cats are gonna do either.

The only reason games like Spiderman, TLOU, God Of War, GTA, etc get insane budgets is they are proven IPs. And they improve with each iteration. But that innovation costs if you want top tier talent to make it.

the minute you start putting out Subpar shyt, it won't take long to kill that same proven IP. It's a catch 22.

Which is why creativity is at an all time low, and all those games tend to blend together. Can’t take any risks and plan to sell 10 million copies. And as with everything these style of games aren’t gonna stay popular forever. We are already seeing sales contractions from those games with their sequels.

Spider-man 2 cost 3 times the amount as 1 and it probably won’t sell as many copies, let alone 3 times the copies.

Spider-man one of the most popular and recognizable IP ever known to man, still gotta figure out how to lower costs or they will lose money on their next game.

But like Gizmo said, it's not just AAA games, its really ALL games.

But that’s not true at all. Smaller budget games can take risks and don’t kill studios if they don’t work out.

 

[Cladyclad]

Idgaf how the shyt made
Make my game fakkit

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

Every game needs to be bigger and better.

I think microsoft jumped off this train a while ago. Outside of bethesdas big games, they seem to be aiming for a bit smaller budgets and unique inventive games instead of chasing hollywood.

For sony, their standard is big budget hollywood movie. They gotta up that shyt with every game. But sales aren’t growing with the budgets.

Lol and there it is

Meach has no clue what he’s talking about. There’s a record number of smaller studios that have shuttered this year that yall ust don’t care about.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

This is untrue














I could honestly list a dozen more from this year alone. Developers i like…. There are far more indie studios shutting down more often then there are big AAA studios shutting down or in hot water. The entire game industry is in turmoil as you can see from this past year.

You scraped the bottom of the fukkin barel. These studios don’t have pretty much any success to fall back on.

Sony has laid of more workers than all these combined at just one studio.

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

Yeah and I’m sure the way to fix it is by going the subscription route .

The business of digital content across the board is in shambles for years now and is showing no signs what so ever of getting a better in the slightest.

 

[iceberg_is_on_fire]

Its why I'm not all that up in arms about AI assistance with games. These shyts cost too much to make.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

You scraped the bottom of the fukkin barel. These studios don’t have pretty much any success to fall back on.

Sony has laid of more workers than all these combined at just one studio.

So they don’t count because they are small studios, as if thats not exactly what we are talking about

Microsoft has laid off twice the amount of people that work at SIE this year

 

[Rekkapryde]

Which is why creativity is at an all time low, and all those games tend to blend together. Can’t take any risks and plan to sell 10 million copies. And as with everything these style of games aren’t gonna stay popular forever. We are already seeing sales contractions from those games with their sequels.

Spider-man 2 cost 3 times the amount as 1 and it probably won’t sell as many copies, let alone 3 times the copies.

Spider-man one of the most popular and recognizable IP ever known to man, still gotta figure out how to lower costs or they will lose money on their next game.

Those Spidey games are still hella profitable. Remember that a lot of that shyt was projections and were flat out wrong. My point is that you cannot expect similar profit margins. That is what the issue is. You want the same profit margins on an entity where the costs are going up. You start cost cutting going overboard, and the quality suffers, and then your money maker is dead. Good developer salaries in the US are not cheap like other parts of the world. These suits want great quality on cheap prices. shyt don't work like that.

But that’s not true at all. Smaller budget games can take risks and don’t kill studios if they don’t work out.

100% not true. We've seen it.

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

Also, how is Microsoft cutting back on game budgets, do they not own Call of Duty and Overwatch?

Are they not pouring 100’s of millions of dollars in bethesda rpgs, and fable, and forza games, and did they not just acquire two disney licenses?

Stop fooling yourself, those small games like pentiment and grounded were in production way before microsoft even acquired them.

the next big game they have coming out is literally leaning on state of the art graphics to sell it and has been in production for like 7 years

 

[Fatboi1]

I disagree with Meach no matter what.

 

[Rekkapryde]

So they don’t count because they are small studios, as if thats not exactly what we are talking about

Microsoft has laid off twice the amount of people that work at SIE this year

This. Cats keep trying to pin everything on Sony when they all have the same issue. And the problem is that the Sony IPs they are trying to cut costs on are the ones they know print money for them, so they want higher margins.

Reduce your profit margin expectations and continue to put out quality.


Or go the cheap route and potentially ruin your property and end up stuck like chuck.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

So they don’t count because they are small studios

They don’t count cause they never really existed. You posting studios that can’t secure funding cause they never had any success at all. It ain’t a budget problem. It’s not like any of those studios had to close just cause budgets were too high.

Insomniac sold 25 million copies of their last game and still had to fire multiple indie studios worth of employees to even get their next game greenlit, and they are backed by one of the richest companies in gaming.

Microsoft has laid off twice teh amount of people that work at SIE this year

Exactly. Big money is a whole different world.