Re: Sony: Blockbuster Games Are "A Death Sentence"

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter  "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

<Big Snip>

[Shawn Layton doesn't mention this, but smaller games with shorter
development cycles would probably also alleviate the necessity for
mass layoffs after a big game completes, because rather than laying
off all those artists while the years-long pre-production and
programming for  your AAA game takes place, you can just shift them
all over to a smaller project.]

Ahh but firing them all means more bonus money for the executives.

Layton also makes some other interesting points: for instance, the
insistence that titles have mass-appeal world-wide (with particular
focus on the West) instead of making games that might be popular just
in certain geo/political regions. "Look at the markets [in other
regions], they're growing, the economies are robust. There's more
disposable income. You can make a great game in Indonesia for that
market." says Layton. Again pointing to how a focus on just big AAA
games is leaving money on the table.

Ahh but what is Indonesia's dollar value these days?
Look at the blue-ray/dvd markets and region coding because the product
is sold for so much less outside of NA/EU.
Presumably games would be the same, so it's a market they will never
pursue since the return will be so much less.

If  it's $90 a game in the west and $15 in Indonesia or wherever,
they're never going to go after that $15, since it's pocket change for a
company like SONY.

The admin types will look at the return on investment only.
Even if it goes perfectly and is a huge seller, it's a huge seller in a
small regional market with no chance of selling outside that market.

Rate of return on investment might be great, fabulous even, but still
only add up to 0.00001% of their profits.

"Those sales will add how much to my bonus?" thinks the executive, "oh,
$0.03?  Never mind."

Anyway, it's an interesting conversation. What do you think: would the
industry be better served with AAA publishers changing focus, or do
you think they should just stick to the tent-pole games they're famous
for?

Industry exists to make money so that's what "The Industry" will
continue doing.   Small startup (upstart) studios will continue to
innovate because they're still in the hands of Gamers, not Business
Admin types.
<snip>

Essentially we'll have AAA titles and A/B titles, but no AA, at least
for a while, until one of those A/B studios makes enough money to take
it up a notch.   The next Blizzard (remember how varied their games were
early on, and all of them good, before WoW screwed everything up by
getting them too much money.)

Xocyll