[Bad Azz]

Article: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012...velopment-costs


Video: Youtube


Thoughts ?

[PrometheusX]

Next rumor: Piracy rate to double?

[Cosmic Gypsy]

i'd say its not true, games used to be 35 - 40 quid when i was young, now they are 40 - 50 quid. they do increase over time, but its ridiculous to say they are going to double. 100 quid for 1 game? not in my life time (thankfully)

[Slamman]

I'd expect them to go down with a primarily online model, ALSO worth a mention is the latest MaximumPC magazine covers some ideas to fight piracy without using DRM, so I plan to read that too, haven't gotten into all the articles just yet

I think most of these rumors if found to be more then half true, will drive people to more piracy in combat mode. That's why it happens to begin with!!

[oysterbarron]

If true then it looks like the teenagers of us will be blown outta the market!

[GTAvanja]

If it's true a lot of people will stop buying AAA titles. More indie games will be made available and they will be cheap, and also a lot of people will switch to PC since there will be no point in having a console.

[finn4life]

I would say the article even if it was true is wrong in a few aspects.

1. Development technology is always improving, it makes it easier for the developers, so less tedious tasks have to be carried out, but more tasks are always thrown at them as games improve, so it kind of balances out.

2. The audience of video games is always increasing, higher development costs are again balanced out by more people buying the game.

Besides, if all this is true, why haven't PC games doubled in cost? The resolutions and other sliders are already way ahead of what next gen consoles will churn out.

[DP Man]

If this becomes true then I'll do the worst and buy a better PC.

Edit- Not that I hate PC gaming I just never enjoyed playing games on one

This post has been edited by DP Man on Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 06:39

[Xcommunicated]

QUOTE (article)

Developers with access to the Durango (the code name for Microsoft's next console) are seeing costs rise sharply, primarily due to higher polygon counts and better textures required. "I'm having to double my budget for models," said one developer working on a sequel to an earlier title that appeared on Xbox 360 and PS3. "If we want to take advantage of Durango's capabilities it takes a lot more time for each model." This can also result in either a longer time to develop a title, or the need to put more artists on, or both.

I honestly don't know a great deal about game development, but I'm pretty sure that models are already designed with very high polygon counts and are then scaled down to a count that the platform can handle. Same thing goes for higher res textures - they start with a high res and then scale it down to save space and improve performance. So this sounds like a poorly fabricated rumor.

Not only that, if the rumors hold true, the PlayStation 4 will give way to x64 architecture and DirectX, making development much simpler than it has been for the Cell processor in the PS3. That would only serve to reduce development costs, not add to them.

And there's no way the market can sustain a doubling in price. Hardly anyone is going to pay 120 USD for a game. These ass clowns have already made billions off of triple A titles at the 60 USD price point. Look at CoD, all they have to do is make some new maps, slap a new name on it and bam, a sh*tton of cash is raked in.

[kudoboi]

QUOTE (DP Man @ Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 05:09)

If this becomes true then I'll do the worst and buy a better PC. Edit- Not that I hate PC gaming I just never enjoyed playing games on one

if u hate playing on keyboard and mouse, just buy a xbox controller for ur PC

[Butters 2011]

I highly doubt this.

DLC is where companies are making their money at the minute, and it seems to me that this will only be built upon as the future generation of consoles are rolled out. Yes, this is still a shady area at the minute due to bandwith caps and whatnot, but for me, I'll stick to articles that have suggested that shelf-titles will remain the same, if not cheaper, in price, and companies will rely on DLC to make the bigger profits. Look at COD for example, or any other MP FPS game for that matter, which can charge around £10 (?) for the DLC packs, and release around 4-5 in the games life-span, thus doubling the money they are making from the title, if not making a bigger profit due to it being DLC content.

If the price of shelf-titles is to increase, then I doubt it will double in price. The current world we live in would see a massive percentage of gamers missing out on the oppurtunity of purchasing the top-rated games, and so I highly doubt the companies themselves would allow such a move to happen.

[theomenofficial]

QUOTE (PrometheusX @ Tuesday, Apr 3 2012, 20:18)

Next rumor: Piracy rate to double?

I don't know why,but that made me laugh.

[goin-god]

QUOTE (Xcommunicated @ Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 03:56)

I honestly don't know a great deal about game development, but I'm pretty sure that models are already designed with very high polygon counts and are then scaled down to a count that the platform can handle. Same thing goes for higher res textures - they start with a high res and then scale it down to save space and improve performance. So this sounds like a poorly fabricated rumor.

To scale the model down you actually create a new model, with less polygons. The problem is, the Artist has now to use more polygons when working on the Low Quality one (Since it's now possible). When creating a High Poly model the poly count is not important, you can go crazy with it (Millons). But when working on the actual model that's gonna be in game you have to make it by hand, no sculpting, wich takes a lot of time. You also have to take into account the animating, wich get's more complex the higher the polycount of the model is.
I know because I do that.

I'm not saying they should double prices, I think it's overreacting.

[GtA01]

Geez, I might actually have to get a life if they double.

I doubt it. Maybe they'd steadily increase with inflation, but double the price? Hell naw.

[illegal_luggage]

Why don't they just fit consoles with an x86 processor and make the GPU use DirectX? More games could come to the PC and ports might not be as crap.

[Gareth Croke]

They're saying costs will rise due to higher polygon counts that these new consoles will permit. I agree with Xcomm, it's a load cr*p, but if they insist this would be the case, then why the heck don't they go back to the old school and code share data with other producers and game developers, I mean how many times can a Porsche 911 be done for example. Instead of each developer drawing the same model over and over again, then why don't they get together and draw one model and have done.

I say old school, because developers used to do this, OK I get the point that the games industry is now a major sector and back in ye olde days didn't compete as much as they do now.

But I suspect its that old chestnut of piracy again, again they'll blame us PC gamers for downloading games etc.... yawn, cause I've never heard of consoles getting chipped. So they'll bump up the prices and then loose more sales to piracy.

If anything I can see the reverse happening as gaming becomes more and more acceptable within society (no longer the realm of geek) so more games will get produced and competition increases and prices go down to compete... that's unless EA buy up all the competition again.

[Moonshield]

The entire website reeks of tabloid. I wouldn't trust any article they publish.

[Butters 2011]

QUOTE (Gareth Croke @ Monday, Apr 9 2012, 22:37)

If anything I can see the reverse happening as gaming becomes more and more acceptable within society (no longer the realm of geek) so more games will get produced and competition increases and prices go down to compete... that's unless EA buy up all the competition again.

What I said, but for different reasons. Why double the price of a shelf-titled game, when companies seem to be turning to DLC more and more, thus earning extra profit just for game add-ons and whatnot? It's probably the smartest thing that companies could do in the future, as internet speeds are upped etc...reduce the prices of shelf-titles, but increase the output of DLC content for that game...even more, look at what COD did in charging £90 for some extra maps and some other extras.

[ryuclan]

Gaming would die fairly fast with such a large increase in prices. In most cases, I don't even agree on the $60 price tag. Most games aren't worth that much and it would take one hell of a game to make me pay $120 for a single disc. That game better blow my mind...among other things.

[Ash_735]

There has been just too many bullsh*t rumours regarding next gen consoles the past few weeks, it's almost as bad as GTA V rumours! Look, in the past few weeks we've had Wii U is super powerful, Wii U is not as powerful as PS3, Wii U is just a bit better than Current Gen, Xbox 720 will launch in 2014, PS4 will launch in 2014, Xbox 720 and PS4 won't support Second Hand, numerous "spec" articles claiming AMD are powering next gen consoles, numerous "spec" articles claiming IBM is working on processors for ALL next gen consoles, etc, etc

So please folks, take it with a large rock of salt.