The ballooning costs of making games has turned the industry into a megahit or die scenario. I don't think that's a reliable strategy, and the massive amount of $100+ million dollar disasters are proof.
The ballooning costs are in part due to the inflating bloat they keep trying to stuff into every game. Not every bloody game needs a crafting or a skill system, nor does every game need 100+ sidequests throughout the entire campaign.
I think some studios were also banking on investors fronting them for a long time, based on player numbers and playtime, which was never seriously going to hold in the long run. Players can only be led around on a leash in so many games for so long before they just get sick and tired of being denied actual fun in the games they're purchasing.
Which is so stupid. Mega Man 11 sold millions on a modest budget. But Capcom won't make 12, or X9 because they HAVE to make high-risk megahits for megabucks, for some corporate-brained reason.
It's not so much "corporate brained" it's that the economy is more-or-less fake, because the fiat currency doesn't represent any kind of tangible/real value.
In a real economy you could slowly build up goodwill & a track record of solid if-not-world-shattering titles and show that you can consistently deliver products that provide entertainment and value that people want. In a fake economy, you have to make a billion dollars on your megahit and monetize the hell out of it, because the moonshot is the only way your investors will be satisfied with the ROI.
The ballooning costs of making games has turned the industry into a megahit or die scenario. I don't think that's a reliable strategy, and the massive amount of $100+ million dollar disasters are proof.
The ballooning costs are in part due to the inflating bloat they keep trying to stuff into every game. Not every bloody game needs a crafting or a skill system, nor does every game need 100+ sidequests throughout the entire campaign.
I think some studios were also banking on investors fronting them for a long time, based on player numbers and playtime, which was never seriously going to hold in the long run. Players can only be led around on a leash in so many games for so long before they just get sick and tired of being denied actual fun in the games they're purchasing.
Which is so stupid. Mega Man 11 sold millions on a modest budget. But Capcom won't make 12, or X9 because they HAVE to make high-risk megahits for megabucks, for some corporate-brained reason.
It's not so much "corporate brained" it's that the economy is more-or-less fake, because the fiat currency doesn't represent any kind of tangible/real value.
In a real economy you could slowly build up goodwill & a track record of solid if-not-world-shattering titles and show that you can consistently deliver products that provide entertainment and value that people want. In a fake economy, you have to make a billion dollars on your megahit and monetize the hell out of it, because the moonshot is the only way your investors will be satisfied with the ROI.
Sounds pretty corporate brained to me.