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[Leafhopper]

I agree with you Jim. Good video as usual.

Someone should tag him as FUCK KONAMI or something.

 

[Sneaky Gato]

Good episode Jim! Kinda got taken out if it a bit by the line read not matching the scene at 5:36 but those things happen and this was a good episode.

As for the death of mid tier games I feel that the rise of digital and the death of retail shovelware may have something to do with it. Looking at the situation it would seem obvious that the best place for mid tier games would be digital storefronts so them from the cost of retail. It feels much harder for midtier games to stand out when standing next to the deluge of shovel ware and indies that crowds digital gaming services. This deluge of software means less ability for press to actually look at games and see if they are good meaning that they have to stand out more to get noticed. This effect is worsened since in the face of this people rely more on reviewers than ever before to get the name out there. When there were less games and they were physically limited to storefronts it felt much easier for these mid tier titles to be picked up and given a chance. Granted publishers also had much a hand in this as you said.

 

[Klossen]

Big-budget publishers blow my mind sometimes. You'd think they'd rather have 10 games selling 1 million than 1 game selling 5 million, but they won't dare do that.

You have to understand the eco-system which the big publishers have set up. It's an environment that is completely dominated by a few IP's they can release annually with low risk. Basically an oligopoly. People say that big budget means high risk, but nothing in the world is safer than 50 million dollar annual games advertised to hell and beyond and already established on the market. It's easy fucking money. People always eat it up. Just look here.

Why would big publishers break their oligopoly? They can just release a couple of games from established IP's, market to hell and beyond, and watch those earn Hollywood bucks. Why would big publishers dare to invest in a wide range of games when they got their safe easy bets to bank on instead? So long as the consumers choose to buy the same annual AAA games every year, big publishers won't change. And I won't blame them for that. Anything else would be financially naive.

I too want new IPs intended for niche audiences funded, but why bother when you can make money so much easier in this industry?

 

[RK128]

Agree completely Jim, it is amazing to see games that we haven't seen in years come back through Kickstarter :').

Mega Man coming back through Mighty No. 9, Banjo Kazooie coming back through Looka-Yalee, Castlivanna coming back through Bloodstained and so many other great projects coming (Shante Half Genie Hero for example) now and 2017; such a great sight to see.

This shows that WE as gamers can get the games we want without the big AAA publishers who think "No one likes that anymore" stepping in.

Also, please keep up the 'Fuck Konami' Jim . That needs to be said for quite a long time for the crap they have been pulling.

I personally cannot wait to see Kojima and Kojima Productions coming to Kickstarter....that would be the perfect 'Fuck you' to Konami XD.

 

[low-G]

The big AAA publishers are definitely too big & dumb for their own survival. Video games are an ultra fast market, and they're incredibly out of touch with reality.

Just think of how many companies went to their death trying to make WoW clones. Idiocy.

 

[The Broken Ska Record]

Indies *are* the "b-tier" releases. Except, instead of publishing hiring people and paying them money to make them, developers are on their own. Good or bad thing? A little of both, I would say.

Oh, I know. I've found that I've been more interested in indie games as time goes on. The only major problem is finding games that appeal to me in aesthetic and gameplay. Which is sometimes hampered by how much information is out there. And if it's a smaller studio, I probably will have missed it.

 

[Raging Spaniard]

I'm pretty sure Bloodstained and Yookah will sell a lot more than 30 or 50 thousand copies.

Shovelknight was a more modest kickstarter (they got around 350k IIRC) and didn't have a name like IGA attached to it. But it sold 180k in its first month, 300K by December of last year and one can only asume that number is now even higher after being released on Ps4 and X1.

And stuff like Pillars of Eternity has also been selling great. I didn't find the sales numbers but based on comments from the devs and some earning they have talked about I think it's safe to say it sold 200K+ during the first month

Big name publishers dont give a shit unless you can make a game they will think will sell 1-2 million units.

I tell you this because I lived it when I worked for big companies. Shovel Knights numbers are great for THEM, but not for a big company.

 

[roknin]

Love this video, if only because it echoes what I've been ranting about to friends for years.

 

[Flying Toaster]

This was a really good episode. They all are great but this one was especially good.

The "Masks" commentary was amazeballs.

We need both though. Mega Publishers and the little guy. Mainstream non dedicated people in gaming will keep the consoles coming but it will be the hardcore, crazy eclectic purists such as GAF and many others that keep the good stuff funded.

 

[TimmiT]

Another good Jimquitisiton as usual, but Jim did get something wrong. I don't blame him for it though cause it's something that a lot of sites got wrong as well. SEGA didn't call Alien Isolation sales weak, but rather the sales of their games overall. Here is the full quote from their fiscal release:

In the consumer business, the Group launched titles such as “Alien: Isolation” and “Ryu ga Gotoku 0: Chikai no Basho” in the packaged game software field. Although a year-on-year increase in total volume of packaged software sales of 12,300 thousand copies, which includes 4,950 thousand copies in the U.S., 5,200 thousand copies in Europe, and 2,140 thousand copies in Japan, performance in the field was weak due to the harsh market environment.

https://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/pdf/release/201503_4q_tanshin_e_final.pdf

I'd say it's more likely that they were referring to Yakuza 0 (which didn't sell as well as previous games) and Sonic Boom (duh).

Also, not sure if I'd call Metroidvania a dying genre. It's been pretty prominent when it comes to indie platformers.

 

[Boogdud]

"Nobody wants Adventure Games".
We Kickstart Broken Age.

"Nobody wants Mega Man."
We Kickstart Mighty No. 9.

"Nobody wants Final Fantasy Tactics."
We Kickstart Unsung Story.

"Nobody wants Banjo-Kazooie."
We Kickstart Yooka-Laylee.

"Nobody wants traditional Castlevania."
We Kickstart Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

"Nobody wants a space sim"
Star Citizen gets, what is it now $80+ million? Yeah, keep telling us what we don't want.


Another great episode Jim. It actually put me in a pretty great mood, on a Monday no less!

 

[ItIsOkBro]

Man I wish those mid-range games would make a come back. It's like looking at box office numbers. You see all these high ass budget movies that struggle to break even. Then you see these lower budget movies (mostly horrors and comedies) that make less money but relative to the budget they double it easily. I don't see why this trend wouldn't happen for mid-range games too.

 

[Mael]

I think this highlight the big issue with buying IPs and buying Talents.
One might think that just buying the IPs is enough while others think that really it's the Talents that's important.
If you ask me I'd say the former is irrelevant and the later is really what it's all about.
The IPs are nice and all but at some point you realize that the reason you cared so much about the IP was because of the Talents behind it more than the IPs.

 

[Steroyd]

Too be fair they are risk averse because they are playing with their own money. Kickstarter has very little risk for the devs that use it.

I'd argue it not being quite that clear cut, yes the money is fronted in advance so there's financial security to enable them to create the vision they pitched, but they also have a responsibility of delivering and being transparent about it or their next kickstarter will be rough as hell.

The other reason is that the market demands games with great voice acting, great graphics, etc. All of those things are not cheap to do in most counties. The point being gamers want it all and that cost a lot of money.

Don't get me wrong I loves me some Claudia Black, Kevin goddamn Spacey and Samuel fucking Jack son in my games, but there is demand for games that don't reach that level, the Souls series sells in the millions without the fanfare, stuff like Payday the heist was doing so good digitally it saw a physical release and lol Minecraft the way that game has been selling is a joke.

 

[Pilgrimzero]

Team Silent reunion! First thing I thought of! Glad Jim mentioned it as well.

 

[border]

Yeah, I don't get why Jim says he backs these projects to spite Microsoft and Konami.

If anything these Kickstarters completely validate Microsoft and Konami's position.

If there were only 30-50K people passionately interested in Banjo and Metroidvania, then yeah it probably would have been a bad idea to spend millions trying to revive those franchises.

 

[Rebel Leader]

"Nobody wants Adventure Games".
We Kickstart Broken Age.

"Nobody wants Mega Man."
We Kickstart Mighty No. 9.

"Nobody wants Final Fantasy Tactics."
We Kickstart Unsung Story.

"Nobody wants Banjo-Kazooie."
We Kickstart Yooka-Laylee.

"Nobody wants traditional Castlevania."
We Kickstart Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

It's cathartic, really, to see the things so many of us have clamored for, things big publishers told us were unpopular or not profitable, becoming successful despite their adherence to the contrary.

Ultimately, I have no idea why publishers continue to look at Call of Duty and League of Legends and Angry Birds and other titles and decide to chase after an audience that already has their obsessions instead of working with the audiences they already have.

Anyone remember when 2K games claimed that the FPS XCOM was coming because traditional old-school turn-based strategy wouldn't sell? And then, after massive backlash, decided to make a strategy XCOM as well, and it vastly outsold its FPS counterpart?

Remember when Dark Souls 1 was celebrated for crossing a million copies sold (unlike Tomb Raider being "disappointing" at not selling 4 million in one month)? Remember when Nintendo said they were proud of Xenoblade selling 500,000 copies?

Big-budget publishers blow my mind sometimes. You'd think they'd rather have 10 games selling 1 million than 1 game selling 5 million, but they won't dare do that.

Quoting for the list...

But thank god for kick starter

 

[Nocturnowl]

I didn't get my goblet toss last week but this week has made amends, wonderful.
I'm really hopeful for this trend of spiritual successors working out.

 

[silvermember]

I'd argue it not being quite that clear cut, yes the money is fronted in advance so there's financial security to enable them to create the vision they pitched, but they also have a responsibility of delivering and being transparent about it or their next kickstarter will be rough as hell.



Don't get me wrong I loves me some Claudia Black, Kevin goddamn Spacey and Samuel fucking Jack son in my games, but there is demand for games that don't reach that level, the Souls series sells in the millions without the fanfare, stuff like Payday the heist was doing so good digitally it saw a physical release and lol Minecraft the way that game has been selling is a joke.

I wasn't talking about paying A listers, just in general. Personally, rarely do A listers add anything of value to a game, except Sam L Jackson in GTA:SA.

Also the dark souls are made by a fairly small development studio, so 1-2 million might be good for them, but for a publisher powerhouse like Ubisoft that needs to generate €810 million during the third quarter just to avoid its stock prices dropping 1-2 million isn't that much. Like I said earlier in the thread, once a publisher reaches a certain size, they cannot compete in smaller markets because it will not generate enough revenue to allow them to keep their current level of growth. And if a CEO fails to create growth, what do you think happens?

Unfortunately, this is a common trend among companies in other markets.

 

[tebunker]

I wasn't talking about paying A listers, just in general. Personally, rarely do A listers add anything of value to a game, except Sam L Jackson in GTA:SA.

Also the dark souls are made by a fairly small development studio, so 1-2 million might be good for them, but for a publisher powerhouse like Ubisoft that needs to generate €810 million during the third quarter just to avoid its stock prices dropping 1-2 million isn't that much. Like I said earlier in the thread, once a publisher reaches a certain size, they cannot compete in smaller markets because it will not generate enough revenue to allow them to keep their current level of growth. And if a CEO fails to create growth, what do you think happens?

Unfortunately, this is a common trend among companies in other markets.

You are right but like I said earlier that is a short term mindset.

Companies should be focusing on pleasing customers in the long term and it will take care of growth etc.

Also its silly that companies are being expected to have crazy returns quarter over qtr or yoy. Investor culture is getting out of hand.

Eventually this house of cards will collapse on itself. Its not just a gaming thing either.

Hopefully other smaller companies that aren't bound to an exchange will start to step in and publish smaller games more often.

 

[border]

"Nobody wants Adventure Games".
We Kickstart Broken Age.

How many adventure games have absolutely died on Kickstarter?

I wonder what is going to happen to this genre in particular, when most titles don't have Tim Schafer's good name to trade on and the nostalgia factor has worn off.

 

[Durante]

And stuff like Pillars of Eternity has also been selling great. I didn't find the sales numbers but based on comments from the devs and some earning they have talked about I think it's safe to say it sold 200K+ during the first month

It's up to 366k.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

The problem in general is games like CoD or systems like the Wii breaking into the mainstream, aka people that weren't playing games originally. Suddenly publishers were the ones seeing how much MORE money they could make(by tapping into this new source of income) if they make their game just a little bit more like CoD, or make their systems just a little bit more like the Wii, and how can we apply that to IPs we own. Before you know it, BOOM Dead Space 3.


You're right though, it's not something that's unique to the game industry. Creative bankruptcy is rife with the movie and tv industry too(which leads to reality TV and superhero movies/remakes(why develop a whole new idea when you can "adapt" one that already exists!)). Problem is however that unlike the other industries, when the mainstream goes back to ignoring games again, the gaming landscape will already be decimated because the people that actually give two shits about the medium will be upset that they were ignored. But hey, here's Kickstarter to save the day, possibly.



Still say one of the smartest things Jim said in an earlier vid(which he again says here for the first time in a bit) is how publishers would rather make no money than ALL of the money.

Pretty much what Silvermember has been holding class on, really. Each step makes sense, but overall looks like pants-on-head insanity.

You have to understand the eco-system which the big publishers have set up. It's an environment that is completely dominated by a few IP's they can release annually with low risk. Basically an oligopoly. People say that big budget means high risk, but nothing in the world is safer than 50 million dollar annual games advertised to hell and beyond and already established on the market. It's easy fucking money. People always eat it up. Just look here.

Why would big publishers break their oligopoly? They can just release a couple of games from established IP's, market to hell and beyond, and watch those earn Hollywood bucks. Why would big publishers dare to invest in a wide range of games when they got their safe easy bets to bank on instead? So long as the consumers choose to buy the same annual AAA games every year, big publishers won't change. And I won't blame them for that. Anything else would be financially naive.

I too want new IPs intended for niche audiences funded, but why bother when you can make money so much easier in this industry?

Opiate formulated a looooooooong time ago that the biggest publishers did this on purpose. I agree to a point, but only that it was happening at financial level with HD development and a vast amount of what 10-15 years ago game players were narrowing ourselves down to at that time as a whole, and that these publishers took advantage of that.

Love this video, if only because it echoes what I've been ranting about to friends for years.

They only "get it" once it gets to them, really. "Hit rock bottom" and all that.

 

[The Technomancer]

Publishers are not a unified group of people that work together, if they did it would be illegal, so your last statement is meaningless. Secondly, the people buying habits kill the middle shelf games, publishers are going to make what sells not what a fringe fraction of the population buys. Thirdly, player expectation of games significantly increase, players want fancy graphics, high quality voice acting and all the bells and whistles, which acts like a barrier of entry to many middle shelf developers.

When a middle shelf developer fails to match the quality of provided by AAA reviewers end up destroying and trashing the game and nobody buys it.

Finally, not every game can be minecraft, just like not every game can be WOW. Minecraft is a very unique idea at its time that thanks to a combination of luck got bigger than its creator had imagined.

. Thirdly, player expectation of games significantly increase, players want fancy graphics, high quality voice acting and all the bells and whistles, which acts like a barrier of entry to many middle shelf developers.

Large publishers have had a very direct hand in stoking that particular flame for the last fifteen years

 

[Eusis]

Yeah, I don't get why Jim says he backs these projects to spite Microsoft and Konami.

If anything these Kickstarters completely validate Microsoft and Konami's position.

If there were only 30-50K people passionately interested in Banjo and Metroidvania, then yeah it probably would have been a bad idea to spend millions trying to revive those franchises.

Most people want a finished project or go in after word of mouth. Haven't many of the better Kickstarter games sold well afterwards via good press and word of mouth?

Though at a minimum I do imagine not going for a BK3 was likely dumb. Those games sold pretty well as I recall and in a sense isn't really that far off from open world games in design. But I guess they looked at the Blinx games as a reference point.

 

[epmode]

How many adventure games have absolutely died on Kickstarter?

I wonder what is going to happen to this genre in particular, when most titles don't have Tim Schafer's good name to trade on and the nostalgia factor has worn off.

With few exceptions. modern adventure games aren't very good. Wheter it's sub-par writing or design, I don't like playing much modern stuff.

At least Wadjet Eye will hang around. Their best games approach LucasArts and Sierra yet they cost comparatively little.

 

[Rymuth]

He really went down on Rare and Konami in this video.

Great video, Jim.

 

[silvermember]

You are right but like I said earlier that is a short term mindset.

Companies should be focusing on pleasing customers in the long term and it will take care of growth etc.

Also its silly that companies are being expected to have crazy returns quarter over qtr or yoy. Investor culture is getting out of hand.

Eventually this house of cards will collapse on itself. Its not just a gaming thing either.

Hopefully other smaller companies that aren't bound to an exchange will start to step in and publish smaller games more often.

Of course it is short term thinking, rarely do companies managers care about long term because managers are judged based on short-term metrics.

People keep saying pleasing customer, which customer are you referring to? The ones or gaf who complain about everything, the dudebros that buy anything with guns on the cover, the indie focused, the ones who buy all the AAA games. Which customer are you referring to? My point is there is no uniform customer, the games market is broken up into small subgroups and the fact that Assassin's Creed 8: Same stuff as last 7, for example keeps selling like hot cakes shows that some customers are happy it.

You are correct that investor culture is getting out of hand, it is one of the reason why crashes happen, but that is the way of the world. There is no incentive for the people whose money is in the system to attempt to change it. Government could change that but the system is ran by people who have no incentive to change it either.

Smaller companies are were the creative risk happens and that is part of the cycle, eventually they will either get big and become like the current publisher or be bought out and become part of the system, rinse and repeat.

Large publishers have had a very direct hand in stoking that particular flame for the last fifteen years

Maybe, but the consumers are the ones who ultimately choose to buy those games. So you are right publisher have a hand in it, but only because consumers are the ones who buy those products.

If I was a CEO, I would be a fool if I did not give the people their shiny AAA games. Publishers only have one responsibility which is always aim for moar profits whether is pleasing the consumer or not. Nobody forces gamers to buy the AAA, it is up to them whether to buy it or not.

 

[zeorhymer]

Yeah, I don't get why Jim says he backs these projects to spite Microsoft and Konami.

If anything these Kickstarters completely validate Microsoft and Konami's position.

If there were only 30-50K people passionately interested in Banjo and Metroidvania, then yeah it probably would have been a bad idea to spend millions trying to revive those franchises.

I agree with you. As a business, I wouldn't want to sink a lot of money with only a few thousands of people buying it. Big publishers now a days are no longer making just A games. It's either AAA or nothing and nothing in-between.

A poster pointed out that AAA games may use up a ton of money, but the returns are just as big. It would be nice if publishers set aside a smaller budget for games and know that they will get a nominal return of 1 mil copies sold and consider that a worthwhile investment.

 

[MisterShine]

The real takeaway from this episode is why am I only just now hearing about The Miskatonic?

This game looks fascinating.

 

[tebunker]

People keep saying pleasing customer, which customer are you referring to? The ones or gaf who complain about everything, the dudebros that buy anything with guns on the cover, the indie focused, the ones who buy all the AAA games. Which customer are you referring to? My point is there is no uniform customer, the games market is broken up into small subgroups and the fact that Assassin's Creed 8: Same stuff as last 7, for example keeps selling like hot cakes shows that some customers are happy it.

Oh I understand. I think though that both the mainstream and niche customer can be served by larger publishers. Assassins Creed 35 shouldn't exist at the expense of other games.

I think Nintendo kinda gets this or operates under this method, but they don't truly have the appeal or resources needed to be able satisfy everyone. I guess you could say they do it across all of their platforms but I am not sure.

Lastly we as a gamin public in general support this too because we, in general, buy all of these series too. I just think the idea that we can't have A and AA games if we want AAA games is bad for everyone.

 

[Jacksinthe]

I agree with you Jim. Good video as usual.

Someone should tag him as FUCK KONAMI or something.

No. That would be doing all of his messaging a disservice to just focus on what's trending now. He's much deeper than that simple phrase and would probably insist "Member" is fine.

Although "Thank God for Me" is pretty spot on

 

[Garlador]

I agree with you. As a business, I wouldn't want to sink a lot of money with only a few thousands of people buying it. Big publishers now a days are no longer making just A games. It's either AAA or nothing and nothing in-between.

A poster pointed out that AAA games may use up a ton of money, but the returns are just as big. It would be nice if publishers set aside a smaller budget for games and know that they will get a nominal return of 1 mil copies sold and consider that a worthwhile investment.

The returns are NOT always just as big. In fact, that's the reason so many companies are going belly-up. They're trying to only hit homeruns every single time and will never settle for a base hit, thus so many of them are just striking out.

I mean, do you really think Banjo-Kazooie would have made less money than Kinect Sports Adventures? Do you really think Mega Man would have made less money than Lost Planet 3? Do you really think a true Symphony of the Night successor would've made less money than friggin' NeverDead or Blades of Time?

All those companies sunk millions of dollars into big triple-A games nobody was excited for or asked for and those games flopped... while the games people did ask for were ignored or cancelled in favor of big-budget disasters.

 

[ScepticMatt]

What this video fails to mention is that the "all in" and/or f2p strategies are giving publishers record revenues and profits.

 

[Garlador]

What this video fails to mention is that the "all in" and/or f2p strategies are giving publishers record revenues and profits.

... Not all publishers. In a crowded market, plenty of folks, even big ones, aren't seeing those "record revenues and profits".

I mean, just last year Capcom was telling investors their mobile division wasn't performing to their expectations and wasn't seeing the returns they wanted.

And they're not alone in expecting easy mobile money and it magically not just happening.

 

[CTLance]

Way I see it, the big guys are going after the AAAA market because there are only a tiny handful of other AAAA pubs there to bug them, as opposed to the B-AAA level where there's a comparatively fierce competition going on. Or was, back then when they started that arms race. Now nobody can touch them because there's a huge deadzone between the C tier and them. They are their own worst enemy now, as shown by THQ, and competition is at an alltime low.

It could even have been a calculated effort to kill off the middle stratum, depending on just how much you like that tinfoil hat. Who knows. Thankfully the advent of digital distribution allowed the lower-level edge of that to survive and actually make a comeback.

And yeah, Life's good. Thanks, Jim.

Also: This video somehow made me realize that I'm starting to become a videogame hipster.

I am immediately dismissive of "mainstream" games, I've been buying home-grown DRM-free games at my local game distribution centre (gog/humble) and am actively seeking out and paying some farmers devs to make custom-tailored games for me via kickstarter.

I've become an incredibly picky gamer, and have caught myself going on about how I liked games before they went mainstream (with 3D, CD music and frequent patches etc) before. It gets really bad when I'm with my Couch CoOp friend. You've probably never even heard of (insert-old-game-here), and so on and so forth.

*CTLance has leveled up
*Str -2 Dex -1 Int -3 Wis +0.1 Wght +5
*You may now choose a new subclass​

Spoiler

OH GOD I ONLY JUST GOT THE "UKULELE" THING FUCK ME IM DENSE

 

[Jim Sterling]

What this video fails to mention is that the "all in" and/or f2p strategies are giving publishers record revenues and profits.

A tiny percentage of them.

 

[border]

Though at a minimum I do imagine not going for a BK3 was likely dumb. Those games sold pretty well as I recall and in a sense isn't really that far off from open world games in design. But I guess they looked at the Blinx games as a reference point.

They probably looked at the sales of Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (poor), as well as the sales of every platformer that wasn't Mario or Sonic (poor). Just because a game has some vague open-world elements doesn't mean it's going to sell all that well. BK1 and BK2 sold well by the standards of their era (1-2 million units), but not really well by today's standards.

I am more than happy that fans of BK have a new game to be excited about, but it seems clear that BK3 wasn't commercially viable, at least as a AAA game. On top of that it's a poor fit for the Xbox demographic.

 

[Whiteblade999]

Pretty good one.

 

[BBboy20]

poor fit for the Xbox demographic.

That's...sad.

 

[Game Guru]

That's...sad.

It is sad, but it has been shown that the typical Xbox gamer is exactly the type of gamer who only cares about yearly AAA releases. Games that go against that generally do vastly better with Nintendo or PlayStation gamers than Xbox gamers.

 

[Azure Dream]

Yeah, I don't get why Jim says he backs these projects to spite Microsoft and Konami.

If anything these Kickstarters completely validate Microsoft and Konami's position.

If there were only 30-50K people passionately interested in Banjo and Metroidvania, then yeah it probably would have been a bad idea to spend millions trying to revive those franchises.

30-50K people care enough to overpay, in some cases by massive amounts, to help fund a game's development; a game that doesn't actually exist yet, and won't for some time. They set goals, and in just a few days time were promised multiples of those goals. They're having to scramble to come up with reasons (besides "the game will be better in general") why people should give them more money, because they've already been promised so much, so fast.

Also, both of these Kickstarters still have a ways to go.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

We always get these comparisons. Sure, game development was cheap once upon a time, it's true. But the idea that game development is now prohibitively expensive is not true. It can be, but it doesn't have to be. There are plenty of games in development that don't have those kinds of astronomical budgets. In fact, the majority of them don't.

Why compare Super Mario World to Halo 3? Why not compare it to New Super Mario Bros?

And why look at the most expensive games as examples? There's another extreme on that scale. Axiom Verge, which recently released to critical acclaim, was developed by one person. I don't know how much it cost, but I doubt it was millions of dollars.

Because Super Mario World was a 'triple-A' game of its generation and God of War III/Uncharted 2/Halo 3 are 'triple-A' games of their generation. I don't have any numbers for Super Mario Bros. so I can't talk about the number of staff on development or even begin to guess at the budget. I wasn't comparing them; just throwing out some figures that I was aware of.

 

[ArtHands]

There's something extremely sastifying in telling the same pubs that have helped to make AAA game development the sad state it is today to fuck off because they were wrong about what people wanted the whole time.

It is the core gamers who keep comparing and talking about graphics and framerates all the time.

People are hyped about the next uncharted over any other indie game. People are asking for HD remaster of old games over mid tier games

 

[mechphree]

Publishers (like record executives in the music industry) don't have crystal balls to predict the future. They work with formulas. They stick to a formula because in the past it's been successful and refuse to deviate from it. Now back to my music comparison. No record label is going to sign a artist with a multi million dollar contract unless they fit a particular formula. Publishers don't wanna make small games or even fake the risk at making something that's niche.

 

[Shaanyboi]

Publishers (like record executives in the music industry) don't have crystal balls to predict the future. They work with formulas. They stick to a formula because in the past it's been successful and refuse to deviate from it. Now back to my music comparison. No record label is going to sign a artist with a multi million dollar contract unless they fit a particular formula. Publishers don't wanna make small games or even fake the risk at making something that's niche.

? 2D Castlevania is one of the most commonly iterated genres. What's unproven about that? How is that not a formula? Yooka-Laylee looks to fit right in with the formula of Banjo & Kazooie. People are asking for "more of that old shit" instead of the usual shit publishers seem to want to regurgitate now.

 

[Steroyd]

It is the core gamers who keep comparing and talking about graphics and framerates all the time.

People are hyped about the next uncharted over any other indie game. People are asking for HD remaster of old games over mid tier games

What generation hasn't talked about graphics? It even spilled into how game companies ran their advertisements back in the olde days for pete's sake.

And don't get me started on remasters, part of that problem is no legacy support of the consoles (that console manufacturers say we don't use Backwards compatibility much *cough*) the second is that the demand for remakes stem from there being no games that scratch the itch of Dino Crisis, Metroid, Castlevania, Tenchu etc. a bunch of people just sitting there dormant waiting to throw their money at sequels not being made. And I'd be surprised if something like Dying Light got outsold by Resident Evil re-re-remakemaster HD DD Turbo Edition.

 

[mysteriousmage09]

Good vid as usual. Really nice to see the recent Kickstarters get funded instantly and then quickly push through their stretch goals as well. As said, when the creators are not shackled by the big publishers telling them what to do and that the games they want to make are not wanted by gamers today, the better. Even from the Kickstarter videos introducing Yooka-Laylee and Bloodstained, etc., you can see and feel that they are truly happy to be free from the big publishers.

Even with the shady crap that happens from time to time, Kickstarter is one of the best, if not THE best thing to happen to gaming as a whole in a very long time. The list of great games to come from it is already a statement and the the projects coming from renowned devs is nothing short of a revolution for the industry.

Edit: Almost forgot!

Fuck Konami.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

It is the core gamers who keep comparing and talking about graphics and framerates all the time.

Last gen I think it was the media who pushed this kind of shit to the fore and made it commonplace.

 

[Dryk]

Large publishers have had a very direct hand in stoking that particular flame for the last fifteen years

Of course they did. In the short-term it makes sense to cultivate a consumer base that demands things only you can afford to make. Now in the long-term those consumers will take those demands and run with them faster than you can keep up, but we're not quite there yet.