– There is an escalating cost curve that's been happening in videogames since the '80s. Is there ever concern or discussion over there? Is Naughty Dog worried about whether these games are sustainable?
– [Pause.] I guess we haven't had that discussion, like some kind of existential crisis for the studio. We are aware that the budgets are ballooning and at the same time, for us, they've been more and more successful. So, it's good that those curves are lining up with each other. I think we're gonna hit some kind of diminishing -- or that curve for the cost is going to flatten I think relatively soon. Because as far as the things that cost a lot are -- well, the thing that costs the most for us are salaries for the developers in-house. So, the more developers you have, the more expensive the games are gonna be. MOCAP and the technology behind MOCAP of R&D and renting a sound stage and bringing actors onboard, I feel like for the most part that's going to flatten. I don't see it getting more expensive than what it is now. If anything, it might start getting cheaper sometime in the near future.
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I feel like we've seen the worst of it, as far as, "Yeah, these games have gotten more expensive and the studios that can make this kind of game have shut down or gone more lower budget versions of these games." You're not seeing the middle-budget version anymore. But I think we've seen the worst of it. If anything, the indie games are gonna get more and more sophisticated as tools get better and cheaper.
As a quick example of that, like, Crash Bandicoot took a whole team for Naughty Dog to make over a year-plus of production. Crash Bandicoot in Uncharted 4 was one scripter.
So, it's like, games are getting harder to make and yet they're getting easier to make if you look at the games we used to make. So, Uncharted 4 right now, yeah, it's a big-budget expensive game that very few teams can make that kind of game, but in a few years I think there's gonna be a bunch of teams that can make the kind of games that we make now.