What's Killing the Video-Game Business?

[ReallyDedPoet]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Is it just me or is DRM some sort of hellish beast that keeps you up at night? You have it here and over at the Jutland forums. I have not had any protection device screw up any of my computers. Not even SF. So, what gives? Has a DRM or SF ruined your computer?

To be honest I am wondering the same thing about this AVG
I have not had any problems with it, ever.

[Captain Vlad]

I have had a DRM problem, with Silent Hunter III. The StarForce program did...something...to my CD/DVD drive making it impossible for me to use it for watching videos and rendering installations from CDs and creating audio CDs a very slow process. Uninstalling StarForce restored full capability...but I had to contact the company to get an uninstall program, which should not have been necessary.

I've also had issues with Mass Effect and other 'be online to play' single-player games. I live in an area with no DSL or cable internet service. Wild Blue was a godsend to me in many ways as dial-up in my area run at 14.4 K on a good day due to some very olllld phone lines in my neighborhood, but as with any satellite-reliant equipment, I can have sunspot issues or be unable to connect when the weather is windy or storming.

Which means that I couldn't play some newer games when it was raining. That's...unacceptable to me.

[GlobalExplorer]

I think the problem is that PR and advertising cost have gone out of control. Cost explosion, reminds a lot of our football leagues here in Europe. If contracting a good player costs between 10 and 100 million euro, you're of course screwed if your team is not playing stellar.

As for the gaming giants, they apparently spend more money on advertising than on making games now, maybe that is not so healthy afterall.

Concerning DRM: it might get on your nerves, but em2nought is right. You get customers by offering the best possible product, not by making their lives miserable.

[NeonSamurai]

One comment I could point at copy protection is the associated costs, for often very little reward. Most games today hit the internet often the same day the game was released, sometimes a few days early, sometimes a few days late. About the only games that escape that fate are ones with brand new copy protection schemes (and even then it usualy doesn't take em very long), or niche games which the main piracy scene doesn't give a damn about.


I have to admit, I don't much like the phone home & limited installs DRM as all its done so far is proved to be a pain in the butt for honest users, while software pirates don't have any of those issues. The other issue I have is long term ability to play when the publisher dumps support. Games I buy I tend to keep and play 5, 10, 15 even 20 years down the road, and I have serious doubts about companies like EA and others releasing patches for DRM protected games to remove the DRM.

[Pioneer]

As best I know, there are only two game developers here on the forum. (My apologies if that is not true.) The two I know of have developed, marketed, made some $$$, and earned their living from making games. At the back end of their development, I came on board and have my hand in two titles. Unfortunately, one may never see the light of day. That's because of what I call "follow through".

The ability to "follow through" is offset by instant gratification of "money". Developers expect their finance people to "follow through" with the cash, developers aren't interested in "the cash has dried up", their interested in "show me the money". They put in a days work, expect a days pay. Sometimes the money starts to dry up before the project is finished. The developer's don't know that, only the finance people do, but quite often, it's the developers left holding the debts.

Evidence- Enigma: Sink the Hood. "Yo, finance man, where's the $$$?"

Now I understand when the money dries up, company's can close and go their own way, tell that to the developer when his house gets foreclosed because some finance guy folded. Most times though, the developer will continue to work on the project because he (the developer) has follow through, to the fans.

And sometimes those same fans are also lacking on follow through. "Hey where's the project?" "When is it going to be finished?" "Why is it taking so long?" Which eventually degrades to slurs, a little plagiarism, and the almighty "If it was me, I'd do it this way."

Yeah that's great, I'll wait to see your follow through but in the meantime, shut the ***** up. It will be done when it's done.

Your leisure time game is our livelihood, how we earn our living. The developers get it from both ends with lack of follow through, the wants from the public unable to be satisfied with instant gratification, against the $$ from above. Which leaves a third group, the only group, that has follow through.

The Diehards - those that never loose the faith who offer and help in between their real life, the moders who work tirelessly to patch, modify, improve and add in between their real life, and the Neal's of the world supporting the cause on their own $$, in between their real life.

Which comes back to "follow through". I'd gladly trade off the $81M expenditure to produce APB for one Neal, knowing how much "follow through" I'd get.

What's killing the video game business - and it is a business. It's the "follow through". Demand all and offer nothing.

(Q: How much info/help/mods/patchs have you taken from the subsim forums against how often have you donated?)

Neal knows where his group is, he can count it by $$ or by "follow through" not number of posts. A finished product is a many splendid thing, if you have follow through with $$, and the public gets their input. Take one away, and you may as well give up.

9 out of 10 games never make it to the finish, lack of "follow through" from the developers. Do I blame them? Hell no, why should I expect them to be the only ones with "follow through".

Sidebar: I did invite a developer/good friend of mine to comment on this thread, and it wasn't until I started penning my answer that I realize why. Unless you've had to earn your living by putting it together, there's no real reason for anyone to "follow through".

[Zachstar]

Cost

All the side stuff is just that. Side

In the 90s costs were skyrocketing but you did have the engines you could use to get some models and sounds and effects in and actually have a decent game.

These days tho you have simply too much. (Too much demand for detail, Too much demand for future upgrades) etc...

The result is the side stuff. Look at Spore.. GREAT idea but when money was looking a little "off" They seemed to screw it up nine ways to sunday.

This process simply can't keep going. Nvidia is about to double the performance on a new series of cards and GDDR5 is almost standard in the upper end. That means people will want more yet again.

What needs to happen in my view is that either there needs to be serious cooperation between the big companies or we need to accept serious mergers.

If they can cooperate they can standardize engines to reduce that much cost. Then they can start developing automated tools to produce details (Feed computer bunch of photos or artwork of object you want modeled and it does so without a person tweaking it for hours) It wont return costs to 90s levels but such would allow them to have more projects.

[Otto_Weddigen]

I wouldn't want to buy games at this time,save all the money you can,stock up on food and any neccessities you need