One of the hot topics at this year's Game Developer Conference was the soaring costs of game development. In a couple of months, the next-generation consoles will be introduced and along with their increased capabilities comes increased expectations on what the top games will deliver.

Many developers lament that because costs are growing so high, publishers are becoming much more risk adverse which in turn stifles creativity. But that isn't the full issue. Is it really an issue about being economically competitive or just plain competitive? That is, are developers lamenting the costs because they can't be profitable without huge budgets? Or are developers lamenting that they won't be able to work on the "Game of the Year" unless its budget is in the post $10 million range?

If the issue is about profitability -- making cool games that still pay the bills, perhaps what is needed are more distribution channels.

This article on JoeUser.com goes into more detail.

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There are 7 additional comments
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(4 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #1 Posted by MR_Candyman on 14 Mar 2005 - 06:46
one thing I REALLY want to see is a game based solely on gameplay. Think for instance Monkey Island. EVen for it's time it had horrid graphics, and nothing but basic midi music. It was a huge hit because it was such a great game otherwise.
Quote this comment #1.1 Posted by [idkfa] on 14 Mar 2005 - 07:27
exactly. Today's focus is too much on graphics and fancy effects. I understand that people who spend like 5000$ on their PCs want to get something for their money, but I'd like to have a game that keeps fascinating me storywise. If I want to see gorgeous graphic effects I still have 3DMark and other graphic demos
Quote this comment #1.2 Posted by CheeseCow on 14 Mar 2005 - 09:02
I found this (relatively) small game on the Internet, "Heavy Weapon Deluxe". It is small in size, good-looking and fun to play. Plus, it doesn't require at least two hours of your time; you can get a quick fix of action.

Review and download of the game
Quote this comment #1.3 Posted by mko on 14 Mar 2005 - 11:22
not to mention gameplay is much easier to create than all these graphics and nice looking engines cost wise. but then again companies which really nice graphics end up being funded by ATI or Nvidia so either case gameplay loses
Quote this comment #1.4 Posted by MR_Candyman on 14 Mar 2005 - 18:07
heavy weapon deluxe looks like a pretty fun little game, I'll need to try it out when I have a bit more time
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #2 Posted by CheeseCow on 14 Mar 2005 - 09:37
I just noticed that suddenly there were two articles posted, both from Stardock, this nearly same issue. While I think they are very much right, I don't think that they are the ones that should tell people they need other ways of distribution.

After all, they provide such a way with their Total Gaming network. To me it sounds like asking Microsoft which console is the best.
Quote this comment #2.1 Posted by Frogboy on 14 Mar 2005 - 16:51
Oh boo-hoo CheeseCow.

These are articles that link to issues being heavily discussed in the game community right now. Since I happen to be a game developer I keep up on these issues more closely and reposted them here. I suppose if I worked for Sony you would object to any Playstation coverage. These articles have nothing to do with Stardock, read the linked articles.

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