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What do we mean when we say “big-budget” videogame? This. Put simply, if EA’s latest revival of its long-running military shooter franchise doesn’t move at least three million copies from shelves, Medal of Honor’s getting shelved again.
“I’m not going to be able to do another one,” executive producer Greg Goodrich told the New York Times in reference to the three million sales figure.
For obvious reasons, then, game publishers have begun to seek out supplementary revenue streams in order to make up for the fact that major titles cost so many arms and legs to develop that the end result is an entire nation of stump people. DLC’s an especially popular example, although subscription fees, in-game ads, and tons of tiny microtransactions also help to level the playing field.
Medal of Honor’s success notwithstanding, however, the question arises: Is this business model sustainable? Games aren’t getting any cheaper to create, and as technology improves, even deeper pockets will be needed to fund top-of-the-line videogames. In the words of one of the brightest minds of our time: “Ruh-roh, Raggy!”
Comments are closed on this article
habuza
September 12, 2010 at 7:21pm
EA thinks they know what gamers want. If it wasn't for the flabby , big tittied , snot nosed, spoiled kids with bad grades and acne, they would stop spewing shitty games out like MoH and CoD. And I refuse to ever pay 60$ for a game. FUCK THAT. Money grubbing fuckers can go to hell.
Elric
September 13, 2010 at 2:32pm
I'm an adult with a decent career and I LOVE FPSs, WTF are you smoking to try to generalize so stupidly/broadly? FPSs and PCs have a long and decidedly awesome tradition.
Are you p*ssed that the new 'civilization' or 'yet another RTS' or "me too MMO' game is taking so long that you're hating on everything else or something?
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September 12, 2010 at 6:35pm
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Keith E. Whisman
September 12, 2010 at 4:36pm
"In the words of one of the brightest minds of our time: “Ruh-roh, Raggy!”
So your saying that a Saturday morning cartoon hero, Scooby Dooby Doo, is one of the brightest minds of our time?
Toss me a Scooby Snack while your at it.
machew100
September 12, 2010 at 2:11pm
Maybe PC gamers would consider Medal of Honor if it wasn't from:
A) an already greedy, money-grubbing company
B) the price wasn't $60, which doesn't make a lick of sense since the $10 from console games goes directly to the console developers, since the console developers LOSE money when they sell a console, banking on the extra $10 to recover lost revenue
C) it wasn't a modern warfare clone, trying to cash on "what's making money now" to the point of guitar hero over-saturation
I especially hate the extra $10. They just think they can get away with it because console users are used to paying it, when all they're doing is raking in 15-20% more profit for no reason just because they slip in the extra $10 under everyone's noses. We PC users aren't stupid, we're savvy as hell and they don't seem to get that.
QUINTIX256
September 12, 2010 at 11:21am
In a world where the likes of Napoleon Dynamite grosses 46 million, it is clear that budgets aren't the issue. It is the size of the audience. Take Delusional Restrictions Mismagement for example. DVDs have virtually no protection, and redbook CDs have absolutely no protection. Piracy has deeply affected both, but crap records continue to go gold, and movies that don't quite make it in the box office eventually make up for it in DVD, not bluray, sales. If the gaming audience where comparable to the movie audience, games like Beyond Good and Evil would make up for developement costs tenfold on the PC alone.
Yahtzee over at the escapist rightly categorized gaming as normal as watching TV or doing computer work, but gaming needs to be more normal.
jihnn
September 12, 2010 at 9:51am
where is the button to report this garbage? this is one of the worst sites for it. personally i seldom read the posts anymore because it is usually just advertising. come on mpc fix this!!!!!
QUINTIX256
September 12, 2010 at 6:19pm
Unfortunately as a result your reply has been attached to my post.
Eoraptor
September 11, 2010 at 4:23pm
And this is why the newest games I play are 5 years old. The gaming houses need to stop producing online grind-fests and/oror graphical nosebleeds, and get back to telling stories. Why do they think people still buy Final Fantasy games almost twenty years later? Why was Portal so wildly successful? Simple game mechanics and compelling story elements. Even a schlub on the street recognizes a companion cube.
$.02
bingojubes
September 11, 2010 at 2:39pm
I would probably be buying this game anyways, but i would still rage if the gameplay turned out to be less than 10 hours. I mean, all that work for a less than a day of shoot-em-up? it's like they are paying large sums of money to clean up a spill, but not going ahead and cleaning the rest of the floor around it, while they have the hired help. Blizzard takes in profits because their games are well thought out, and have much replay value. "when it's done, it's done", and if it aint done, don't promote it as such, or release the same game, different guns every year and a half.
I guess multiplayer would always be where it's at, as always, and single-player will be the training, which means that single-player will be pretty short and meh.
aviaggio
September 11, 2010 at 3:39pm
THIS. If the budget for games is too high maybe it's till to start figuring out ways to lower it. Big budget != high quality, as anyone who plays indie games can tell you.
Maybe they should start with the 8-figure executive salaries some of these bozos are taking in. Y'know, the ones who keep bitching about how piracy is killing their business?
PCGAMINGLOL
September 11, 2010 at 1:32pm
The beta for this game is absolutely terrible. Good luck to them. Might be good enough for consoles though.
m1k3_flrs
September 11, 2010 at 3:14pm
Personally I didn't like the beta for console, but good luck on selling the 3 million copies.
armada439
September 11, 2010 at 1:28pm
Terrible game does not need a terrible sequel.
How about this business model:
Good game + Good advertising = Lots of sales
Good sequel + hype from first game = Successful francise
Danthrax66
September 11, 2010 at 3:49pm
This game has great multiplayer, in fact it is one of the better fps games this year COD has nothing on this.
chronium
September 11, 2010 at 12:57pm
It still is sustainable bussiness model and really 3 million is not that big of a number since it's combine with all 3 platforms. If it was a exclusive title then this article would be more of a news worthy piece.
Peanut Fox
September 11, 2010 at 1:48pm
On the heels of Halo Reach 1mil on the 360 is a tough number to imagine. PS3 and PC would have to move a lot of units, and I personally don't see that happening.
