It's been a hit-driven business since PC games started selling in the millions of units, but back then until a few years ago most publishers were releasing a lot of clones in the hopes of capturing some of that market share. Now they're mindset is to save money and not release so many games and spend that extra money on polish and production - thus truly transforming the industry into pure hit-driven.
- John -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 10:20 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Re: [SWCollect] Sam & Max II Well, I don't have the inside track on gaming marketing, and EA profits and such, but... Hugh said, "This is turning the games industry into a hit-driven market (like the movie industry)." Turning?! I seem to think that it's been this way in the games industry for a LONG time. Back when Wing Commander came out, remember all of the clones that came out right after?--DOZENS of 'em! I always thought that it was just looked at as a 'cash cow' genre by the industry, and they beat it to death, until noone wanted to play space adventure games anymore. What about Wolfenstein and Doom--SURELY John has some insight into this--how many of those REALLY LOUSY FPS games did we buy, just waiting for Doom 2 to come out? The industry then chewed up and spit out the FPS genre, until it got stale--every now and then someone would get innovative, and revitalize the genre (Duke Nukem, Half-Life, Deus Ex), but then the slump sets in, and people don't want YET ANOTHER FPS! MMORPGs seem to be following the same trend. I think that 10 years from now there will still be hardcore pockets, but *MOST* people will consider online RPS's dead, and move on to the next innovative concept. But that means that there is STILL room for the independent publisher to come up with the 'next big thing', and either start a new market, or get rich when they're bought by EA or MS! Get your game design docs back out of the drawer, guys! There's still hope for being millionaires yet! Joe > > From: Jim Leonard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: 2004/03/22 Mon PM 12:39:14 EST > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Sam & Max II > > Hugh Falk wrote: > > > A problem with the games industry right now is that the top 25 games each > > year make a majority of the money. #1 - #5 often selling millions of units. > > The rest of the top 25 selling several hundred thousand. Many of the rest > > often lose money. This is turning the games industry into a hit-driven > > market (like the movie industry). The trend is to see less games being made > > and hoping for more profit on each. EA is making fewer games but more > > revenue: 2000 = 68 SKUS with $1.3B in revenue, 2002 = 58 SKUs with $2.5B > > Is it okay with you if I repost this information on another forum? I > can quote you or keep it anonymous, but I'd love to post this info > somewhere else (where there is a raging discussion going on over Sam and > Max). > -- > Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > World's largest electronic gaming project: http://www.MobyGames.com/ > A delicious slice of the demoscene: http://www.MindCandyDVD.com/ > Various oldskool PC rants and ramblings: http://www.oldskool.org/ > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to > the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' > Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
