The trend is game sales are down year over year. Studios are closing because massive multi million dollar productions are simply unsustainable. You see games being more expensive, have ads and sponsors on it, gameplay is cut down and sold as expensive downloadable content, and every game is using gimmicks like plastic toys to be able to sell a game copy for 99 or 150 bucks. And every year publishers have to one up in themselves like Charlie sheen going from a week long to a month long party.
Another concrete example: Kingdom of Amalur's developer Studio 38. The game has an epic franchise, great reviews, strong first month sales. The studio closed down because it would need to sell way too many copies just to break even. Even "top" consoles are selling at unprofitable levels and trying to make it even with tons of DLC.
Development for consoles is very inaccesible. Even for XBox which uses DirectX and can be downloaded. How many of people you know that programmed a ps3 game in college? '
There has to be a reversal of this trends and a console like this seems like a step in the right direction. So far seems like only nintendo figured out it's all about delivering fun that people like, not who has the biggest processor.
People doubt the 99 dollar price. Maybe it comes out being 150 or slightly more expensive, we don't know. It can definitively be cheap. Supposedly a Nexus 7 costs 184 dollars to make, 57 are just for the screen. Take out the screen, sensors,camera, battery, cut down memory...It sounds reasonable it could hit the price point.
"Another concrete example: Kingdom of Amalur's developer Studio 38. The game has an epic franchise, great reviews, strong first month sales. The studio closed down because it would need to sell way too many copies just to break even."
Not exactly. They broke even if not made a little profit on Kingdom of Amalur, not bad for a new IP from a new company. What killed them was they were building a massive MMO on the side that, according to the Giant Bomb guys, never had enough money to finish and were just funded from quarter to quarter based on new investments. A huge gamble. When the mayor came out saying they were a poor investment, their money dried up overnight and nobody would touch them. So, with a partially built MMO and bills needing to be paid they shut their doors. (source - ramblings from the Giant Bomb podcast and E3 interviews with David Jaffe)
Well, I've to admit I don't know the details of their closing, just what I've read. That they sold about 1.2 million copies according to VGchartz and an article quoted they needed 3 million to break even. Still, 1.2 million copies in 5 months that's a lot of copies. I've some friends doing games, and it boggles me how often I hear another AAA game studio shut down.
"The studio closed down because it would need to sell way too many copies just to break even. Even "top" consoles are selling at unprofitable levels and trying to make it even with tons of DLC"
Not exactly. They broke even if not made a little profit on Kingdom of Amalur, not bad for a new IP from a new company. What killed them was they were building a massive MMO on the side that, accordiding to the Giant Bomb guys, never had enough money to finish and was funded from quarter to quarter based on new investments. A huge gamble. When the mayor came out saying they were a poor investment, their money dried up overnight and nobody would touch them. So, with a partially built MMO and bills needing to be paid they shut their doors. (source - ramblings from the Giant Bomb podcast and E3 interviews with David Jaffe)
take a look at this: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/170237/Annual_US_game_ret...
The trend is game sales are down year over year. Studios are closing because massive multi million dollar productions are simply unsustainable. You see games being more expensive, have ads and sponsors on it, gameplay is cut down and sold as expensive downloadable content, and every game is using gimmicks like plastic toys to be able to sell a game copy for 99 or 150 bucks. And every year publishers have to one up in themselves like Charlie sheen going from a week long to a month long party.
Another concrete example: Kingdom of Amalur's developer Studio 38. The game has an epic franchise, great reviews, strong first month sales. The studio closed down because it would need to sell way too many copies just to break even. Even "top" consoles are selling at unprofitable levels and trying to make it even with tons of DLC.
Development for consoles is very inaccesible. Even for XBox which uses DirectX and can be downloaded. How many of people you know that programmed a ps3 game in college? '
There has to be a reversal of this trends and a console like this seems like a step in the right direction. So far seems like only nintendo figured out it's all about delivering fun that people like, not who has the biggest processor.
People doubt the 99 dollar price. Maybe it comes out being 150 or slightly more expensive, we don't know. It can definitively be cheap. Supposedly a Nexus 7 costs 184 dollars to make, 57 are just for the screen. Take out the screen, sensors,camera, battery, cut down memory...It sounds reasonable it could hit the price point.