Bloomberg columnist Jason Schreier has published an analytical article on why game development is becoming more expensive year after year. In short, it’s all about poor studio management and a lack of specific goals.
Not long ago, I was having coffee with a video game developer who told me work was slow and they spent half the day watching Netflix. I was stunned for a moment – ​​this man worked for a major company worth billions of dollars – until I remembered how many times I had heard similar stories.
And there are many such examples, says Jason Schreier. Often developers are left with almost no money and nothing to do, because the tools aren’t ready yet or the creative director is inundating them with irrelevant ideas. The journalist argued with the authors of a recent article about the fact that the desire for realistic graphics has led to mass layoffs. The key to the problem does not lie in this, the observer knows that for sure. He identified three factors:
- Increased development time. For comparison: between Uncharted and Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2 has only passed two years since its release The Last of Us Part 2 took place four years after the release of the studio’s penultimate game Uncharted 4: The end of a thief.
- Costs for employee salaries. The more specialists, the more you have to pay, and the salary level itself greatly depends on the location of the office. For example, in Los Angeles, each employee can receive up to $20,000 monthly. This in turn affects the cost of the final product.
- Managerial incompetence. According to Jason Schreier, companies chase trends, make poor choices and lack a clear creative vision. The result is outrageous situations where experienced creators of single-player games are put to work developing a live-service multiplayer shooter – this was the case with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Redfall.
All this leads to budgets being inflated to astronomical amounts. A recent investigation into Activision revealed that the development Call of Duty: Modern Warfare cost $600 million, and Black Ops Cold War at 700 million.
If gaming companies are surprised that their budgets have soared into nine figures, perhaps it’s time for some self-reflection and smarter management.
The columnist previously shared his prediction for 2025. In his opinion Grand Theft Auto 6 is delayed until 2026 and the announcement Half-Life 3 is definitely happening.
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Source: VG Times
Christina Moncayo is a contributing writer for “Social Bites”. Her focus is on the gaming industry and she provides in-depth coverage of the latest news and trends in the world of gaming.