The economic situation has made the creative situation for games pretty volatile right now. On one hand, the large companies become very risk-averse, reducing investment in new IP, culling big budgets and sticking to sequels and licenses more closely. On the other hand, recessions tend to create opportunities for new studios to emerge (just check out what happened in Vancouver, for example).
The two biggest offenders as far as placing more budget behind new IP than those IP were capable of generating: Electronic Arts and THQ. While the two publishers have somewhat different situations -- THQ can be considered a great deal more dire, for one thing, while Electronic Arts is really only doing badly by its own metrics -- both of them have said they're going to be much more careful about their title lineup and about their costs.
But even though the recession can be good for the industry as far as letting publishers make more strategic acquisitions and helping build an environment where talent can strike out on its own a bit more, it's a really dangerous time to be innovative. I recently did a story about the idea that in the current climate, the road to profitability really may be more of the same, generally.
But hey! It's not all bleak. THQ's Rainbow Studios was able to get the publisher to greenlight an action adventure game all about gross bugs and stuff fighting each other -- and this is even though Rainbow has basically only made motorsport titles forever. Seeing that they could earn themselves the opportunity to break out of the racing licenses and make a game that aims to take "a National Geographic special and meld it with an action horror experience" is pretty heartening, all things considered.
I interviewed lead developer Jordan Itkowitz on Deadly Creatures, which I thought looked pretty cool when I saw it over the summer. The fun part is he says the idea to pitch the game came to him in a dream. Check out the interview, huh?
13 comments:
I've only heard of Deadly Creatures in passing, but it sounds like something that I'll actually break out my Wii for, given the end result even remotely matches the pitch.
Heh, I'd be more interested in hearing about Itkowitz's dream though...
~sLs~
I'm really excited for Deadly Creatures. I think it's fantastic to see so many great games coming out in the next few months for the Wii (MadWorld, the Conduit, Deadly Creatures, House of the Dead, etc), and hopefully this recession doesn't deter publishers from creating more hardcore games for the Wii.
I wonder how the economic situation will treat the Onechanbara games, which are launching at $40/$30 instead of the usual $60/$50 price points of the 360 and Wii. They are being marketed more to the hardcore, but have shovelware prices, and seem like they'd offer roughly the same quality of gameplay as, say, Afro Samurai.
My concern is that they haven't marketed Oneechanbara enough, and people's first intro to it will be to see it on the shelf for shovelware price and assume it is shovelware.
We'll see if I'm being too cynical!
It's a pretty good time for the Wii right now. My mind is split between Tenchu IV, HotD: Overkill, and Deadly Creatures right now. All three were on my radar for a while and all three have earned some positive reviews. I really want to support these efforts at the more 'hardcore' crowd (especially after I backed Mirror's Edge so much), but I really don't have the cash for it.
Decisions, decisions.
Michael: In the spirit of this article, since Deadly Creatures is the only new IP on the list, I suggest it!
That Vancouver map reminds me: a few years ago, I created an interactive map of the Boston game industry and our family tree.
http://orbusgameworks.com/apps/boston/ (requires Java, might take a minute to load)
So hey, Deadly Creatures. I'm attending a Game Design course at ASU, and our teacher actually was able to bring those guys on down, and they talked about their game. They're good people, and I've been thinking about picking it up.
But really, I question how smart it is to do new 'IP' with the retail model as it were. It seems that digital distribution would be more successful, simply for the fact that you can convince the publisher to put up less money upfront.
Play magazine had an interesting take on this developer's risk. It's their chance to establish a return market in what may continue to be a volatile market. That is, if we all buy this game, the developers can then put their investment into making a series. In theory, we'd then get a new game genre plus continually added features.
But I'm definitely town between this game and Bikini Zombie Slayers :-)
There's definitely a fine line developers and publishers need to straddle right now. Go for broke - and possibly become broke - or churn sequels out one after the other. For us, as gamers, I think the economy might make us play things we would have never considered before. There are some really interesting free games available for download, such as Gravity Bone. While that game won't last long, I still think it's worth checking out. Also, the Penumbra series (3 games) is available for $35.00 total. It's a survival horror series, with an emphasis on exploration instead of beating the crap out of, and/or shooting everything.
I just thought I'd throw some suggestions out there for anyone on a budget who might want to try something different.
Interesting interview.
Have you had any time with the game since your preview over the summer? IGN has a fairly positive review, but I think for some of the Wii games that are new, more core-focused, IPs, they give a break to.
I'm certainly interested in supporting the developers though. Unfortunately, one-man capitalism only results in you owning 20 GameCube games and a lot of series with potential but no follow-up.
Yes, I'm looking at you, Metal Arms: Glitch in the System.
I've always been pissed at the hardcore crowd for bitching about lack of innovation right up until it comes time to vote with their wallets. I mean, most games don't get advertising. It's the hardcore crowd that follows the industry news that is even in a position to be aware of the creative risk takers and they snuff them... even when the economy is fine and dandy.
I don't know what to expect out of this economic downturn. My best hope is that the relatively cheap DL services give more creative developers a springboard in the face of disc media sales slumps. That might be too much to wish for, but I'd love to see these markets really become the scouting ground they were promised to be and I wouldn't mind seeing the old blood clean house a bit.
All I know is that I'm torn between a deep burning desire to own MadWorld and a very shallow wallet.
I hope Brutal Legend will finally be released. Medieval violence and heavy metal are right up my alley.
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