Cerny: Blockbuster game economics no longer make sense

“We’ve had ten years where every year that went by the industry got bigger and more successful. But the natural growth has now gone. In fact, now that we’re in decline if you want to add a person to your team to make the local industry economics add up, someone else has to layoff something like a person and a half. And there aren’t many of these high budget games. Last year there were only about 50 or 60 games that sold over a million units - that’s multiplatform and international. And only half only sold two million. Of course if you spend over $20 million you want to sell a million units. And if you spend over $50 million you want something well north of two million unit sales. Frankly, the economics of the $50 million game are looking a little shakey. By contrast with a $20 million game I’m pretty sure I can make that money back - multiplatform, international distribution. But that raises the question, can we make the $20 million game? Historically, we never had much money to spend. Can we do it? Maybe not. The problem is we’ve learned how to spend the money. If I go back to 1994 and somebody says ‘here’s $20 million to spend’ I would have absolutely no idea what to do with that money. We had no specialisation what-so-ever in 1994. In 2011 we have the creative director, the game director, the director of actors, stunt co-ordinator, the guy who makes the plywood props, the audio scripter, the lighting designer, and the most recent of creations - the combat designer. If you say to your team we only have two combat designers, what you’re going to hear is ‘that game’s going to suck’”. - Mark Cerny, dev of Marble Madness

I hope a few people decide to listen to Mr. Cerny’s words. I really think he’s onto something. To check out his full comments, check out this link.