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120°

Desilets: "Eventually AAA games will make money again"

Assassin's Creed creator sees digital as saviour of big-budget games; says he's "fighting" for rights to 1666: Amsterdam

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gamesindustry.biz
sourav934702d ago

And they don't make money now? Damn! How much more money do you guys want?!?!

lfPetrini4702d ago (Edited 4702d ago )

If you consider their costs making an AAA most of the studios doesn't make much money.. some of them are even often at risk of going bankrupt.. we all know, people today only buy COD, AC, GTA and so.. less known and smaller developers don't have a chance to make something big, that's why we get sequences every year and few studios dare to make new stuff.

360ICE4702d ago

They turn a profit on DLC.
In fact, according to my calculations they approximately make an ungodly insane amount of money on DLC. Give or take.

cleft54702d ago

If they see a return on their investment in marketing than yes it all works out well, but clearly a lot of companies aren't seeing the returns that they would like too see. Case and point, the Tomb Raider game.

Godlovesgamers4702d ago

If they budget right and the game sells decently, they make a ton, if it sells amazingly, they make a crap ton. With Season passes, DLC and microtransactions it just a very very thick layer of icing on a huge crap ton cake.

Don't let these developers fool you, they wouldn't continue making games and sequels if there wasn't a big enough profit margin. Dev's love play possum and act like "OMG there's no money in making games", and how many of you actually sympathise with them and feel obligated to help them financially? Too many.

Bottom line: Great games sell.

CrossingEden4701d ago

"according to my calculations"
um, what? you do realize that your "calculations" don't mean anything right compared to the reality of talking to a developer -_-

cleft54702d ago

The problem is that they spend more money on Marketing than making the game in many cases.

360ICE4702d ago

I'll imagine the investments in marketing are supposed to be returned in form of more sals, so I wouldn't see that as a problem unless it consistently fails to do just that.

But they do spend some serious amounts on marketing.

360ICE4702d ago

Of course they're not gonna be successful every time. Assassin's Creed's marketing budgets are far higher than Tomb Raider and seem to get bigger every year.

It is a problem that they have to take so much risk though.

dillydadally4702d ago

This. I think there are some industries that don't benefit much from marketing. Smaller indie games might, but AAA spending as much money on marketing as on development is idiotic. When was the last time you heard about a AAA game and decided to buy it because you saw an ad? It just plain doesn't work that way!

Games become big because of news coverage and word of mouth (thus why sequels sell so much more - they've had tons of word of mouth to establish the game series). Personally, I don't think the money spent on ads for AAA games returns on their investment.

ABizzel14702d ago

Every game should make money if it's a quality title, and you keep your budget and expectations within reason.

Square Enix is the perfect example of what not to do. Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs, and Hitman are all good / quality games. However, you can't expect any of those franchises to sell 7 - 10 million copies considering the sales of their predecessors over the last 3 - 5 years. Also looking at games in similar geners even the highest rated games of those genre rarely sell over 5 million copies.

With that in mind keep your expectations in the range of 2 - 4 million for your games if you know the quality of the title is well above average, and keep your budget within reason. Don't pour $40 million into development, $40 million in CG video throughout the game, and $40 million into marketing and expect to make a huge profit. You have to keep things within reason or else risk not making your goal.

3-4-54701d ago

They don't make money because they don't know how to spend their money wisely.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 4701d ago
dragonopt14702d ago

Maybe if they made a new IP instead of milking the same series over and over

theWB274702d ago

Ubi makes quite a few new IP's...is there another big publisher that takes more chances?

aviator1894702d ago

@Hammad

ND isn't a publisher.
Sony, who publishes ND games, is a publisher.

theWB274702d ago

Thank you aviator189...
EA
UBI
Activision
Take Two(publish Rockstar games, 2k sports)
Few of the other big name publishers out there.

Mainsqueeze4702d ago (Edited 4702d ago )

I honestly though Ubi had the best showing of games at E3. Rayman, Watch Dogs, and the Division are all pretty unique looking games. And making 3 uncharted games and a zombie esque shooter this gen isn't necessarily "taking chances" however those games are all amazing. Plus as stated by other ND is not a publisher...

mandf4702d ago

Thewb37

You are right about ubisoft but Sony does take more chances. Both truly exceptional publishers.

dillydadally4702d ago

Ubisoft is proving that making new IP's is a good thing.

What people don't understand is it's about QUALITY new IPs and giving them the money and time to make it truly quality. So many new games never really have a chance to become a real IP because as an unproven game, they aren't given the resources or time to polish the game and make something special.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 4702d ago
50°

E3 2021 - Our Expectations | Roundtable

With E3 approaching like the god of death, the writers for VGUTV talk about their expectations for this year's show.

RaidenBlack1806d ago

That's a dream Wishlist, except the Saints Row V part.
My dream wishlist would be:
New next-gen exclusive Splinter Cell Sequel/Reboot or SC1 Remake
Konami comeback: 3rd party collab - Silent Hill, MGS and maybe a soulslike Castlevania
New F.E.A.R. from Monolith 4. New KOTOR project announcement
New next-gen exclusive Deus Ex reveal from Eidos Montreal
New next-gen exclusive Brothers in Arms reveal from Gearbox
UE5 powered next-gen Darksiders 4 announcement tease from Gunfire Games

XxINFERNUSxX1805d ago

Switch Pro rumor, no longer a rumor I hope 😁 And I really hope there is some Metroid Prime 4 gameplay trailer.

170°

Patrice Désilets accuses some reviewers of ‘not playing’ Ancestors

Designer says his team are ‘pissed’ over ‘invented’ review elements.

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videogameschronicle.com
TheOptimist2355d ago (Edited 2355d ago )

Haven't played his game, but modern media is a joke

VenomUK2355d ago

Developers put code into their games to see where everybody has played up too, so if
Patrice Désilets says journalists, who often have unique codes, haven’t completed the game then he’s speaking from factual data.

It sums up a significant section of the games media. Many of the ‘journalists’ all know each other from press events and follow each other on Twitter. And when it comes to deciding what to think of an unknown game they often discuss it amongst themselves.

I do not hold their reviews with the same esteem I once did.

william_cade2355d ago (Edited 2355d ago )

I have a interest in physical anthropology, so I will check this out when I can; and yeah most game reviewers are sleazy and entitled.

Smokehouse2354d ago (Edited 2354d ago )

I’d definitely give him the benefit of the doubt on something like this lol. I lold at the “didn’t bother Finishing” reviews, yeah well then don’t release a review you worthless hack.

Rachel_Alucard2354d ago

I can understand a handful of reviewers not playing it being a real thing but he can't just dismiss 70 different reviews just because he thinks he's entitled to a higher score. Him getting pissy that they didn't just hand out a 9 because of his responsibilities over 35 famiies would just make the whole review process uncredible if everyone just passed out high scores because people could lose their jobs if nobody buys your game. You knew that going into the industry in the first place.

DerfDerf2354d ago

The game is very interesting and requires a certain amount of leg work that I don't doubt most reviewers wanted to avoid doing.

Rachel_Alucard2354d ago

Theres many credible reviewers that reviewed it. Even if we removed the non credible ones, theres still way too many reviewers that it wouldn't affect the metacritic by more then a few points. His problem is that too many people reviewed the game overall and it's very difficult to get consistent positive scores with this kind of game.

TheOptimist2354d ago

By a handful, you would be including every from IGN to Kotaku to Vice to Polygon more than half of the industry. Basically anyone who has ever whined about Dark Souls difficulty falls under the bracket.

Rachel_Alucard2354d ago (Edited 2354d ago )

And there's even more unheard of sites. What you listed is a handful of sites people don't like. Gamespot who actually has a good reputation with people even stated they played 35 hours of it and kept sticking with it only to keep the negative experience they had with it. If that wasn't enough even the user score on Metacritic is on the same level as the reviews. There's nothing wrong with the reviews, the creator is just mad nobody liked his game. It's their personal opinion after all. Even the highest scoring review stated the game would be polarizing and it's 64 score is exactly where it ended up.

110°

Patrice Désilets Interview: Ancestors Difficulty “On You,” 1666 Amsterdam Very Likely Next

The outspoken Patrice Désilets discusses the response to Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, 1666 Amsterdam, his idea for a furt trading game, and more.

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wccftech.com
KaiPow2378d ago

Oh cool, the console release is only a month away.

Jackhass2378d ago

Hopefully a bit of a second chance for the game.

Alexious2378d ago

Yeah...No. Ancestors was bad, own it.

Jackhass2378d ago

I think there was a salvageable good game in there.

Chris_Wray2378d ago

It's still terribly shitty when a reviewer can't actually be arsed to do their job and play the game. Sure, we all forget aspects, but actually be honest and just say "I can't remember this part" or "dunno what this was called". It's not hard.

TGG_overlord2377d ago

What are you talking about exactly? That those who did this interview didn't play the game or what?