The current established price range for AAA titles and other big budget projects might face changes later down the road as these games become more and more detailed, requiring the respected developer to up the price tag to complement the work of the developed software. At least, that’s according to former Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios Chairman, Shawn Layden.
When speaking at GameLab Live in a recent interview, Layden elaborates on the current benchmark of big budget games and suggests that increased pricing would be a likely foreshadow for the future of retail releases. In that, Layden tells that “the problem with that model is it’s just not sustainable,” explaining that what these projects are current set at does not properly align with the magnitude of effort that goes into the respected title.
Unraveling the topic even more, Layden discusses the matter through the amount of playtime that each title aims for – around 60 hours – which he states to be a challenge for any game that arrives to the consumer storefronts.
It’s hard for every adventure game to shoot for the 50 to 60 hour gameplay milestone, because that’s gonna be so much more expensive to achieve. And in the end you may close some interesting creators and their stories out of the market if that’s the kind of threshold they have to meet… We have to reevaluate that.
Continuing forward, Layden then goes on to reference one thing that has continued to boggle his mind since becoming part of the video game industry over two decades ago: pricing. He tells that the $59.99 price tag has not drifted at the slightest which is very unusual since production with dozens of studios has sky rocketed ten-fold since then. “One of the weird freaks of nature,” Layden would describe it as.
Unfolding the matters by another layer – Layden further dissects how games come to be essentially – by manual labor. He recognizes that behind the screen of pixel counts and high-speed frame rates is work crafted by creative individuals and do not require the extremely tangible means to develop a game.
“All the costs around gaming are labour costs, right? You don’t have to build a factory. You don’t have to turn sand into glass. It’s just creativity and your ability to bring like-minded people together to accomplish something, but it’s all based on the people… Those are all the costs associated with it.”
Concluding on the discussion, Layden references the return of shorter – but worthwhile experiences of yesteryear that he recalls: “ Instead of spending five years making an 80 hour game, what does three years and a 15 hour game look like? What would be the cost around that?”, Layden leaves off on.
What is your opinion on Layden’s stance for the future of the video game market?
Source: gamesindustry.biz
