Company News Elevation to trade shares?

[Kuato]

FFVII and FFX are RPGs?

the point is they are being marketed as RPGs and not as Sports or FPS titles.

 

[Davaris]

Games production costs rise every year not because of graphics but because production costs rise.

That's true. Production costs are rising, because the amount of content required is increasing (due to better graphics rendering and higher player expectations). The reason costs are rising due to better rendering, is a lot more work has to go into the models/levels to make them look good on the new engines. I was reading some interviews with some major game companies (several months ago, so don't ask me their names) and they were saying to be competitive, you have to spend 10-15 million on a title. Ouch! They said the future looks bright for games, but they also said the number of production houses are decreasing because they have to get big or die. Personally I don't see a bright future, if the number of production houses is decreasing, because that means less diversity. Another comment they made was an established brand name must be used to secure funding because they are a sure path to profit. To me this is code for games based on movies and endless sequels.

The fact is there are too many game developers houses doing too many similar games and the market cannot support then, the worst is when goes down another just pops up so nothing changes.

I agree with you. But the problem is what players say they want isn't always what they end up buying. You also have the problem of the share market. Stockholders expect high returns and if they don't get them they drop the stock and buy something that performs better. The sad fact is the hardcore youth market is small by comparison to the rest of the market, which is growing every year. That's why the focus is shifting to the more casual console market. This market is huge and the majority of these people dont' want to think or learn anything. They just want to pick up a game and start playing it right away.

That is why niche market is becaming very visable investment but when the market focus shift they can became at risk.

This is what I'm hoping will happen. The big production houses that are following the likes of EA, will price themselves out of the market, leaving the little guys like me to make the games we love.