Next-gen development costs to double, says Epic Games CTO

Umm....no duh? This isn't a new idea, Mr. Important CTO Dude; the cost of making a game has doubled each generation since 1983. If you didn't see this coming until now, you're gonna have a bad time. I still genuinely believe that F2P isn't going to scale well; it's not a silver bullet for the woes facing the industry, but done right it is the next evolution of the MMO. When every game tries to have the time requirements of an MMO, gamers will be playing fewer games. Playing fewer games means less paying customers per game. Less paying customers means lower numbers, and lower numbers means it's not going to be the salvation guys like this hope it is. The end of bleeding-edge, spare-no-expense blockbuster titles being the norm is approaching, plain and simple...and that's going to happen even without the other issues facing the industry. The companies that have built their businesses around them need to screw their head back on straight...and fast. The problem isn't needing new forms of monetization, or 'piracy', or any other attempt to say "We're entitled to more money." The problem is that the traditional publishing model is very, very sick. Used getting out of control to the point it has is proof positive of that. A 'exposure now means fans later' advertising method that's been beneficial to the games industry for decades has been replaced by retailers acting in a strangely symbiotic yet parasitic manner, biting the hand that feeds them. Prices are too high, or perceived value is too low, I don't have all the answers but something is festering and no amount of taking their frustrations out on the customers will fix it any more than aspirin is going to fix a broken leg. It'll ease the symptoms, sure...but the underlying issue is going to continue getting worse. Treat the underlying diseases or die, publishers. You can't cover up the symptoms and pretend everything is fine for much longer. Ugh. Anyway...my apologies for ranting, guys. It frustrates me to no end that high-flying, high-paid leaders of the industry can be so oblivious to the problems facing it, doubling down on the policies that are causing the troubles in the first place.

sure if you want to make every game cutting edge but how many actually do? almost none. new streamlined engines like unreal 4 where events can be scripted by the developers themselves and not having to downscale visuals for outdated hardware will both cut down on time and cost.

That's another great point, Sentinel7. To your point, having also watched and read the marketing material from the newer game engines they talk about how they speed the development process. Epic CEO was simply trying to set up a price increase. That's what I think-- he's full of it.

If the price jumps up because of this, I'm not going to buy anymore games, I'll probably make gamefly rich, I'm already sick of paying 60 for new games, if it gets higher than that, fuck it

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If they bump up the price a bunch and use this is an excuse, I better be transported into the game world at will or some shit. I don't even like paying 60$ for a good game now. And the good ones stay high longest obviously.

I'm sorry, I quit taking you serious at "start building games that have monetization and are designed to be piracy-proof". Pretty much tells me this guy doesn't know his ass from an Emergence Hole.

In a word. B.S. Games have, for quite some time, been developed with higher quality art assets that are scaled down to fit within the gaming platform. In addition, there is significant development time being spent in optimization and iteration to squeeze as much power out of the architectures as possible. Just look at Halo 3 vs. Halo 4. In Next-Gen the optimization is less important because of the leap in capability such as RAM. Finally, why is it the CEO (Strauss Zelnick) of Take Two Interactive, publishers of IPs such as GTA, Borderlands, LANoire, and Civilization, says that it won't be more expensive and will be _EASIER_. So which is it?

I'm gonna say believe Zelnick. Take 2 is one of the few huge publishers that didn't get drunk on success and lose its head when gaming crossed the threshold from nerdly pursuit to legitimate form of entertainment in public opinion.

Games better be 3, 4, or 5 times as better then.

F2P is suck. It only work for some kind of games, not all. And the worse part about F2P I hate the most is, designer need to take monetization into account in the game design phase instead of letting marketing team decide on how to sell the games. In other words, game designers need to take care about how to limit some gameplay experience to the players who don't pay in order to persuade them to pay when they designing the games instead of mainly focus on "how to make game fun". As for doubling development cost, I am not totally agree. It might be true for one or two years after generation shifted. But, as the working pipeline mature, the cost of developing games will be decreased. For example, instead of developing your own engine, just use third party engines that available out there, like UE, to decrease the cost of R&D process. This is why we have companies that specialize in developing game engine, AI engine, physics engine, rendering engines, etc at first place.

F2P has a legitimate purpose, but 'silver-bullet savior of the gaming industry' isn't it. It's the next evolution of MMOs, a genre that's stagnated a bit since WoW launched 8 years ago...just like DLC was the next evolution of expansion packs. And both are, sadly, very ripe for [and are being greatly] abused.

Braid, Limbo, Defense Grid, Super Meat Boy, Bastion, To the Moon, etc. Who needs triple A titles when indie games are both good looking and cost a fraction of the big budget titles. Every time an article comes out talking about free-to-play being the future it amazes me how people aren't noticing that that means companies are expecting us to pay into the hundreds of dollars for their games. If they're complaining that $60 bucks isn't covering their expenses then they obviously are expecting us to fork out more than that through free-to-play business models. Long term monitization of games is the future. Stop insulting us by using the term "free-to-play."

Hear me now nin,sony,ms, and soon apple( Yes apple will make a system and get greedy like all the rest in the future) after this gen is over I will be on the fence waiting to see the prices of your next gen games. If they are $65-$100(don't care if limited edition) you can kiss my ass. I will stop buying your games and save my money for something worth better then games. Because I'm sick of companies doing DLC and too much CG and less game play that spending fucking $65 and higher is not worth it any more. Hell there is rent, food, kids, gas, and other stuff we people spend money on that we are not rich to buy every thing. Going back to DLC is a ripoff and DLC is consider the same as side quest or bonus item that the player would get if you played a old rpg in the nes-ps1 days of unlocking stuff. If Resident Evil on the ps1 had DLC then picture your self not rushing to the end of the game to get a S RANK for unlocking unlimited ammo, rocket launcher, and extra clothes because you will have to buy all that stuff! Any way I think this gen will be my last because the these companies want higher graphics so that they have way of ripping us off so I'll be watching to see how this will end up. This is a reason why I've kept every game system ever made from Nintendo to only having a PS2 with PS1 collection because I know where classic are. The WiiU I will get and buy only for a fact that when a game comes out for it, it will have to be only for WiiU exclusive and priced low. If WiiU comes with too much of multi games that are on other systems I wont see myself keeping it. Better save your old past systems and don't sell it because you'll regret it when these companies try to do a remake and charge a arm and leg on their newer systems.

Apple will get greedy like the rest i the future? You mean to say you don't think they are greedy right now? So they release 2 iPads a year for altruistic reasons then?

oh ya I see that they are greedy with the new i phone having to buy extra for plugs and head phones.

Interesting thoughts It just pushes the fact closer that next gen will rely on Innovation instead of better Graphics and Tech

Maybe double costs holds true for those with deep pockets but there will be plenty of studios making AAA for less. It's pretty amazing how solid some games can be even on small budgets. Also I really don't think F2P will be as prominent as some people say. $60 games are not limited to retail stores anymore - Both Sony and MS have made an effort to sell retail games on their stores, and Valve has already been doing that for some time now. I think there will always be a place for those kinds of games, whether in physical format or not. However I would not be surprised to see subscription services become popular (possibly more popular than F2P). Sony is already doing this with PS+, albeit with older/smaller titles, but I think it's proving to be effective for them.

Get ready guys, next generation: $69.99 MSRP Start saving now!

How about more money spent on actual development of the game and less on advertising. Just a crazy thought. Won't happen obviously.