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Here's an opinion article I found interesting, and I thought some people here might be interested in reading it.A huge reason behind overbloated budgets and teams is this push to turn video games into interactive cinema. Every game these days wants to be an interactive film: Watch Dogs, The Last of Us, Beyond, Tomb Raider, etc. Other examples are past or current games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Uncharted series, Grand Theft Auto 4, Max Payne 3 and Heavy Rain. It's true that gaming has had storytelling for the last twenty years but developers and publishers are trying to imitate the giant massive budgets of a summer blockbuster Hollywood movie. This business model of using Hollywood budgets for video games is going to lead to major disaster for the entire industry.
The harder you try to make games like movies, the more costs will build up and inflate out of control. These are two different industries. Just because they are both entertainment, doesn't mean you should completely cross them together. Expecting most games to be cinematic will add tons of pressure on studios to deliver this on every game. Especially since publishers these days are less willing to gamble on more niche genres.
Average movie tickets are around 8 to 10 dollars (costs vary if you're watching a movie in 3D or 2D). When the movie is released on DVD or Bluray, it's usually priced around $20 while the average Bluray is between $20-$35. A brand new console game on day 1 is normally between $50 - $60. The retail price of a game is five to six times more than a movie ticket. And yet, the gap between movie production and game development costs is getting smaller with each generation. An average game's budget on 360/PS3 is around $20-30 million. The biggest AAA games can range from $40 million to as high as $100 million. There's been a few cases of game budgets hitting astronomical heights of $200 million (Star Wars: The Old Republic). Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 had a marketing budget over $200 million according to the L.A. Times. That's within the same range as most Hollywood movie budgets.
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