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Forums - Sales Discussion - "It's not the platform holder's job to make [third party games] successful." - Robot Entertaiment CEO

 

Who's (most) responsible for a games success?

Platform holders. 10 20.00%
 
Game makers. 40 80.00%
 
Total:50

Patrick Hudson, CEO of Robot Entertainment (Orcs Must Die!) had quite a few things to say about the dificulty in achieving success with games for PC and Mobile. Among the many interesting points he made, he said:

"They all [platform holders] have different programs to try and help you get noticed but you can't make that the core of your strategy. It's really up to you to make a great game. If you don't have a marketing budget to cultivate a community, start with a small community, really cultivate it and listen to them and speak to them and let them organically grow. It's not the platform holder's job to make it successful."

He is refering mainly to Steam and mobile platforms but [MY OPINION FROM HERE] it's something I personally think can and should be applied equally to the console market. I especially struggle with the idea that Nintendo has some sort of responsability to make third party developers successful. They don't. They can help, dont get me wrong, but at the end a dev/publisher success will lie solely on themselves. He pretty much mentioned how I think third parties need to aproach Nintendo's audience if they want success: start with a small comunity and cultivate.

Source



“Simple minds have always confused great honesty with great rudeness.” - Sherlock Holmes, Elementary (2013).

"Did you guys expected some actual rational fact-based reasoning? ...you should already know I'm all about BS and fraudulence." - FunFan, VGchartz (2016)

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I agree



I think it's the platform holder's job to make their console accesible to third party games but it's the developer's job to make the game successful.



Their job? That depends on what they want to accomplish.

If you want the platform itself to be strong then you're going to make it your job to see that third parties do as well as they can. I mean, you're making money when third parties sell a game on your system and you're increasing the value of your platform overall. That has a ripple effect on your own games.



pokoko said:
Their job? That depends on what they want to accomplish.

If you want the platform itself to be strong then you're going to make it your job to see that third parties do as well as they can. I mean, you're making money when third parties sell a game on your system and you're increasing the value of your platform overall. That has a ripple effect on your own games.

So. You are saying that It's the platform holder's job to make their platform successful . I was going to include a "both are responsible" option in the poll but I wanted to see blood.



“Simple minds have always confused great honesty with great rudeness.” - Sherlock Holmes, Elementary (2013).

"Did you guys expected some actual rational fact-based reasoning? ...you should already know I'm all about BS and fraudulence." - FunFan, VGchartz (2016)

Around the Network

True, but it's often in the interests of the platform holder to have the titles that appear on their platform to succeed. Some platforms become more appealing than others, and if you don't do whatever you can to make third parties succeed, you might end up falling behind.



Mass effect, bioshock, GTA. NBA2k, Madden and the like do not need the validation from Nintendo (or Nintendo only console/handheld owners, which number few and far between) to prove that these developers/3rd party companies are successful. Whether you like these games or not are subject to your own opinion, which many will disagree with, but these companies own IPs that are hugely successful and do not reside on Nintendo consoles and have created IP on Nintendo consoles that have sold well. Why is this still an issue?



See I can agree with this. With PC you have no platform owner since it's open which leaves those third parties to put in their absolute all and make sure the game works and sells. That is honestly how it should be for all the other platforms as well, those parties have to work for their keep, work for the sales and success rather than thinking they own the industry and thinking they are owed the sales and success along with free rides.



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It's also not the third parties' job to make a platform successful (by supporting it with games). Especially if the conditions on other platforms are better (better software tools, less (expensive) optimization needed thanks to powerful hardware, more people that buy these games/genres...)



I mean, it kinda is with consoles. Nothing can save a bad game, but still.