| Legend11 said: I actually think Microsoft needs to do something radical to help third-parties. One way would be to reduce their licensing fees significantly (possibly by $5 per DVD). This would give 360 games a $15 premium over Wii games which would help negate lower development costs. Another would be to provide game engine support to third-party developers directly. This could help reduce costs significantly for third-parties (at least those that chose to make 360/PC exclusives). And finally they might consider setting aside about $1 - $2 billion dollars to provide low interest loans to companies making games for the 360. |
Likely the cost for any of that would be exclusivity - at least timed anyway. But they do sound like good ideas, especially the cheap loan and UE3 ones.
Curently they provide: Substantial testing support and co-advertising support for third parties with exclusive 360 games. The support is one reason why Epics figure for Gears of War may be understated by 3-5 million, Epic even had coding help provided by Microsoft which im not sure was on the books.
@Mrstickball: Two things:
1. The Unreal Engine 3 gives developers a chance to get a working model of their game quickly to pitch to publishers or work on their core game concepts.
2. UE3 costs less than 1,000,000 depending on the royalty scheme the developer chooses. The more they pay initially, the lower the royalties and vice versa.
Tease.
