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FishyJoe on 19 January 2009
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Ail said:
FishyJoe said:

The business model of some developers may have to change. They can try to compete for the top and risk losing everything, or perhaps scale back on lower budget titles that will earn a steady stream of income. Nintendo isn't going to stop making software anytime soon.

I said months ago, there will be a natural selection of developers. The poor economy is accelerating this evolution. Developers that can't figure out a way to be profitable will die, and there are many deaths coming.

 

So you're suggesting big developers like EA should have massive rounds of lay off and scale back to making indie games ?

 

I still don't get why everyone is so surprised about this.

It has been the frigging same for the movie industry for decades. Every studio get 1-2 blockbuster per year and they live on that...( and those blockbusters pay for the rest of the movies).

And I don't think anyone has ever suggested to Paramount, Warner or New Line that they should scale back and stick to making small budgets black and white movies...

PS : besides the fact that the NPD article points out that if you leave the top, the competition for the rest of the pie is actually very hard....

 

I hate to break this to you, but this is already happening. EA and other companies that can't adapt quickly enough will suffer. Rock Band 2 is an example of this. Their inability to launch RB2 on the Wii probably cost EA tens of millions of dollars, much of which went to the competitor. Making stupid decisions like this will lead a company like EA to ruin.

It's not so much moving to indie projects as adapting to a changing marketplace. I'm not saying they have to scale back, however it's one possible route to take. The only thing I know for certain is that many developers will have to change their business model or they will go out of business.