Epic Games president Mike Capps and Chris Taylor of Gas Powered Games both divulged at DICE that being independent studios was becoming more difficult.
It’s true that Microsoft and Epic have had a long and successful relationship, with the Gears of War franchise remaining exclusive to the Xbox 360 while raking in tens of millions of dollars in profits for them both. But in this interview, it’s easy to detect the frustration Epic Games and Gas Powered Games are having trying their best to remain independent; how much longer will they try?
Will Epic give in if an offer is placed on the table? The developers made their case on how difficult it is to remain independent.
At the event in Las Vegas last week, both Capps and Taylor told Gamasutra that there’s a “big line” between mid and large size independent development.
“We’ve been independent for 12 years this May,” said Taylor. “There’s a real fine line. I guess it’s a big line between indie development on the iPhone and [what we do]. Mike’s doing bigtime independent stuff, and we’re doing medium independent stuff.”
“It’s getting harder and harder to be independent, especially at our size,” Capps added. “Knowing what you know well is important. It’s all about picking a battle. For us it’s about tech and making a good game, and knowing what we don’t do well.”
So why all the worries? Well financing has a huge role in this, and because of the heavy dependence on cash, outsourcing is usually the best option.
“We [as an industry] kind of fell into a rut these past 10 to 15 years, in that even though we were independent, we were so dependent on these publishers that we were basically outsourcing studios. That’s not being independent,” said Taylor. “You can call yourself that, but that’s all it is. It’s been really unfortunate for a lot of independent developers who are basically beholden to the traditional publisher model.”
“Once you get on that cycle it’s hard to get off,” Capps added. “It’s like, ‘Oh, your independent IP is great, but why don’t you do this license for us at the same time?’”
“We walk a very fine line because we can’t say bad things about anyone, but our customer walks into Best Buy or Fry’s, and they don’t know we’re an independent company. They think we’re huge,” said Taylor. “We went three years without upgrading our hardware because we couldn’t make it a priority to pay for that.”
“There are some really difficult financial situations in this industry,” said Capps. “You can make a game like Shadow Complex, be a 10- to 12-man team for a year, get to be a best-selling game on [Xbox Live Arcade], and then still have money be tight.”
And that’s why, according to Capps, Microsoft has been such a good partner for Epic, because “somebody’s got to put up a billboard in Hong Kong, and it’s not going to be me.”
Interesting insight, and when it comes to Epic Games, the giant most likely to acquire the studio is Microsoft. Share your thoughts.
http://www.gamesthirst.com/2010/02/19/epic-and-gas-powered-feel-the-pain-of-being-independent/
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