Now one needs marketing budgets this high. Make good games and let word of mouth help selling the game. Also make games so good and non generic that everyone wants to keep them. Make them have actual VALUE!
Wasting millions in marketing is bullshit. Seriously only mainstreamers and idiots let themselves be manipulated by commercials. Make DEMOS that show more than the BEST level of your game!!!!
Let your games be highlighted inside the host consoles menus and shops etc. Dont waste money for TV spots, magazines and annyoing internet popups. You moved on from the people that made all of you big and focus on the ones that want dumbed down experiences because they whine about everything challenging. All the people wanting cheap WOW visuals action etc made games worse.
Where are the great experiences like in the past? Heart of Darkness? FF7? etc??? they are rare these days.
And don't hire 100000 average people that dont really work together to have an average game in the end.
Just look at crytek. How many people were working on Farcry 1? 20? They were experts back in the day and made a okayish game. No need to hire 1000 people to make a MEH game.....
BTW about commercials!
The Last of Us commercials after The Walking dead = GREAT. Gears of War commercials at 3 AM or between sitcom episodes = bullshit.
The industry is stuck in an upwards spiral of marketing and budget being the focus not quality. Games like Minecraft, Journey and alot of other indie games show that people are sick of more of the same.(even tho I dont like Minecraft that much)
Cut the budget in half and sit down and actually THINK about making good games. I mean its totally stupid to have a good idea and then to ask investors and publishers if this is okay just to hear their "NAH dont go risky play it safe! Do more of the same shit you always do and if you like just make small changes...."
Especially third party studios create TRANSFORMERS movies of the game industry. Dumbed down experiences trying to satisfy the Neanderthaler in all of us.
"Oh oh grafix oh oh me like Ugga ugga"
We need better games not games with bigger budget. How many people still play Farcry 2? How many play Battlefield Vietnam? How many play Fifa 11? etc??? There is almost no value in those games because they are generic and their only selling point is BETTER VISUALS THAN OLD VERSION and their new installment almost always devalues the last game.
I mean I never ever saw a Journey commercial I first saw it on gaming websites. And I bought it. And I love it.
Pricing your mainstream shit at 60 is bullshit and then trying to prevent people from buying those games used even more. Look at the movie industry. They get it. The movie industry is full of mainstream crap (with the occasional masterpiece) but at least they price their products at 5-20. Making movies is not cheaper than making games it's actually more expensive.
Seriously the industry is full of idiots. You dont want real gamers but mainstream gamers because there is more of them and you simplify the games to get even more of them but at the same time you scare them away with DRM shit and restrictions and the result is you pricing your games higher and coming up with even more crap to scare away customers. Think about it.
If you want as many people to give you money as possible reduce the prices and leave the customers do whatevery they want with THEIR games.
I predict another videogame industry crysis in the next 10 years (when you think about it it already started a few years ago) and then there will just be a handful of smart people left and indie's etc will still be there.
