| ShadowSoldier said: Im never buying another one of this guys games. He's so anti-consumer it's not even funny. Cliff Bleszinski You cannot have game and marketing budgets this high while also having used and rental games existing. The numbers do NOT work people. If the games can't make money, then Publishers need to be able to better manage their budgets. No one is asking for AAA 150Million dollar titles. All we want is good games and a high budget does not equal a great game. Before trying to blame the consumers for the industry's broken model, we should first look at the suits who put themselves in that position first. By the by...Fuck you Cliffy B, you're a superficial cunt |
You do realize that publishers don't manage a budget in the way you think.
Publishers fund games. They essentially put up the money for the developer to make the game. It kind of works this way.
As a development studio, I go to a publisher with a game I believe can be successful. The publisher either disagrees and turns me away, or the publisher agrees and asks how much. By this point, if I'm a good developer, I've already figured out how much it'll cost me to hire everyone I need to work on this game, and I give them that figure. It's then my responsibility as the development studio to budget those funds and keep the project in budget and on time.
Once the game hits retail, the publisher gets a percentage, as well as the developer and the console manufacturer. Between the publisher and the developer, the publisher gets their investment or a percentage of it repaid first, and then the developer begins seeing returns. If the game is successful they may have enough cash-on-hand to fund the company until the next project. Hopefully has a second project lined up before the previous one is even finished. If the game isn't successful, and they didn't make enough to fund the company, they may go under or take on less lucrative projects.
Publishers may take a more active roll in the budgets of studios they own, but it depends on the studio and publisher. Not all publisher owned studios are micromanaged.
Also Epic, Cliff's former employer, is an independent studio. As the maker of the Unreal Game Engine, they also didn't need to rely on publisher funding to make games.
