ZombiU Was "Not Even Close" to Profitable, No Plans for a Sequel

[Scoobes]

osed125 said:

Barozi said:

Oh I know that article and I laughed at it more than once. Sorry but it's biased to no end.

Just look at the images at the bottom half of the article.

Example:
http://www.notenoughshaders.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/8.jpg

- EA did not say that it must sell that to break even. (they said it should sell that amount to make sure that the IP will be continued. Which btw. is still the case)
- EA never said that they had to sell them at full price
- The writer of the article just takes $60 to calculate the revenue even though the publisher doesn't get even half of that
- the writer then takes the whole revenue and compares it with the development budget ! of movies

I know that Dead Space 3 is one bad example (besides the game didn't came out by the time of this article). But what's also "wrong" about it? They didn't used unreliable sources either.

Edit: Those images are bad examples but the article in general is good, I don't see anything to be laugh about.

The article is bias and cherry picks the worst examples whilst failing to mention that layoffs are actually fairly frequent in this industry regardless of the generation. It also completely fails to acknowledge the introduction of new business models in the use of microtransactions, the F2P model and online support in the form of events and DLC. Reading this article would suggest their have been no success stories this gen.

Take the Bioware example, they mention the layoffs but fail to mention the studio has grown overall since the beginning of the gen, that they have released nearly half of the studios entire library this gen and successfully maintained staff count whilst releasing profitable titles. It mentions Star Wars: The Old Republic and the high development costs but doesn't mention the numerous methods EA have of gaining revenue from the game or the continued support. The article only really mentions the $60 initial sale model which is only part of a much larger story.

Every generation has seen numerous developers go bust due to poor business decisions, failing to adapt to new market conditions, poor marketing or simply creating poor games. This generation is no different. The article is all doom and gloom but fails to analyse anything accurately.