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QuintonMcLeod on 03 July 2014
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zarx said:
QuintonMcLeod said:

But their latest game was the tipping point.

Fact to the matter is, their games weren't profitable. Many of Platinum Games' titles don't sell millions upon millions, but they still profit. Why is that?

A lot of their games were bombs but they were critically well received and have a strong cult fanbase (which helps them secure contracts with 1st parties who are willing to risk money in the hopes of creating system selling games) and the studio has a lot of connections in the tight nit Japanese gaming community.  And they have made a couple of reasonably successful games Bayonetta sold 2 million units (still a dissapointment to SEGA but it's long legs should certainly made it profitable) and MGR: Revengance sold 1.5 million on consoles and the PC port sold pretty well given it's short development cycle at Platinum certainly a success.

Compared to Airtight's 200K for Murdered: Soul Suspect across 5 platforms, and Dark Void's 600K. Even Platinum's less successful smaller games like MadWorld (700K), Vanquish (900K) did much better than that. Platinum might not make blockbusters but their quality leads to long legs.


But the key word is profit. Seems to me that Platinum knows how to manage their budgets better than Airtight. Bayonetta 1 didn't earn 2 million within its first month. Neither have any of their games. Airtight would be in the same boat if we look at profits within the first month (which is how long it took for Airtight to go under after they released MSS). The only difference here is that Airtight just didn't know how to set their finances in order and Platinum Games did. This is the problem I'm trying to point out.

I'm not saying developers _can't_ make AAA games. If they can afford to (Rockstar) then they should! However, some of these developers know they can't afford to make AAA or even AA games, but they do so anyway, and it kills them. Among those types of games, we have to factor in reckless spending. Many developers just spend money like it's water. Then you have other developers who ignore entire markets (mainly Nintendo's market), and they go under. It's under my belief that if a developer wants to become successful, they target all markets (Nintendo's included). Platinum targets every market. They don't ignore any system. Meanwhile, many western developers do, and they go away very quickly.

There are obviously many factors, but the major ones deal with budget. These developers are terrible when it comes to budget. Nintendo profits from their games even though they don't sell millions of copies. Why is that? The answer is pretty obvious.