The video game industry has seen better days. Every month brings news of canceled projects, shutdown studios, or layoffs that are occurring in one form or another. While many are attempting to point fingers at certain things or figures, the answer is truly right in everyone’s face: companies are trying to “go big” with everything, and it’s costing them everything instead. We’ve seen this many times over within the last few years alone, and Ex-PlayStation leader Shawn Layden feels that the current model by which companies are producing games will be a death sentence for the industry itself.
As revealed by Gameindustry.biz, Layden was talking during Gamescom Asia and noted the following:
“The entry costs for making a AAA game is in triple-digit millions now. I think naturally, risk tolerance drops. And you’re [looking at sequels], you’re looking at copycats, because the finance guys who draw the line say ‘Well, if Fortnite made this much money in this amount of time, my Fortnite knockoff can make this in that amount of time’. We’re seeing a collapse of creativity in games today [with studio consolidation and the high cost of production].”
If that sounds familiar, it’s because many other people have been saying that recently, including certain video game voice actors. Plus, recent history points to what Layden capped off in his talk, stating:
“If we’re just going to rely on the blockbusters to get us through, I think that’s a death sentence.”
That, sadly, is far truer than some will admit. Just look at the recent flaws and faults of the big AAA developers and publishers, and you’ll see how the reliance on “blockbusters” has crippled them. For example, Square Enix had two major blockbusters within its beloved RPG franchise come out within a year, and neither of them made big waves sales-wise. As a result, the company had record losses and is undergoing a restructuring effort.
Bandai Namco was revealed to have canceled projects due to losses, with the reason being that they made several titles with known IPs, but they didn’t sell well, likely due to quality issues. Thus, they’re trying to get people to quite their jobs to save money!
Ubisoft is arguably the best example of this, as they keep cranking out titles that are average in quality and reception, and yet they spent countless millions on them.
The PlayStation and Xbox brands aren’t immune to this either, as both Sony and Microsoft have had layoffs, shutdowns, and exclusive games going multiplatform. If a shift doesn’t happen soon, the game industry will suffer even further.
