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Do They Really Not Make Them Like They Used To?

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AceHigh:
Those who are smart use free advertising thanks to a viral marketing possibilities of the internet and social sites. That is why we see the indie scene getting stronger after all.

1000mAh:
^ I suppose that is true :P can't argument that

Saras:
I can think of three reasons.

1st. Cost.
Back in the day, most competitive games could be made with a budget that wouldn't be large enough to cover a current day studio's pizza budget.

Show me a game on the SNES or the like that'd cost >50 mil to make, I dare you. Given the low cost and low financial risk, it'd be safe to assume that studios could both tolerate failure and risk. Also, given the low entry cost, a lot of studio's could also allow themselves to produce games for niche markets and still expect a return. You couldn't for example make SH2 now, because you couldn't expect to sell enough units to outweigh the development cost. That is also why a lot of franchises are "ruined" by making them accessibly to the masses, it's done so because otherwise, the game would have to cost 500$ at retail to be worth making, if you could only expect 30 000 - 80 000 copies sold.

2nd. Nostalgia.
We don't remember the shit. We remember what we enjoyed and forgot the shit that was responsible for so many console prints in the wall. We had good games, yes. But not all of them were good. Download an emulator pack and pick a game at random, one which you can't remember, it'll be absolute shite.

3rd. Size.
It's much, much more easier to make a good game if you have a team of 10 people instead of a team of 100. The sheer size of the studio's kind of dilute's the personal touch. You also lose focus.

vicious796:
I like how the subject of how big studios have become and the size of budgets has been brought up. It's all part of the "normal" business cycle - a company starts small, gets big, and dies. Why? It lost touch with its initial focus (quality products, for example) and started looking at the bottom line.

I also like the recognition of companies considering - most of off - "what if it doesn't sell?" I don't feel as though that was the big concern in the 90s and, truth be told, the budgets could be a reason for that. In 1993, Doom cost some $200k to produce and was among the most expensive games of all time back then. SW:ToR is the most expensive game of all time and it was some $130m.

But that's part of my point on why I feel the way I feel. Square-Enix has a massive budget with departments of talented individuals working on segments of games. You know what? VI kicked 13s ass. With all that money and all that talent, you mean to tell me you can't make a better game? You have professional voice actors giving your characters actual emotion - why is your script so much worse?

1000mAh:
well, now that you mention, games could be better if they would appoint only 10 person for each game, and tru, the devolpment costs nowdays are skyhigh... so, we get back to how everything costs so fuckng much, damn you US

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