Games are getting more expensive, but the industry's answer looks grim: fewer permanent devs, more contractors, more outsourcing. That might save money on paper, but players are going to feel what gets lost. Join us at http://bellular.games for early access content, 20 editions of 'Loading Screen' a month and to support our team! 00:00 The Quiet Part Out Loud 01:03 Budgets Got Insane 04:32 Someone Pays For This 05:39 The Job Security Line 07:50 The Contractor Future 11:18 Great Games Need Stable Teams 15:30 What The Industry Forgot Sources: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/-we-ve-been-a-little-bit-too-romantic-ustwo-ceo-says-lowering-development-costs-is-now-paramount https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-01-10/why-so-many-video-games-cost-so-much-to-make https://bellular.games/game-dev-outsourcing-has-a-dark-side/ https://newsletter.hushcrasher.com/p/why-video-games-cost-so-much-to-make https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/-deprofessionalization-is-bad-for-video-games https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/-i-monument-valley-i-developer-ustwo-threatened-with-legal-action-over-union-busting
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US game companies have been disgustingly mismanaged and somehow, this is a surprise.
and then you get idiots like this Microsoft's CEO saying "Videogames aren't monetized enough" that doesn't terrify you I don't know what does
US game companies continue to make the same shitty games over and over, and expect more and more money each time.
This idea that "people are too expensive" is only ok if we can see the CEO and top peoples salaries.
The truth ends up being that the economy has been mismanaged by politicians and corpo elites for decades and now the only fix is a collapse and one so big it hits the top.
You know who else don't get laid off? CEOs and execs, especially the ones who make all the bad decisions and mismanagement that led companies to their red numbers.
If only they thought of the future when all companies were investing in AI.
Plus as someone that worked contract, the pay is lower, the hours are variable, no dental, no eye, no medical care, most of the time you use your own hardware and\or vehicle. Most of the time, it just doesn’t work out for the employee..
Capcom and Nintendo are running laps around the west in video game self-efficiency.
Funny thing is, if they had just listened to their larger player bases in about 6 years ago, they wouldnt' be in the situation they are in now. But listening to "popular trends" did this, oh well, their own fault. Indies who listen to the players are the future.
These AAA companies don’t learn, cut your budgets and make games not focused on spending so much money and they wouldn’t have to be like this, but they don’t ever learn , they love the smell of their own farts
09:19 Failure breeds desperation. Rather than address the hard problems a bad or poorly run company runs to this to avoid hurting feelings and that begins the downward spiral.
Gaming has fully relied on the bare minimum for a while. Its why everyone moved to UE5 cause its an industry standard and requires no training for a custom system. Almost every game has suffered for it.
I believe they've been getting too comfortable with people paying for stupid, incomplete, money sinks disguised as games for a while now. I would like to say "time to sail the seas" but a lot of these games are not even worth pirating.
As a solo dev spending just under 5k to make my game.. 300M sounds insane. Lol
I hope these devs actually make their own studios and create games without an agenda from the execs.
I've worked for multiple software companies and outsourcing developers more often than not ends in rehiring the outsourced staff again.
What did they expect. They stopped making products for their audience/customers. Made products for a specific audience who are not their customers and wonder why they have no customers. When the product you are making is for share holders, don't be surprised when your share holders are not your customers
You fail to mention the use of contractors to cut corners... Perma-contractors are real. I was employed by a AAA for 4 years. Never given full time. Worked for less in hopes of the chance. It wasnt a revolving door. It was using me like a piece of meat.
Looking at some studio staff photos compared to years when they were successful, a 20% cut seems light. They seemed to have bulked up unreasonably. Marketing used to be a rare video ad but mostly writeups and ads in game magazines, as they focused on games people played. Now they focus on games nobody plays, making their publications worthless to most.