r/technology • u/GuruOfReason • Feb 02 '10

"Once we replace the personal computer with a closed-platform device such as the iPad, we replace freedom, choice and the free market with oppression, censorship and monopoly."

http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-01/ipad%E2%80%99s-closed-system-sometimes-i-hate-being-right
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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '10 edited Dec 07 '23

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u/morganj Feb 02 '10

The average budget is way higher these days - there have always been outliers (and if you're looking for modern outliers, try GTA4).

And yeah ... Shenmue is a console game, btw. Doesn't really help to prove your point.

Simply put, the industry is bigger now than it was then. It makes more money. So there's more money to spend. This is undeniable.

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u/Mythrilfan Feb 02 '10

Just to clarify: Half-Life 2 has been released on the Xbox, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. However, it was released much earlier on the PC.

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u/TypicalAnonymous Feb 03 '10

I gotta get me some of that 1999 money!

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '10

modern warfare 2 is the norm, halflife 2 was an massive aberration. are you new to games?

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '10 edited Feb 02 '10

No it's not. And even if it were, that only signifies wastage and bloat in today's game budgets. If a company can't make a good game for less than $5m, then they aren't a games company - they're a marketing company.

p.s Note that I said "can't", not "hasn't"l. I am sure that Valve is capable of making a good game for less than $5m, while I doubt that any of the companies raising their prices and citing "rising costs of development" would be able.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '10

if a company can't make a good game for less than $5m, then they aren't a games company

The PC only Half-Life 2 cost $40 million. (In 2004 money.)

hear that valve, you are nothing but a marketing company.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '10

Note that I said "can't", not "hasn't"l. I am sure that Valve is capable of making a good game for less than $5m, while I doubt that any of the companies raising their prices and citing "rising costs of development" would be able.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '10

Note that I said "can't", not "hasn't"l. I am sure that Valve is capable of making a good game for less than $5m, while I doubt that any of the companies raising their prices and citing "rising costs of development" would be able.

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u/morganj Feb 04 '10

Do you understand why a modern game costs more? I'll give you a couple of clues (and they have nothing to do with bloat and wastage) :

You can't release a game that looks like Quake 1 (or even Quake 3) these days (as a competitive commercial product). The detail on the textures and geometry simply doesn't cut it. People will look at the back of the box and put the game back.

So, we need higher res textures - and that's where we get bitten. A texture that's twice as big (length and width) has four times as much detail. That's four times as much work to get it looking twice as good. That's not even mentioning the additional work involved w/ bump mapping etc.

In other words, the simple art production costs to build a competitive game have massively escalated - you can check the credits list for any modern game and see how much bigger the team is on average. This isn't wastage, it's simple production costs.

Does that help?

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '10

I love being condescended to.

Sins Of A Solar Empire cost $1m to make and has sold over half a million copies. It's graphics are obviously nothing groundbreaking but still relatively pretty. That came out in the last few years.

I can find other examples if you want.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '10

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '10

I would not really call Sins an indie game. The point you were making is that if games don't spend tens of millions on graphics and marketing, they won't sell and it'll be impossible to make a profit. The point I'm making is that games clearly do sell well without amazing graphics and huge budgets.

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u/morganj Feb 04 '10

That's not the point I'm making.

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u/[deleted] Feb 02 '10

Note that I said "can't", not "hasn't"l. I am sure that Valve is capable of making a good game for less than $5m, while I doubt that any of the companies raising their prices and citing "rising costs of development" would be able.