Do people understand what goes into making a video game?

[PriMaTe]

I couldn't think of a better title. Anyway, tonight I was talking with my friends and somehow we got on the topic of video games and the price of them. I said that a $60 video game was still a bargain considering some games take millions to make. I tried to explain to my friends that some games take a couple of years to make with 10's, or maybe hundreds of people working on them for the duration. They just didn't believe that it takes that long or is tough at all, and said that someone could just add on to previous games made like madden or counter-strike or whatever and it was simple to make a new game.

Whatever I had to say didn't sway them. I tried to explain things like physics and textures, and stuff like that, it didn't matter. I guess this is more of a rant than anything, but who else has encountered this kind of ignorance? I mean would multi billion dollar game companies really spend years working on a game if it could be popped out in a month?

[PointlesS]

generally no....I do levels for ut2k4/fear and it's just a long and tedious process...whenever I figure out that their that type of person who will say crap about not just games but anything...then I just stop correcting them and agree with everything while staring into the distance and hope there's a significant amount of some kind of alcoholic beverage in my hand

[Johnmcl7]

Generally I'd say no - simply because there's been a lot of complaining about the increase in cost of the 360 games from 40 pounds to 50 pounds. Having worked for games companies for a few years, I definitely know what goes into a game and a tenner more for a 360 game is entirely disproportionate to the additional amount of work. For a 360 game you need two to three times the staff and longer development time compared to an Xbox game, for smaller companies this can mean a lot of outsourcing.

Although all the additional power is great for us, it means a lot more time and effort for developers, artists need to create larger maps, more detailed models, larger textures. Programmers need to have more complicated physics, more complex AI and detailed script engines. The designers/scripters then have larger maps to deal with and more complex scripts, all which takes a lot more time.

There's also the huge cost, a single development kit can go into five figure sums - even for a small team that's a lot of money and for a large team it's a horrendous amount of money. That's on top of a high performance

John

[r'aggro]

Not to sound like a kiss-***, but that's why I always buy them instead of pirating. I appreciate all the hard work and want them to keep making games.

[Kamakazie]

A lot of people are idiots.

And I'm right there with r'aggro, even though I pirate games, I still buy plenty to help support the dev. I wish I could say the same about any of my friends.

[Timman_24]

I can't think of a game that I downloaded but did not buy (except old roms of NES and SNES games.) I know how much time and effort goes into making a game, the least I could do is pay to play it.

[Transfurzz]

Right up there with r'aggro and Kama. I buy games to support the devs. Its a terrible amount of work that goes into making games, when you consider the value in many of the AAA+ titles. You just have to agree your getting a lot of bang for you buck.


I only resort to pirating if there is absolutely no way to get a certain game. For example, incredibly old games.

[wh666-666]

I couldn't think of a better title. Anyway, tonight I was talking with my friends and somehow we got on the topic of video games and the price of them. I said that a $60 video game was still a bargain considering some games take millions to make. I tried to explain to my friends that some games take a couple of years to make with 10's, or maybe hundreds of people working on them for the duration. They just didn't believe that it takes that long or is tough at all, and said that someone could just add on to previous games made like madden or counter-strike or whatever and it was simple to make a new game.

Some people dont understand the development phase .. but then some people dont understand how inside a computer works either and wont bother listening to you if your trying to explain to help them!! I just dont bother with people like that anymore ..

Although i would touch on the point that sometimes $60 is too much for a game ... it takes millions of dollars and sometimes years on end to create complex animation films but you only pay $10 at the cinema .. Maybe by lowering the price slightly it might encourage more people to buy that game and maybe other games as well.

[vairox]

game costs $2 mill to make, you pay $60

movie costs $200 mill to make, you pay $9

games are a rip.

[2630Goon]

millions of lines of computer code goes into todays video games.

[2630Goon]

game costs $2 mill to make, you pay $60

movie costs $200 mill to make, you pay $9

games are a rip.

games were 50 dollars each in the mid 1980's if I recall.

[Idiot356]

game costs $2 mill to make, you pay $60

movie costs $200 mill to make, you pay $9

games are a rip.

Most movies don't even come close to a $200 million budget. So even in the case of a movie like Borat you still pay $9 even though it only cost 12-15 million to make.

Also movies have the luxury of being a lot more mainstreme than games, exspecially DVD sales. Even pure crap like Bloodrayne sells a lot of DVDs for 20 bucks.

Hardly any game breaks 1 million units sold, and you might say well they should charge 20 dollars for games, like they sell DVDs for. Well NFL 2K5 came out at 19.99 and still sold less than the full priced Madden.

Everyone watches movies, not everyone plays games, and most games don't sell crap.

[ImaNihilist]

They buy a dev kit, and then they put money in it. A dev kit is like a soda machine. You put in money, press some buttons, and a game comes out.

[rimmerchant]

I'm going to buy Crysis and Command and Conquer 3 when it comes out. supporting the Dev

then I'm going to sell it on ebay right after I clear it. supporting me.

[[PinPals]Apu]

game costs $2 mill to make, you pay $60

movie costs $200 mill to make, you pay $9

games are a rip.

200 mil movies are generally more profitable then games. After theatre sales, theres the DVD sales, sales to the cable/satellite companys etc. The studios have tons of ways to offset the huge costs. Game companies dont really. You buy the game for 50 or you dont give em a dime where if i go to a movie in the theatre ill prolly buy the dvd and if i really like it the special edition dvd a year later.