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Console vs PC return on investment
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RPGDot Forums > Absolutely Off Topic

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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
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Joined: 20 May 2002
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Location: Sydney, Australia
Console vs PC return on investment
   

First off, this thread isn't intended as a generic console-bash (though they can be fun ).

Feargus Urquhart (ex Black Isle president, now Obsidian - probably working on KotOR2) has posted some interesting comments in the RPG Codex forums about console/PC sales vs costs of development.

quote:
2) All console games require about a $10 licensing fee, which includes your packaging and DVDs. This can be two to five times the cost of packaging for a PC. When the Whole Sale Price is around $36 (most people will say $40, but I've never found that to be true with all the special dealing that happens). The PC game can start out 20% ahead on the actual net cash you get.


Interesting, no?
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Post Sat Jan 03, 2004 1:42 am
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Remus
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Interesting post by Feargus. But it still didn't provides complete picture of current rise of console games/gaming. If the PC game can gets more profit than developing a console game, why Interplay and Ion Storm also jumped on the console bandwagon?.

It's just another "pendulum swing" between console and PC game markets?

Another possible reason, i think, is when developer making a game, they always prefer bigger market for their products. E.g, if you can sell a same title/game in more than one type of market - it's certainly better (PC & console[s]; like GTA: Vice City and DXIW, 2/3/4 markets in one title/project development). The cost is smaller, you share contents (thus console-like quality in texture, cut-scene, user-interface/control, etc can be found in PC version) and manpower developing one title for multiple markets.

But that didn't explain company like Interplay now (almost/temporary?) only developing console games.
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Post Sat Jan 03, 2004 2:51 am
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
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Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia
   

You're right, it didn't.

Feargus has commented on this topic (briefly) before. My interpretation is that there's several financial hurdles to overcome with console development whereas a small studio can potentially start a PC project with minimal expense (and perhaps at least get a tech-demo up and go shopping for a publisher.

With the consolidation of the industry, console entry costs aren't an issue for the big publishers who want to chase the biggest numbers possible. I guess Blizzard, id, Valve and so on are doing big enough numbers without the costs of console licensing to worry about it.
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Post Sat Jan 03, 2004 7:45 am
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Gorath
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Joined: 03 Sep 2001
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Location: NRW, Germany
   

Not only finacial hurdles. Sony, MS and Nintendo do not sell dev kits to small developers. Without a proven track record you can only go through one of the bigger publishers. Of course those have a strong negotiation position because devs are replaceable.
The console manufacturers are only interested in mass market products.
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Post Sat Jan 03, 2004 6:45 pm
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TheMadGamer
High Emperor
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Joined: 03 May 2002
Posts: 487
Location: Southern California
bleh
   

licensing fees are a cost hurdle for the console market.

But over the years, I've heard a lot of b!tching by developers regarding Q.A. costs for PCs given the huge amounts of different PC peripherals out there.
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Post Mon Jan 05, 2004 8:25 pm
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Joeman
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Joined: 03 Jan 2004
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Exactly. Console games didn't require hardware support, but PC sure hell does. That adds to the cost for those extra engineers, programmers, technicians, ....

If you make a game for xbox and afterwards try to port it to PC in a half-assed fashion without much testing, like Deus Ex 2 for example, you get loads of hardware errors. According to an online poll I saw, the game so far is totally unplayable for 20% of PC users. They don't even support gforce4 MX cards. I was in shock when I saw that considering how common it is. That game has been a huge disappointment. Not only that, the game is super short. People finish the game between 7-10 hours.
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Post Mon Jan 05, 2004 10:49 pm
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Dhruin
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Joined: 20 May 2002
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Location: Sydney, Australia
   

DX:IW was disappointing but don't blame it for not supporting GF4 MX cards - they don't have a Texture & Lighting engine (T&L) and are essentially a reworked GF2 card. They're completely below par for today's games and lots of games don't support them.
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Post Tue Jan 06, 2004 8:38 am
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goshuto
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Joined: 29 May 2002
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quote:
Originally posted by Dhruin
DX:IW was disappointing but don't blame it for not supporting GF4 MX cards - they don't have a Texture & Lighting engine (T&L) and are essentially a reworked GF2 card. They're completely below par for today's games and lots of games don't support them.


[whisper] pssst, Dhruin, they do have hardware transform & lighting. What they lack are the pixel shaders.
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Post Tue Jan 06, 2004 11:38 am
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
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Joined: 20 May 2002
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Location: Sydney, Australia
   

Just like I said - they don't have pixel shaders...bugger, long day etc etc. What the hell was I thinking? Thanks, goshuto.

Despite my ridiculous slip the point remains - the MX440 etc doesn't really cut it for latest generation games.
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Post Tue Jan 06, 2004 12:34 pm
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