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- Do You Play It Safe?
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- Jonathan Yost, Editor In Chief at
Racket Magazine, posed this broader question on the Media
Professionals Group discussion, by the same title, on LinkedIn:
"What I mean is, for all of you managers/owners out there: are you
doing anything new or interesting with yourselves to make it through
the crap economy and social paranoia of a recession? Do you delude
yourself in thinking what you do is new, or are you ACTUALLY doing
something new. For you young start ups, how do you plan on 'making
it?'" The following is a response.
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- October 17,
2008
- By Eric M. Scharf
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- As a member of the games industry,
the simplest and most forthright answer would be that business will
go on as usual with little need to "play it safe" – and an increased
focus on interactive entertainment products that require less
overhead, less development time, less investment, simpler
distribution methods, and a lower cost to consumers: (1)
browser-based games, (2) casual games, (3) mobile games, and (4)
Xbox Live Arcade games (as well as similar services from Nintendo
and Sony).
Regarding subscription-based games – such as MMO's
– publishers are simply going to stand pat with their current rates or
lower them, and their decisions may, ironically, have more to do
with a lack of quality competition than penny-pinching consumers
(e.g. there is World of Warcraft and, then, there is everyone else).
Regarding "standard" game development products, such as your
everyday PC or console video games, publishers and developers alike
will be praying a bit that consumers do not suddenly become less
predictable and far more judicious with their money vs. rarely
appearing (according to annual marketing data) to have a problem
spending $50-60 US on a PC or console video game that may provide no
more than eight to twelve hours of enjoyment (which equals out to a
few days for hardcore gamers and one to three weeks for
happy-go-lucky folks).
In general, however, again, I expect more business as usual within
the games industry, until something truly cataclysmic occurs. Any
renewed or enhanced focus on casual entertainment will ultimately
amount to taking advantage of a higher demand for an existing type
of product that happens to cost consumers much less than usual.
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- This response was posted publicly on
the associated LinkedIn Group discussion blog.
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