Everyone loves money. Rich people who have lots of cash to invest in the game industry love money too. So why should we be surprised when investors say that they hope to make a profit off of investing in game publishers and developers?
Why, it’s the way they’re saying it.
Gus Tai of Trinity Ventures seems to have a lot of faith in the progression of the industry. I would like to categorize the following quote under “unrealistic optimism” if you will:
The traditional game company is dead. Five to 10 years from now, they will be where newspapers are today.
Um, what?
Investors in start-up studios and publishers seem to have this idea that the future of the industry lies in “gaming factories.” They are looking for companies “who can crank out multiple projects and find ways to expand upon their successful titles with new levels and content.” You know, as opposed to all of those other companies whose goal is to make boring, unoriginal games that people don’t like.
If you read between all of the fancy words, investors are looking for a company that can come up with a good premise for a game, then bury it 9 ft. deep under sequels and spin-offs. While this is a cute idea of how to make money, it is inherently broken. Pumping out multiple titles a year (sequels or not) would be intensely stressful, especially to start-up game companies or publishers with limited manpower. Even if those companies could manage the amount of work, the quality of the product would most likely suffer.
Maybe there will be a day when games reach “newspaper” status and there can be a release everyday. But I cringe at the idea of a market saturated is sub-par games like Carnival Games and Vampire Rain.
Via: GigaOm
through VentureBeat
Better idea:
Plant money tree.
Wait.
????
Profit!
Oh Oh I know the answer…. Activision…
Why would you want to make a game a day when one title like WoW makes something like 50 billion dollars a year for a single company? Could one newspaper make that much money over 3 years? hell no it couldn’t.