Sat, Nov 22, 2008 | 08:37 GMT
EEDAR: Only 4% of games ever make a profit
In an interview with Forbes, EEDAR president Geoffrey Zatkin has claimed that only a tiny portion of games on the market ever see the greener side of life.
EEDAR sells data on specific gaming features to the liks of EA, Ubisoft, and so in, in an effort to maximise chances of finding eventual money.
From the piece:
“Every game I have ever worked on, we’ve gone in blind as to which features would sell the game better,” says Zatkin, who designed games for 11 years before co-founding EEDAR. Not knowing whether it would be worth an extra $500,000 to design a multiplayer mode “would scare the crap out of me,” he says.
Only 4% of games that make it to market actually make a profit, he says. About 60% of a game’s budget is spent reworking or redesigning a game.
Ever wonder why games are so prone to “sequelitis”? Now you know.
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Posted in: America, Development, Trade
Tags: EEDAR, Geoffrey Zatkin
4 comments
#1
Shatner
22/11/08, 8:59 am
“Ever wonder why games are so prone to “sequelitis”? Now you know.”
Of course if the owed earnings for game sales actually got to the developers instead of stopping at second hand retailers (and pirates) then you’d have a healthier industry.
And, as the recent charts showed very clearly: present an original game or a sequel to today’s gamers and they’ll go for the sequel.
/looks at the TAGS section of ths site on the right.
Looks like the games media thrives on sequels as much as anyone.
#2
patlike
22/11/08, 9:55 am
Everyone thrives on it. It’s no wonder creative industries are risk-averse. It’s exactly the same situation for films, books, etc. Don’t see that taking creative risks this year did much good for EA and Sony with Mirror’s Edge and LBP.
It’s an endless argument: do people buy men with gun games because they like them or because they’re not presented with an adequate choice?
I favour the former, to be honest.
#3
Hunam
22/11/08, 12:04 pm
Every time I see stats like this I just can’t believe them. No one would make games or get funding to make games if there was a 4% chance of making profit. It’s just bad business.
#4
bloke
22/11/08, 1:37 pm
EEDAR is selling a service to try and optimise the design and production of games, so it’s in its interest to produce scare stories like this.
It might make a nice headline, but it probably damages their credibility IMHO.