Tektodo

In yesterday’s article, I talked about Grand Theft Auto IV and how it was the most expensive game ever produced.  Sopranogrl22 left a good comment asking why it costs so much to produce a game like GTAIV.  While I certainly don’t know of all the aspects that go into game production, I do have some knowledge as to why games are so expensive nowadays (I was originally planning on being a game design major).

First and foremost, games today are getting more and more expensive, simply due to sheer size.  With a movie, you have about two and half hours worth of content, with a game, you can have dozens and dozens of hours.  Hundreds of pages of scripts were written for GTA IV’s story and hours of sound and dialogue had to be recorded.  Also, since games today are so much more realistic in terms of graphics, developers need to have lots of references to base their games on.  For instance, the team behind GTA IV had to take thousands of pictures of New York City and even placed time-lapse cameras on roofs in order to accurately render rainfall.

Games are becoming more and more like interactive movies.  They have top-notch special effects, voice-acting (often physical acting too, in the form of motion capture), full-blown soundtracks, engrossing scripts and engaging characters.  Perhaps even more so than movies, games are always pushing technological boundaries as they continue to move towards more realistic experiences.

Unfortunately, all of these things add up and, as with GTA IV, can result in staggering development costs.  Luckily for Rockstar, this isn’t a problem, since GTA IV is selling phenomenally well.  However, these costs are being passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.  Most games for the Xbox 360 and PS3 are $60 or more because of these high development costs.  Furthermore, since games are becoming so large and so expensive, developers are starting to take less risks.

Luckily, that is starting to change.  The Wii is much cheaper to develop on than the 360 or PS3 and developers therefore have more freedom with their ideas (and games are cheaper for consumers too).  Services like Wii Ware, Xbox Live and the PlayStation Store are also letting developers explore and create innovative games without have to worry about multi-million dollar development costs.  Years ago, it used to be possible for a game to be made by just one person.  Now, that is becoming harder and harder, as can be seen with GTA IV and its 1,000 plus development team.  However, companies like Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony have recognized this and are starting to address the problem.

It’s nice to have blockbuster games like GTA IV or Halo 3, but it’s also just as nice to see developers starting to take more risks on services such as Wii Ware, Xbox Live and the PlayStation Store.  GTA IV may be the talk of the gaming world now, but let’s not forget the little guys either.  Developers of smaller games may not have as much money, but they sure do have some interesting ideas.

Filed under: Microsoft, Nintendo, PS3, Technology, Video Games, Wii, Xbox 360 Tagged: | Grand Theft Auto IV, GTA IV, Halo 3, Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation Store, PS3, Rockstar, Sony, Wii, Wii Ware, Xbox 360, Xbox Live