Hello!
Not to be cheesy about it, but this week was a really interesting week. Seeing advancements in tractor beams and space engines? How much cooler can it get? Alas, as cool as those things are, until Microsoft finds a way to shoe-horn them into the next version of Kinect they’re not going to have much relevance to videogames for a while yet.
In this week’s Big Four, I’ll be taking a look at the over-romanticized image fans have about the development and cost of videogames and the studios that make them. The world is much harsher than we care to admit. Then there is The Sims and how one kiss was all it took to change the world, of videogames and possibly Warcraft. There is also my weekly beating of the digital drums and thank EA for their assistance. Now there are others picking up the cause, and thankfully they are much more public than I am. And finally we take a look at some of the best reporting in the industry by Mike Rose and how he is uncovering the Pay-for-Video controversy stemming out from some of my favorite YouTubers – The Yogscast.
As always, click on the heading to be taken to the relevant article, and also as always, here’s to another good week.
Enjoy!
The Big Four
What does it really cost to open an indie studio? All your money, most of your life
Videogame development is expensive, and it is usually so expensive that many people are shocked to learn the actual numbers that go into games both large and small. Maybe this stems from the industry being overly tight lipped about the production cost of games, and their general distrust of transparency. Or it could be from fans and their over-romanticized notions about the industry that seem to exist in almost every facet of the gaming world.
It’s a topic that’s been thrust into the limelight in recent weeks, with the very public implosions of Yogventures and Crytek.
You may have heard of Yogventures and how it raised over $500,000 by taking to Kickstart, only to have lost it all due to mis-management and poor business practices. This of course all happened very publicly as many still are skeptical of the Kickstart process, and the news of that much money disappearing overnight is big. Then there is Crytek and their incredibly public financial woes, with every week bringing another story about resignations, walk outs, and most recently the selling of Homefront in orderto keep the lights on and water in the cooler.
So what happened here?
Through a series of interviews the Yogventures team have come off sounding as though they were in over their heads. The excess of cash created new unforeseen problems, and an attempt to spend that excess cash led to unforeseen costs. And Crytek? Well they’re not saying much of anything, except that they’ve “secured their future”, though you have to wonder how many people that future has been secured for in the wake of so many walkouts and, now, redundancies.
Guillaume Boucher-Vidal, founder of Nine Dots Studio, has a great editorial for Polygon where he shares with the public how much it cost him to open his small studio. Most of these things are easy to figure out but are often overlooked, or are left to the “out of sight, out of mind” thought process that humans are so famous for. When you get right down to it , in today’s economy, $500 thousand dollars isn’t a lot of money, and many developers put their own life savings into making their dreams a reality before they ever turn to Kickstarter.
It’s something to think about.
The Kiss That Changed Video Games
1999 isn’t that long ago, but with how fast modern culture moves it is a life time ago for many social issues. Think of how far the discussion of same sex-marriage has come since the mid-2000s when it was a hot button election issue that rallied voters to the polls. Recently there has been outrage over Tomodachi Life and how Nintendo elected to remove the ability for same sex couples to form within the game. But before this there was Will Wright’s The Sims, and its choice to include same-sex relationships within a game that is all about life.
I remember when the news of this broke and it went mainstream - the major news outlets predictably took it, sensationalised it to suit their agenda, and ran with it full force. Not only were games teaching our kids to be desensitized to violence, but they were also teaching kids to be gay! Ban this sick filth!
This (ridiculous) mainstream coverage had completely the opposite effect effect that the media had hoped for, of course (it always does) - it helped propel the game into history, and it went on to be one of the highest-selling computer games of time – as well as one of the most influential.
At the time of its development the programming for same-sex interaction was implemented without really a second though to the developers behind it, and it was never questioned by either EA or anyone else on the development staff of Maxis. When it came time to show the game off at E3 1999, Maxis had to produce a stage demo for EA to present to the media. A lot was riding on that demo, but none of it was about same-sex couples within the game. EA didn’t think there was a market for the game and the buzz – or lack there off- created at E3 would decide if production would continue.
It was here that the stage was set for an accidental kiss that would change videogames forever. The artificial AI was left running in the background while a presentation was being delivered about the game, and the rest as they say is history.If you lived through that time or if you want to visit a part of history that has changed your world for the better than read the rest of Simon Parkin’s post over at The New Yorker. It’ll take you back.
Our Relationship With Physical Media Is About to Change
I am starting to run the risk of becoming a broken record about the topic of “physical vs digital,” and anyone who knows me knows that I’m an avid futurist who sides with digital through and through. Seemingly every week in Well, That Was Interesting I manage to slip in something about the notions we currently hold about ownership, and how that will dramatically change in the not-so-distant future. Well if you’ve not been paying attention to this issue you probably are now with the EA/Xbox streaming service news and the backlash against PlayStation Now.
With both services you will pay a company to not own their games, but to rent them - in Sony’s case for four hours at a time at $5 a pop. Many people are incredibly skeptical of these services, and worry that they’ll lose access to their own games, or are being expected to pay exorbitant sums of money to play games they already own. Before you start jumping on that band wagon I feel I should remind you that you already partake in many services like this. Namely Netflix/Hulu and Pandora/Spotify.
The fact is that more and more of us are obtaining and consuming more and more of our media digitally, and that includes videogames. Steam has already paved the way for an all-digital marketplace, and most of the games I own are digital already. This has freed up a lot of shelf space for…well not books, because I buy those digital too now. Hmm,well now that I think about it I no longer own a bookcase either. Ikea better be paying attention to market trends.
If you are looking to hear others speak of the future then head over to Giant Bomb to Check out Patrick Klepecks’s article about a personal account of his realization of the digital shift in his life. If you are looking for an alternative take, then Ben Kuchera over at Polygon has a great additional read on the topic with “The days of owning games are coming to an end.”
Are developers actually paying for YouTuber and press coverage?
Wait, there is more Yogscast controversy in the news? Damn it, I like those guys. Ok what is it? “They and other YouTube personalities are taking money from developers to feature games on their channel.” Oh, Well, I suppose That is Interesting. (See what I did there?)
In all seriousness, this is a disturbing trend in the world of videogame coverage, and its largely being reported on by the likes of Simon Parkin over at Eurogamer, and Mike Rose over at Gamasutra, who has broken several stories on the practice. One of the revelations that has made people sit up and take notice recently is the Yogscast taking revenue shares for an entire month to promote Space Enginers, and recently Mike Rose conducted a survey of 325 developers about paying YouTubers. While only a small fraction, around one percent, admit that they are currently paying for coverage on YouTube, his survey did show that about 20 percent are seriously considering shoveling out money for the spotlight.
Mike’s many pieces are incredibly detailed and his work has paid off with a few big name people saying they will be more forthcoming about accepting money for videos. But when interviewing NerdCubed the personality had this to say about the amount of money being thrown at video reviewers from the industry: “The amount of money and offers is increasing. Not too long ago I got one for $8,000 for 350,000 views on a game video. That’s just one video for me, one day’s work! But then would I want to be positive about it, negative… so I ignore all this stuff.”
This is a larger issue, one where the blame does not rest solely on the video reviewers and the like, but one that rests at the feet of the industry at large. If it is true that the amount of money and offers is increasing then this is an escalation on the developer side, and that amount of money is hard to turn down for many. However, this practice has been going on for years on the print side, only there it is more on the down-low. It’s no surprise that the money would be shifted to video journalism as written is in the decline.
This is most likely not the end of the issue, and it has existed since the inception of journalism.
Visual Stimulation
The Sailor’s Dream
Mega Man Classic vs. Mega Man X - Conveyance
How PlayStation Now May Change Gaming, and What Constitutes a Game?
Extra Study Material
So let’s talk awesome future tech that we’re about to break open wide with recent scientific breakthroughs; I’m talking Tractor-Beams and something called the Cannae Drive, both of which are ripped straight out of fiction.
The first ever “Tractor-Beam” is thought to have been mentioned in modern science fiction literature is said to be in Edward E. Smith’s Speedhounds of IPC, from 1947. Since then the concept of using a beam of energy to move objects at a distance has appeared in everything from Star Wars to James Bond, and a generation of scientist have grown up dreaming of making this a reality. Laura Parker sheds light on the medically-focused “Dundee Tractor-Beam” over at The New York in “An Advance in Tractor-Beam Technology.”
NASA has been experimenting with many different types of rockets and engines ever since the agency was created. But with a new plan to send a team to Mars in the next two decades NASA has started to test more experimental devices, once that have worked on the small scale but not yet tested in the field. The privatization of space has given the keys to the research and development lottery over to the private sector; enter Guido Fetta and his Cannae Drive, it uses no liquid fuel or nuclear reactors. Find out how it works in Carl Franzen’s “NASA tested an impossible space engine and it somehow worked.”
Brian Kale
@brianwkale
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