The games industry is undergoing a ‘generational change,’ says Epic CEO Tim Sweeney: ‘A lot of games are released with high budgets, and they’re not selling’
Tim Sweeney apparently thinks big budget games fail because… They aren't social enough? I personally feel that this is BS, but what do you guys think? Is there a trend to support his comments?
Probably shouldnât have raised the prices and also have the games run like ass on release
spotty15
Maybe don’t make high budget shitty games?
domiran
There are plenty of single player games that sell extremely well that aren’t social at all, though?
JohnnyJayce
Game studios should take note from Hollywood. Eventually you are putting too much money into your project. Money that doesn’t even need to be put into it.
treeizzle
This from the company that tried to push out a Unreal Tournament developed on a shoe string budget while continuing to ram cash in to their F2P title? Â
Maybe Tim should stop making shit games if he wants them to sell?
JusaPikachu
I donât think there are any patterns. There are some single player games that sell incredibly well & some multiplayer/social games that sell incredibly well, there are some well polished & high quality games that sell well & some broken/incomplete games that sell well. While at the same time there are examples of all of those that sell poorly. Itâs almost impossible to tell what will sell & why it will sell. Which is part of why the high budgets scare companies. Unless you already have a popular IP itâs always a bet on if it will sell or not & even some popular IPs have problems selling.
The_mingthing
Maybe people are done with shitty bussiness practices?
dkyguy1995
Go back to splitting up resources and working on multiple games at a time
WhiskeyTangoPapa-
Gamers will support games that respect their target audiences and are fun. Itâs as simple as that. Black Myth, Helldivers 2, Space Marine 2. Just some recent big hits. All knew what they wanted to be any tried to make their core audience happy first.
Dante_SS
I wouldn’t listen to Sweeny imo, he’s been out of it for years
Sharktoothdecay
maybe don’t do live service/micro-transactions laden/empty open world games
Hefty-Marzipan
I guess Concord and BG3 were just anomalies then?
Edit: first is an example of an expensive multiplayer game that failed, and BG3 is a single player game that was super successful. Both contradicting his thesis
TheUrPigeon
Yeah the games are high budget, but that isn’t reflected in the final product. *That’s* the problem. You don’t see anybody complaining about BG3, and there is zero social interaction with other humans in that game.
TheUrPigeon
“Games are undergoing a generational shift” says the guy who looks like your 6th grade poli-sci teacher.
AlaskanTroll
A multi million dollar turd. Is still a turdâŠâŠ
Background_NPC666
“High budget” most spent on looks, gameplay is just copy pasted from other games. No wonder they fail, you play one, you’ve played them all.
Fondor_Yards
No. Â While mp games will probably always sell more than sp stuff due to its advantages, this is nothing new. Â The reason people didnât buy those games is cause they were mid to bad. Â Gamers are (very slowly) starting to reach the point with the current big game companies that they donât give a shit. Â They donât care that it was made by square or blizzard, that you dumped 200 mill into celebrity va and marketing and dumb gimmick graphics. Â They want good games, they want fun games. Â If you want 60+ bucks from me, the game better be complete, weâre tired of games needing 3 months and bunch of mods to be in a good state.
DarkR124
God these CEOs and high level execs are so fucking dense.
There are tons of games with obscenely high budgets that sell *very* well. Want good sales? Make good games.
kdebones
Welp, he was right in the first half, a lot of high budget games aren’t selling. Tho because “they’re not social enough” is a level of brain rot that’s indicative of the overarching real issue.
tweda4
If you look at the whole point in the article, it’s fairly clear that he’s just trying to lay up more investors and tie-ins for Fortnight.
At the same time, I don’t know if he fully believes what he’s saying in context of wider gaming, but he might well believe that fortnight being the first game to capitalise on the points he’s raised is what’s keeping it in vogue. I think it’s a reasonable assumption if nothing else.
TerrorXx
Cut CEO pay. Increase gamer developer pay. Unionize each company. Stop suffocated the art for your short term gains and you’ll be relevant to younger people.
Inevitable_Geometry
Funny how the cost of living crisis has forced gamers to actually be sharper with our cash and spend less on highly touted dogshit releases.
Inevitable_Pin8921
Then take notice of the small budget games made with love and genuine passion selling record numbers. Money â Good product, when will you fucking learn.
Zacpod
Maybe if you stopped making the same shitty game over and over and over again?
There ARE games that sell beautifully. They’re called… Good. Make GOOD games and they’ll sell.
TanTanExtreme2
Bud you nickle and dime us with bug ridden games, shove a battlepass down our throats and riddle the games with micro transactions. The Fuck do you expect? Give us quality games with those budgets instead of games as step away from mobile games.
ahamling27
Itâs funny. When itâs a passion project, we see huge success. Minecraft, Terraria, Stardew Valley, Shovel Knight, etc., are all examples of gamers making the game they want. Sure, you can argue theyâre just indie devs being indie devs, but they all just started making a game they wanted to see. They didnât start to appease shareholders. We need to get back to supporting developers who make games that gamers actually want to see.
neutralityparty
Sweeney is dumba**. Don’t put your social justice, society whatever in a game.
Make a good quality game and it will be just fine.
trillbobaggins96
Heâs right in that omega casuals want to play video games with their friends. But those games usually suck ass.
natephant
Maybe stop paying sag actors more than the actual dev makes in 5 years to play the role of video game characters⊠maybe that might help budgets..
30 Comments
Ok đđŸ
Probably shouldnât have raised the prices and also have the games run like ass on release
Maybe don’t make high budget shitty games?
There are plenty of single player games that sell extremely well that aren’t social at all, though?
Game studios should take note from Hollywood. Eventually you are putting too much money into your project. Money that doesn’t even need to be put into it.
This from the company that tried to push out a Unreal Tournament developed on a shoe string budget while continuing to ram cash in to their F2P title? Â
Maybe Tim should stop making shit games if he wants them to sell?
I donât think there are any patterns. There are some single player games that sell incredibly well & some multiplayer/social games that sell incredibly well, there are some well polished & high quality games that sell well & some broken/incomplete games that sell well. While at the same time there are examples of all of those that sell poorly. Itâs almost impossible to tell what will sell & why it will sell. Which is part of why the high budgets scare companies. Unless you already have a popular IP itâs always a bet on if it will sell or not & even some popular IPs have problems selling.
Maybe people are done with shitty bussiness practices?
Go back to splitting up resources and working on multiple games at a time
Gamers will support games that respect their target audiences and are fun. Itâs as simple as that. Black Myth, Helldivers 2, Space Marine 2. Just some recent big hits. All knew what they wanted to be any tried to make their core audience happy first.
I wouldn’t listen to Sweeny imo, he’s been out of it for years
maybe don’t do live service/micro-transactions laden/empty open world games
I guess Concord and BG3 were just anomalies then?
Edit: first is an example of an expensive multiplayer game that failed, and BG3 is a single player game that was super successful. Both contradicting his thesis
Yeah the games are high budget, but that isn’t reflected in the final product. *That’s* the problem. You don’t see anybody complaining about BG3, and there is zero social interaction with other humans in that game.
“Games are undergoing a generational shift” says the guy who looks like your 6th grade poli-sci teacher.
A multi million dollar turd. Is still a turdâŠâŠ
“High budget” most spent on looks, gameplay is just copy pasted from other games. No wonder they fail, you play one, you’ve played them all.
No. Â While mp games will probably always sell more than sp stuff due to its advantages, this is nothing new. Â The reason people didnât buy those games is cause they were mid to bad. Â Gamers are (very slowly) starting to reach the point with the current big game companies that they donât give a shit. Â They donât care that it was made by square or blizzard, that you dumped 200 mill into celebrity va and marketing and dumb gimmick graphics. Â They want good games, they want fun games. Â If you want 60+ bucks from me, the game better be complete, weâre tired of games needing 3 months and bunch of mods to be in a good state.
God these CEOs and high level execs are so fucking dense.
There are tons of games with obscenely high budgets that sell *very* well. Want good sales? Make good games.
Welp, he was right in the first half, a lot of high budget games aren’t selling. Tho because “they’re not social enough” is a level of brain rot that’s indicative of the overarching real issue.
If you look at the whole point in the article, it’s fairly clear that he’s just trying to lay up more investors and tie-ins for Fortnight.
At the same time, I don’t know if he fully believes what he’s saying in context of wider gaming, but he might well believe that fortnight being the first game to capitalise on the points he’s raised is what’s keeping it in vogue.
I think it’s a reasonable assumption if nothing else.
Cut CEO pay. Increase gamer developer pay. Unionize each company. Stop suffocated the art for your short term gains and you’ll be relevant to younger people.
Funny how the cost of living crisis has forced gamers to actually be sharper with our cash and spend less on highly touted dogshit releases.
Then take notice of the small budget games made with love and genuine passion selling record numbers. Money â Good product, when will you fucking learn.
Maybe if you stopped making the same shitty game over and over and over again?
There ARE games that sell beautifully. They’re called… Good. Make GOOD games and they’ll sell.
Bud you nickle and dime us with bug ridden games, shove a battlepass down our throats and riddle the games with micro transactions. The Fuck do you expect? Give us quality games with those budgets instead of games as step away from mobile games.
Itâs funny. When itâs a passion project, we see huge success. Minecraft, Terraria, Stardew Valley, Shovel Knight, etc., are all examples of gamers making the game they want. Sure, you can argue theyâre just indie devs being indie devs, but they all just started making a game they wanted to see. They didnât start to appease shareholders. We need to get back to supporting developers who make games that gamers actually want to see.
Sweeney is dumba**. Don’t put your social justice, society whatever in a game.
Make a good quality game and it will be just fine.
Heâs right in that omega casuals want to play video games with their friends. But those games usually suck ass.
Maybe stop paying sag actors more than the actual dev makes in 5 years to play the role of video game characters⊠maybe that might help budgets..