Capitalism Is Killing Games?

[Demon_Skeith]

Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty creator Lorne Lanning has denounced capitalism and its influence on the games industry, saying that the industry's hope lies in indie gaming.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Lanning voices a wariness of capitalism and the way it pushes for constant, exponential growth amongst triple-A game developers and publishers. As a result, Lanning says, publishers have become more and more risk-averse due to the sheer amount of money they're investing into their products.

"So the budget's going up, and now [publishers are] saying, 'Now we're spending $20 million on a title and not $5 million, and at $20 million, we need better terms," Lanning says. "You're going to do 10 times the work, but you're going to get a fifth of the backside because we're risking all this money.' Depending on how savvy they would be with the deals, usually they never made money. Most developers never really made money. They were able to stay in the business. But the way the deals were structured, they were basically dead."

But capitalism isn't just hurting games, he says: "I think it's killing the world."

According to Lanning, the games industry's salvation lies in indie developers, as they are not often restricted creatively by the risk of squandering a huge investment. "The cheaper they can make their product, the more creative opportunity they have," Lanning says. "So you can take more risks the cheaper you are."

source

you agree with this?

 

[froggyboy604]

Capitalism maybe killing some games where the boss expects to earn a lot of money by making too many games each year. But, there are now more ways to find money to make a game.

There is now Crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo, and Kickstarter for game backers who like the game, and want to pre-order a copy. If enough people becomes backers by paying money to pre-order a game, and get other stuff like a Gaming T-shirt, the game would be made.

A lot of new gaming companies like Oculus Rift, Ouya, Gamestick, and games for Ouya and Steam got funded by Crowd funding.

Crowdfunding is more like socialism where everyone pays some money for a game to be made instead of the owner paying millions of dollars to make a game.

 

[Cierra]

I agree a little, but "..killing the world" is a big over dramatization.