According to a report today from VG 24/7, Saints Row 4 senior producer Jim Boone said that because game publisher and developers are trending toward higher budgets that innovation is being stifled.
Boone said in an interview with OXM that when titles become so expensive to make, publishers and developers are hesitant to branch away from the mold that will ensure a solid launch in terms of revenue.
“You can’t really innovate much any more because the games are so expensive publishers don’t want you to take chances,” Boone said. “That means you’ve got to do the best you possibly can and spend a ton of money or you’re going to do things that possibly won’t be the best they can be, in which case people won’t buy it and they’ll just go buy the game that did cost all that money.”
Gamers, too, factor into the equation because players don’t care whether they’re spending $60 on a title that cost $80 million to produce or one that cost $200 million.
“What’s the best game? That’s what’s going to get my money,” Boon said.
That mentality, Boone said, is leading gamers, who have limited budgets, to spend money on the big budget games and “call it a day.”
“I just feel like if we keep going down this path of having to spend couple $100 million per project, man, there’s quite a few publishers and developers that are going to go out of business,” Boone said.
But with the rising popularity of digital distribution, Boone hopes with more ways to distribute games there can be some change in how games are priced.
