Gameguru Mania

[ggrobot]

Geoffrey Zatkin, president of research firm Electronic Entertainment Design and Research,

estimates that just 4% of all released games actually return profits for publishers.  Speaking to Forbes, Zatkin showed that there is truth in numbers. In fact, numbers are EEDAR\'s specialty. The firm maintains

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[Mantrhax]

"Geoffrey Zatkin, president of research firm Electronic Entertainment Design and Research"


I think this guy need to find anoher job, perhaps one that he knows better !!!

[Ozieo]

That 96% is about the same amount of games that get released in an unfinished state, that's 96% of games released to make us ditch out money for being an alpha/beta tester.

That figure doesn't surprise me at all, nor will it surprise me if they're trying to make us believe it's due to the warez-scene.

No, it's not, it's because only 4% of the games are released when properly finished and polished, and UN-bloated before release.

[doodaddy]

The 4% of successful games include The Sims, Everquest, and World of Warcraft, which each make a billion dollars, I'd guess. You then use that money to subsidize other games. It's a "hit-driven" business just like movies.

96% non-profitable sounds pretty bad. It may be more like 80% that lose money and 16% that break even.

[nb411]

I think the rise of EEDAR shows that the game industry is finally becoming as "serious" as other major business industries. I mean it's just not good enough to make games based entirely on whims and expect them to do well. You have to plan and organise. Expectations need to be budgeted and based some real data.

The part where the guy talks about not knowing whether to spend the extra dev money/time on multiplayer just makes that so clear. It could happen that the game generates a good number of sales, yet does not clear a profit. People who enjoyed the game largely ignored the multiplayer component, and total revenues from sales of the game were $500,000 short of breaking even (or 1mill or 20,000...). It becomes quite easy to see how these businesses can die out due to lack of good information to base their decisions on.

I think the reason the bigger game companies do so well is because they do good business AND make games that people enjoy and want to play. Success and survival is not JUST making a good game, or JUST good management. All the ingredients have to be present or don't expect to do well.

[nb411]

[hakef]

if industries sell 5€ then game will survive not 70€