Sean Leidenformer chairman SIE Worldwide Studios, joined the list of industry figures speaking at the event Gamelab 2023. Veteran talking Sony led with a journalist Dean Takahashi, and one of the central topics of the whole conversation was the release of an adventure game The Last of Us: Part II. Leyden noted how monumental and impressive this project was, but he hastened to raise another important issue – production time and the amount of resources needed to create developments of this scale.
More specifically Sean Leiden remembered the times when a budget of one million dollars covered the most expensive games. However, each new console generation literally doubles the amount of funds needed by developers to release their projects.
Leiden I am convinced that current production models, where the cost of a new large game can range from 80 to 150 million dollars, and the development is about five years, “just can’t exist“.
“I don’t believe that with the advent of the new generation it will be possible to take these numbers, double again, hoping for some growth. The industry as a whole needs to slow down a bit and ask simple questions: What exactly are we creating? What is waiting for us audience? What is the best way to present the story and what are we trying to say in general?
Not every adventure game can focus on 50-60 hours of gameplay, it simply requires too much money. Forcing all authors to follow this [сегодняшним] To the framework, you simply close the road to the industry for many. All of this requires a serious reevaluation, “Sony veteran explained.
Moreover, according to Leiden, pricing processes for games can become a serious stumbling block in the whole discussion. Despite the fact that budgets are obviously growing, the prices of games almost do not change, and an industry veteran is not sure this can go on for too long.
“Since the beginning of my career, the price of games has stood at $ 59.99, but the cost of their production has grown tenfold. If you do not have sufficient flexibility in the amounts that are printed on the price tags of new releases, and production costs begin to grow, then the whole model is losing stability. I think that during this generation we will witness the collision of these two values, “continued Sean Leiden.
Further Leiden I tried to share my own discussions about exactly how the market can adapt to the situation and what steps will be required from platform owners, developers and publishers.
“All expenses go to pay for labor, right? No need to build industries, turn sand into glass. Everything is decided by creativity and the ability to gather like-minded people under one roof in order to create something outstanding. Everything is built on people, and budgets are laid out from these considerations.
Therefore, it may be worth taking a wide look and thinking, do we have any other alternatives? Maybe instead of five years creating a game for 80 hours of gameplay, we will spend 3 years and give you an adventure for 15 hours? Will there be a noticeable difference in budget? Is this an attractive option?
“Personally, I am a player of an age. I would gladly accept a return of AAA projects lasting 12-15 hours. First, I would be able to go through more games corny. And, as in the case of a well-written book or a film , such a more rigorous approach would allow us to get content that is no less strong and exciting in content, “concluded Thought Sean Leiden.
Next Generation Console Release Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X due before the end of the year.
Read also: “You’ll still see the benefits of Xbox Series X hardware”: Phil Spencer is not afraid of competition with the PlayStation 5.
Add to our Telegram channel via the link or search for it manually in the search by name gmradost. There we publish, including that which does not fall into the news feed.. Also subscribe to us in Yandex.Zen, Twitter and VK. And do not forget that we have a dark theme and a ribbon instead of tiles.
