Devs, what type of budget increases should studios expect

[Li Mu Bai]

The games you list aren't the type of games that benefit from the armies of artists and specialists that will drive up development costs for blockbuster games.

I realize this SanGreal, what I'm questioning is in the broader scheme of the next-gen lead to less original innovative content as well as niche title profitability & production. As the casual gamer becomes more & more transfixed by the visual content & high production immersability of the major franchises. Every game must have this type of "look" etc. to assure market success.

 

[Johnny_Physics]

I realize this SanGreal, what I'm questioning is in the broader scheme of the next-gen lead to less original innovative content as well as niche title profitability & production. As the casual gamer becomes more & more transfixed by the visual content & high production immersability of the major franchises. Every game must have this type of "look" etc. to assure market success.

Tons of really quirky and niched titles were released this gen, I'm fairly certain that more strange titles were released this generation compared to the previous one, and the next generation will probably have just as many strange games as weäve seen the last couple of years - if not more.

Also, I don't think that the cost of developing a next-gen equivalent to a quirky title from this generation will be much more expensive than it is today. And with each generation of consoles more and more people start to see themselves as "hardcore" or "oldschool" so the market for smaller titles constantly grows, so there's certainly room for some added development costs.

 

[Xeno]

I have a hard time believing any console game this generation broke the 20 million development cost barrier. Maybe with advertising and development costs combined you can get those figures and surpass it.

I know of several, but I don't think budgets have ever been officially released for them..

You can get a pretty good ballpark estimate of cost by doing a team head count (including all the managers and producers and sales and marketing people) and multiplying by development time in years and about twice what you think a resaonable salary is on the team.

Several?

I'm talking about strictly development costs not production and advertising.

 

[ERP]

Yep so am I