aaronspink
Veteran
You can't compare it to a new game cost but what EA makes on the new game. It is likely that EA take about 50% of the retail cost of a game, or $30. So $10 is 1/3 the money they make.
EA financials - third loss-making year in a row
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You can't compare it to a new game cost but what EA makes on the new game. It is likely that EA take about 50% of the retail cost of a game, or $30. So $10 is 1/3 the money they make.
I did say it was a rhetorical question!! 
Well the biggest problem with a lot of publishers/developers in this gen has been development costs. I maybe wrong, but does EA's dev studios share tech between one another? The problem might be that there's little to no collaboration between their studios for making games, which means they're wasting money.
I'm not saying every studio should only be using the same tech/engine, but if every developer can have more leeway on making their games by getting a bit of advice/programming-techniques from more experienced developers then maybe they'd save money that way.
But even then EA has been getting into digital-distribution with a bigger emphasis on Mobile-phone games, MMOs, and bigger online services for their annual brands. I still don't believe used games is why they're losing out on so much though
I'm not saying every studio should only be using the same tech/engine, but if every developer can have more leeway on making their games by getting a bit of advice/programming-techniques from more experienced developers then maybe they'd save money that way.
But even then EA has been getting into digital-distribution with a bigger emphasis on Mobile-phone games, MMOs, and bigger online services for their annual brands. I still don't believe used games is why they're losing out on so much though
It might be a case of using separate engines even within the same studio.
Mass Effect is a customized Unreal Engine 3, Dragon Age is not; and perhaps the SW Old Republic MMO is yet another engine, which would result in Bioware, a single studio, having zero tech sharing even on its own...
On the other hand Dead Space 1-2 is using the same tech that maybe the Godfather games had?
Mass Effect is a customized Unreal Engine 3, Dragon Age is not; and perhaps the SW Old Republic MMO is yet another engine, which would result in Bioware, a single studio, having zero tech sharing even on its own...
On the other hand Dead Space 1-2 is using the same tech that maybe the Godfather games had?
Silent_Buddha
Legend
EA (I'm assuming other publishers also) have a programming team that they have available that they use to help all studios. They also frequently shuffle people from one project to another as projects get finished. I'm assuming tech is shared whenever possible.
Thing is, art is going to be a large cost and except for mundane items not much of that can be shared. Licensing fees (all those sports and movie games) can't be shared. And the larger your company the larger your day to day operating costs (building, utility, administration, accounting, etc...). Those day to day costs rise in a non-linear fashion. The larger your company the larger the percentage of day to day costs.
Title could be made cheaper at independant developers (avoiding publishing deals) I think, just due to the massive reduction in overhead. Unfortunately, there's no way for an independant developer to not only raise funds for anything but a small title but then distribute it themselves.
Regards,
SB
Thing is, art is going to be a large cost and except for mundane items not much of that can be shared. Licensing fees (all those sports and movie games) can't be shared. And the larger your company the larger your day to day operating costs (building, utility, administration, accounting, etc...). Those day to day costs rise in a non-linear fashion. The larger your company the larger the percentage of day to day costs.
Title could be made cheaper at independant developers (avoiding publishing deals) I think, just due to the massive reduction in overhead. Unfortunately, there's no way for an independant developer to not only raise funds for anything but a small title but then distribute it themselves.
Regards,
SB
Who says the change in exclusivity was was about the PS3?
Simultaneous release on PC seems to have been the right decision ... the PS3 release might just have been a side effect.
