Nikolay Baryshnikov, head of gaming at the famous Russian developer and publisher 1C Company, has claimed it's become too difficult to make profit from high-budget games.
"I think the industry is in such state now that it's almost impossible to make money even on a good game," he said. "Because marketing budgets are tens of millions dollars, consumers are expecting that they're going to pay $40 or $60 and get amazing things. Hundred hours of gameplay, tens of thousands of hours of DVD footage, super multiplayer..."
"If we did this it would be, I don't know, $200 million... If we produce something of great quality but it lacks this component or that component, then the press says, 'oh, 85 per cent. I played the game, it's kind of nice, but it has no video or any of this..'"
"And the consumer says 'it doesn't have multiplayer, I'm not going to buy it.' So it's catch 22."
Barishnykov also cited the increasing competition over the customers' limited time as another reason for the diminishing profits. "Time is precious. I think there was a time when there was less entertainment, so you had millions of people spending five hours a day playing a game. Now they have lots of tempting offers - fly to Germany for just £9.99, buy an iPad, play this free to play game..."
