It’s not that long of a video, and he gets to the answer fairly quickly, then outlines examples using back of the napkin math. (average cost per developer per month) * (months of development) = cost of game. And then it’s the difference between real world numbers for those in 2015 and today. Average salaries have gone up, especially in major cities in the US, as have staff sizes to make AAA games, as has time needed to develop substantially larger games than we typically made in 2015, and that number balloons very quickly.
Comment on Why Video Games Cost So Much To Make - Jason Schreier
Soulifix@piefed.world 1 day ago
I went to read the first comment to that video and someone plainly came out to say that the guy in the video didn’t really answer the question.
So, I think that alone spares me and others the time to waste 17 minutes on some guy who for the life of him, can’t get to the point of his headline. Much less, answer the questions that needed the answers, in his opinion.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
user_6282638282@sopuli.xyz 21 hours ago
I think anyone with a fairly basic understanding of economics (and that is admittedly a declining number in many places) understands the idea that “salaries and benefits are expensive”.
What he doesn’t explain that would actually be helpful is why teams are so big. Like what are all the departments that work on AAA titles, what do they do, how many people on staff relative to other departments, what does a 3D modeler make vs. a gameplay programmer?
He also doesn’t talk about anything outside of staffing, like marketing, cinematics, voice acting, localization, bribing Geoff Keighley…
This would all be more useful than the baby math lesson provided.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
What he doesn’t explain that would actually be helpful is why teams are so big.
Can you not see the difference in money on the screen between Halo 1 and Destiny 2? One person can make Halo’s relatively simple models, complete with nutcracker-esque mouth syncing, much faster than you can make the likes of Destiny’s quest givers with far more complexity to them. So if you want to make more of those kinds of NPCs, you need more people making them. The same goes for any other discipline involved in making a game.
Like what are all the departments that work on AAA titles, what do they do, how many people on staff relative to other departments, what does a 3D modeler make vs. a gameplay programmer?
That all comes out in the average cost per employee, which is the same ballpark math the publishers are using to estimate, and he says that in this video.
ZephyrXero@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
The commenter was wrong
lumpyluggage@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Jason Schreier also is not just some guy. I mean, he is to you… But he does know some stuff about the industry