4 ms·

This business model is cool, free game digitally, but boxed it costs money. If you're not Romero (and probably even if you are) this is a plan to make bas

by ido 8y ago

This business model is cool, free game digitally, but boxed it costs money. If you're not Romero (and probably even if you are) this is a plan to make basically beer money - or any way, not enough to support a development studio making these games. I suspect this is mostly a hobby for him.

vanderZwan 8y ago
I agree with both you and with GP. It's more of a "feel good" symbolic support model, and that's great! There should be a place for that in our lives too. Being paid for working on something that ultimately isn't about the money is actually a really tricky problem to solve, and this feels like a decent approach.
lostjohnny 8y ago
It works in music though A friend of mine runs a small music label in Italy ( https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/ https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/ ) in the stoner segment and had some success printing vinyls in limited edition of the bands he publish You have to create your fan base first, but usually when you build it from the ground up it's loyal and buys everything you print He makes enough to sustain a small business and had the satisfaction of getting in touch with the bands he once listened to when he was younger and to republish them (Nebula, Nick Oliveri from QOTSA, Brant Bjork from Kyuss)
- transpostmeta 8y ago
  It works for the label, but does it enable the artists to live off of their music? I doubt it.
  - diablerouge 8y ago
    Most musicians live off the money they make touring and performing. It's rare that a musician makes enough money off of record sales alone.
  - lostjohnny 8y ago
    if the artists can't live making their music, the label can't publish them BTW in this specific case the bands get the full cachet for the live gigs and the merch they sell at the venues, the label pays for the pressing and gets its own share from selling the records and from the merch sold on the label's website It's a small business, not a shady multi billion company it's made out of passion, not for greed
- UncleMeat 8y ago
  You can make a pretty professional album with a band of five people and a few thousand dollars in equipment. Game budgets regularly breach 10s of millions.
  - lostjohnny 8y ago
    The game development business it's very similar to music industry right now many small indie actors, few giant ones minecraft was created by a single developer, angry birds costed officially around 100K, both made hundreds of millions putting up a band that sells records in the tens of millions doesn't cost less than making angry birds and it's harder to get to that point, band that sells so many records are just a few For example Lady gaga sold globally less than 9 millions records, Angry Birds has exceeded 12 millions
chongli 8y ago
As time goes on, I think game development will come to be more and more dominated by hobbyists. With the amount of games out there, it becomes harder and harder to make a case for trying to start your own studio. It's like with music or movies or novels; you're taking a huge risk by quitting your job to do it full time. The sad thing is that it was only a few years ago when it actually did make some sense to try it.
_pmf_ 8y ago
One counter example; time will tell whether this will be sustainable: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/morphcat-games/micro-mages-a-new-game-for-the-nes https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/morphcat-games/micro-ma... (Keep in mind that 150000 EUR might be "beer money" in the US, but the typical German salary for a non managerial SW engineer is around 60000 EUR, so 150000 EUR are 2 "good" man years' worth of money).

by ido 8y ago

vanderZwan 8y ago

I agree with both you and with GP. It's more of a "feel good" symbolic support model, and that's great! There should be a place for that in our lives too. Being paid for working on something that ultimately isn't about the money is actually a really tricky problem to solve, and this feels like a decent approach.

lostjohnny 8y ago

It works in music though A friend of mine runs a small music label in Italy ( https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/ https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/ ) in the stoner segment and had some success printing vinyls in limited edition of the bands he publish You have to create your fan base first, but usually when you build it from the ground up it's loyal and buys everything you print He makes enough to sustain a small business and had the satisfaction of getting in touch with the bands he once listened to when he was younger and to republish them (Nebula, Nick Oliveri from QOTSA, Brant Bjork from Kyuss)

transpostmeta 8y ago
It works for the label, but does it enable the artists to live off of their music? I doubt it.
- diablerouge 8y ago
  Most musicians live off the money they make touring and performing. It's rare that a musician makes enough money off of record sales alone.
- lostjohnny 8y ago
  if the artists can't live making their music, the label can't publish them BTW in this specific case the bands get the full cachet for the live gigs and the merch they sell at the venues, the label pays for the pressing and gets its own share from selling the records and from the merch sold on the label's website It's a small business, not a shady multi billion company it's made out of passion, not for greed
UncleMeat 8y ago
You can make a pretty professional album with a band of five people and a few thousand dollars in equipment. Game budgets regularly breach 10s of millions.
- lostjohnny 8y ago
  The game development business it's very similar to music industry right now many small indie actors, few giant ones minecraft was created by a single developer, angry birds costed officially around 100K, both made hundreds of millions putting up a band that sells records in the tens of millions doesn't cost less than making angry birds and it's harder to get to that point, band that sells so many records are just a few For example Lady gaga sold globally less than 9 millions records, Angry Birds has exceeded 12 millions

chongli 8y ago

As time goes on, I think game development will come to be more and more dominated by hobbyists. With the amount of games out there, it becomes harder and harder to make a case for trying to start your own studio. It's like with music or movies or novels; you're taking a huge risk by quitting your job to do it full time. The sad thing is that it was only a few years ago when it actually did make some sense to try it.

_pmf_ 8y ago

One counter example; time will tell whether this will be sustainable: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/morphcat-games/micro-mages-a-new-game-for-the-nes https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/morphcat-games/micro-ma... (Keep in mind that 150000 EUR might be "beer money" in the US, but the typical German salary for a non managerial SW engineer is around 60000 EUR, so 150000 EUR are 2 "good" man years' worth of money).