4 ms·

I don't think that is the reason. The main reason is that there isn't enough competition. Video Game Companies are pretty much in a monopoly. No one is making

I don't think that is the reason. The main reason is that there isn't enough competition. Video Game Companies are pretty much in a monopoly. No one is making a game like GTA. No one else is making a football game (You need the license), No one else is making doom. No one else is making Counter Strike. Games became brands. The only thing that drives you out of business is your own greed of recycling your franchises/ideas. Oh and also many of those companies do not need that many of the "expensive" devs because many of those video game companies are using middlewares like unity or unreal engine. With more competitions better video game companies would hire better engineer at better salaries. that will lift everyone else.

jerf 6y ago
Your explanations are all demand-side. That doesn't account for why the supply-side of programmers for games is so high. Every game programmer also has the skills necessary to do a good portion of non-gaming jobs. The thing that game companies have a monopoly on is not on jobs the games programmers can do. As evidence of what I'm talking about I also cite the absolutely huge number of "indie" developers, the vast majority of them not being the ones you've heard of, because most of them aren't famous and face sales figures in the hundreds, if not dozens. Many of them are actively taking a negative salary (that is, burning somebody's savings) to work in the game industry.
- TheCapn 6y ago
  I think it be both at the same time. People make weird career choices for the perception of prestige or being able to call themselves part of a team. I got a friend who is an Agricultural Mechanic who works for some local owned companies. A few years ago John Deere built a facility nearby and you'd be surprised how many mechanics, who by all accounts liked their jobs, moved to work for John Deere for less pay, less benefits. Video games aren't that much different. People will harm their own career goals thinking they can work for a brand name when an unknown company might have a better fit. I'm sure they have valid reasons for making the decisions they do, but from the outside looking in, it just looks like fanboyisms.
bobthepanda 6y ago
It’s abusing the definition of monopoly. There isn’t a single super-dominant games company choking out competition. In fact, companies steal each others’ lunch all the time; Fortnite surpassed PUBG, Cities Skylines from a small Finnish dev surpassed EA’s SimCity, and Stardew Valley was created by a single developer who surpassed Harvest Moon before him. Monopoly doesn’t just mean “this company is bigger than I’d like.”
- andi999 6y ago
  Also if you look at ID software, they were just a tiny (but very skilled and highly dedicated) team who churned out one game per month for a year.
castlecrasher2 6y ago
>The main reason is that there isn't enough competition. Video Game Companies are pretty much in a monopoly. I'm sorry, but this is completely wrong. First, there is immense amounts of competition in video games; the industry is bigger than ever but there are so many companies and even small fry indie shops can make it big with talent and a bit of luck. Second, there are tons of GTA/Doom/CSGO/sports games clones, licensing notwithstanding, that fail for various reasons that usually boil down to "bad game." Brand popularity matters, sure, but many studios blasted their way to huge sales and fame through having a damn good game, like Minecraft, Terraria, and Rocket League, to name a few. There's so little barrier to entry in the gaming industry at the moment. If you make a good game, you will generally get tons of sales.
- bobthepanda 6y ago
  A fair amount of game brands have also been destroyed due to "bad game". SimCity basically blew up what was left of its brand, Harvest Moon and the whole thing around that destroyed its brand, etc. I wouldn't necessarily say "make good game get sales", just because there are a fair amount of devs who don't get marketing right, but the point stands.
caymanjim 6y ago
Where are you getting monopoly from? Large game franchises that have launched (or become popular) in the last decade or so all started from small, independent studios, or even just a couple people modding an existing game. DotA and PUGB are big, started as mods, and have spawned (or at least popularized) entire new genres. Valve has a history of buying popular mods and turning them into franchises (TF, CS, Portal), and they pay exceptionally-well. Minecraft exploded from a one-man endeavor to a gaming behemoth. Successful games tend to get purchased by larger companies, but there are a lot of large game companies. Valve, Epic, EA, Nintendo, Sony, Rockstar, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Bioware, etc. And that's not even getting into mobile/Facebook games, which are easy to speak derisively about, but are still major players in the game space. Game companies are about the most-diverse and least-monopolistic of all media we consume.

jerf 6y ago

Your explanations are all demand-side. That doesn't account for why the supply-side of programmers for games is so high. Every game programmer also has the skills necessary to do a good portion of non-gaming jobs. The thing that game companies have a monopoly on is not on jobs the games programmers can do. As evidence of what I'm talking about I also cite the absolutely huge number of "indie" developers, the vast majority of them not being the ones you've heard of, because most of them aren't famous and face sales figures in the hundreds, if not dozens. Many of them are actively taking a negative salary (that is, burning somebody's savings) to work in the game industry.

TheCapn 6y ago
I think it be both at the same time. People make weird career choices for the perception of prestige or being able to call themselves part of a team. I got a friend who is an Agricultural Mechanic who works for some local owned companies. A few years ago John Deere built a facility nearby and you'd be surprised how many mechanics, who by all accounts liked their jobs, moved to work for John Deere for less pay, less benefits. Video games aren't that much different. People will harm their own career goals thinking they can work for a brand name when an unknown company might have a better fit. I'm sure they have valid reasons for making the decisions they do, but from the outside looking in, it just looks like fanboyisms.

bobthepanda 6y ago

It’s abusing the definition of monopoly. There isn’t a single super-dominant games company choking out competition. In fact, companies steal each others’ lunch all the time; Fortnite surpassed PUBG, Cities Skylines from a small Finnish dev surpassed EA’s SimCity, and Stardew Valley was created by a single developer who surpassed Harvest Moon before him. Monopoly doesn’t just mean “this company is bigger than I’d like.”

andi999 6y ago
Also if you look at ID software, they were just a tiny (but very skilled and highly dedicated) team who churned out one game per month for a year.

castlecrasher2 6y ago

>The main reason is that there isn't enough competition. Video Game Companies are pretty much in a monopoly. I'm sorry, but this is completely wrong. First, there is immense amounts of competition in video games; the industry is bigger than ever but there are so many companies and even small fry indie shops can make it big with talent and a bit of luck. Second, there are tons of GTA/Doom/CSGO/sports games clones, licensing notwithstanding, that fail for various reasons that usually boil down to "bad game." Brand popularity matters, sure, but many studios blasted their way to huge sales and fame through having a damn good game, like Minecraft, Terraria, and Rocket League, to name a few. There's so little barrier to entry in the gaming industry at the moment. If you make a good game, you will generally get tons of sales.

bobthepanda 6y ago
A fair amount of game brands have also been destroyed due to "bad game". SimCity basically blew up what was left of its brand, Harvest Moon and the whole thing around that destroyed its brand, etc. I wouldn't necessarily say "make good game get sales", just because there are a fair amount of devs who don't get marketing right, but the point stands.

caymanjim 6y ago

Where are you getting monopoly from? Large game franchises that have launched (or become popular) in the last decade or so all started from small, independent studios, or even just a couple people modding an existing game. DotA and PUGB are big, started as mods, and have spawned (or at least popularized) entire new genres. Valve has a history of buying popular mods and turning them into franchises (TF, CS, Portal), and they pay exceptionally-well. Minecraft exploded from a one-man endeavor to a gaming behemoth. Successful games tend to get purchased by larger companies, but there are a lot of large game companies. Valve, Epic, EA, Nintendo, Sony, Rockstar, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Bioware, etc. And that's not even getting into mobile/Facebook games, which are easy to speak derisively about, but are still major players in the game space. Game companies are about the most-diverse and least-monopolistic of all media we consume.