Cevat Yerli, CEO of Crytek and master of all things piracy and Xbox 720 told
gamesindustry.biz that Crytek “wouldn’t exist” as a new company if they had to start today.
Absolutely, nowadays I don't think Crytek could have set up. It wouldn't exist. The situation has changed drastically - the competition is more serious, companies have consolidated, costs have increased, the platforms are getting more difficult to enter. For example, to make a next-gen PC title entering the market now we'd need about EUR 10-12 million, even for a newcomer, to make an FPS as good as Far Cry was back then. To get the trust and commitment from a publisher for a newbie studio...I think it's quite impossible.
Regardless of the issues that he brings up, I’ve always respected Yerli’s opinion on the industry. In this regard, I have to totally agree. Mega publishers like EA, Ubisoft, Take-Two and Activision have the capacity to throttle the development pipelines with their massive bankrolls and schedules. It would be hard for a developer without one of these publishers to roll out a decent game because the polishing money just simply isn’t there.
Do you guys think that Yerli has a point? Can a studio like Crytek start and be successful in today’s climate? If you think so, why?
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Contest:
5:11 PM on 08.20.2008
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"money for nothing, chicks for free, thats the way you do it, some play like in mtv only that their games sucks."
Lies! They were able to finish Far Cry thanks to the fact they sold the franchise to Ubisoft.
Crytek's business model is a dying one. A company alone cannot sustain itself while trying to go for the top of every chart, be it graphical prowess or production values.
Why waste so much time in a graphic engine when no decent licensing is established. iD survives thanks to the constant income of their engines. Same goes for Epic. You don't see these companies spill out many in-house games but when they do, they have much more planned than just releasing a game, they also release a tool for other developers.
Valve follows the same plan, but even broader, being on the frontline of digital distribution. They even started with an iD engine ahah.
So, in short, if you want to build a company from scratch, create a completely new top of the line engine, not show dedication in making it a easy and practical tool for others, create mediocre to reasonable games with it and be dicks about how their stuff doesn't sell, blaming others but themselves... yeah, you'll be closing doors sooner than expected.
If you want to start a modest company with great goals for the future, start spending money with a reasonable expectation of at least getting that money back with some recognition.
And make a damn scalable engine, not everyone has a Pixar render station at home.
I have 3.
Otherwise, I utterly agree. Nothing more to say on it really. o_o
I don't even see the need for publishers in this day and age. Use the internet, jesus.
The beautiful thing about the indie developers is that they have no time or budget constraints (at least with their first major project).
Look at Project Offset for example. Sure they have funding now, but even before they did, they were pushing forward, even continuing their day jobs. There are people out there with loads of talent, no jobs, and a serious interest in developing games. Those people will be the creating the studios of tomorrow.