After summing up the last (in many ways) annual report, the chapter Embracer Group Lars Wingerfors (Lars WINGEFORS) gave an interview to Gamesindustry.Biz. One of the topics touched on is the difficulties that the scope of the blockbuster games is now faced.
About what difficulties AAA-Igra faced
I think our industry met with the same problem as all other industries – inflation with an increase in the cost of development. In addition, raising prices in the premium segment of PCs and consoles is hard. Prices for these products remained the same for many years, therefore, the chance of success is less, and the increased cost of capital is added on top of this.
Ultimately, when you make large investments or large games, you need to bet on teams in which you are very sure, or on the franchises that you control and have a complete financial income.
In addition, for consumers it comes out more than ever a lot of content. They love to return to existing franchises that they played earlier, which means that they are more difficult to persuade them to try new things or new franchises. We are all faced with all. To this reality, we adjusted for the whole last year and continue to adapt further.
Lars Wingerfors
About whether it is possible to increase the prices for games even more
I will not say that it is impossible to increase prices [above $ 70]. But in fact, no one tried. If you have created a huge RPG, for example, for 100 or 150 hours of gameplay, a very polished and unique thing, whether the consumer wants to pay more? If you want, more products hypothetically appear on the market. But no one tried.
We discussed [raising prices above $ 70], but at the moment we adhere to general practice in the industry. Will we become a company that will once try to increase the price? Wait and see.
Lars Wingerfors
On reducing the cost of production
Reducing value is a common topic in discussions with my management. This is all very interesting, although the topic is a little sensitive to say something specific.
I believe that there are many consumers who want to receive excellent RPG and other single games, they want to spend money on them. But what to do: raise prices or make games shorter? I think there are different options. In my opinion, it would be very sad if all the games became huge multiplayers with intra -game monetization. Millions of consumers want classic games.
Lars Wingerfors
About the wave of dismissal in the industry
It is difficult to speak for others, but, in my opinion, [in our company] the peak of dismissal has already passed. During the year, there will still be optimization in the industry, but, in my opinion, the peak of restructuring came at the end of the past or the beginning of this year.
The industry was so decades. I think that is its nature, because it is global, growing, with a high margin. It attracts a lot of capital when everything goes well. She also attracts the largest corporations in the world. And when the entire capital market and the largest corporations interact at the same time, overheating occurs. So the question is as follows: will it happen again?
I believe in video games and industry. She will stay with us for a long time and will grow. But will we see the return of the capital and corporate investment market? This is not yet, but I’m sure that in the future we are waiting for more growth waves and falls.
Lars Wingerfors
In your interview Wingerfors He also called Dead Island 2 a major success: its sales for the first nine months exceeded three million copies – the highest speed of sales in history Embracer. According to Wingerfors, Dead Island 2 – A good sign that Embracer capable of reaching its AAA ambitrations.
However, formally, these ambitions will soon be chased under a different name: Embracer divided into three companies and refuses its current name.
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The best comments
1. Frusting the staff of developers and as a result of expenses (including unnecessary expenses) for the development.
2. Lack of innovation and unique vision. Almost all today’s AAA projects are a certain average hollow of chips from chips at least ten years ago, and they try to like it to everyone, and as a result they are not interesting to anyone.
3. A clear neglect of the audience, https://casinosnogamstop.co.uk/welsh-casinos/ which developers and marketing department hold for idiots and, with even the slightest criticism, are almost Nazis. Especially when it comes to some plot and visual solutions in favor of "inclusiveness". And yes, in the light of paragraph 2, a similar “advertising strategy”, when nafig is offered to dissatisfied players, is especially funny.
The game industry should collapse and restart. As it was already in 1983.
It is already unbearable to observe all this. All this into the abyss, let it collapse.
If you have created a huge RPG, for example, for 100 or 150 hours of gameplay, a very polished and unique thing
And they do them? So that the unique content is 100+ hours, and the game was polished, and not repaired it for a year and more?
The fact that the games began to make expensive, how many years they have been saying, I understood it. And someone wants to tell about the quality of games? Maybe dear Lars Wingerfors wishes us to tell us why Dead Island 2, Alone in the Dark (2024) or Saints Row (2022) stand like these same blockbusters, but in fact they are rinses for an amateur?
In addition, for consumers it comes out more than ever a lot of content. They love to return to existing franchises that they played earlier, which means that they are more difficult to persuade them to try new things or new franchises. We are all faced with all. To this reality, we adjusted for the whole last year and continue to adapt further.
I am sure that BG3 and HELLDIVERS 2 have become so popular not because of the franchise. A lot of players simply did not hear on HELLDIVERS 1, heard, but did not play in the first two parts of BG. Plus, hits regularly appear in the indie sector, who have no series. But I agree about the amount of content – it became a lot of it, people simply do not have time to cover everything. And therefore.
Definitely the second. Concentrate on unique content, on what your game will be remembered. If in your good content for 20 hours, but you piled another 50 so that Dorokho-Bohato, do not be surprised that the average impression of the game will not be the best.
There are a lot of tools reducing the development. And creative and ideas are generally free until they were implemented. If management has lost the distribution of the budget, this is shitty management, and all responsibility should lie on it.
We discussed [raising prices above $ 70], but at the moment we adhere to general practice in the industry.
The general practice in the industry-games already de facto cost more than $ 70 if we buy the full version, not stumps. The number of players has also increased significantly, almost every year we see record sales. It looks like a classic wagging part in front of investors and players: for players – “everything is bad, the development is getting more expensive (especially those games that have already been released), give more money”, for investors – “everything is fine, sales are bitched, we earn more content than in the game itself, give more money”.
The jacket sits and, despite the fact that his incompetence cost people of work, as if nothing had happened about the future of the industry. I like all this corporate schiza so much. Whatever the report for investors – we are tearing all the charts, we grow as not in ourselves, each quarter of revenue more. Whatever interviews for players – "Mumum to make games is very expensive, you need to raise prices". You somehow either remove the cross, or put on my panties.
How did they get … Previously, it was necessary to spend a bunch of funds on boxes, discs, etc. Now the figure is, but they all whine and whine.
UAAAAA! I want a crisis 1983 again! The industry must collapse! Video games died!
If it’s difficult AAA, do AA © Lifhak
1. What does we players have to do with it? Because of this, the game is valued? Yes. 17% for ten (or twenty?) years. Incredibly slowly. This is if about consoles. PC – generally chaos with prices. Where there is growth from the cost of development, where it is simply from the desire to bring closer to console prices, and where from the change in regional politicians and courses of local currencies – I xs as one from the other to separate.
2. All genres and sucks have long been invented. As with books, as with films. And just as with films the most familiar Khryuchevo brings the greatest profit, and not copyright movie experiments or indie-transactions. The mass audience solves. From the collapse and restart of the industry, the taste of the audience will not change.
Innovations at least butt, they are in indie. No one will translate these innovations from the pixel of art or primitive 3D to AAA with rays tracing exactly because the mass consumer will not buy it. He needs a new sorcerer, FIFA and stealth in the bushes. The mass audience solves. From the collapse and restart of the industry, the taste of the audience will not change.
The same AAA of the same AAA multimillion -dollar sales. “Nobody is interesting” – this is the issuance of their tastes for general.
3. Everything is simple. Most consumers of games do not care about the Internet scandals. For the quality of the (technical) games, this is not worth it, it hits sales. And how bad the developer or the publisher behaves with the audience, most do not care. This does not beat on sales. Therefore, I repeat for the third time, in case of collapse and restart, nothing will change. The publisher will again understand that the sales are destroyed and what is not.
And you look like those same ones. They yell that if the game offended them, then you need to change it, cut out the "bad", and do not care that most players do not care about these insults. You say that since you do not like the outgoing games, and do not like that the players are considered idiots, the industry should change so much that it is already possible to collapse and restart. And do not care that most of the audience is the current state of the industry.
The creator of the largest soap bubble complains about the hardships of life.
It is better to make 30 hours of high-quality content, instead of typical bring-off for 100 hours. Although the latter can be sold to individual connoisseurs in the form of DLC.
Moreover, all these jackets are written out as an annual SP of an ordinary specialist in a team who is directly developing. This is the most important question that I ask, is there at least one major manager directly responsible for the failures in the list with thousands of dismissed
Uh what are you saying. You are the wrong gamer, according to the Embraiser and the Enix Square. You have to play one Fordnite that completely pulled your attention from other projects. This is a game of service and you are not permissible for you to spend your time on anything but it, a heretic. Anu vividly drive your vile $ 100, for the glory of the expensive cost of development!
Well then, let the film industry grab with him.Bruttered fees of stars (sometimes even a percentage of fees).The second and third points a little less than completely.However, no one says that there will be no kin.It also grows up, perhaps even a couple of whales will become collapsed, as at one time Karolko.But in general, everything will be normal.
To the first and third, we still need to add a “excellent tradition” of hiring in the state ~ political officers ~, in the sense of specialists in inclusiveness.
But in fact, no one tried. If you have created a huge RPG, for example, for 100 or 150 hours of gameplay
But you can make an adequate duration and sell at an adequate price?
No, we will artificially stretch the duration to justify the inadequate price.
But there will be units of truly unique large products justifying a high price and
And all sorts of Ubisoft will also increase prices and will begin to stretch the duration even more artificially to create the visibility of justification.
Armagedon!
Seriously, you do not think that:
1. Such a mega-Super-duper crisis will sink precisely indie studios that give an interesting product and serve as a platform of experiments.
2. Giants will survive, but become more conservative.
He is like this, yes. Commentators above imagine everything in black-pink tones, where a full collapse should suddenly occur, and then bam-and the mass player suddenly becomes smarter/more conscious/better, etc.D. Well, that is, how these same commentators and agree with them, apparently they accurately evaluate themselves above the mass player.
I love games, I love to discuss them. But all this tambourine about “everything is bad” does not fit at all with my idea of an adequate gamer