Separating the men from the game boys

Tom Loftus Columnist • E-mail

The weeks following E3 are traditionally the quietest in the video game business as developers take a rest before the inevitable holiday grind and industry analysts begin the process of separating the news from the noise.

Everyone and their grandmother should know by now that Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 promise artistic and techical innovation in game play complete with HDTV compatibility, surround sound and broadband connectivity.

Almost lost in the hoopla is the belief shared by game industry leaders that making games for the next generation consoles will require more people, more time and more money. 

"Our aim towards reality or hyper-reality is putting pressure on the size of development teams," said Scott Steinberg, Sega's vice president of entertainment marketing.  "The big titles, those with a more epic scale are going to cost a lot more to make."

And more to purchase.  The game retailer EBGames already has a list of Xbox 360 games listed on their site retailing for $59.99.  That's $5 to $10 more than new titles released for the current Xbox.

Today console games production and marketing costs often soar past the five million dollar mark with some big budget games exceeding $8 million.  With games for the Xbox 360 and PS3 expected to demand larger teams, production costs for some games could double or worse.

"Imagine that bell curve where going from preproduction work to actual development leads to a bubbling up in cost and manpower," Steinberg explained.  "Now with the new consoles you're going to see that peak in the curve double in height."

Sega was one of a handful of publishers at E3 showing off games for the Xbox 360; "Condemned: Criminal Origins" a bloody single-player sleuth game and a racing game called "Full Auto."

Although still in their alpha stages, both games demonstrated the capabilities of the next generation.  They still looked expensive.

"There are tools and techniques that help simply with the spade work but the rule is go bigger or go home," Steinberg said.  "If companies aren’t as well capitalized like Sega and EA they may not make it."

For the short term it appears that certain big publishers will become even bigger winners. 

"I think by this part of the cycle in the next generation of consoles there will be fewer big companies making video games," said Neil Young, vice president and general manager at California-based Electronic Arts.

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