With the majority of ps2 games in the 100k-200k mark for sales, its a shocking discovery from namco that says the break even point to start turning a profit is 500,000. He cites not only the graphics, but the difficult of programming and developing for the ps3 as key factors in that figure.
It’s no wonder microsoft is putting so much work into things like the xna framework and other development tools for developers to make development easier and there for cheaper, it’s a fact that just about every developer has said programming for the ps2 and now the ps3 are just getting worse and more complex, while sonys competitors keep pushing easier and easier development tools.
The other big thing is alot of developers might be taking a wait and see approach concerning longterm development, especially with only ~400k units being shipped by the end of 2006 that means no decent games developed come end of 2006 could have possibly made any profit, and will be basically praying for good sales of the console in 2007 to stary earning a profit…
The problem companys have with this is, launch title games, can’t normally sell for their normal 60$ they used to at launch come 6 months later… so that number of 500,000 units ends up going up because of reduced selling price later in the release timeframe.
If you want to get inside the developers mind, you also have to look at the competitors landscape, with nintendo and microsoft offering easier to develop for system as well as VASTLY larger install base (400k vs 10M Microsoft or 3M for nintendo) the fact is its juts a better investment to develop games for nintendo and microsoft, and here is where the big catch22 starts up. With its competitors having a better landscape for game developers, more developers will develop games for the cheaper more widespread systems, less good games = less console sales = slower install base growth in the longrun…
Source: Inhouse / SPong
