I want... a new BG: TotSC game.

What we know from various blogs and what not is that BG2 was the last game BW developed before "AAA games became really expensive" or some such thing. Was posted by one of their former lead designers a while back. I'll try to dig up the post.

Edit: Hmm, odd, was sure I saw something like this over at the blog of Brent Knowles. Couldn't find it, so what I said might not be accurate.

IIRC, I think BG2 cost between $5-10MM (though I suppose that could be the cost of both games).

Is it graphics now that are driving the cost of games so high?

Probably a combination of factors, but I assume it's mainly the "cinematic experience" - voice overs, graphics, that sort of thing.

The strange thing is, PB seems to be doing well - they've had decent graphics and full voice overs since Gothic 1, yet they don't need to sell millions of copies to break even.. ?

Maylander said:

Probably a combination of factors, but I assume it's mainly the "cinematic experience" - voice overs, graphics, that sort of thing.

The strange thing is, PB seems to be doing well - they've had decent graphics and full voice overs since Gothic 1, yet they don't need to sell millions of copies to break even.. ?

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Gothic (1 & 2) and Risen are rather small games (compared to Oblivion or DA2 for example) in terms of absolute land mass, number of npcs, lack of cinematics, dialogs and so on. But they are designed that everything fits together.
I'd actually like to have some hard numbers for those games but I don't think that there are any available.

blatantninja said:

Is it graphics now that are driving the cost of games so high?

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Salaries going up (+ bigger team), marketing and add a few millions for 3rd parties components (like Havok).

In 2000, most NA dev teams were between 30 to 50 people for AAA games. Now they stand at 80 to 100 people. Bigger QA team, more artists, etc. Just that change doubled the cost of games.

Marketing: TV adds, websites adds, all those conventions and expo, etc. Activision spend ~650 millions every year only in marketing (taken from their 2009 financial report).

Drithius said:

Is that so mush to ask, oh game developers on high?

A sprawling dungeon, a poignant story, a lurking evil!

Oh well, random wish for the day.

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Apparently, developpers and the companies they work for are obsessed with selling games.

It is not a one side problem. Players' wants and wishes are to be included into the mix. I am pretty unsure that the mass of players want to play a game including BG characteristic elements if I refer to the evolution of the game genre over the years. Production costs played a part but players'tastes are to be factored in.

One example: BG's exploration was non linear, as zones in a sector hided monsters that could be beyond the party's current skills, forcing to flee. The exploration was then non linear, leading the player to go back when he thought he could face the threat located a specific point.

Currently, the exploration is much more linear as it might be more about cleaning totally a sector, extracting as much as XP possible in one streak.
Definitively the kind of features that was removed because of players demand who did not like all the back and forth moves.
Fleeing (and I dont speak here about tactical retreat) is no longer something players wish.