According to the Head of Publishing of NaconBenoit Clerc, the problem of the current market is that there are too many games. This is all a consequence of the success of video games during the COVID period.
“There are too many games currently on the market,” says Clerc. “Today we see the results of investments made after COVID, when the market was exploding and every game was making a lot of money, so a lot of investments were made. Now it's been two or three years, so the games we see on the market now were funded in that time and are just too many for customers to play.”
“If you look at Steam, some days there are 50 or 60 games released in a single day, so it's harder to get enough traction to expose a game. We're seeing releases that don't have a day one, to use the old retail expression, without any exposure to a title that has been properly marketed.”
Nacon's hit, Robocop: Rogue City
According to Clerc, the key for publishers is to have a strong positioning for each upcoming game. Clerc points to Nacon's release of Robocop: Rogue City as an ideal example of what a game could have: “a great mainstream brand with a very high quality product”, to reach its target audience.
It should then be remembered that, as often happens, as a niche gradually fills and becomes successful, there is more competition and therefore more pressure inincrease budget and production values in subsequent games dedicated to that niche (think of what Demon's Souls was and what Elden Ring is now).
Clerc says there's still a long way to go before Nacon's budgets approach those of AAA, but adds that there's definitely an escalation of investments even when trying to create products for its niche.
Increasing budgets isn't the only industry trend Nacon has been a part of, either. The company has consolidated itself like many others, precisely acquiring 16 studios in the last four years. While the expansion hasn't been positive in some cases, Clerc says the integration of these additions into Nacon has been “pretty smooth” so far.
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