Throughout 2023, we saw the release of great video games that demonstrated the improvements made in this industry. However, it is also true that thousands of people who make these projects possible lost their jobs. Studios closed and layoffs were more common. Although some hoped that this story would not be repeated in 2024, It seems that this will not be the case, and the studies independent now with the objective.
In a recent interview for 3DJuegos, Enrique Corts, artist and CEO of SuperMegaTeam, spoke about the challenges his team has faced to make their next project a complete reality. Here he has mentioned that, currently, Independent studios need a demo to achieve some type of financing from a publisher or external investor.. However, this is more difficult than one might think, since making an advance of this type means taking the development process to almost 70% of the final result. This is what he commented:
“90% or 95% of the people who have responded to us have told us this: 'We love your project, on paper it looks very good. We would have signed it already if we had a full demo
Whether you are an indie or a company with 300 people, you always need to bring a demo to be able to have a meeting with investors or a publisher, a complete vertical slice of what is a large part of the gameplay of your game.”
Along with this, he mentioned that the budgets have been reduced, since before the indie studios in Spain could get up to a million euros for a project, but today they are offered $500 or $300 thousand eurosand the creation of a demo has to come out of the developers' pockets.
Although this may seem like an isolated case, since The Wandering PrisonSuperMegaTeam's next game, has gone on an indefinite hiatus after failing to find any type of external financing, Corts has pointed out that this is something that other independent teams have also experienced in recent years. This is what he said about it:
“Everyone has told me: they are lowering the budget bar for new projects to sign. If before maybe they had a maximum of one million euros, now they are signing projects of a maximum of half a million or a maximum of 300,000 euros. In other words, the budget they have allocated to sign indie projects has dropped by more than half.
I think 2024 is going to be harder than 2023. Fewer games are going to come out, they will have a lower budget… It's the trend we are seeing right now. It is going to be more complicated to sign with publishers, it is not going to be as 'easy' as until now when there are publishers for all sizes, budgets and projects. It will be more difficult to access funds to develop your project.”
It is a paradoxical situation. Big companies, like Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation, don't face these problems, but other studios, mainly independent ones, have to beg for some kind of financing, and publishers can spend millions of dollars without even knowing if they will see a single penny back. Thus, It has become more and more complicated for someone to have the support of a renowned studio. At the end of the day, this is a business. This is what Corts commented on the matter:
“I hope I'm wrong. The feeling with the people, speaking in [la BIG Conference], it's just that a little bad things were coming. It will be a fairly hard year. But distributors have to continue signing games if they want to make money. It's like that, they have to live off something. They will continue signing games, but it is true that it will be more difficult to access those slots they have to sign projects.”
Although this is the vision of Spain and Europe, This is most likely a sentiment that thousands of independent developers around the world share.. Making a game is anything but easy, and it's more complicated when you don't have the money to finance your lifelong dream. On related issues, Rockstar Games and Remedy enter into a dispute. Likewise, a tribute game is presented to Castlevania II.
Editor's Note:
It is an extremely complicated situation, but it is not new. For years we have seen how independent studios fight to obtain the necessary resources to make their games a reality. This is one of the themes that Jason Schreier touches on in his two books, always with a brutally real vision, where success stories are like a fairy tale.
Via: 3DGames
#complicated #industry #Atomix
