Rising Costs Hurt Game Variety as a former PlayStation boss says soaring development budgets have reduced creativity, leaving fewer unique and experimental games.
Games
Shawn Layden, former executive of PlayStation, sees a lack of creativity in today’s gaming industry. Once previously seen as thrilling, Layden cites a loss of uniqueness in video games today. As the former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment America shared, the increasing similarities across video games in the industry today can be attributed to the extreme financial constraints placed on development. The costs to develop video games have reached new heights, meaning the financial publishers are willing to gamble on project creativity are second to none.
Treading through the development of AAA games has seen a financial flop with a development cost that reportedly exceeds three hundred million US dollars. When the stakes are that high, it creates an inevitable innate pressure on the development houses to deliver a financial blockbuster. Layden suggests that a priority has surfaced through the madness of constraints, and that is a total loss of creativity in the industry.
During the same interview with PSI, Layden recounted visiting a video game awards event and how nearly identical the chosen featured video games had become.
“I was a little disappointed that all the games I saw in the awards presentation were either games based on the zombie apocalypse, games based on space marines, or games based on medieval Europe, where the characters are walking around with really huge swords,” sitting in the audience at one of the game awards shows that I attended a couple of years ago,” he said.
According to Layden, the issue was not only the settings. The same games’ presentations also made him think that many games were being produced in the industry without adding any new concepts and ideas.
He reached the conclusion that in the video game industry of today, the chances of producing a groundbreaking game that is similar to PaRappa the Rapper are slim. He believes that the video game industry has lost the variety that it used to have, and some ideas used to be groundbreaking and unique. A game that is a variation of another game makes the player think that the gaming industry is filled with games of the same genre.
He argues that games tend to fall into the same genre continuously. “This is a looter shooter,” he continued. “This one is a hero shooter, and this one is an extraction shooter. Mountains of those compose the industry. But where are unique ideas in games like Katamari Damacy?”
He also expressed concern that becoming too comfortable with standard game formats might risk losing potential new players. He thinks that a variety of experiences is the way to increase players.
While speaking, Layden said that the lack of creativity is based on the investment in modern gaming. Development costs on the original PlayStation funded the whole creative process with multiple game ideas instead of a single one, with a risk of losing everything.
“Let’s make ten games, then see which game format works best with players if making a game costs in the range of $5 or $6 million, like in the PlayStation One era,” Layden explained.
According to him, the low budget of the PS1 era created the flexibility to use novel ideas. Even with a failed project, the outcome would be a learning experience, with the cost of a new game.
As per his words, there were great projects done during the PS1 gaming era, as there was little money risked when creating a new game. “You could just forget $6 – $7 million and again say, well, we’ve got some experience.” However, at present, when the cost of any game goes over hundreds of millions, “the risk tolerance approaches zero.”
“It is no longer the case when developers come up with new projects. Nowadays, they just have to answer whether it is a sequel or a new version of an already existing game.”
He stated that developers would have to come up with comparisons like “Fortnite meets Call of Duty in Zombieland”; otherwise, no money will be invested in the game.
As a final say, his main conclusion is that at present, skyrocketing game development costs contribute to a huge drop in risk tolerance.
“Therefore, the expenses are forcing people to take a risk,” Layden stated. “As long as we measure games on the revenue they may attempt to get, the risk factor is going to drop to zero.”
Indeed, although large publishers are becoming more careful with game production, there are still unique games appearing in the industry. For example, the game called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a great illustration of how new ideas may attract players. The blend of action and turn-based combat, combined with the unique French-style atmosphere and interesting story, is a good example of how creativity sometimes pays off. The game called Balatro can also serve as an example of a creative idea bringing great success. Instead of being a simple one, the poker-themed roguelike deckbuilding game stands out because of its unique use of the Jokers and the illegal cards.
However, despite this example, Layden’s point of view demonstrates an important problem the gaming industry must face. The facts are that budgets are always increasing, so it forces the publishers to become more cautious, and this creates difficulties for many daring ideas and projects. Thus, what Layden says is that small budgets create opportunities for bold and experimental game development and do many good things for the industry.