Why do games and their developers fail?
From Outcast 2 to Duke Nukem Forever, the debate rages...
It is a cold hard fact that the games business is just that, a business. When push comes to shove if you aren't making money then the game is over. There are times, however, when I begin to wonder if the people with the money actually know what's going on. I remember buying a DVD when the technology was just breaking in the UK and finding one of those stupid marketing research pamphlets on the inside. Glancing over the questions one has always stuck in my mind. The question was to tick what was the primary reason for buying a particular film over another and among the list was 'the studio'. I couldn't, and still can't, understand how someone would think "Oh, that film was made by Warner Bros, it must be good, I'll get it." What made it memorable was that some marketing monkey boy must have believed that to be case. To me it showed a complete lack of understanding between the people releasing the DVD's and the people buying them. It has taken years of marketing research by the studios to realise that the kinds of people who like to buy DVD's want extra features about the making of the films and interviews with cast and crew. If they had just asked me at the start, or any other film fan, I could have saved them time and a whole lot of money. I guess I've only myself to blame as I never did send back the pamphlet. In the same regard I often wonder about the people in charge of which games get made, and which do not.
Now, a lot of games companies don't succeed due to a number of reasons, but most fail because their games aren't particularly good. Corporate natural selection, as it were. There are two other types though, that make no sense to me. One kind that make or are potentially making great games, but still fade away. Then there is my favourite enigma, the kind of company that seem to be making a game that almost the entire gaming audience can see failing right out of the gate.
Let me talk about the first kind as a sort of epitaph to the death of a good friend. The most recent example of this was the tragic demise of Appeal, the Belgian developer that had made Outcast. Outcast was a tremendous game in so many ways. Graphically it was unique thanks to the voxel technology they used so well. It had extremely sophisticated effects for the time, including software bump mapping, depth of field blurring and even some screen anti-aliasing. It's soundtrack was an auditory masterpiece thanks to the Moscow Symphonic Orchestra. The gameplay a brilliant mix of adventure and action. Yet despite critical praise, and reasonably good commercial success, somebody somewhere decided that the sequel would not be.
In Appeal's case, one of the problems was the initial choice of using voxel technology. Whilst it gave the game a very organic landscape, the engine took a long time to develop. For the sequel they wanted to move to polygons and so it was a case of back to square one as they worked on a new engine. But from the screenshots that are still available on the website that sits like an eerie ghost town, it looked very advanced. By aiming for the Playstation 2 platform as well as PC it would have given them a more stable platform as well as a huge market. After all, more and more games are becoming more open and free form for the player. But what may have been a huge hit was cancelled so Cutter Slade, the saviour of Adelpha, is no more.
Another company that went under despite critical praise was Looking Glass studios who developed System Shock 2, and the Thief series of games. In their case Eidos Interactive’s decision was very strange as many of the employees were rehired by Ion Storm to work on, Thief 3. So evidently someone inside Eidos believes in the title.
Comments
Duke Nukem sucks, so does 3D Realms - I'm sick of waiting and wish they'd just reklesae the thing, at least bofore Unreal for chrissakes!
Bow down before me all ye mortals for I am his Royal Eminence, commander of the future, and I predict DNF willl NEVER BE OUT - mwhahahahhaha.
Gotta agree totally with your views on DNF, if they do release it now its gonna be a HUGE failure. I say 3D Realms should just swallow their pride and move on, sad but true. Im praying that the same doesnt happen to doom 3 although things seem to be running smoothly so far. Heres hoping
One problem I've seen plaguing the game industry is pretty much like what you said. The people paying the bills are way too separated from both the people developing the titles and, more importantly, the people playing them. They have expectations of big payoffs and want to save every dime in the meantime. They don't allow the developers to do enough design work ahead of time. ("You're all sitting around not writing code! Get to work!") So you end up with buggy games or games that are just lame.
A quarter-century of immersion in the corporate goo, and even a stint in the entertainment industry, reveals that outsiders never know what really happens behind the scenes. Especially those who think they have the inside track.
Clarity of thought and vision is not a necessary attribute administration. Clever politics, maneuvering, or ego are usually what gets people there. Those calling the shots are so far removed from what goes on, and often reality, that it is truly astonishing that anything gets done properly at all. And they in turn are only told what their underlings want to tell them; the truth would be disastrous.
None of this is new. The more money that's associated with something, the more obscure the vision.
DNF has been under a lot of work and upgrading since those shots you posted. their 2001 teaser vid, while not anywhere close to doom3, is much more realistic and shows graves and all the other NPCs as having a lot more polygons. It's actually quite exciting and if its anything like it was with DN3D and Quake it will probably be released about the same time and once again smash DOOM3 on replayability and interactivity but still not match it in graphics. But thats ok with me, I would probably buy both!
Feersum Boundah, Did they bad you because you flooded the board with multiple copies of your posts???
"...nobody can beat John Carmack on his own turf."
I understand your point, but Half-Life/Counter Strike has done just this.
It's very sad to see that Outcast 2 will not be. The game looks absolutely gorgeous, and from the FAQ it looks like they were on the right track.
Very, very sad.
dnf will never come out, just like team fortress 2 will never come out :/
DUKE NUKEM FOREVER will never come out just like TEAM FORTRESS 2 will never come out! :/
You have been /.
I'll purchase any move Pixar makes.
In this report, you totally left out Unreal. This game too has been delayed and delayed and delayed, but when it finally did arrive it did rock. So I'm keeping the faith for DNF.
Bottom line is games that suck fail. How difficult of a concept is that?
So, tell me again why Looking Glass was closed?
Or why Deer Hunter is popular and spawned umpteen sequels?
If DNF can infuse enough humour and interest in character, plot, weaponry and interaction that Duke 3D did then probably it'd do well whenever (ifever) it comes out. Even if the engine isn't the cutting edge thing that others are.
As someone who would rather play Duke3D over the technically better but vacant Quake, I still hold out hope. (Even if it is forlorn)
Interesting article, but it would be easier to read if you broke it up into paragraphs!
I know that hardware and software are not compareable, but often I get disappointed when new games arrive much in the same way that I did when Matrox parhelia 512 graphics card arrived. It was predicted by matrox to revolutionize the world with all new technology and I don't know what... But in tests it isn't all that good... the same goes for a lot of games which is predicted to be innovative and to have unparalleled graphics - you get very disappointed. The game Dungeon Siege was predicted to be oh so good and with lots of new things, but I was disappointed. It wasn't that beautiful and wasn't that exciting...But perhaps thats just me...?
Half Life is based on the Quake2 Engine. Guess who wrote it ... :)
What I would give for an epic game like the wing commander series (no bodyparts, but I'd throw in a sabbatical year with NO computer).
And to comment on a previous remark: Blizzard is doing a VERY good job with their games, they are an example of how good games are made and companies are succesfull...
"I'm going to go further than 3D Realms are prepared to, and make an educated guess that it will be out by the end of the second quarter of 2003 or it will never see the light of day at all."
If you've been paying attention to the 3DRealms board you would know that they've hired a couple extra people in the few months, and as of right now they're looking for an environmental artists.
Do you think 3DRealms is going to go through all the trouble of paying all these extra salaries just to have the game canceled shortly afterwards? I doubt that.
I agree with what some of the other people in the user feedback have been saying. Your article is nothing but opinion and you haven't really backed anything up with real facts.
all of you whiners can go F urself with that small hole on the wall beside you right now. You all have just wasted 15mins of my time.
The only whiners here are those who swear without evidence that DNF will be an awful game, or a great game. The weight of evidence suggests it will be a good game.
The historic ambition, style, and marketing of 3DR, suggests what game they will present to you and how it is marketed. I don't expect they care one jot for people saying it will be good or bad because they're missing the point.
The real point of 3DR is to maintain a polished image. Without this they're nothing. Judge Dredd versus Judge Death undermines the Duke Nukem brand they want to project and is ultimately why they fear it.
Well, your article don´t answer the question. Why do developers fail?
Well they don´t sell, then they get cut. The market is dominated by a few big titles who gets all the market attention. The prices of games forces people to buy a few selected titles. And some people are just cheap and copy games...
Outcast didn´t sell that much..even though it was great. publishers want hits (games that casual gamers buy)
your article is missing the point!
why do developers fail?
Answer the question, don´t make it a wishlist.
Publishers want hits, Outcast was great but didn´t sell. The pirce of games today forces people to buy a few selected games.
FB,
Attacking conjecture with conjecture is not credible.
I suppose you're right, even if what I said is accurate.
Looking at the hard evidence there is nothing to support the claim that DNF will be a great game or an awful game.
Yet you claim, and I quote, that DNF "won't be a great game." And it's ridiculous to suggest that there's hard evidence that DNF will be "a good game pretending to be a great game." Like your original post, it's just rhetoric.
As for the "fanboy" comment, anyone who read my original post is probably scratching their heads at that remark. I didn't say anything positive about DNF; I merely rejected Richard's speculation.
But I'm sure you're pleased that you had the chance to get another shot in. I'll let you savor it, for old times sake. :)
This is a idiotic demand. If a company releases a game before it is due. It will be a bug-ridden failuer.
He is right, games that go into development for 5+ years...image how may games they'd have to sell to sell just to cover the 5+ years of development and spending...then think of all the pirated versions...and they'll never make money off of it, forcing companies to not want to get involved in long-term projects due to the loss of money.
Finally someone who understands the how things work!
I think that 3 years of development is already quite long for a game. Not to mention 4 or 5 years. If the game don't sell well after the long development period, the studio will most likely be busted.
"I'm sorry but a there is no excuse for a game using an engine that has already been made to take more than 5 years to make."
Are you implying that the game content, or the gameplay-related enhancements made to the engine, let alone polish and balancing, take no time to make?
Question, how many years was there between the first screen shot of Max Payne and its release. And what a game! As for using an older engine then take a look at Half Life.
But I feel that this game has suffered from a lack of scope as they seem to be going around this randomly and from my expereince of programming, without dead lines and specification/requirements you could be developing FOREVER!
Please 3D realms give us something more tangable (screens, videos or a release date), before we all end up thinking that the title is just one big joke which you have had everybody with for the last couple of years!
3D Realms are a joke around everyone I know as we see them for what they are - arrogant blowhards who can't deliver. What sort of sissy character is Duke Nukem anyway? lol
First of all, I don't know exactly what kind of experience you have with marketing, but regarding the pamphlet you mention, when a marketing team decide to put a question like that, believe me when I say that they are usually well aware that almost nobody will answer "the studio". Why do they put than ? Quite simple, they have to because it will help them prove to the corporate people that the name of the studio doens't mean a DVD will sell well. The same things goes for the game industry, the best way to prove that the Studios is not a selling factor, is to ask the question in the first place.
Second, take it from someone who's working in the industry and has been trying to break into the industry, the main point which causes a game company to fail is money and marketing. A good game will sometimes never get notices if it's not marketed well.
The same thing goes for money, certain company will last for a long period of time (Sierra, Interplay for example) without releasing one good product, but because they have the money, they'll be able to last. While on the other hand, game company like G.O.D., who's leader probably didn't took the time to listen to their financial adviser ended up closing even thou they made good games, because they invested their money in too many direction and didn't always took the time to do a descent budget and sticking to it.
So, basically, in my opinion, the main reason why many good company fail is simple, lack of organisation (which include, budgeting, marketing strategy, etc..).
Look who's talking. A guy who can't even deduce that the OP meant "release"
The original Duke 3D was an excellent game. I played it so much that I had it down to a science. However, I doubt Duke Nukem Forever will be all that impressive, given the games that are out today - Battlefield 1942, etc. Also, where did 3D Realms get off putting out a Duke Nukem 3rd Person Shooter? (Manhattan Project). That is not what fans of the original game wanted. Now, if only Blizzard Games would hurry the hell up with releasing Diablo III, before it's a flop too.
Richard, you obviouslly have no idea what the hell you are saying quite honestlly. Your story was supposed to be about why game developers fail, but at the end you turn it into a rant about a game that you want now but aren't getting just like the other kiddies you see on the 3D Realms board. You're just whining like a toddler, that's all. If you are actually going to write things, I suggest you try to stay on topic.
Oh and for the record, Anachronox and Daikatana were developed in the same office.
-Tasy
How come you guys didn't profile any of the companis that are are doing good and what they are doing? I mean look at Blizzard. People worship their games and build altars for them. Bottom line is games that suck fail. How difficult of a concept is that?
I wish they would make colonization 2
well, i believe that dnf wont be released, and if it does it's failure.
why? cause they'r too damn slow, they switched it to unreal engine? what about the new modified engine? "ut2003"? or what about x-tend engine? doom3 engine? all these yummy engines will losse against dnf? blah!
Good article, but somehow in 3 pages nothing was really answered imho.
Here's my first hand take on "behind the scenes" of games that are cancelled.
MANAGEMENT. Oh yes, I'll blame management, what an origional idea. I'm serious though, management at the developer end is to blame for most of the cancelled games - and in the end the publisher has to cancel the title because it's obvious that the developer just can't make it happen.
Let me start with an example of a $3m game that was being developed (and later cancelled). It was supposed to be the developers tripple-A title, no holds barred perfection. In late 2000 they had their prototype approved by the publisher. Several months later they still only had 1 programmer working on it (yet probably a dozen artists), and virtually nothing to show. There was a shake up at the publisher and the title was dropped (not their fault completely), but that was ok, it was picked up by another publisher a month or so later. On it goes like this, 1 programmer, tons of artists, and a design document so complex that it was about 5000 pages long. In mid 2001 the management finally realised that something was wrong and hired a lot more programmers, and some work actually started to get done.. but then they realised that with 1.5 years to go and a 5000 page design document just wasn't realistic, so they cut it.. heavily. A lot of previous work was wasted, and the publisher wasn't even informed of most of the cuts, and still expected the whole game. Fast forward to late 2001 now, and the game is starting to take shape at last - because the origional producer was fired and a new one brought on. By early 2002 the game is starting to take shape, and the publisher is being very strict with deadlines - they are getting worried. The picture at early 2002: at most there's 7-8 months left in its development - there is basic walking and driving (but not at the same time, ie it's different programs!), there's no UI yet either, there's rough shooting and "killing", and basic AI coming in.. it's obvious to everyone that it's in big trouble, and the fingers are squarely pointed at the management because they are constantly wanting work to be redone (even though they're far behind schedule).
Come mid 2002 and the game is cancelled by the publisher.
Now for another game that was cancelled - before it even started. This one is because of the publisher though - they said they'd do a sequel to a title that was nearing the end of development, nothing in writing yet, just their word. 2 days after the origional title is completed they said straight out that they had no intention of doing a sequel. What happened? The game was passed its deadline (also because of very bad management), and the publisher said that they'd make a sequel to motivate the developer to finish the origional - as soon as they got the game, they had no need to keep up the deception.
How can publishers treat developers so badly? Because that's just how the industry is now (as is evidence by the royalties that the publisher get compared to the developer) - the publisher make the developer believe that they are the important ones in the equation, and developers believe it. Things will not change until developers get away from publishers, and the only way that this can happen is for new sources to be found to pay for the development of games, and with the venture capital market running from anything IT based right now, that's highly unlikely to happen any time soon.
"reklesae"
What does this word mean, apart from the fact that your public-school education has completely failed you?
There's been some intelligent commenting on this issue, but I just wanted to add a little point of my own - that even when you place funding directly into the hands of the "creatives" you still can have major problems. The obvious case in point here is Ion Storm, but I'm sure there are other examples.
Essentially the issue is multifactorial, so even if you have the seemingly ideal scenario of a developer also controlling the game's publishing, there's still a massive capacity for trouble.
I am surprised the XCOM series didn't get a mention here. A great first two games with a MASSIVE following, followed up by a set of THREE games which totally and uttlery departed the genre of the first two (a real time game, a space shooter and a first person shooter? since when do turn based strategy fans want their favourite game turned into THOSE). Then TWO more games in development, both VERY near completion were destroyed by several management blunders and collapses. This despite the fact one of those two games was what fans had been asking for all along, ie a modern remake of the original.
Probably the same reason bands like Rage Against the Machine and Soundgarden are no more, while NSYNC and Britney and their clones continue to put out "music"...
I was thinkin the exact same thing.
The article really didn't give any infomation about the why's or the how's it pretty much just said what it seem'ed was happening and asked a lot of questions which were never answered.
Why don't you talk more about the power houses that are trying to corner the games market and control it like SONY and MICROSOFT. Looking at these companies it is apparant why companies like blizzard are so important. The driving dollar of SONY gets the the games out "Star wars glaxies" but what future impacts will it have. ???
The game industry is still really young, but the problems you mentioned come from bad management... either too ruthless (Tomb Raider) or too complacent (Duke Nukem Forever).
Or maybe it is that the management is seperate from the developers, who are isolated from commercial reality. Tomb Raider might benefit from better control, as would the Resident Evil series. The latter might get it, now that the lead designer has said himself that after playing other games, he realises how much his controls suck (they were good for the Saturn but tech. has advanced since) (source:p.142, EGM 158).
The problems have solutions which are almost obvious... maybe I'll try making games, after all.
Ultima Online 2 anyone? Cancellled right before release.
Ultima Online 2 anyone?
Drazula is correct.
Richard obviously frequents the DNF forums. But as any reasonable person familiar with DNF can attest to, Richard's comments were either a localized rant, or vocalized ignorance.
My suggestion is to completely ignore Richard's comments, which have no firm foundation in fact.
And let's be honest: anyone who berates DNF does so simply because they want it bad. Otherwise they'd ignore it. It's just a game.
The publisher is a scam artist, and is probably a major reason why games aren't made well. They do essentially NOTHING but collect money from product they didn't make, which IMO makes them thieves. And worse than that, they are nazis because they somehow have the power to dictate what games can be madel, and how those games should be made..
This is funny. They dont have the ability to make their own games, yet they can tell someone who does what he can and cannot create.
Oh yes and then they take all the money and give some scraps of it to the actual creator(s).
This is just like the music industry with big name labels taking over the mainstream scene and releasing crappy music from crappy bands. Thats why we had the punk rock movement where people made and sold their own music without the burdon of having a label/publisher, and eventually formed their own labels and got famous all without the "help" of big namers. This has happened to some extent with the advent of shareware, and will continue, but it makes things much harder with proprietary consoles so availible and so marketed.. Mark my words, this will change!
Just a quick note about your conclusion on DNF's release. Your first premise doesn't support the conclusion on its own; and to be honest, as far as the second one is concerned: "And if the brief history of computer games has told us one thing it's that nobody can beat John Carmack on his own turf. " - I kind of thought DN3d was a bit better than Doom.
Oh, and one other thing: deleting comments that made good points - that's pathetic.
If you designed this article to be informative, you failed. This article has been nothing but opinionated, and frankly, I feel there is no reason why I should place my trust in your judgement.
Half Life is based on the Quake 1 engine.
Halflife is based on the Quake1 engine.
Feersum Boundah, you have been banned permanently from 3DRealms because of your fanatical love for a game. We couldn't stand you anymore always taking things back to Judge Dredd. It's hard to have a conversation with someone so obsessed with a software he looks like some stalker type of maniac. And, I may add, under your "official" tone, you are totally unable to write a compelling sentence.
So please stop blaming our community all over net. Nobody cares about that stuff anyway. Thank you.
X-Vector
<i>No you don't, you're just speculating in an even more simplistic way than the writer of the Ferrago article - if that is at all possible.</i>
Exactly. If the average 3D Realms forum member stopped peddling unreason and started listening to reason a more accurate picture of 3DR and DNF might emerge.
The hype 3DR have encouraged within their own fanbase is just that, hype. The typical game is a pile of unambitious and sloppy crap. This makes the urge to believe, and the drama queen performances when questioned, even more intense. Doesn't make it right though.
i think it was actually a mix of the quake 1 and quake 2 engines.
what a whiny pissass article, you said nothing but meaningless crap.
<whine>DNF and Daikatana took to long, babylon 5 wasnt realeased</whine>
you gave no resolution to your intitial question of why good games die and why bad games dont (somehow i doubt DNF is in there) other than execs are oblivious.
you had no insight and nothing important to say.
ty for wasting my time.
This article was a waste of time.
I'm sorry but a there is no excuse for a game using an engine that has already been made to take more than 5 years to make. If you ask me I think they have forgot what work is around at 3d realms after they made it big off their previous titles. They should get off their asses and get to work. This is just getting sad.
By the way... Great artical. I'm one to agree with you on this matter.
"Are you implying that the game content, or the gameplay-related enhancements made to the engine, let alone polish and balancing, take no time to make?"
I'm implying they could've already made a new engine by now.
So what's the point of this whole article? Reads like a rant to me...
What about Wizardry? Amazing games, but now Sirtech is not going to make a 9th. Interplay pissed me off when it decided not to publish W8 and I had to wait until they could find a publisher for the game.
The problem is, the author thinks that Babylon 5 would be good just because the developers said they would have X amount of features. You must remember that over a game's development, a number of features are removed for time retraints or due to bugs. Just because a company says their game will be great, doesn't mean it will. Outcast 2 and Babylon 5 might look good on paper, but you never know until the finished product is in stores.
Developers fail since theres too much demands in this industry. Very few companies are allowed to express creative simply because it won't sell many games. Thats why the same old rehashs occur constantly.
No matter what 3D Realms say, the public will expect that and more. So whatever they do, they won't meet the demand. Sure, the game might be extremely fun. Maybe even better than Half-Life (in my opinion, the greatest singleplayer FPS in gaming history. If you didn't like H-L, just think of your favourite.). I feel pitty for 3D realms... Also, they kinda missed the hype of stereotypes such as Rambo and Duke Nukem. It's no longer "the one man army" people want to be. People want to be part of a team. Just look at multiplayer games, or even singleplayer games where the story is that you belong to some elite force or whatever. Besides that, I think the standards for storys have risen. Anyone played Deus Ex? Or the Baldurs Gate series? OK, they're not pure 3D shooters. But come on! "evil space aliens kidnap women with silicon"
More reasons why duke will fall:
Doom 3
Unreal Tournament 2003
Unreal 2 (or what it's called)
Half-Life 2 (yeah, it isn't official. But at 3D realms rate... it probably will :P)
Guess we know CS/DR/MD's new moniker.
No you don't. That's an old one.
Hmmm. Nice to see people are regurgitating my old topics and arguments as if they're original pieces of thought.
Shame on you.
One of their pet hates is having DNF contrasted to the upcoming Judge Dredd versus Judge Death from Rebellion,
What, you mean that joke of a game that was shown at E3 recently?
Tell me, is it funny to be both an idiot AND deluded?
Still reading the 3dr forums everyday huh CS?
You're a joke..
Tell me that when it sells ten million units.
LOL
Still reading the 3dr forums everyday huh CS?
Not everyday, especially when you guys haven't got anything interesting to say, which is increasingly more often than not. If Draz, XV, Airtraffic, and Kalki never posted, there'd be nothing worth reading.
You're a joke..
Wait till you see the punchline.
You haven't got a clue. Trust me. :)
Hey, a game can take forever to develop and not end up as a bloated mess. Just check "Shenmue", by Sega/AM2 for the Dreamcast. It took five years to make and cost $20,000,000... and it's a masterpiece.
Don't count on 3drealms keeping the engine for DNF. They've already switched one too many times and probably won't stop once Half Life 2 comes out.