Topic: Gamecube the most expensive system for developers

[Mario]

According to a recent CESA (Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association) White Paper the GC is the most expensive system of all next generation systems.

According to the survey a Cube game in average costs 72 Million Yen or US$ 603.000 to develop. The cheapest system is the PSOne with costs of 14 Million or US$ 117.000. Heh, how odd. GC may be the easiest to develop for, but its the most expensive. Hmmmmm

source: http://www.gamefront.de/

[Grey Ninja]

I can't read German, or whatever that is.  I have doubts about the validity of that myself.

[Kellk]

Is this really a comparative analysis of how much it costs to make games across systems, or is this simply an average cost across all games released?   I'm thinking it's the latter, and that would not be much of a surprise.  PS2 has an awful lot of games from a vast array of publishers.  I would imagine quite a few of them have low production values and thus cost little to make.  I'm sure such games, were there a market for them, could get made for the Cube.  Those games would drop the average cost for PS2 games.  
Basically, a meaningless stat if that's what we're talking about here.

[Bartman3010]

It discourages crappy developers to develop a crappy game for a superb system like the GCN

[Zelda]

bmx xxx was on gamecube ^_~

[ThePerm]

well considerign the crazy amount of money Nintendo spends on its own game devlopment and the smaller numebr of third parties...i bet it tips the scale a bit.

[cheers69]

microsoft make the xbox hardware with a loss because of its hard drive in it. im sure most of you know this

[Grey Ninja]

Quote
Originally posted by: Zelda
bmx xxx was on gamecube ^_~

It was also on PS2 and Xbox, but it was even worse on PS2.

[VoodooMerlin]

I don't know for sure....but I wouldn't be too surprised.

The N64 was hellishly expensive to develop for.

[AgentSeven]

This is the main reason why there is so much crap of the PSONE and PS2.  It's cheap to develop for.  This is the same thing that killed Atari back in the day.

Now with $ony considering using "Generic Game Engines" for many of it's upcoming PS3 titles, things will only get worse.
In fact, in my personal opinion, I feel the "Generic Game Engine" could literally destroy gaming as we know it...

(Kind of like the 1984 game crash, the industry may survive, but it will be seriously hurt...)

Someone needs to weed out all these crap developers. At least Acclaim is on it's way out.

[ThePerm]

Generic Game Engines are not bad..especially on a next generation system...as long as the rules, physics and controls are adjustable then you wont notice the difference. Except games wotn take so long to make. What really is important in a game engine is it graphics. Thats how games differ from console to console. Gameplay has only changed slighty from n64 to gamecube. To change gameplay all a programmer does is change what pressing a button does to whats on screen lol.  

[Kellk]

Here's a translation of the German article - used alta-vista.com's babel fish:

Quote
Software development for Gamecube is most expensive 28.07.03 - The CESA (computer Entertainment Supplier's Association) analyzed the video game market of Japan in the report ' CESA Games White PAPER '. Therefore the play development for the Gamecube with on the average Yen 72 millions (euro 525,000/USD 603,000) of all current consoles is most expensive. The development is most inexpensive on the PSone, for which one must invest about Yen 14 millions (euro 102,000/USD 117,000). The data are based on data of 43 software producers.

So it sounds like they just did an average of production costs from 43 different producers.  I would imagine it takes into account fees, licensing, salaries, marketing, etc.   This is essentially meaningless.  Now if they say "licensing fees on average more expensive for Gamecube", or "production tools for development on average are more expensive for Gamecube" then maybe we'd have something compelling.  I'll look to see if I can find a link to that white paper for more info.

[Grey Ninja]

You want to know the reason the GameCube is more expensive to develop for on average?

There are all too many PS2 games like this one

[Kellk]

Here's the link to the white paper.  Looks like you gotta pay for it, so we have to rely on "news" outlets to sift through it and pass on the specifics  *shudder*.

CESA Games White Paper

edit - fixed link

[KnowsNothing]

That game makes my eyes water.

[Gup]

Quote
Originally posted by: Grey Ninja
You want to know the reason the GameCube is more expensive to develop for on average?

There are all too many PS2 games like this one

LOL, nice point.

[oohhboy]

OMFG, J.F.C! That is really nasty in the worse of ways. How on this fair green sphere we call earth did this game get made the first ime round, let alone a REMAKE?!?!?