Jason Schreier Explains Why Game Development Has Become So Expensive
Bloomberg columnist Jason Schreier has published an analytical article on why game development is becoming more expensive year after year. In short, it’s all about poor studio management and the lack of specific goals.
Not too long ago, I had coffee with a video-game developer who told me that work was slow and that they’d been spending half of their days watching Netflix. For a second I was stunned — this person worked for a major corporation worth billions of dollars — until I remembered how many times I’d heard similar stories.
And there are many such examples, says Jason Schreier. Often, developers sit almost without money and without work, because the tools are not ready or the creative director is gushing with inappropriate ideas. In his discussion, the journalist took a jab at the authors of a recent article about how the desire for realistic graphics has led to mass layoffs. The key to the problem is not in this at all, the columnist is sure. He identified three factors:
- Increased development time. For comparison, only two years passed between Uncharted and Uncharted 2 from Naughty Dog, while The Last of Us Part 2 was released four years after the studio's penultimate game, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.
- Expenses on employee salaries. The more specialists, the more you have to pay, and the salary level itself depends heavily on the location of the office. For example, in Los Angeles, each employee can receive up to 20 thousand dollars monthly. In turn, this affects the cost of the final product.
- Incompetence of managers. According to Jason Schreier, companies chase trends, make unsuccessful bets and do not have a clear creative vision. The result is outrageous situations when experienced creators of single-player games are put to work developing a multiplayer shooter with a live service — this was the case with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Redfall.
All this leads to budgets inflated to astronomical amounts. A recent investigation into Activision found that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare cost $600 million to develop, while Black Ops Cold War cost $700 million.
if game companies are wondering how their budgets are really swelled into nine-figure territory, it might be time for some introspection — and less wasteful management.
Earlier, the columnist shared his prediction for 2025. In his opinion, Grand Theft Auto 6 will be delayed until 2026, and the announcement of Half-Life 3 will definitely take place.