If I had a dollar for each time a publisher fucked a good game I would still not make as much as these companys that "need" micro transactions to make money
Tim Murphy they don't ruin good games, they just add bullshit stuff to them. Shadow of War. Looks good, right? They added micro transactions. That doesn't take away from the quality of the game, it just adds something people don't like. It's shitty but it doesn't ruin games.
Microtransactions keep games at $60 buddy. From inflation alone games should be $102. Factor in the larger budgets and increased demand they should be far higher. And no you children, increased demand does not lower prices. You will learn supply and demand in high school. Would you rather pay tons of extra money for content you probably don't even want?
Too often do Publishers get in the way of game developers. Monolith, Bioware, and Bungie are just some of the many great developers that have been hurt by their publishers.
Corey Adolfi everyone hates destiny because overpriced DLC Activision also i think published skysomething where you buy figures to use in game each one was about 10-20$.
I'm pretty sure Rockstar wouldn't *need* a publisher, but business-wise, having a publisher does help out with marketing and resources. The publisher's job is to ensure the best investment/earnings ratio for a game. Without a publisher, Rockstar loses access to the publisher's resources, so going independent would mean having to skimp on at least some features in the game, or marketing (marketing also including everything that is designed to make the customer feel like part of the community.) Basically, money attracts money. It's easier to turn 1.000$ into 10.000$ than it is to turn 10$ into a 100$, even more so with digital media that can be copied with negligible resource costs.
Tim Smithen Yep..and when a dev has money like Rockstar, and more importantly sales like Rockstar, not only does it save them from staffing a marketing dept all year long it acually allows them to pick and choose who's going to publish the game. Much like hiring "temps". It's just too convenient to pass up.
For the same reason they all do. Marketing, demographics research, management and assessment. They basically will keep them straight in order they would want to deviate towards a route that will stop the development due to lack of funds or ideas. It really sounds bad when you want to impede the creative process of an artist, but sometimes it's necessary, or they'll never finish anything.
Yes, and that is a bad thing because you also do your day job for the passion and not for the money. We can all live off passion and not, well, food or anything else that costs money.
You want that big budget AAA game? Then you're a slave to publishers. It's hard to accept, but that's how it is. Only very few devs have the money to self-publish a AAA game. Gamer demand for better graphics and bigger worlds is what's forcing developers into the arms of publishers. It's an ironic circle.
Asmodeus I might be wrong but I never seen ad for rocket league, after the game got big they have the new update stuff but in the start I never saw it before, lol I took it from ps Plus for free and it's great game The game don't have publisher too ,
Great video! I always wondered why digital games maintained the 60$ price tag. Have you guys made a video on that? That would be interesting. Also loved all the falcon faces popping up at 4:44 XD
Oh, I see. I guess just because third party distributors (GameStop, etc.) typically want to get rid of unsold stock so they lower the price until the demand meets it. In a digital marketplace there is no 'stock' until the game is purchased, so the retailer doesn't feel the same obligation to sell everything they have. EDIT: What Jonathon said about not undercutting Real Stores is probably true as well.
If it's Playstation, you can share it with a friend without them having to pay for it. On Xbox however, I'm not quite sure. On PC it's just cheaper to buy games on there full stop
2shots2ways pbg clan because console developers have deals with places like game stop etc. It's really more of a thing with the consoles, though, as steam has unbearable prices more often than not
BigBangMad Games you can gameshare but it's illegal and u need to tred carefully. Btw never send your email or password through xbox messages.Made a big mistake and got banned for it.
Because no matter how you argue it, people will will put up with it for the convenience. And so, a company would have to be dumb to give up tat extra cash they make, just to appease someone who was gone to buy it digitally whether or not it was cheaper than the physical.
They do and they don't . From my understanding youtubers get money based off views and adds. The more subs you have the more likely your vid will be viewed and shared to as many people as possible
As a TH-camr & I'm only speaking for myself, I personally don't need Subscribers but I will ask people viewing my content to subscribe if they want. For why tho ? Great question, Subscribing to a TH-camr or TH-cam Channel gives you quick access to their content. If your TV Provider asked you to hit a button on your favorite channels so they are the first things you see when you pull up the guide and gives you the latest content from that channel on demand, it's the same thing. Basically, in a sea of channels you get to select your fav channels and have them right there when you need them. It's a win win for both the Subscriber and TH-camr. Hope that answers your question. Side note on the comments slamming the whole so they can make money. First off everything we do from viewing web pages to using apps, watching TV and so on, all have ad's. It's no different from anything people already do. So don't let them people discourage you from supporting a Channel. They are just mad they aren't making money on TH-cam.
The biggest problem I have with the current state of video games is the fact that publishers own franchises. This means that when the subject of a sequel gets to the table, it's the not the publishers that are replaceable, it's the developers. If that one thing were changed, we'd see publishers get better through market forces. Unfortunately, that's not the case, so franchises are tied to publishers, creating a love/hate feeling for products (games) in the minds of consumers.
Few reasons i can give: 1) Is to help Indies, and other video game developer to publish a game. Sometimes, being an Indie and publishing a game is not enough to distribute a game, and may cost a big lost, if Indies handle it by themselves. 2) To help developers and Indies, advertise their games. Without it, we wont even know about FIFA, Titanfall, Hellblade or even Half Life 3) To earn 50%-70% of profit from developers, that's what a purpose of publishing is about, doesn't matter if they have ridicules schemes like DLCs &, Microtransactions.. but without it, Publishers can go bankrupt, 4) Not all triple AAA publishers are bad, sometimes they do bring good games, and sometimes they do have bad business practices, but we all also have to realized that, cost of living nowadays is getting high, some people are struggling to get the best earnings to survive
I appreciate this channel, team behind it. Great work Falcon. I'm digging the in-depth and thorough explanations you deliver with your personal expression. The heart shows.
Snipe Hypes before people go crazy sony have been advertising microtransactions out right right in the store theres a whole catagory theyve also been advertising big activision games like destiny 2 and cod ww2 there not nice to you they want the money
Kronniikk 450 i just dont like sony at the moment like really dont be like scummy microsoft sony microsoft have been doing this since the begining and the staff at sony were like hey lets also do that screw our reputation and customers honestly the only company i still like is nintendo even if they made stupid decisions
Gabriel Angelos, I thought that valve was doing bad with their games, and to be honest they are but they are certainly better than lost of these corporate publishers.
People hating Destiny are giving shit to Bungie when is Activision the ones who fucked it up. The commercials, the game's length, the microtransactions; Bungie didnt do that cause, as far as I remember, their games gave you what they promised. If you didnt notice the marketing differences between Halo and Destiny, look at it now
Bungies contract with Activision had a part stating that they had to include microtransactions in it. It's why Bungie made them cosmetic because it didn't say what time of microtransactions it had to be.
I'm a QA for War for the Overworld, their first title. And yes it is necessery to have a publisher, because who else does the marketing for you, the game is still unmarketed and very few people knowes about it. Further to, they are working on a new Project and they need a publisher, because they need the money to continue working on Games. So yes, it is necessery to have a publisher, because developers (at least Brightrock Dev's) want to put as much resources in their game, to make it as good as possible, and then they would need something like Marketing in mind, which costs a lot of money, which they could spend into the game to make it better.
Marketing isn't just advertising and promotion, it also entails distribution and price points. But with online download databases and every game holding the same price range at $60-70, self-publishing is picking up. The biggest barrier to entry is capital and licensure to copyrights.
Digital games are not free of distribution costs. Servers cost money to run. Online platforms cost money to produce and maintain. If you are distributing your game through Steam, Valve takes a cut of the sale to facilitate the cost of hosting. Even publishers with proprietary distribution platforms like EA and Ubisoft still have their own servers that they need to maintain for that. There are still distribution costs even for digital games.
Outstanding topic. People are always hating on the developers when a lot of times their hands are tied. They have to come up with something to make the publisher happy and to add they can’t just back out. They have to fulfill their contract.
Jorge Armijos you're making us Latinos look bad.. think... of course it's capitalisms fault. But without capitalism we wouldn't have all this innovation
Contemporary Chair people are the reason we're able to play video games, capitalism is just the social classification system that it takes place in, and in this case, it's even making it worse. So take that out of the picture and you end up with better games and everything.
I love these behind the scene vids! Great way to explain some of the nuances of game development that are often overlooked, that potentially the developers catch the flack for. Cheers!
games that are made/published independently are most likely going to be better because of the freedom it brings the devs,they don't have to answer to publishers who's main concern is money,it's not just a game but a passion project
The Witness no it's fucking now they need money to make their game you try to make a game that's super huge and expansive with no money and see how far it gets ya
on important thing i think that really makes a big difference is that the Publisher is ultimately taking all the risk for the sales of the game. if the game doesnt sell well then yes, the developer can go out of business but without the publisher's money there often would be no game to make at all.
Kickstarters should be more effective so developers will have an incentive to do good for their bosses; Us, the Gamers. Give them 50% of the money raised, and *when* they deliver, give them the rest.
Jo King you realize that kickstarters aren't for profit, it's for the product. The developer would not be able to finish the game on half the budget that the game requires. EA is shit but even they aren't that retarded.
Alright then. Give me the half the money now. I'm sure with Kickstarter's excellent track record you'll get your product right away and not have to worry about wasting your money at all. *Pinky promise.*
I love these more in-depth videos. There is quite a lot of the games industry that I do not know, and this is really informative. I do not want to criticise publishers, because, let's be fair, without these publishers a lot of games will not be made. They offer the money to make these games, and they want a return on their investment. They have done the market research and they see trends that are successful for business, so they may urge if not force developers to implement these trends. To say that publishers are the reason for bad trends in games is, I believe, unfair. They watch the market, they see what generates money, so it is understandable if they want to do the same. Sometimes it is at the cost of the quality of the core game, but remember, were it not for the publisher in the first place, that game may not have been made at all.
Let me just take a second to tell you that that is quite possibly the most beautifully accurate thumbnail I have ever seen, and I love you all the more for it.
When games are made available as digital downloads through PlayStation Store etc at often more than the high street price, with no disc, no resale value to the consumer, let alone drastically less manufacturing costs then it's hard to imagine publisher's aren't greedy. Thanks to the mechanism of digital download releases, Xbox Live Arcade gave us the trial option of every game. This was a fantastic feature to try before you buy AT NO COST to the retailer or publisher or consumer. If they liked it, they could pay to unlock the full version. This should have been the future of gaming, but sadly it didn't continue. It's a shame because gaming is both a creative, artist entertainment industry but also has to survive as a commercially viable product. The difference is, games cost consumers $60.00 plus, which is a huge investment compared to a movie or cinema ticket. If the game is good, it's a great value investment. But when a game is released full of bugs, or lacking content later made available as paid DLC, or just not anywhere near as good as marketing suggested, it's the consumer who is out of pocket and the only way they can recoup their loss, is through preowned gaming, which we all know publishers are trying to eradicate.
That moment when you're *forced* to watch a 30 second ad just to watch a video that tells me that money is the reason for everything game related nowadays
One of the biggest problems right now is Publishers knowingly releasing unfinished products to be finished later through patch after patch after patch. It's becoming a norm, paying full price for alpha/beta games. And they also know, yes, we the gamers will be upset... but will completely forget about it 2 weeks later. Yes there are exceptions, there are always exceptions, lets focus on the whole and not the few.
You can easily spot games that were either not play tested or no enough, like Battlefield 1, Infinite Warfare, Black ops 3, Wildlands, Mafia 3, Andromeda, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, Fallout 4, Skyrim Special Edition, ARK:SE and plenty more, they are really buggy and have some game breaking bugs and some not so game breaking but immersion breaking and annoying bugs, some of them are so huge that they cannot have possibly gotten through without the Developers saying "Meh, it's okay" or just not play testing it, like the brightness bug on Battlefield 1, it's been there for like a week, it's impossible to read things in the menu and certain parts of the HUD because it's too bright since the last update, how does something everyone is experiencing (at least on PC) get through?
I don't know if this video was made before the release of Divinity Original Sin 2 but Larian Studios is both the developer and producer of their game and I consider that game a AAA release. They are crowd funded so it is possible to not need publishers. If anyone likes turn based RPGs with great fully voiced acting and amazing combat that actually forces you to think about the situation then you should play it. An easy 10/10 for me.
Brother Ares - classic cause and effect, devs dont make games because there isnt as big a market to sell the games to and people dont buy it because there are no games. to me, it is a gimmick, not going to do well until tech advancements allow to alot more simplicity in hardware. also, too expensive.
I just wanna say this helps me very much i wanna be a indie developer and i really appreciate this it is helping explain more to me about game publishing
Same reason a film crew needs a production company. This question did not need to be answered, especially in an 8 minute video. Developers are artists, publishers sell what the artists make. A quick note is that since publishers have all the money to sell and market, they also can make developers do things that ruin the games. Like production companies do to directors.
I am a game design student and I have been questioning myself more and more on this topic. I feel torn and lost. I want to make games that I love but more and more I realize that I don't think I will be able to do that freely and be able to pay my student loans.
In the intro... honestly the fallout DLCs(besides workshops) were done right. The felt like true add ons (like the Witcher 3) expanded upon the experience, not cut content
Devs used to do it alone all the time for years. It's just simpler to get someone to produce and market it then make a game to their selling formula. It's the voting with the wallet theory. As long as someone's buying someone's making. As long as the industry sees a need for this formula it'll stay that way. However like most markets there's ups and downs and game changers.You never know when an under dog steps into the ring and sets the standard for everyone one to follow.
Falcon should be one. Im sure they have resources saved in the back and with his TH-cam following it wouldn’t be hard to reach millions in a few days. If they play their cards right and allow the developers to do what they want to make amazing games, they could change the industry.
I couldn't agree more. Although I think it's a case of "Too little, too late". Boogie has been harping about this stuff for years. I honestly don't know if it will ever go back to normal.
The real question is "Why don't publishers know they don't know how to make good games that actually sell?" It's a longer title but the point is: they set deadlines which = them saying good enough = sell the game but get terrible reviews = losing money and fanbase. Call of Duty is a perfect example of this.
Star Citizen is a great example. They didn't set out to be a game publisher/production company, although they are technically that now. They set out to make a game. Because it's the game they care about, not the game publishing company aspect, the quality of the game is much greater. It's taking longer to get that game out, and most publishers would frown on that. Because of what they're doing, they are easily going to end up making over a billion dollars over the games life span.
Very well said. It´s a shame that alot of otherwise great games get ruined by publishers. I don´t really mind extra content(DLC) as long as there plenty of effort put into it, as long as it´s not too expensive and "forced" upon me but most importantly as long as the end product doesn´t get affected in a negative way( like cutting parts of the game etc) just to put it into the DLC.
The thing with pricing is you have to make sure that no matter where you sell the end product always costs the same. It's something you learn in freelancing. Having different prices in different places makes for angry clients and customers feeling ripped off.
Honestly in a lot of ways, TH-cam is your answer for this. Because to be honest, I didn't even know about hellblade until you said something and now it's on my steam wishlist until i look more into it.
Why do developers need publishers, that's like asking why do workers need companies? The real answer, to get paid and get the product out there. Some developers doesn't even know what their purpose in creating games will be unless the publisher throws them a pitch or too and if the dev screw up, at the least the publisher will pay dearly for it. If developer don't need publisher then they won't be able to get their games out there, they will have to do all the marketing, manufacturing and distributing the game themselves which will cost them a lot of money and there's no guaranteed if they'll make those money back. With a publisher, the publisher will handle all of that, all the dev had to do is finish the game on time and continue to distribute ideas. The thing is this, dev who works with publishers are like employees, dev who published their own games are like their own entrepreneur. The pros to working with publisher is that it won't cost the dev that much to get their games out there but in return they are lock within a contract with the publisher meaning if their product sell then they can't distribute it through any one else and if the publisher felt something needs to be change, the dev had to honor that. The pros to not working with a publisher is that dev had more freedom to what they could do but because of that trying to get their game out there would be difficult which is why some turn to crowdfunding and hope for the best. Both had it's ups and downs so there's really no best way to answer this, it really depends on whether the dev are confident with a publisher or not and if the publisher would get in the way of changing or altering the product.
I think the best thing for console gamers is to go to the good old store (you know, physical) and look around, you don't have that many choices so it's easier to choose
It's simple really, if you want to make a game, you need money, or you're restricted to making low budget indie, flash or mobile games. Publishers provide that money in the form of budgets for developers. Unless you have a successful kickstarter which doesn't necessarily guarantee a sustainable budget. The problem is, most contracts with publishers involve the publisher purchasing the intellectual property and publishers are expected to meet annual profit margins to keep investors/shareholders happy. As a result publishers often force developers to implement additional money making schemes to increase profit, because publishers need to meet or be very close to those annual profit margins, with little ability to mitigate large losses. The problem with the gaming industry is that its a necessary evil. With the modern generation of technology it's nearly financially impossible for most developers to create large games without publishers because there are too many expenses and game production costs more money.
The parallels between the games industry and the music industry are astounding. So many great bands opt for DIY now, much like indie devs. Loads of great albums (indie games) come out all the time, but unless you've heard of them from a friend of a friend, they'll likely pass under your radar. More money just makes things noticeable (top 40 music/AAA games); doesn't make them better.
Yes, I think publishers do need to smarten up. It's like anything, it's cyclical. People work hard, have success, ride the success, rest on their laurels, become complacent, get lazier or change more etc. Things go downhill or things become worse value or not made as well. Then someone or something comes along does a lot better job for less or better product for less or quicker or just something better. Public takes notice a big fuss is made. The competition so became complacent gets scared, sits up and takes notice. Then they either evolve, do the same thing better, buys them out or find a smart campaign or something evil and negative against them or they just muddle along as they have lost the spark or they lose, go bankrupt and go out of business or as I said smarten up and do things better and win. That is best case scenario as then we have competition things have a better quality to dollar ratio. Innovations happen and everything moves forward, the industry becomes better and the customer ultimately wins and the industry. Hopefully then the divide between profits and product smartens up too and they make realistic profits instead of obscenely evil ones.
If I had a dollar for each time a publisher fucked a good game I would still not make as much as these companys that "need" micro transactions to make money
Tim Murphy EA ruined star wars battlefront.
Tim Murphy they don't ruin good games, they just add bullshit stuff to them.
Shadow of War. Looks good, right? They added micro transactions. That doesn't take away from the quality of the game, it just adds something people don't like.
It's shitty but it doesn't ruin games.
astro baby Battlefront was such a huge disappointment
Microtransactions keep games at $60 buddy. From inflation alone games should be $102. Factor in the larger budgets and increased demand they should be far higher. And no you children, increased demand does not lower prices. You will learn supply and demand in high school. Would you rather pay tons of extra money for content you probably don't even want?
Post Rock Mixes most games are $100 min here.
Because money.
Makes sense
indeed
true
PaleGhost69 D'ah 😂
Because greed
Too often do Publishers get in the way of game developers. Monolith, Bioware, and Bungie are just some of the many great developers that have been hurt by their publishers.
Corey Adolfi you right
Do you mean Monolith Soft the guys who made Xenoblade? what happened with them?
Corey Adolfi everyone hates destiny because overpriced DLC
Activision also i think published skysomething where you buy figures to use in game
each one was about 10-20$.
Corey Adolfi surely you are not talking about the bioware knockoff that made MEA bc that was an internal problem and it wasnt the real bioware
Corey Adolfi I like it
Ok ok I hear you.... but why does Rockstar need a publisher?
I'm pretty sure Rockstar wouldn't *need* a publisher, but business-wise, having a publisher does help out with marketing and resources. The publisher's job is to ensure the best investment/earnings ratio for a game. Without a publisher, Rockstar loses access to the publisher's resources, so going independent would mean having to skimp on at least some features in the game, or marketing (marketing also including everything that is designed to make the customer feel like part of the community.)
Basically, money attracts money. It's easier to turn 1.000$ into 10.000$ than it is to turn 10$ into a 100$, even more so with digital media that can be copied with negligible resource costs.
Bc Take Two owns Rockstar ...
Tim Smithen Yep..and when a dev has money like Rockstar, and more importantly sales like Rockstar, not only does it save them from staffing a marketing dept all year long it acually allows them to pick and choose who's going to publish the game. Much like hiring "temps". It's just too convenient to pass up.
Grandpa One Taps lmao DICe cannot afford to lose EA
For the same reason they all do. Marketing, demographics research, management and assessment. They basically will keep them straight in order they would want to deviate towards a route that will stop the development due to lack of funds or ideas. It really sounds bad when you want to impede the creative process of an artist, but sometimes it's necessary, or they'll never finish anything.
Who hates gta sharkcards
MrDjBigZ well you should, because its the main reason why gta v doesnt have a story dlc after even after 4 years
If they were worth more than I would like them
Codex lots of us.. The story is always amusing
lol rockstar purposely makes earning money by hand very hard and long because they want you to buy the sharkcards, that is unexcusable
crazyasian68 That's pretty uneducated sir.
The witcher 3 - the best non moneywhore game of all time
Frank Underwood what about them?
CDPR was helped *a lot* by its home country of Poland. They had the luxury of that.
+DeMar DeRozan It's been 2 years, can people please stop bringing that game up.
Frank Underwood do you only own a playstation? lol
CDPR also owns a large online video store. They can afford to publish their own games where other developers can't.
Easy answer: mooooooooneeeeeeey
Thats the point
Yes, and that is a bad thing because you also do your day job for the passion and not for the money. We can all live off passion and not, well, food or anything else that costs money.
You want that big budget AAA game? Then you're a slave to publishers. It's hard to accept, but that's how it is. Only very few devs have the money to self-publish a AAA game. Gamer demand for better graphics and bigger worlds is what's forcing developers into the arms of publishers. It's an ironic circle.
Asmodeus I might be wrong but I never seen ad for rocket league, after the game got big they have the new update stuff but in the start I never saw it before, lol I took it from ps Plus for free and it's great game
The game don't have publisher too ,
+DrCodBar
Rocket League isn't a AAA game. It's an indie and most indie games are self-published.
It saddens me when people don't realize why Indie games cost less than AAA titles
Dizastermaster it saddens me when indie games are way better than AAA titles
Alexandra Kieler like rocket league and dead by daylight! :D
More can be done with less.
Great video! I always wondered why digital games maintained the 60$ price tag. Have you guys made a video on that? That would be interesting.
Also loved all the falcon faces popping up at 4:44 XD
Why not? Most people spent the $60 for the game, not for the game and a disc to later use for whatever reason.
I was thinking more, "How they maintain the pricetag longer the the physical copies."
AvengedKyle They don't want to undercut brick and mortar places that sale there hardware
Oh, I see. I guess just because third party distributors (GameStop, etc.) typically want to get rid of unsold stock so they lower the price until the demand meets it. In a digital marketplace there is no 'stock' until the game is purchased, so the retailer doesn't feel the same obligation to sell everything they have.
EDIT: What Jonathon said about not undercutting Real Stores is probably true as well.
AvengedKyle tis a nice number
I have a qeustion why does a digital version of a game cost more then a physical
Don't they cost the same
If it's Playstation, you can share it with a friend without them having to pay for it. On Xbox however, I'm not quite sure. On PC it's just cheaper to buy games on there full stop
2shots2ways pbg clan because console developers have deals with places like game stop etc. It's really more of a thing with the consoles, though, as steam has unbearable prices more often than not
BigBangMad Games you can gameshare but it's illegal and u need to tred carefully. Btw never send your email or password through xbox messages.Made a big mistake and got banned for it.
Because no matter how you argue it, people will will put up with it for the convenience. And so, a company would have to be dumb to give up tat extra cash they make, just to appease someone who was gone to buy it digitally whether or not it was cheaper than the physical.
Why do TH-camrs need subscribers?
Precisely
They do and they don't . From my understanding youtubers get money based off views and adds. The more subs you have the more likely your vid will be viewed and shared to as many people as possible
Why is there water in a river
Sparrow VM cause your mom is a troll.
As a TH-camr & I'm only speaking for myself, I personally don't need Subscribers but I will ask people viewing my content to subscribe if they want. For why tho ? Great question, Subscribing to a TH-camr or TH-cam Channel gives you quick access to their content. If your TV Provider asked you to hit a button on your favorite channels so they are the first things you see when you pull up the guide and gives you the latest content from that channel on demand, it's the same thing. Basically, in a sea of channels you get to select your fav channels and have them right there when you need them. It's a win win for both the Subscriber and TH-camr. Hope that answers your question.
Side note on the comments slamming the whole so they can make money. First off everything we do from viewing web pages to using apps, watching TV and so on, all have ad's. It's no different from anything people already do. So don't let them people discourage you from supporting a Channel. They are just mad they aren't making money on TH-cam.
The biggest problem I have with the current state of video games is the fact that publishers own franchises. This means that when the subject of a sequel gets to the table, it's the not the publishers that are replaceable, it's the developers. If that one thing were changed, we'd see publishers get better through market forces. Unfortunately, that's not the case, so franchises are tied to publishers, creating a love/hate feeling for products (games) in the minds of consumers.
Few reasons i can give:
1) Is to help Indies, and other video game developer to publish a game. Sometimes, being an Indie and publishing a game is not enough to distribute a game, and may cost a big lost, if Indies handle it by themselves.
2) To help developers and Indies, advertise their games. Without it, we wont even know about FIFA, Titanfall, Hellblade or even Half Life
3) To earn 50%-70% of profit from developers, that's what a purpose of publishing is about, doesn't matter if they have ridicules schemes like DLCs &, Microtransactions.. but without it, Publishers can go bankrupt,
4) Not all triple AAA publishers are bad, sometimes they do bring good games, and sometimes they do have bad business practices, but we all also have to realized that, cost of living nowadays is getting high, some people are struggling to get the best earnings to survive
IoInteractive... Please we need HITMAN season 2...
Nah who tf played that
TheMightyBuckethead me
MrDjBigZ But why? Explain why
Season 2 and 3 were already confirmed. But they are switching studios so it will take a bit.
I can't wait for season 2 :) Screw the fan boys complaining about it.
Great video. I usually do these researches on my own but it's great to see this from one of my favorite channels.
I agree.
I wish Bungee would terminate their contract with Activision and just do the marketing theirselves. Destiny would be WAY better.
Ameribano Ameribano destiny 2 is already so fucking good I was surprised by it and for it being Activision the micro transactions are unnoticeable
@@grnwl329 terminating one is costly, at least from what i been told
I appreciate this channel, team behind it. Great work Falcon. I'm digging the in-depth and thorough explanations you deliver with your personal expression. The heart shows.
for the same reason musicians need record labels. Every form of art needs marketing nowadays.
wow this video answered pretty much none of the questions I had and still went on for over 8 minutes... good job
Microsoft is the real reason why halo sucks now
That and 343 management is all over the place. It's chaos
But They are better than SONY
Snipe Hypes before people go crazy sony have been advertising microtransactions out right right in the store theres a whole catagory theyve also been advertising big activision games like destiny 2 and cod ww2 there not nice to you they want the money
{-7
Kronniikk 450 i just dont like sony at the moment like really dont be like scummy microsoft sony microsoft have been doing this since the begining and the staff at sony were like hey lets also do that screw our reputation and customers honestly the only company i still like is nintendo even if they made stupid decisions
The thumbnail is perfect. *Good Meets Evil*
It truly is good vs evil
Valve is its own developer and publisher
Gabriel Angelos many are
Gabriel Angelos, I thought that valve was doing bad with their games, and to be honest they are but they are certainly better than lost of these corporate publishers.
Camo King360 most gamers don’t even consider them developers anymore
xavier latorre, well I'm just a hopeless dreamer waiting for the pyro update :(
What did Valve develop recently? That Dota 2 card game?
Excuse me while I laugh.
thanks guys, for not making these painful 10 minute videos on purpose. i do appreciate that!
Anyone else here tryna learn more about what publishers do after Bigmode got announced?
I'm here because world war 3 I coming out and it has 2 publish
I have a great idea for a game: a VRMMORPG where if you die in the game, you die in real life
cool idea hasn't been done before!
GenosectKingRevived 😂 I'm all for it tbh. I swear I'd be so careful in that game . Don't make it like dark souls.
so... you watched SAO
GenosectKingRevived I would drink bleach in the game ...
GenosectKingRevived Sounds familiar, I like it
People hating Destiny are giving shit to Bungie when is Activision the ones who fucked it up. The commercials, the game's length, the microtransactions; Bungie didnt do that cause, as far as I remember, their games gave you what they promised. If you didnt notice the marketing differences between Halo and Destiny, look at it now
Bungies contract with Activision had a part stating that they had to include microtransactions in it. It's why Bungie made them cosmetic because it didn't say what time of microtransactions it had to be.
I'm a QA for War for the Overworld, their first title.
And yes it is necessery to have a publisher, because who else does the marketing for you, the game is still unmarketed and very few people knowes about it. Further to, they are working on a new Project and they need a publisher, because they need the money to continue working on Games.
So yes, it is necessery to have a publisher, because developers (at least Brightrock Dev's) want to put as much resources in their game, to make it as good as possible, and then they would need something like Marketing in mind, which costs a lot of money, which they could spend into the game to make it better.
What's the name of that top down game at 7:05 where you're controlling an orange guy?
so basically "in order to..." is the equivialent of "Would you kindly"
Marketing isn't just advertising and promotion, it also entails distribution and price points. But with online download databases and every game holding the same price range at $60-70, self-publishing is picking up. The biggest barrier to entry is capital and licensure to copyrights.
I know it's irrelevant but, any of you hyped for Kingsman The Golden Circle!?
Saw it on day of release. Very good film.
I remember when games didn't have DLC but had secret puzzles to unlock secret levels within the game.
*cough* Ubisoft *cough*
*cough* EA *cough*
*cough* Valve *cough*
Umicycle valve are you dumb they are their own publisher and developer even though they don't really develop much now
Alfred Fonseca I know lmao
Umicycle then why did you put them lol
Digital games are not free of distribution costs. Servers cost money to run. Online platforms cost money to produce and maintain. If you are distributing your game through Steam, Valve takes a cut of the sale to facilitate the cost of hosting. Even publishers with proprietary distribution platforms like EA and Ubisoft still have their own servers that they need to maintain for that. There are still distribution costs even for digital games.
So they can publish their games
Outstanding topic. People are always hating on the developers when a lot of times their hands are tied. They have to come up with something to make the publisher happy and to add they can’t just back out. They have to fulfill their contract.
So... It's capitalism's fault
Jorge Armijos you're making us Latinos look bad.. think... of course it's capitalisms fault. But without capitalism we wouldn't have all this innovation
Like pain it hurts but you now know where it hurts
Jorge Armijos No, it's corpatisms fault.
Contemporary Chair people are the reason we're able to play video games, capitalism is just the social classification system that it takes place in, and in this case, it's even making it worse. So take that out of the picture and you end up with better games and everything.
There's a 34 second ad I can't skip and I refuse to watch it
5:43 WTF is idubbz doing here with baked beans ??
I love these behind the scene vids! Great way to explain some of the nuances of game development that are often overlooked, that potentially the developers catch the flack for. Cheers!
Is blizzard the last safe place that is still owned by activision? Overwatch has free dlc and the micro transactions are cosmetic and easily earned
Have you heard of WoW?
Every single Blizzard game is free to play other than Overwatch
Uhh Hhhh yes
It's the same with Ubisoft.
Blah blah blah. It’s always about overwatch with ppl smh.
Jk I agree
games that are made/published independently are most likely going to be better because of the freedom it brings the devs,they don't have to answer to publishers who's main concern is money,it's not just a game but a passion project
Money is not as important as love, telling a developer that you love them is more valuable than giving them money,
The Witness no it's fucking now they need money to make their game you try to make a game that's super huge and expansive with no money and see how far it gets ya
as a developer, I would take money over someone saying that they love me
on important thing i think that really makes a big difference is that the Publisher is ultimately taking all the risk for the sales of the game. if the game doesnt sell well then yes, the developer can go out of business but without the publisher's money there often would be no game to make at all.
Kickstarters should be more effective so developers will have an incentive to do good for their bosses; Us, the Gamers. Give them 50% of the money raised, and *when* they deliver, give them the rest.
Jo King you realize that kickstarters aren't for profit, it's for the product. The developer would not be able to finish the game on half the budget that the game requires. EA is shit but even they aren't that retarded.
Jo King
Build me a house. IL give you half the money required for the WHOLE build and then half when you've finished. Sound good?
Alright then. Give me the half the money now. I'm sure with Kickstarter's excellent track record you'll get your product right away and not have to worry about wasting your money at all. *Pinky promise.*
I love these more in-depth videos. There is quite a lot of the games industry that I do not know, and this is really informative.
I do not want to criticise publishers, because, let's be fair, without these publishers a lot of games will not be made. They offer the money to make these games, and they want a return on their investment. They have done the market research and they see trends that are successful for business, so they may urge if not force developers to implement these trends.
To say that publishers are the reason for bad trends in games is, I believe, unfair. They watch the market, they see what generates money, so it is understandable if they want to do the same. Sometimes it is at the cost of the quality of the core game, but remember, were it not for the publisher in the first place, that game may not have been made at all.
Indeed, very true. That, from the publishers, is pushing it too far.
This Explains UBISOFT and their games 😒
Falcon is my favorite of the Gameranx crew. You're great. You seem quite open-minded, which I find important. Also, I like the way you speak. (:
7:04 - 7:24 wow look at all those games you didint name
Subsurface Circular
Let me just take a second to tell you that that is quite possibly the most beautifully accurate thumbnail I have ever seen, and I love you all the more for it.
I found an easter egg 2:55
Mehdi Souak freaky. What did he say?
I was wondering if anyone else caught that. Sounds like an editing mistake
you don't know what an easter egg is do you
What did you found??
Explain what you found? How was it an Easter egg?
When games are made available as digital downloads through PlayStation Store etc at often more than the high street price, with no disc, no resale value to the consumer, let alone drastically less manufacturing costs then it's hard to imagine publisher's aren't greedy.
Thanks to the mechanism of digital download releases, Xbox Live Arcade gave us the trial option of every game. This was a fantastic feature to try before you buy AT NO COST to the retailer or publisher or consumer. If they liked it, they could pay to unlock the full version. This should have been the future of gaming, but sadly it didn't continue.
It's a shame because gaming is both a creative, artist entertainment industry but also has to survive as a commercially viable product. The difference is, games cost consumers $60.00 plus, which is a huge investment compared to a movie or cinema ticket. If the game is good, it's a great value investment. But when a game is released full of bugs, or lacking content later made available as paid DLC, or just not anywhere near as good as marketing suggested, it's the consumer who is out of pocket and the only way they can recoup their loss, is through preowned gaming, which we all know publishers are trying to eradicate.
What game is the one at 7:05
Darude sandstorm
duty sucks, freedom is better blyat
That moment when you're *forced* to watch a 30 second ad just to watch a video that tells me that money is the reason for everything game related nowadays
what's the game at 7:04
One of the biggest problems right now is Publishers knowingly releasing unfinished products to be finished later through patch after patch after patch. It's becoming a norm, paying full price for alpha/beta games. And they also know, yes, we the gamers will be upset... but will completely forget about it 2 weeks later.
Yes there are exceptions, there are always exceptions, lets focus on the whole and not the few.
one like=falcon squad
You can easily spot games that were either not play tested or no enough, like Battlefield 1, Infinite Warfare, Black ops 3, Wildlands, Mafia 3, Andromeda, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, Fallout 4, Skyrim Special Edition, ARK:SE and plenty more, they are really buggy and have some game breaking bugs and some not so game breaking but immersion breaking and annoying bugs, some of them are so huge that they cannot have possibly gotten through without the Developers saying "Meh, it's okay" or just not play testing it, like the brightness bug on Battlefield 1, it's been there for like a week, it's impossible to read things in the menu and certain parts of the HUD because it's too bright since the last update, how does something everyone is experiencing (at least on PC) get through?
Why is my city England?
Because Its Everyday Bro
Justin Keyes You're god damn right
I don't know if this video was made before the release of Divinity Original Sin 2 but Larian Studios is both the developer and producer of their game and I consider that game a AAA release. They are crowd funded so it is possible to not need publishers. If anyone likes turn based RPGs with great fully voiced acting and amazing combat that actually forces you to think about the situation then you should play it. An easy 10/10 for me.
In order to
In order to
In order to
In order to
In order to
Captain Carnage
Out disorder from.
If SouthPark has taught me anything is that this video is secretly an ad for Hellblade.
VR is not dead
It’s not dead but it’s not thriving
Mr. N Severely crippled
I’ll say it isn’t dead if it makes a game better than games excluding VR
Brother Ares - classic cause and effect, devs dont make games because there isnt as big a market to sell the games to and people dont buy it because there are no games. to me, it is a gimmick, not going to do well until tech advancements allow to alot more simplicity in hardware. also, too expensive.
Vr was dead on arrival.
I just wanna say this helps me very much i wanna be a indie developer and i really appreciate this it is helping explain more to me about game publishing
Same reason a film crew needs a production company. This question did not need to be answered, especially in an 8 minute video. Developers are artists, publishers sell what the artists make. A quick note is that since publishers have all the money to sell and market, they also can make developers do things that ruin the games. Like production companies do to directors.
$$$$$
I am a game design student and I have been questioning myself more and more on this topic. I feel torn and lost. I want to make games that I love but more and more I realize that I don't think I will be able to do that freely and be able to pay my student loans.
420th I think
Clorox Bleach I like your name
its our lord and savior
Clorox Bleach I always see someone named that in a lot of videos I watch.
Clorox Bleach I've seen your long lost brother!
Clorox Bleach You're my favorite person in the comments on TH-cam
I gotta say, thanks for making a video about this. I knew game development wasn't cheap but i never knew the publisher had the final word on a game.
My favorite publisher is infinity ward, infinite warfare was literally the best cod, I’m 9 and all my friends say it’s gret
Nugget's Brother stupid
Yes of course
Nugget's Brother gr8 b8 m8.
This has to be bait they're is no way someone could be this stupid and be alive.
Tratts Spike sadly i've seen stupider comments from people that arent joking
I like how your videos feel so honest. Especially this one.
btw, you've convinced me to give Hellblade a chance.
Crazy seeing this so many years later right after the release of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2
Why did I get a ad that I couldn't skip for 35sec?
In the intro... honestly the fallout DLCs(besides workshops) were done right. The felt like true add ons (like the Witcher 3) expanded upon the experience, not cut content
The workshops were pretty much smaller stuff packs for people who like Settlements
Khaibar Omar ok but they should of been in the game from the start maybe not far harbor
Khaibar Omar Yeah, I'd say that if you got the season pass for $20 it was worth it.
"True add ons"
Yes one questline makes for a great expansion.
been watching since 340k videos just get better and better
Is it just me or when falcon does a video his attitude towards the topic gives off hope?
Hell blades senuas sacrifice is the best example of what an indie game should be. Cheap, excellent story, and beautiful visuals
It helps to have a publisher.
The title of this video is exactly what I searched lol
That thumbnail
Isn't an arm wrestling game, its bungie making a deal with the devil
Devs used to do it alone all the time for years.
It's just simpler to get someone to produce and market it then make a game to their selling formula.
It's the voting with the wallet theory. As long as someone's buying someone's making. As long as the industry sees a need for this formula it'll stay that way.
However like most markets there's ups and downs and game changers.You never know when an under dog steps into the ring and sets the standard for everyone one to follow.
Hairbrain schemes seems to do pretty well with the Shadowrun franchise despite lack of a publisher.
Falcon should be one. Im sure they have resources saved in the back and with his TH-cam following it wouldn’t be hard to reach millions in a few days. If they play their cards right and allow the developers to do what they want to make amazing games, they could change the industry.
I couldn't agree more. Although I think it's a case of "Too little, too late". Boogie has been harping about this stuff for years. I honestly don't know if it will ever go back to normal.
EA doesn't deserve DICE
Nor Respawn, i wish they could find a better publisher who actually thinks about gamers and not greedy
Best username I've seen in years.
It is like "rappers" either they are independent or have a producer, are signed by a major.
while we hate publishers you gotta face it and agree that without publishers alot of games wouldn't have seen the light of day
The real question is "Why don't publishers know they don't know how to make good games that actually sell?"
It's a longer title but the point is: they set deadlines which = them saying good enough = sell the game but get terrible reviews = losing money and fanbase.
Call of Duty is a perfect example of this.
Star Citizen is a great example. They didn't set out to be a game publisher/production company, although they are technically that now. They set out to make a game. Because it's the game they care about, not the game publishing company aspect, the quality of the game is much greater. It's taking longer to get that game out, and most publishers would frown on that. Because of what they're doing, they are easily going to end up making over a billion dollars over the games life span.
Very well said. It´s a shame that alot of otherwise great games get ruined by publishers. I don´t really mind extra content(DLC) as long as there plenty of effort put into it, as long as it´s not too expensive and "forced" upon me but most importantly as long as the end product doesn´t get affected in a negative way( like cutting parts of the game etc) just to put it into the DLC.
The thing with pricing is you have to make sure that no matter where you sell the end product always costs the same. It's something you learn in freelancing. Having different prices in different places makes for angry clients and customers feeling ripped off.
If I could hand a dev studio my money directly I'd do it in a heart beat. Bypassing the ever infamous middleman.
The inspirational music at the end?
Honestly in a lot of ways, TH-cam is your answer for this. Because to be honest, I didn't even know about hellblade until you said something and now it's on my steam wishlist until i look more into it.
Why do developers need publishers, that's like asking why do workers need companies? The real answer, to get paid and get the product out there. Some developers doesn't even know what their purpose in creating games will be unless the publisher throws them a pitch or too and if the dev screw up, at the least the publisher will pay dearly for it. If developer don't need publisher then they won't be able to get their games out there, they will have to do all the marketing, manufacturing and distributing the game themselves which will cost them a lot of money and there's no guaranteed if they'll make those money back. With a publisher, the publisher will handle all of that, all the dev had to do is finish the game on time and continue to distribute ideas.
The thing is this, dev who works with publishers are like employees, dev who published their own games are like their own entrepreneur. The pros to working with publisher is that it won't cost the dev that much to get their games out there but in return they are lock within a contract with the publisher meaning if their product sell then they can't distribute it through any one else and if the publisher felt something needs to be change, the dev had to honor that. The pros to not working with a publisher is that dev had more freedom to what they could do but because of that trying to get their game out there would be difficult which is why some turn to crowdfunding and hope for the best. Both had it's ups and downs so there's really no best way to answer this, it really depends on whether the dev are confident with a publisher or not and if the publisher would get in the way of changing or altering the product.
I think the best thing for console gamers is to go to the good old store (you know, physical) and look around, you don't have that many choices so it's easier to choose
It's simple really, if you want to make a game, you need money, or you're restricted to making low budget indie, flash or mobile games. Publishers provide that money in the form of budgets for developers. Unless you have a successful kickstarter which doesn't necessarily guarantee a sustainable budget.
The problem is, most contracts with publishers involve the publisher purchasing the intellectual property and publishers are expected to meet annual profit margins to keep investors/shareholders happy.
As a result publishers often force developers to implement additional money making schemes to increase profit, because publishers need to meet or be very close to those annual profit margins, with little ability to mitigate large losses.
The problem with the gaming industry is that its a necessary evil. With the modern generation of technology it's nearly financially impossible for most developers to create large games without publishers because there are too many expenses and game production costs more money.
What's the background music around 7:10 to the end of video??
The parallels between the games industry and the music industry are astounding. So many great bands opt for DIY now, much like indie devs. Loads of great albums (indie games) come out all the time, but unless you've heard of them from a friend of a friend, they'll likely pass under your radar. More money just makes things noticeable (top 40 music/AAA games); doesn't make them better.
Yes, I think publishers do need to smarten up. It's like anything, it's cyclical. People work hard, have success, ride the success, rest on their laurels, become complacent, get lazier or change more etc. Things go downhill or things become worse value or not made as well. Then someone or something comes along does a lot better job for less or better product for less or quicker or just something better. Public takes notice a big fuss is made. The competition so became complacent gets scared, sits up and takes notice. Then they either evolve, do the same thing better, buys them out or find a smart campaign or something evil and negative against them or they just muddle along as they have lost the spark or they lose, go bankrupt and go out of business or as I said smarten up and do things better and win. That is best case scenario as then we have competition things have a better quality to dollar ratio. Innovations happen and everything moves forward, the industry becomes better and the customer ultimately wins and the industry. Hopefully then the divide between profits and product smartens up too and they make realistic profits instead of obscenely evil ones.