14 DAY TRIAL // With the audience of Facebook games growing and gamers using the iPhone getting accustomed to ever smaller prices, it seems the type of the big blockbuster that sells millions of copies and creates endless sequels is behind the gaming industry, even if publishers have huge ambitions for all their titles. But an executive at one high profile developer believes AAA releases still have a future, as long as they adapt.
Speaking in front of an audience at the GameHorizon conference, Mark Rein, who is the vice president of Epic Games, said, “I'm a big proponent of AAA games. Triple-A isn't going away, it's going everywhere. As the quality of the games go up, the cost of the games go up, you're going to have to monetise them better.”
Rein went on to show off how the Unreal engine, one of the most used in big launches today, could run on Android-powered phones, on the new iPad and on the iPhone. He claimed Gears of War is an experience that could be translated to these devices in the near future, expanding the number of people who are familiar with them and engaged with the franchise.
The Epic Games executive has also said that all developers and their publishers will need to change how they price their wares in order to get more gamers interested, “I'd rather sell 10 million games at $25 and have a chance to sell DLC than 5 million at $50 on a disc that gets traded around.”
It will be interesting to see whether Gears of War 3 gets a price point under the 50 dollar barrier when it comes out in April 2011. Rein has told the audience that at some point in the future, Gears of War games will no longer be coming on a retail disk.