14 DAY TRIAL // The video game industry is huge, and anyone who thinks that creating and publishing a video game is a very easy task that requires a minimum investment is gravely wrong. These days, creating video games for top-tier platforms like the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 costs around $20 million to $30 million.
But it seems that this estimate will soon go up to about $60 million, at least for the next generation of consoles, according to Ubisoft CEO and Chairman Yves Guillemot, who talked with CNBC about the future wave of home consoles and how they would severely change everything we now think of home gaming.
“The next generation is going to be so powerful that playing a game is going to be the equivalent of playing a CGI movie today,” Guillemot predicts. This means that while companies will want to ask a higher price for consoles, around $100 as opposed to the standard $60 these days, they will also look to use the resources developed for a project on other things as well, including in movies and special effects studios, as the French publisher is doing with the game adaptation of James Cameron's Avatar.
But don't think that these high development costs will affect the average gamer and the publishers, as the companies responsible for the hardware, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, will also work quite hard to justify their investments, and thus, Guillemot thinks, will try to expand the life span of this current generation for quite some time.
One of these means will be the introduction of new technologies, just like Microsoft or Sony are doing, by releasing motion sensitive systems like Project Natal. “Natal is one step, but quickly they will take the other step — pushed by the environment,” said Guillemot. “For us, the current machines are very powerful and we can do high quality work. I'd like to stay with this generation as long as possible, but my customers will want the best machine possible.”
What do you think? Is the gaming industry becoming more and more expensive and will it thus attract a higher price tag for video games in the future? Leave us a comment with your thoughts.