The assumption I’ve always made is this: as games and technology becomes more advanced, production costs rise. PlayStation 3 games cost more to produce than PlayStation 2 games. And PlayStation 2 games cost more to make than, say, Nintendo 64 games. But Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick doesn’t expect to see production costs rise when the next generation of consoles are released, he believes it might make things a little easier.
“We don’t have a ramp up of operating expenses for next generation,” said Zelnick, at a recent Take-Two earnings call. “Do we believe that titles will be a whole lot more expensive to make for next-gen? The answer is we do not.”
According to Strauss, the technology itself may end up making things a little less difficult to produce.
“In many instances, we believe that it may be somewhat easier to make titles for next-gen depending on how the technology comes together.”
It could be that Take-Two expects next generation technology to be a bit more user friendly for developers, or that processes will become easier to optimise. Either way, it’s interesting. With the jump to high definition in the current generation of consoles, production costs rose exponentially. It’s actually a relief to see that games production may make itself a little more streamlined this time round, mainly because it means more games can be produced!
Next-gen games could be easier to develop than present – Take-Two [CVG]
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