Dev Times as Long as Console Life?

[piku]

Release Date: "When it's done."

Heh, I think the day id announces a game and doesn't give it's release date as "When it's done" will be the day I quit gaming.

[GameZector]

I don't see many investors being happy with a company giving a release date of "when it's done" to key titles. In fact, some might accuse them of managing their earnings. (Not that companies don't manage their earnings already...)

[NeoZeedeater]

I wouldn't say PC games necessarily benefit from the longer development cycles. Games are often released buggy as hell.

And I don't see console life spans shrinking. The DC is an exception. The other consoles seem to on track for a typical console life span.

[Tracer]

I don't see Lionhead or iD software giving a damn about investors. Activision, MS and EA will care perchance (EA for sure... it's a good reason why Molyneux has nothing to do with Bullfrog anymore. EA killed the soul of that dev house, he and other Bullfrogers made Lionhead and thier satilites Big Blue Box and Intrepid... their games have no release date. Not BC, not The Movies and not Fable aka Project Ego).

With Blizzard and iD it's pretty much money in the bank for them when they DO release thier games. ID simply makes thier money easily from liceneing thier game engines.

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[Master of 7s]

Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
I wouldn't say PC games necessarily benefit from the longer development cycles. Games are often released buggy as hell.

*coughcoughDaikatanacoughcough*

[Mr_Furious]

DC failed because Sega burned too many bridges with developers and consumers alike.

The last system Sega made endure was the Genesis. Anyone remember the Sega CD? How bout 32X? How bout Saturn? DC, although it was an excellent system, was a lost cause from the start (even though I still did/do support it heavily).

[Tracer]

The DC was perhaps the best effort Sega ever gave - it WAS doomed from the start, but it still gave a hell of a ride while it lasted.

NeoZ: Few rules ever prove to be absolute... games can suffer from it as it has been shown, but games can benefit from it too. So long as the teams are organized well and they have a good developing environment the time spent it well worth it. Sure it's a risk, but the worlds finest games come from risks. Good films cannot m\be made in 6mo. - a year... good games aren't made in moments notice.

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[Josh]

The ride is still continuing...

[Frogacuda]

Originally posted by Zerodash
Of course, I am baffled as to why the XBox is not killing PS2 on there grounds, but...

Because it doesn't have some "blast processing" marketing buzzword for what's in the box. If they advertised it had "Hypermation Technology" they'd sell alot more.

[Tracer]

True, very true.

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