Apparently there is a new online MMO called Whirled that has a standing Flash contest with prizes upwards to $7500 for multiplayer games.

They also have another contest about designing your own room and room content with a Cintiq as the grand prize.

Looks like I’m making an account to check it out.

Risk is a huge factor in creating AAA games.  But there are huge risk problems when a game must be an “instant hit” due to the production cost of the game itself.

Take for instance Metal Gear Solid 4 for the Playstation 3.  To even begin to recover production cost (not including marketing costs), the franchise needed to sell over 1 MILLION units on DAY ONE to recover losses.  Over 50% of all PS3 units in the US had to buy a copy – not rent, borrow or possibly pirate, but BUY.

Game production for AAA titles has gone through the roof hitting $10-$50 million.  Now Square-Enix with Final Fantasy XIII will definitely blow through the top of that cap.  And a “losing” franchise is one that sells 500,000 units.  Is this model truly sustainable especially when only 3 in 10 games produced actually turn a profit?

One of Square-Enix’s most dramatic shifts was their announcement that Final Fantasy XIII wouldn’t be a PS3 exclusive.  I would more accurately say that it couldn’t be.  There isn’t enough PS3s owners out there to recover the production costs even if 50% of all PS3 owners bought the game on launch day.  They needed a wider audience and the Xbox 360 is that audience.

So consider the next big AAA titles – will there be a big enough install base to recouperate the cost of production?  There is a huge market gap here and the big development houses can only sustain this production race for so long.

But remember, where ever there is a gap, there is opportunity.

In a recent article of the Escapist Magazine, they take on the flagship title of Square-Enix – Final Fantasy.  The article describes Final Fantasy as the “battleship” of game titles – obsolete before it’s completion.  No doubt that Final Fantasy XIII will sell in the millions, but the question really is how much profit margin will they be making?

Consider the huge staff that they employ to create all the beautiful cut-scenes, character models and game programming.  Multiply that by the number of years of production and delays.  That already sets a high price on the final product bought from store shelves.  But will that extra $10-$15 make the difference?

Then consider how many more staff, how much more resources, time and dedication will it take for Final Fantasy XIV if fan expectations are that Square-Enix will make something bigger, further and more advanced?

Just how long can this be sustained?  The market has to grow in proportion to the amount of resources being employed to make a AAA-rated game.

I think the greatest irony is with all the resources put at the employ of Square-Enix for making its flagship title, the story remains being its weakest point and biggest source for scorn and ridicule.

Next to its lack of fashion sense.