Sacred 2 - Bankrupt

Ascaron Entertainment, after 4 years of developing Sacred 2, entered bankruptcy today.  Basically, the company ran out of steam on the eve of releasing the game for PS3 and XBox 360 hoping to garner some sales to recouperate the production costs of the game.  Basically, bankruptcy is the strategic way of fending off the debtors until they start getting money back from sales.

Even with a couple great games under their belt, this is a prime example where the production cost of this generation of games is biting the developers who struggle to keep up with the demands of technology.

With the closing of the highly successful Ensemble studios and Ubisoft shutting down their MMORPG “Shadowbane”, I wonder how many more companies will go under next despite the fact they have made highly acclaimed games?

After a horrible fourth quarter and showing a $15 million dollar loss, Take-Two, the publisher for the Grand Theft Auto series took quite a beating from Wall Street.  Back for more, Take-Two took another risk by publishing Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the Game Boy DS, a platform that is generally considered a system for children and “soccer moms” and not the 18-35 year old demographic that Rockstar generally targets.

So far, it’s a flop.  The expected sales they were hoping for was 200K-450K and they were only able to barely push above 80K despite being reviewed as the best game on the DS, and a massive marketing campaign.  The hope is that the sales will increase over time and over the long haul.

The production value of these games versus the sales is very marginal for the big publishing companies now.  Despite the millions of units put out by GTA, Take-Two barely squeaked by last year with $97.1M in revenue despite the big release of GTA4 and, like everyone else, their stock tanked with the market crash.  The year before they had a $138M loss.

This coming year, Take Two does not have a GTA5 coming down the line and Chinatown Wars did not do too well.  It’ll be interesting to watch if the downloadable content will be able to bolster the company.  But I think that Take Two is in serious trouble.

They may be one of the first major corporations to be hit by the profit wall of rising production costs with more and more hyper-realistic games.

Now the next company that is going to have the hardest time recovering production costs is this one:

Final Fantasy XIII by Square-Enix

“There is an unusual sort of pressure on Final Fantasy XIII,” said producer Yoshinori Kitase when speaking to Edge Magazine. “I’d say we need this game to have ten times the success of these smaller titles.”

Why does this seem like famous last words?

A discussion opened up in the Flash Game Developers group on LinkedIn where the original poster was frustrated on how many people give up trying to learn Flash Game Programming no matter who he teaches.

Here was my response:

I hope that I don’t come across as elitist, but I’ve come to understand that there are “those who program” and then there are “programmers.” You can teach someone how to program, but you can’t make them into a programmer.

A programmer is someone who doesn’t just code 9-5. They are thinking about how to solve problems, learning new technologies and scoping out the latest design techniques and coding samples in their spare time. Sometimes they are even writing tutorials and sometimes engaging in technology flame wars. People who just happen to program, are just in it for the day job and the pay – but not for the sake of the art and craft. Working as a consultant in both public and private industries, you meet both sorts all the time.

Programming is an art – like painting. And it takes a certain interest, passion and discipline to really learn the craft. Computer Game Programming is an even smaller niche because it aims not to solve day-to-day problems, but to amuse, entertain and perhaps even educate.

Everyone says they want to make a computer game. And then once they start getting knee deep into the code, mucking with design decisions, creating level designs, spitting out art assets, finding appropriate music and sounds… They give up. I almost did on my very first game.

I can’t tell you all the mental roadblocks I hit for putting out my very first Flash Game for a MochiAds contest and put something together in my spare time at night:

http://www.mochiads.com/games/strike-eagle_v1/

I almost gave up so many times and I don’t think I would have made it if I didn’t start with small bites and worked my way slowly to finishing it. I logged my progress on my blog with iterative builds, but there were so many times I would have just given up:

http://www.gamedevigner.com/tag/strike-eagle/

Programming, moreso Game Programming, and even moreso *Flash* Game Programming is really only meant for the brave and the bold. It really is a test of passion and mettle and if you come through it is something to be proud of. Not everyone is cut out for it. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.