Saturday, November 25, 2006
Why Are There No "Prestige Games?"
Last month, Capcom announced that it was dissolving Clover Studios, the developers of Viewtiful Joe and Okami. The announcement came a bare month after the release of Okami, a game that has received rave reviews virtually across the board, and boasts an astounding Metacritic score of 93. Game Informer, IGN, and EGM all awarded Okami the title of "Game of the Month." Why are they dissolving Clover Studios? Because of Okami's "disappointing sales." Last year, Majesco, a smaller publisher best known for its GameBoy Advance titles, released Psychonauts, a game created by Tim Schafer--famous for his work on the old LucasArts Adventures. Psychonauts had originally been commissioned by Microsoft, but MS dropped it during development, and Majesco picked up the game. It received rave reviews virtally across the board, and boasts a noticeably high Metacritic score of 86. Psychonauts received awards from the British Academy, IGN, EGM, and PC Gamer, as well as a Game Developers Choice Award, arguably the most prestigious award in the field. Industry scuttlebut says that Psychonauts has sold fewer than 50,000 [100,000, per comments] copies; I don't know the game's budget, but given the quality of its graphics, the size of the game, and release on multiple platforms, I'd be astonished if it were under $5m [$14m, per comments]. Majesco lost its shirt, in other words--and being a smaller publisher, it ran into big trouble as a result, and was forced to cut way back, and was for a time threatened with NASDAQ delisting. The year before, UbiSoft released Beyond Good and Evil, which was created by Michael Ancel, one of the creators of the Rayman franchise. It was originally intended to be the first game in a series. Despite glowing reviews, and a Metacritic score of 87, Ubisoft viewed its sales as "disappointing," and there will be no sequels. Beyond Good and Evil received awards from IGN, Tech TV, and Play Magazine, as well as the "Best Gameplay" Award at the Leipzig Games Conference. In other words, all three of these games were developed by creators with sterling reputations and a history of excellent past work; all three received glowing reviews and multiple awards; and in all three cases, they are viewed as "failures." Which I presume all three are, on a pure ROI basis. Are there analogous products in other media? Certainly. In film, for example, people often talk of "prestige films." Prestige films are not expected to do blockbuster numbers at the box office; prestige films are funded by studios for several reasons, but all of them center on the idea of adding luster to the studio's reputation, and ensuring that others in the industry view the studio as an attractive partner for future projects. Prestige films are typically made at somewhat lower budgets, and actors who wish to be involved in a prestige film are often asked to accept lower rates of pay than they would for most of the projects on which they work--and actors are typically willing to do so, as prestige films often redound to the benefit of their own reputation as actors. Prestige films often dominate the awards, and studios often trumpet their association with prestige films as a means of ensuring that reviewers, and industry talent, are more eager to engage with the studio in future. In other words, prestige films get made, and get attention, even though they are often economically marginal or even "failures" (in a pure ROI sense), because studios understand that there are real (if intangible) benefits from being associated with prestige films. The same is true in publishing; the sorts of books that win awards are not, typically, the sorts of books that sell best. Yet publishers are eager to be associated with award-winning books, and trumpet books and authors who do win awards. They understand that having a reputation as being a publisher of fine literary works will make authors and agents more eager to do business with them, and reviewers more willing to take a look at the next book they push. As an example, I know a science fiction writer who continues to command advances in the $100,000 range, despite the fact that nothing he has written in the last 20 years has earned out (that is, earned enough in royalties to recoup his advance)--because he is a multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novelist, with an excellent reputation in the field, and his name in the publisher's catalog is a draw for others, and adds luster to the publisher's reputation. Book publishers, too, understand that a commercially marginal book, or even one that loses money, can still provide real, if intangible benefits that ultimately redound to the bottom line. Why is this viewed as impossible in games? Suppose Capcom, instead of closing Clover Studios and muttering about "disappointing sales" had trumpetted Okami's critical success, instructed its publicists to attempt to interest both game and tech media in presentations of art from this beautiful and visually stunning game, and announced their strong support for innovation and creativity in future? They might have produced greater interest in, and sales for, the game, but more importantly, could have worked to establish for Capcom what no company other than Nintendo has in the industry today--a reputation for actually caring about gameplay. Could Ubisoft not have done the same with Beyond Good and Evil? And since Ubisoft is in direct competition in most of the cities where it has studios with EA, which has a reputation for mistreating its staff and a lack of innovation, would this not also have benefitted their recruiting efforts? Psychonauts is perhaps a more difficult story--Majesco didn't have the financial resources to deal with its failure. But in general, when you have lemons, why not make lemonade? Why not emphasize the critical success, and gain what you can from it, rather than retreating in shame? Wouldn't we all--the industry and gamers alike--be better served by businesses which understand that, sure, the bottom line is the end game--but that there are multiple routes to the goal, and that sales alone are not the sole measure of a game's value? Let us have "prestige games"--and let us have publishers who take pride in them.
posted by Greg at 3:50 PM
61 comments
61 Comments:
I've been trying to get funding for prestige titles for some time, ones that not only sport bold and edgy fictions but support them with non-trivial mechanical innovations. But I make my living producing casual games because theres funding to be had for that. I've been scouring alternative modes of funding, possible in the indie film financing community (whose interest in prestige games is fueling the funding process of Procedural Art's "The Party") but I think we're all hoping Manifesto gets its VC funding so that sort of cultural capital can beging to be generated and make profound waves in an otherwise flat topography.
Greg it has happened.
Sony and Ico (and Shadow of the Collosus).
And Team Ico is still making games. Plus there is the Katamari games.
And that's why unlike everyone else I don't hate Sony.
Indeed first party console game are 'prestige' games in the sense that they are not solely done for the direct profits, but for their ability to sell consoles. Indeed any game that is an exclusive could be said to be 'prestige'y.
Although one difference to the other industries is that these 'prestige' games are generally expected to make money. Only some of sony's offerings I would say are made without any expectation of large profits.
Hmm EA could prolly benefit quite a bit for this strategy, they have a rather bad rep with the 'hardcore' set.
I would presume that since one badly selling title can tank a whole studio (not necessarily a publisher, but the studio) is probably your likely reason.
Then, you just have to examine the funding contracts to understand why that occurs (of course, *you* know. You've talked about the problems in the funding model).
I think the majority of games that would qualify for "prestige" classification occur mainly in freeware and academia... the B-Movie and Student Film, respectively. Of course, for every thirty Bloodsoaked Ninja Cheerleader 5 and 22 Study of Myself Picking My Nose, there is a Sling Blade or a Manderlay (to pick two critically acclaimed movies that sure as hell weren't targetting the Bruce Willis/Mel Gibson, running away from a fireball, screaming "I'm too old for this shiiiiiiiii-" genre, at random).
Prestige games can't afford the luxury of huge budgets unless they are also commercial hits. I assume this is what ruined Clover.
In spite of the impressive dollar figures relative to Hollywood and the NY publishing houses, video games are still "ghetto culture" by comparison. Until there are well-respected critical voices and standards in the video game field, I fear there won't be much of a "prestige game" phenomenon.
Very intriguing post.
What if there is something else going on with games like Psychonauts? As I understand it (mostly from the G4 Icons show), Schafer cut his teeth and really demonstrated his talents on games made with the costs of production were much lower? Monkey Island, etc. The things that he does well, story, character, etc., don't cost millions and millions of dollars on 3D art packages (ridiculously expensive), rendering machines, etc.
So, 2D sprite art was fine for Monkey Island, Full Throttle, etc., because the game wasn't driven by graphics glitz.
Would the game have sold less if the graphics weren't quite as fancy? If not, then isn't that Investment wasted?
I just reinstalled Planescape: Torment last night. It doesn't look very good on my modern system. But it loads faster than a scalded dog. Great story, great characters, and I'm hooked again. There are only two things I think it lacks competing with modern games, or my expectations:
1) make every line of dialogue a voice over. The game has great voice actors, I want to hear them more and read them less.
2) a slight retouch on the graphics so it isn't so pixelated on my 20" monitor. Just to sharpen it up, not to redo the whole thing.
One other thing about Psychonauts: every piece of marketing and promotion about this game made it appear to be a kid's game, i.e., no appeal for those over 14. Even after seeing the Icons show about its making, the psychology angle struck me as less than interesting, particularly in what looked like a kiddie 'cute' context.
An interesting developer is Grasshopper Manufacture who seem to alternate between artistic projects (Michigan, Killer 7 and some others I've sadly not played) and commercial projects like anime licenses to pay the bills.
an excellent point with witch I totally agree.
it was depressing, and even insulting, to see, how a studio responsible for such a masterpiece as okami, among others important works, was being closed in humiliation. a stab of disdain and arrogance. how is possible that a management comes, and throws to drainage so much brand goodwill, that the clover studios had brought to capcom. so is the treatment of corporate execs toward the videogames world.
that’s why we need the indie games sector to grow. we don’t deserve such disdainful treatment by games corporation management. the art videogame industry should not exist in the cracks of the mainstream industry. and anyone that values games as something artistically meaningful, should help to push this.
Actually, Psychonauts disclosed its total budget in its Game Developer magazine postmortem, and it was, wait for it, $14 million. This was including money spent by Microsoft before the title was dropped and picked up by Majesco, and was due to some major production issues - but I'm afraid you're off by a factor of 3, Greg! Worth an edit?
(Having said that, it's possible that Majesco's outlay ended up being $5 million! They've never disclosed how much it cost to pick it up.)
Why use "industry scuttlebut"? According to Gamespot (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6141519.html), NPD had Psychonauts closer to twice your figure in December. That's still low, but we might as well opt for accuracy. :)
bloo, a (minor) point should be made about the Lucasarts adventure games, particularly Sam & Max, the Monkey Islands and Day of the Tentacle. The 2D animation was cutting edge for its day. In fact, you can also make the point that more was doable in traditional animation terms then than in 3D now.
Seconded. After buying Psychonauts I've committed myself to buying Tim Schafer's next game - and unless that one is absolutely abysmal, buying whatever game is after it.
I'd buy Beyond Good and Evil 2 without thinking twice if it existed. I buy anything that the Team Ico group makes without questioning.
Why do these people not realize that name recognition is really important?
I'm curious to learn what the definition for what a "Prestige Game" is. Some people have mentioned some very creative titles and teams but I think the question you're asking is... not the right one. I think.
It's hard not to compare this indurstry with the movie industry. A lot of what has happened in the past 10 years has been developers trying to imitate the same suspense of realism that happens when you see an engaging film. In game cinematics, voice overs, special effects - the whole 9 yards. Even smaller budget titles use this Hollywood formula to make their games. Albeit with smaller teams - which in the end causes the game to fall well short of the bar set by the higher budget games.
I just finished reading a book in this series that I love. I realized upon finishing this book that I will probably never reach that same level of emotional investment in games. I know that's kind of tangential but what I'm trying to say is that games can't be books and they can't be movies. They can only be games.
I guess I can say that maybe the answer to your question is found in how we make our smaller budget titles. Look at them! They're all safe, liscenced games lacking proper team sizes and time - which again, requires more money.
There aren't many(if at all) low budget titles that are risky. So maybe the question your asking is the right one.
Psychonauts was a commercial failure because it was created for the wrong target audience: smart people. You'd have a larger target market making games for left-handed transvestite females aged 14 years 3 months to 14 years 6 months.
Did you PLAY these games Greg?
I think this article has a "wrong premise." All 3 of the games described are high-concept, artistically fresh, beautifully executed, failed epics. All overrated, and carried by their beauty, great writing and characterizations, and quick/easy fun play. Budget bargains, not AAA blockbusters. They are great mechanically, well presented, but flop in the long-term gameplay dynamics department. Each of them wants to be a Zelda in a new suit, and none satisfied me fully. IIRC, I payed $40 for Okami (full price), $15 for BG&E, and $10 for Psychonauts. The latter 2 were good for the money, but Okami would have been much better at $20 (the price is already headed that way, it's $30 on Amazon, at only 2 months old), so I'm afraid I fell for the hype there.
Okami is the most mechanically original (brush gesture powers), but absoutely sticks to old-hat Zelda-style adventure structure, and seemingly endless collecting. The unskippable cinematics drag on, over and over. My primary function in the game was landscape beautifier by way of repetitive combat and rubbish (loot) collection. The extra hidden game element? Some hidden extremely long and repeating dungeon battle series. Okami was far too easy, and went on far too long (I did basically everything possible, and wish I had not). I think I spent around 80 hours at it, trying (and failing) to get my $40 worth. Good, but not great. For $20 and slimmed to 40 hours, it would have 4 times the bang, and probably sell like mad. Some games just need a good editor to cut them down to size.
Psychonauts apes Zelda by way of Mario64, with a few mindblowingly cool level concepts standing out (like 4 of 8 or so, but Lungfishopolis, the Milkman Conspiracy, and Napoleon's boardgame spring to mind). Directions: mix iffy adventure game puzzles, platforming, collecting, and shooting, bake, then price as a budget title. The telepathic power mechanics are fun, but far from original. Great in small doses, but with much uninspired filler. The level variety was its big strength, but some scenarios outstayed thier welcome.
BG&E had great exploration, in a vibrant collect & do & see-everything world. Again Zelda-esque structure, some combat, stealth, and hovercraft driving, and everyone's favorite: camera-snapshot collecting. Then there's the sudden stop, where you hit the end, and wonder where the rest of the game is. A budget title should still be a complete story, not just part 1 of 3.
These games are well rated by reviewers who have to play everything that comes across their desk, because they stand out as short, sweet, playable braincandy. They fail in the market because these developers don't seem to be PLAYING their own games to understand how they will fare in the long term. I think if you can make the game that YOU want to play, you'll grow a great product, a dedicated fanbase, and maybe sell to the mainstream if you're lucky.
So, it seems I ought to cite some (non-Nintendo) counter-examples in the same ballpark: Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Ratchet & Clank (1-3), Brave Fencer Musashi. These are all fun, original, action adventure epics worth easily twice full retail price in my book, but YMMV. We could have this discussion in almost any genre, there are classics, great games, and then the "good enough to wow reviewers, but headed for the bargain bin" group.
I would nominate Killer7 as a strong counter-example that's NOT in this group (though it probably still falls under action-adventure, with a strong dose of gunplay), as it's strange and beautiful, strongly characterized, insanely bizarre and incomprehensible story-wise, oddly structured, with unconventional, original, difficult, and fun (though disturbing and gruesome) to play game design. It's about as weird, controversial, and obscurely non-mainstream as a decently budgeted game can get (pretty much a love-it or hate-it title). Apparently (so says wikipedia's Capcom Five series page) it failed Capcom's sales expectations (they must have been crazy to green-light it in the first place, what did they expect?), but it was widely acclaimed (and also reviled), with a strong cult following (no pun intended regarding the game content), and ranks as a very solid success for an unconventional game in my book. Killer7 absolutely goes in the "prestige" category, no question (contrast: nobody lost sleep over philosophy, plot and character debates for Okami, Psychonauts, or BG&E). I paid $26 (35 w/tax+shipping) 6 weeks after release (maybe down from $45 or 50 ?), so lets say I'd consider it an epic bargain, rather than a bargain epic. Yes, a year later it's $10, while same-old same-old Call of Duty 2 for PC is still $40 (probably due to online play and moddability), but here I'd certainly blame the (bizarre) games business, rather than the game.
Not everyone can be Shigeru Miyamoto, and even he can't do it all the time (sadly, see Wind Waker and Mario Sunshine for example). If I could find a Wii to buy, I'd be playing Twilight Princess right now. By most accounts it is not the most (relatively) beautiful, or original, or tough Zelda, but everyone seems to agree that it nails the fundamentals, and is an EPIC action adventure.
Sorry for the rant (or essay). I certainly agree that there should be prestigious, accomplished, literary games that aren't for everyone. Apologies to those whose favorites I have disparaged, and long live Looking Glass Studios (my personal favorite, oh the humanity)! You just picked some crappy examples I think, Greg. Anyway, let there be indy funding for everyone! Cheers.
Another point to mention is that, in film and in publishing, there is a much longer shelf-life than in games. A film can keep selling in various formats for decades, and a novel much longer. As time goes by, Prestige titles are remembered and draw new audiences. Games, unless they are of the arcade variety, don't fare as well. Until such time as the technology stalls and we reach a level of graphical and interface quality that is as good or better than life, our wares will continue to age at a tremendous rate, keeping their lifespan to 3 years or less.
Games are also tied to the upgrades in consumer electronics. They're essentially toys, not art. People get bored with/play out the old toy and want a new, shiny one.
I agree with Fernando: "There aren't many low budget titles that are risky." So I guess indie game developers are not trying to make these prestige games. And I agree with Lucas that the games that Greg mentioned aren't good enough to be called prestige games.
I wonder why game developers across the board (with low or high budgets) are so relectant to stray from the beaten path. Is the game-buying audience so small that even a small budget game needs to be an action-adventure shooter to break even? Or do we all just lack the courage? Or the talent?
"I think this article has a 'wrong premise.' All 3 of the games described are high-concept, artistically fresh, beautifully executed, failed epics."
You provide your own examples in the place of the ones Greg suggested, so how does that break the premise? Whenever you'd read "Beyond Good and Evil", plug in "Shadow of the Colossus".
Johny: I think some indie games could fall into this catagory but the problem there is exposure. I could make a prestige game and if no one saw, would anyone care? As for the 2nd part of your post: A lot of developers use low budget projects as a safety net. These are the games that can keep the company up and running if something falls apart on a bolder project. This is just my own observation but I think it makes sense. You make many smaller projects so that you can then take a risk on something down the road. If you take lot's of small risks, then there's a good chance the developer won't be around in 1-3 years.
Lucas: I'm sure reviewers had plenty of reasons to give high ratings to the games that Greg has pointed out. I don't think that the sole reason that they were scored high is that they are "short, sweet, playable braincandy". People could go on and on as to why these games weren't commercially succesful but all people usually say is why they themselves didn't or wouldn't pick up the games. There's no way to tell why the mass market didn't attach to these three amazingly creative endeavors. At some point it would be good to figure out why, though, because games like those need to exist in the industry - in my opinion.
Stiill: I did not mean to imply that "prestiege" premise itself was unworkable (as I seem to have written poorly at 2:42 am), but that the titles suggested as representative were variously short of being great games (and I notice Johnny Z agrees).
Fernando: I obviously can't speak for the reviewers, but I did not find said titles to be worth full retail value. Certainly games will stand out to reviewers for different reasons. I don't know how one might evaluate or survey the reasons for market response (or failure), but were they better games it could only have helped their sales. For example, I wasn't recommending them to my friends after playing.
Johny Z: There is a book by Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister (of Peopleware fame) called "Waltzing With Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects," which emphasizes the terrible risk averse business practices that are so common today (perhaps in response to commonly awful development practices?) and how to take strategic risks that are well managed and profitable. The software industry in general, and games companies especially, tend to play it extremely safe in this regard. IIRC, it took Will Wright YEARS to sell Maxis on The Sims, and it not only created a new sim genre, but is now also the best selling game ever (clearly the risk paid off). If risky projects were better managed in the industry as a whole, perhaps they wouldn't need a big name to sell them.
Fernando, I understand what you're saying but in my experience such a strategy doesn't work. Games are very difficult to make and you really have to give it your all to make them good. Especially for small developers who don't have multiple teams for multiple projects, I don't see how the risk could be divided (without hurting, that is, all of your products).
And as Lucas pointed out, high risk does not mean garanteed failure. What I'm wondering though is whether low risk garantees success. Aren't there as many low risk failures as there are high risk failures?
I am very unsure whether riskiness is such an important factor in the commercial success of games. We've already established that there's other things wrong with the "prestige games" that Greg mentioned.
A movie that tanks theatrically can still break even via TV rights, DVD/video sales, airline broadcasts, Netflix/Blockbuster, etc. Games didn't really get a second chance like that until very recently--Steam, Valve, Manifesto, Xbox Live, Wii Channel, etc. And that secondary market is still far less lucrative than what a movie can earn after it leaves theaters. A small outfit like Introversion can make more on Steam than they do on store shelves, but I don't see that translating into a second chance for blockbuster games that don't find an audience right out of the gates.
And Psychonauts and BG&E may be "prestige" in that they're excellent, but budgetwise, they're blockbusters. A prestige pic is usually made for a fraction of what a summer popcorn movie is made for, Miramax notwithstanding, and name actors will work for scale to be in one if they think it'll enhance their rep. Imagine a bunch of superstar programmers and artists taking a 60% pay cut to work with Tim Schafer for a couple of years on a new game...that'd be the equivalent I think.
Also also, as much as it pains me to say it, there's really not that much prestige associated with rave reviews of games or awards for games at present. Hardcore playas will sit up and take notice if famitsu or edge uk gives a perfect score to a game, and big awards announcements are often picked up by slashdot and rereported on enthusiast sites...but c'mon, do we really think that games industry awards will ever be an event like the Cannes or the Oscars, or even the Golden Globes? There just isn't the same celebrity sizzle in games; papparazzi will never stalk Tim Schafer. (Although I was tempted to stalk him when I saw him walking out of Whole Foods last month...Grim Fandango rules!)
I agree with Simon's comments on GameSetWatch; for now, the game equivalent of prestige flicks are likely to be made by small teams and distributed digitally--Jenova Chen's Flow, Jeff Minter's Space Giraffe, etc.
"...could have worked to establish for Capcom what no company other than Nintendo has in the industry today--a reputation for actually caring about gameplay."
Lucas has already identified the error. The reference to gameplay in your sentence above was amiss when your thesis is built on three games lauded for aesthetic virtue and deeply lacking in quality of play.
These same examples might make an excellent starting point for a conversation about the role of high-production-cost, style-over-substance Towers of Babel and the chaos they cause when they fall.
I was totally gobsmacked when Clover was axed. You could almost see the collective "WTF?" thought bubbles floating up over the heads of me and my colleagues. I admit, I have an Ameratsu desktop wallpaper on my computer, as I write this. Okami is quite possibly the most beautiful game I have ever seen -- and without sacrificing good gameplay (rather, in fact, introducing good innovative gameplay). It's exactly the sort of wonderful, daring thing we should be rewarding in this industry -- not discarding. So. Disappointed.
Also, I'm still evangelizing BG&E to people. Jade is one of the best heroines in video games. The game had a great story, great characters, and intuitive (if unusual) gameplay. I'm not sure why it didn't do well. Honestly, I'm not sure it was marketed well enough. It came out at the same time as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. (In fact, PoP was built on the same graphics engine.) I knew ALL ABOUT PoP coming out (it was ALL OVER the place), but had only heard about BG&E by word of mouth. Why wasn't BG&E getting the same love from their publicists?
as i write this, i also have a okami desktop wallpaper on my computer. when i firts heard of the closing of clover, i thinked it was a joke, or some kind of error. the next weeks, i was expecting some kind of correction, i just simply couldnt believe that.
Atsushi Inaba, the head of clover studio, briefly describes what seems a constant fight between him, and capcom accountant people, about him trying to get his creative vision, while the accountant guys wanting to go a less creative, safer route. in the end, he say that the accountant gived up disturbing him, and he was able to do what he wanted. but it seems that he gained many enemies inside capcom, who were just waiting an opportunity. which in the end appeared, when okami sales were lower than expected, around 400thousand worldwide. for comparison, the best seller resident evil 4, surpass 3 million unit sold, with similar review scores, albeit not so lauded by its originality.
apparently, capcom accountant guys, don’t perceive the value of the inmense prestige, that this game gived to capcom among discerning gamers, and/or don’t think this prestige could propagate to a wider audience. or think that this value joust is not worth the few millions that should have been lost with okami.
in the fiscal year ending march 2006, the company had a net income of rounded 60$ millions. so the okami hit, should have been noticeably, possibly around 10% of net incomes for the year.
in my personal case, I would have absorbed the hit. I believe it was worth the gained prestige. capcom management, didn’t agree. instead, they violently cuted clover, without even a few words of recognitions to the obtained beauty of the games (beauty in overall games sense, not joust visual beauty). I suppose that capcom accountant guys should have ran multiple studies, to gauge the possible value of the prestige gained, or may be they are doing this directly out of their minds.
I wonder how much money this marketing would be worth:
okami:
reviews:
•1UP.com: 9/10
•EDGE 9/10
•Electronic Gaming Monthly: 9.0, 9.0, and 9.5 /10 ('Gold' rating)
•Famitsu: 39/40
•G4's X-Play 5/5
•Game-Revolution: "A".
•Game Informer: 9.5/10 (Second opinion: 9.5/10)
•GamePro: 5/5
•GamerNode: 9.4 /10[2]
•GameSpot: 9.0/10
•GameSpy: 5/5
•Hardcore Gamer Magazine: 5/5
•IGN: 9.1/10
•Official PlayStation Magazine: 9/10
•PSM: 9.5/10
•Play: 10/10
As of November 15, 2006, Okami has received a 93% review average[7] at GameRankings.
Awards:
•GameInformer: October 2006 Game of the Month
•IGN: October 2006 Game of the Month
•Electronic Gaming Monthly: September 2006 Game of the Month
okami also received several awards during its presentation at E3 2005:
•1UP.com: Best PS2 Game, 2nd Best Game of Show, 3rd Best Action Game
•GameInformer: 1st Billy's Top 10 Favorite Games of E3
•GameSpy: 5th place overall
•G4TV's X-play: Most Original Game
•IGN: Best PS2 Game of Show, runner-up for Best of Show and Most Innovative Design
Very good essay. Maybe when gaming becomes more mainstream, the smaller artsy stuff will be respected more.
Hi guys,
i am new to this blog and i wish to become an permanent member.I hope to share
nice information with you guys.
http://www.rhinestonetshirts.com/
Greg,
This is a good post in that it brings up an interesting aspect in game development, etc. al. but I don't think that the premise is correct.
I believe that the "prestige movie" does not exist, and is, instead, a way for certain people or companies in Hollywood to puff themselves or to promote themselves as being motivated by something other than profit.
The Weinstein Brothers (of Miramax, Disney and TWC fame) presumably revived the arthouse flick, but they always wanted to make money from a movie. Always. If not in movie theatres, then in DVDs/videotape. If not in DVDs/videotape, then in broadcast. Additionally, regional release of movies (North America, Europe, Asia, blah, blah, blah) provide even more opportunities to make money. For all the hoopla of the Cannes Film Festivale, the real money is made in the distribution deals that are made at that movie industry tradeshow.
I like the idea of the "prestige movie," but I don't think it is something that ever existed.
I think the utter lack of any money-making opportunities whatsoever by game publishers after the initial release of a game does more to discourage innovation than an unwillingness to allow game publishers to be innovative. If opening weekend numbers were the only revenue available to movies, they (the movies) would be in the same boat as video games are today.
For the record, I think the movie industry today is great. I do not go to theatres that often, but have become a DVD troll. I use to buy more games than movies, but do the exact opposite now. Hopefully, that will change (or become more evenhanded).
Greg, you are a big time publisher now. Why don't you fund a prestige game? (What a silly concept, but hey...). Come on? You are so successful with your 20 years in gaming and all the hits - or whatever bullshit you spin these days.
if you aren't willing to sink your own money and endless talent into these projects, why demand that others do?
Step up to the plate, stop being the Kathy Lee of the industry, you can talk the talk, lets see some of that walk if it is so easy and obvious?
Blizzard also has a reputation for caring about gameplay, that's the only reason they're not chastised for major delays (StarCraft: Ghost, Diablo 3), and even product cancellations (WC Adventures) when a game fails to meet their stringent quality standards. It's ludicrous that they should be alone in getting to choose to only make good games, and this only because they happen to make commercially viable titles, and equally because their publisher would be a joke in the games industry without them. Every blizzard game besides WoW has been an absolute steal from a dollars to entertainment perspective, if publishers were willing to push titles with demoes and dynamic pricing, they'd be able to recoup investments on titles with equally dedicated, though much smaller, market.
One problem with some of these "prestige" titles mentioned is that they become self-fulfilling failures. I've heard that Beyond Good & Evil wasn't heavily advertised in order to see if word-of-mouth could promote a game alone. I suspect that somebody along the line didn't think that the game would do well, so they decided not to put much money into advertising.
The only exception to this seems to be Psychonauts, but as other people have mentioned, the advertising didn't really give a good impression of what the game was about; it appeared a bit too kiddie.
I also agree with some of the other sentiment here: games aren't seen as a legitimate artistic medium yet. So, it's a bit silly to expect "prestige" or "arthouse" type games without games being recognized as having serious artistic merit yet.
A thought-provoking article, though.
One thing that I think is missing from the conversation:
Allow for the original assertion that prestige movies do indeed exist. In many cases, the reason they can profit is the celebrity system surrounding film. For better or worse, I'll use Matt Damon as an example. Matt does small movies (eg: Kevin Smith films) for little or no money. He lends his star power to these films to make himself seem like a more serious actor. (Okay, maybe Kevin Smith movies don't have this effect, but you get the point) The prestige film gets better marketing, Matt gets more cred.
People then go to see the prestige film because the guy from Bourne Identity is in it.
There is no meaningful promotion of developers or the development studios in our industry. Very few people know Tim Schafer from a hole in the wall. Why would they be attracted to his prestige title? By the same token, only slightly more people know what "Double Fine" is. Michel has it even worse - how do you market the brand "Ubisoft Montpelier Studio" effectively?
Until there is SOMETHING to draw attention to a prestige game, something for the marketing people to latch onto, it's probably doomed to fail.
Well, actors will take a pay cut because they can directly benefit from being associated with a high quality film AND most are wealthy. Will game developers and artists do the same? I kind of doubt it.
You show a publisher how to make a prestige game on the cheap and you might get some interest. Unfortunately, it looks to me like a prestige game might actually have to have a higher art budget because cool-looking, stylized art would probably be an important part of a prestige game.
liqingchao 07?09?03?
google??
google??
wow gold
wow gold
powerleveling
powerleveling
wow gold
wow gold
powerleveling
powerleveling
power leveling
power leveling
wow powerleveling
wow powerleveling
wow power leveling
wow power leveling
wow power level
wow power level
world of warcraft powerleveling
world of warcraft powerleveling
world of warcraft power leveling
world of warcraft power leveling
Crm
Crm
????
????
????
????
????
????
????
????
??????
??????
????
????
rolex replica
rolex replica
china tour
china tour
hongkong hotel
hongkong hotel
beijing tour
beijing tour
????
????
??
??
????
????
????
????
????
????
??
??
????
????
????
????
??????
??????
??????
??????
??????
??????
???
??
??
??
?????
?????
??????
??????
??????
??????
???
???
?????
?????
??????
??????
google??
????
????
????
????
???
??
??
????
????
?????
?????
maple story
maple story mesos
maple story cheats
maple story meso
maple story hacks
maple story items
maple story guides
cheap maple story
buy maple story mesos
rf online
rf online cp
rf online currency
rf online dalant
rf online disena
buy rf online currency
buy rf online cp
buy rf online dalant
EVE ISK
EQ2 Gold
FFXI Gil
Guild Wars Gold
Lineage 2 Adena
Runescape Money
wow power leveling
wow gold
cheap wow gold
World of Warcraft Gold
wow power leveling
EVE ISK
EQ2 Gold
EQ2 plat
everquest 2 gold
FFXI Gil
FFXI Gil
Guild Wars Gold
Lineage 2 Adena
Maple Story Mesos
Runescape Money
Runescape Gold
runescape items
SilkRoad Gold
wow gold
warcraft gold
cheap wow gold
wow gold
warcraft gold
LOTRO Gold
wow power leveling
cheap wow gold
wow gold
cheap wow gold
runescape gold
runescape money
runescape items
cheap runescape money
cheap runescape gold
wow power leveling
wow powerleveling
world of warcraft power leveling
wow power leveling
wow powerleveling
world of warcraft power leveling
wow power leveling
wow powerleveling
world of warcraft power leveling
wow power leveling
wow powerleveling
world of warcraft power leveling
ffxi gil
Final Fantasy XI Gil
ro Zeny
wow gold
cheap wow gold
cheap wow gold
eq2 gold
eq2 plat
everquest 2 gold
lotro gold
lotro power leveling
lotro powerleveling
If you don't understand the gravitational wow powerleveling of an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game:wow power leveling), I'm going to enlighten you with just a dozen words about world of warcraft power leveling: you get to pick what you look like and what your talents are in world of warcraft powerleveling.
That's the real beauty of it with maple story hacks. The first thing you do in the MMORPG World of Warcraft is design your own body to take final fantasy xi power leveling and decide what your strengths will be without maplestory hacks. You pick your race(ffxi powerleveling). What could be more seductive than that with wow gold, the ability to turn in all of the cards without world of warcraft gold you were dealt at birth and draw new ones from a face-up deck? If you have friends who've gotten sucked into the WoW black hole and you don't understand why they never talk to you any more, this is wow powerleveling. I remember being a chubby teenager with bad skin, wow power leveling and astigmatism and pants that didn't fit and wow power level quite right. What would I have given to be reborn as a strapping warrior with rippling pecs and armor of hammered silver to wow powerlevel?
Hehe, Rushu of dofus has gone into the video game equivalent of the Great Depression. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer in comparation of dofus kamas:
F2Ps cant get a profession above level 30 in dofus, so gathering dofus kamas is slow, and such crafting professions take longer to gain the resources. Also crafting professions can't get up to a level high enough to make anything costly, or become a magus.
Equipment hunting in dofus isn't worth as much anymore, unless you're hunting a Gelano to earn a great amount of dofus kamas. This is because before if you got, for example, a 1/1 prespic lining it was worth next to nothing. Now, if you get a 1/1 lining,you get someone to mage it so its higher, so there are more better linings, so the price goes down. Even the ones that have more stats that is normally possible aren't worth as much as a perfect lining was before the magus system.
Runescape offers its gamers a wide variety of skills for farming runescape gold/runescape money to be picked up, with each skill serving a particular purpose and adding some amount of value runescape gold to the player. There are twenty three distinct kinds of skill sets categorized under four major topics of runescape money; Combat skills, Extraction skills, Processing skills and Independent skills for farming runescape money. Attainment of mastery in these skills automatically results in improved performance of a player in Runescape to get runescape money.
??
????
????
????
????
?????
????
??
??
????
????
????
????
????
???
???
????
????
wow gold
wow power leveling
wow power leveling
wow power leveling
wow powerleveling
wow powerleveling
wow powerleveling
World Of Warcraft power leveling
World Of Warcraft power leveling
World Of Warcraft power leveling
World Of Warcraft powerleveling
World Of Warcraft powerleveling
World Of Warcraft powerleveling
wow power level
wow power level
wow power level
cheap wow power leveling
cheap wow power leveling
cheap wow powerleveling
cheap wow powerleveling
????
codeheart article
wow gold Aggramar
wow gold Aegwynn
wow gold Agamaggan
wow gold Akama
wow gold Alexstrasza
wow gold Alleria
wow gold Altar of Storms
wow gold Alterac Mountains
Warcraft Gold
World of Warcraft Gold
cheap wow gold
wow gold Aerie'peak
wow gold
wow power leveling
wow power leveling
wow power leveling
wow powerleveling
wow powerleveling
wow powerleveling
World Of Warcraft power leveling
World Of Warcraft power leveling
World Of Warcraft power leveling
World Of Warcraft powerleveling
World Of Warcraft powerleveling
World Of Warcraft powerleveling
wow power level
wow power level
wow power level
cheap wow power leveling
cheap wow power leveling
cheap wow powerleveling
cheap wow powerleveling
????
codeheart article
wow gold Aggramar
wow gold Aegwynn
wow gold Agamaggan
wow gold Akama
wow gold Alexstrasza
wow gold Alleria
wow gold Altar of Storms
wow gold Alterac Mountains
Warcraft Gold
World of Warcraft Gold
cheap wow gold
wow gold Aerie'peak
wow power leveling
wow powerleveling
wow power leveling
wow gold
wow items
feelingame.com
wow tips
Most Valuable WOW Power Leveling Service
wow power leveling faq
cheap wow power leveling
wow power leveling
wow powerleveling
wow power lvl
cheap runescape money
cheap runescape gold
cheapest runescape money
cheapest runescape gold
everquest2 gold
eq2 gold
eq2 plat
eq2 platinum
Everquest 2 plat
Everquest 2 platinum
ffxi gil
ffxi gold
ffxi money
final fantasy gil
final fantasy gold
final fantasy money
Runescape money
runescape gold
runescape gp
runescape coin
rs2 money
rs2 gold
rs2 gp
buy runescape money
buy runescape gold
eve isk
eve money
eve gold
eve online isk
lotro gold
lotro golds
lotr gold
lotr money
lotro money
maplestory mesos
maple story mesos
mesos
buy mesos
runescape money
runescape gold
eq2 gold
eq2 plat
ffxi gil
runescape power leveling
runescape powerleveling
runescape accounts
runescape items
buy runescape money
buy runescape gold
buy rs money
maple story mesos
maplestory mesos
maplestory meso
silkroad online gold
star wars galaxies credits
rappelz rupees
rappelz gold
swg credits
swg credit
archlord gold
archlord money
buy archlord gold
ge vis
granado espada vis
sword of the new world vis
lotro gold
lotro online gold
lord of the rings gold
lord of the rings online gold
dofus kamas
dofus gold
dofus money
everquest 2 gold
buy eq2 gold
final tantasy xi gil
guild wars gold
gold guild Platinsum
lineage 1 adena
lineage 1 gold
buy lineage 1 adena
lineage 2 adena
lineage 2 gold
second life lineden
anarchy online money
anarchy online gold
ao credits
Tales Of Pirates gold
Tales Of Pirates money
gaia online gold
gaia gold
gaia money
last chaos gold
last chaos money
2moons money
2moons gold
buy 2moons gold
2moons power leveling
2 moons dil
hero online gold
hero online money
buy hero online money
hero online power leveling hero online powerleveling
eve isk
eve online isk
world of warcraft money
warcraft gold
wowgold
runescape money
runescape gold
eq2 gold
eq2 plat
ffxi gil
runescape money
runescape gold
maple story money
maple story gold
buy mesos
buy meso
buy maple story money
maple story gold
silkroad online money
silkroad online power leveling
silkroad online powerleveling
rappelz money
buy rappelz rupees
star wars galaxies money
swg money
< |
