At Least Your Parents Have A Basement: Economic Class Dynamics In Game Production
0No Show Conference 2012 - Mitchell Smallman
How poor is too poor for video games? Gone are the days where a quarter got you the same play as everyone else. Millions of dollars of capital are being sunk into games for phones and tablet devices costing $600 or more, and each generation of console games are costing more and more at launch than inflation can account for. Today's market prompts many questions. Are gamers being expected to earn more than in the past? How can we ensure our development process is profitable without gearing our design the highest earners? Does our current base of developers represent those we are selling our products to effectively?
This talk will cover the history of the economic class of your "average" gamer, a comparison of the markets being targeted by the current sections of the industry and the strategies being used, and some analysis of the challenges economic class plays in maintaining an creative development culture.