In fact, with the upgrade of storage media, the cost of a physical disc has now dropped to a low enough level. However, instead of decreasing the price of the game, it has increased by a few dollars.

The reason why this is happening, in part, is because the scale of game production is getting bigger and the cost is getting higher. Although, on the most platform, the share of Chiba games now has changed from more than 50% to less than 30% now.

However, the cost of game production is still stretched. Therefore, many game console manufacturers have spared no effort to advocate that the price of video games should be raised to a higher level.

Of course, everyone understands the relationship between selling price and sales volume. They raise their own prices, in fact, there is no need to advocate at all. The main reason why they are waving their flags and shouting like this is to make all the machines in the industry increase in price, so that the price they raise will be very long to be set off by their peers.

However, the main control of the price is still in the hands of Chiba Games, and Chiba Games will not offend the majority of players for the sake of one or two manufacturers.

You know, price is basically the most critical factor affecting the sales of the game. No matter how famous a game is, if it is too expensive, the sales will be very dismal.

This is true even for game consoles, which are often priced at $299 when they are launched. There is a reason why the price is so low, that is, the price is low, the performance of the machine is too poor, and if the price is too high, although the performance is good, but there are too few people who buy it.

It is precisely because of this that many of the same Chiba game consoles as the previous generations, the contemporaries of the machine, which may have twice the performance, ended up drowning in history one by one, and there was no chance for a new model.

Game consoles, in the final analysis, no matter how glamorous they may seem, are actually just cheap entertainment products. If, the price is too high, out of the masses, then its death is not far off.

Then, in order to bridge the gap between the cost and benefit of game development, so that the game can be profitable, so that the game company can enter a positive cycle and continue to launch new games.

The guiding solution given by Chiba Games is a paid expansion pack. This solution, in fact, has been tried by game manufacturers before, but it has not become mainstream.

The reason is because by doing so, it will be disgusted by many players. Players are understandably anti-emotional, I've already paid for your game, and as a result, you're coming up with new content after a few months, and then you're paying me to play it. Isn't that bullying?

Therefore, many game manufacturers, although they have similar plans, have canceled them to a certain extent because of the "bad reviews".

Some have gone into leagues that have increased the price of their games, while others have simply cut off their games. Chop all the game budgets of your entire company and reduce development costs, although the finished game must not be as good as the original one, and there are certain flaws. However, it can make the majority of players satisfied with the price, and with the relatively low price, seize the market, which can be regarded as making up for some back.

In the end, it doesn't matter if it's an open-source game company or a throttling game company. It's all because of this guiding opinion of Chiba Games, as well as their own demonstrations, that they chose to turn all in the direction of paid expansion packs.

One is because it maximizes the game's budget, and the other is that the advantages of these expansions are really huge. A lot of the materials and preparations have already been done on the base game, and the expansion pack can be used directly. It can be said that it is to do big things with little money.

It can also be used to extend the life cycle of the game, and even directly achieve the seamless connection between the previous generation of games and the new generation of games. It's a wonderful thing to look at.

You know, players are sometimes like readers of novels. If you're slow to launch titles, there's a good chance they'll be caught up in something else and lose out of your game.

And the expansion pack is such a cheap life-sustaining thing, it's really amazing. So, originally those companies that are not under pressure on development costs. It's time to prepare the game expansion.

As a result, the entire game industry has quickly entered an "era of big expansions". Of course, although everyone has released expansion packs, but the launch of expansion packs, whether it is worth it or not, in fact, players can still see it.

For example, some companies are like toothpaste factories. The expansion packs launched are like the stars in the sky that are too many to count. And each expansion pack has improved certain functions, and it is not okay not to buy it. Even, the game itself, sometimes the gameplay, is not so complete.

The reason why there are still many players who buy their games. It's nothing more than because of their games, which are really fun. However, their behavior like squeezing toothpaste has also made many people understand that their company's conscience is greatly damaged.

And some conscientious manufacturers have launched expansion packages, not to mention that the price is not expensive. The length of time you can play can even exceed that of the game.

As a result, such a game company in Poland got such a joke, "Polish stupid donkey, obviously the expansion pack can be sold as a new game, but it has to be sold as an expansion pack." ”

In fact, this kind of behavior is not too bad. Because, to a large extent, they will accumulate the popularity of players and increase the loyalty of players, so that they will be able to get good support for the games they launch in the future.

Besides, the wages in their place are not very high. Therefore, their development costs are also acceptable.

In fact, many game companies are now outsourcing games. For example, let China and India, which have relatively low wages, take some jobs. This can greatly reduce development costs. However, there is a problem with this, which is that coordination is sometimes very difficult.

Although the Internet era can cross the distance of time and space, it is still not as clear and clear as face-to-face communication.

Therefore, while the game company is basically not needed in the big city. Because, they don't have much synergy with other companies in big cities.

However, they had to stay in the big cities. Because every employee is a living person. They have a natural yearning for big cities. The reason why a big city is called a big city is that there are many people and the service is convenient. If you say, a game company, in a deep mountain, can also make games. However, they will not get the best talent.

Because, those first-class talents will not be willing to live in the first-tier cities, come to the poor countryside, and come to work in your small mountain village.

However, the consequences of staying in the big city are also obvious, that is, the additional cost that needs to be paid is greatly increased.

Whether it's the rent of the company or the expenses of daily life, it is actually much larger. In some cases, in order to attract employees, they even have to solve their living problems, such as providing apartments. In this way, the cost is higher.

As a result, the pressure on the whole company becomes even greater. The production of the game must be accelerated, because if the entire game is delayed, it may lead to the company's capital chain being broken, and finally forced to go bankrupt, ending up in a chicken-and-egg situation. In the end, the best outcome is to be bought by someone else at a low price, and then, finish the game that is in production.

However, unless it's a very impactful series. Otherwise, other companies will be more interested in the people of the game company than their products.

Making someone else's product is really not as easy as making your own product. If there are some more disputes over copyright, it will be even more troublesome.

As a result, many companies are more inclined to recruit the best people from bankrupt companies than to buy their rotten games.

Because, in the eyes of many of them, if the game you make is really good, you can't go out of business at all.

Nor can it be said that what they said is unreasonable. Of course, the logic is full of holes. Because, there are many reasons for the failure of a company's operation, and it is not simply a product problem. It may be that the management is not good, resulting in inefficiency.

Those other companies who say this are not unaware of such a truth. The reason why they say this is because they want to lower the price?

If a person wants to buy a company and boast about it, the purchase price will increase several times. If it's not that this person has a sick brain, it's that there's a dirty deal behind it.

There are many people who are very worried about the current state of the game industry. I believe that the game industry is not in a healthy state now, and if it is a healthy state, then it is impossible to cause one game company after another to go bankrupt because of a game.

Some people think that investing heavily in making a game is simply going down a cult path. Haven't you seen that indie games are so popular, and low-budget games can also make a lot of money?

However, if they are asked to make some constructive proposals, they will not be able to come up with them. Because, for them, they just like to criticize and don't like to give solutions.

Because, how cool the criticism is, I don't like what you do, and I deserve to criticize it. Let's give the solution? I'm sorry, the company is your company, I give the solution, and you don't give me money, so what is the need for me to write a solution?

Of course, the bigger reason is that they don't have a solution of their own. It's so cool to spray people, just spray it, give a solution, and think about it, isn't that self-inflicted.

In fact, there is no way to develop like this. Analogous to the film industry, isn't it also such a rhythm? Hollywood's major studios produce more movies at a higher cost than one another.

If they make a movie, they don't get enough money. If neither the serialized disc market nor the overseas market can make enough profits. It will even have a great impact on a film company, and the most terrifying consequence is that the entire company is on the verge of bankruptcy and then being acquired.

Peers are enemies, in fact, other film companies can't wait to see some peers die.

The same is true for the animation industry in Japan. TV animation, even losing money. In order to diversify risks, a system of production committees was created.

Companies related to this animation, such as distributing plastic villains around the perimeter, distributing comic books, etc., have joined forces to release an anime. In this way, even if this cartoon is in the end, it does not make money through the subsequent sales of discs and peripherals. It can also spread the risk, so that the animation production company, which is not much in the first place, will not have to face the fate of bankruptcy because of a failed work.

Of course, even if this is the case, the vast majority of animation production companies are not in very good shape. On the one hand, there is a lot of work, and you have to work overtime for a long time every day, and on the other hand, the salary level is too low. Because, there are so many people who are interested in this industry, and the salary level is even lower than the average salary level of all industries in Tokyo.

To be reasonable, the vast majority of industries in fact are abnormal and unhealthy. Because, if an industry wants to develop rapidly, it will inevitably face these.

Even if they don't face these things, they will face other problems. And with some more peculiar means, after entering a position, if you want to maintain such a scale, you need to maintain such an "unhealthy" system all the time.

Like, some people say that chemical fertilizers are not good for agricultural products. However, without chemical fertilizers, more than half of the world's population may starve to death. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain an adequate amount of fertilizer input, even an excessive amount of fertilizer input.

If you calculate it in this way, you will know that in the whole world, even the scale of human existence is unscientific.

However, we must not let so many people die and pursue such a healthy state.

Because, to a large extent, no one knows whether it is themselves who will die. Is there someone who must be able to guarantee that it is the Taoist friend who dies, not the poor Dao himself?

Because of Chiba Games' leadership, this wave of game industry crisis was temporarily resolved. However, I don't know how to solve a crisis next time.

After all, as time went by, it was getting closer and closer to the era that Lin Yan had been in. The advantage of his foresight had begun to become less obvious. Perhaps, he still has a way to continue to show his supernatural powers, but if enough is enough of that tipping point. He couldn't guarantee that he would be able to do that. (To be continued.) )