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Never mind, the revolution is off!
Online games news Tedious Retro Gamer, 04-06-2024
Online Games Bay
Just two months ago, CEO of Embracer Group, Lars Wingefors said in an interview (after selling / closing quite a few studios) that his company will now concentrate on smaller and better games. Guess what! Of course, he changed his mind already. His new plan is even better!
Lars Wingefors, CEO of Embracer Group, is not having a great year (short pause so you could feel sorry for him), his company is bleeding money left, right and centre, they were forced to sell or close several studios (that they should not have bought in a first place), and in April 2024, he said in an interview for PC Gamer that he had a new, revolutionary plan. To cut down costs, they gonna concentrate on smaller, but better games. I’m sure that all the people he laid off are gonna be thrilled with that new concept.
But, Lord be praised, Mr. Wingefors is not done with having revelations this year. This time, in an interview for GamesIndustry.biz, he said:
"If you create an enormous role-playing game, for example, with 100 or 150 hours of gameplay, very polished, and a unique experience, would the consumer be willing to pay more? If they would, they would have more products potentially coming to market. But no one tried it."
Ok, so we moved on from "smaller and better games" to "same old sh*t, but with a bigger price tag" epiphany. Not to mention the "but no one tried it" joke - plenty of people have tried it, it is called "special editions" and it has been around for a long, long time. Why do they are called "special editions"? Because no one sane would pay that kind of money for a game, even if it had 100 to 150 hours of decent gameplay. It takes this "special" kind of gamers to pay for something like that.
Another argument of Mr. Wingefors is inflation, which, as he put it, raised prices of everything else, except for the games that "the pricing of those products has been the same for many years". Could someone tell him that games used to be 40–50 USD just a few years back, and now they are 70 USD? Because I think he missed that precious moment.
Also, could someone inform him that gaming is the only industry that is not heavily regulated and it is almost impossible to find example of "a very polished" product? If you buy groceries and find a tomato that is covered in mould, you take it back to the seller and get a refund. If you buy a game, and it is completely broken and unfinished, you will be introduced to a 5-foot-long EULA, which specifies that, if they have to, they will deal with the mould problem. Some day. Perhaps. If the game is doing well enough in the sales. Not to mention that you have not really bought this game, it is actually on loan from the developer and he wants it back in a year or two.
So, boys and girls, the revolution is off! Embracer Group is not gonna be doing smaller and cheaper games, they are going for "same sh*t, new shovel" option, which is a huge surprise to no one.
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