Eidos Exec Predicts "Mega-Franchises" Will Dominate 2009

Eidos "Life President" Ian Livingstone predicts that 2009 will be ruled by "mega-franchises," while smaller releases from less well-heeled companies will perform disappointingly at retail.

High-profile franchises already account for a huge portion of the videogame market and that's a trend Livingstone, who has held several executive positions at Eidos since 1995, believes will be even more pronounced in 2009. "I think 2009 will be remembered as the year of 'roast duck or no dinner'," he said in an interview with GamesIndustry. "Big ticket titles continue to sell well but many of the smaller titles will probably disappoint their owners."

"There's a glut of product and in a discerning market there is no room for mediocrity. To make a suboptimal game with a suboptimal marketing spend is a recipe for disaster," he said. "I think we'll continue to see more production resources going into fewer titles supported by even bigger marketing budgets. Publishers are continuing to raise the investment bar, ensuring the mega-franchises will rule."

The consolidation of the industry is hardly a good thing for gamers and it's also tough on independent studios and small publishers who simply cannot compete with the big boys on a level playing field. "There are a lot of challenges for independent studios that do not have multi-title publishing deals in place or do not have adequate working capital reserves. One of the downsides for those in a weak position is that they are often obliged to give up their IP," Livingstone continued.

Eidos itself has had a rough ride of things lately, including the disappointing performance of Tomb Raider: Underworld, the latest entry in its long-running flagship franchise that failed to sell to expectations. Fortunately for Eidos, it hasn't been obliged to give up its IP; the company is hoping for big success from new titles in the storied Thief and Deus Ex series.

Permalink

I read this as:

"Franchises that have made lots of money will continue to make lots of money"

Which, correct me if Im wrong, is like saying that in 2009, grass will still be green.

Malygris:

"There's a glut of product and in a discerning market there is no room for mediocrity. To make a suboptimal game with a suboptimal marketing spend is a recipe for disaster," he said. "I think we'll continue to see more production resources going into fewer titles supported by even bigger marketing budgets. Publishers are continuing to raise the investment bar, ensuring the mega-franchises will rule."

However "suboptimal" games with a huge marketing budget will continue to sell by the bucket load while good games with poor marketing will still do poorly.

Why can't the big publishers put some cash into publicising small games, things like CoD or Tomb Raider will sell if you advertise or not, new games need the help.

In other news, sky remains blue and water is wet.

Meh not really a good thing but hoping Deus ex 3 will kick arse.

Kwil:
In other news, sky remains blue and water is wet.

[nerd] Although technically the sky isn't blue [/nerd]

Is Pachter behind this?

nova18:
I read this as:

"Franchises that have made lots of money will continue to make lots of money"

Which, correct me if Im wrong, is like saying that in 2009, grass will still be green.

That's roughly what I took from it as well.

There's a glut of product and in a discerning market there is no room for mediocrity. To make a suboptimal game with a suboptimal marketing spend is a recipe for disaster...

Lol? What does that have anything to do with established franchises?

nova18:
I read this as:

"Franchises that have made lots of money will continue to make lots of money"

Which, correct me if Im wrong, is like saying that in 2009, grass will still be green.

My thoughts exactly. Because of the rough times, they will continue to spawn sequels.

nova18:
I read this as:

"Franchises that have made lots of money will continue to make lots of money"

Which, correct me if Im wrong, is like saying that in 2009, grass will still be green.

Yeah pretty much, we don't need an exec to point that out to us.

It's sorta hard to take this seriously when his company is banking its entire year on sequels. Thinking like this is what almost made EA never publish The Sims or Activision abandon Guitar Hero. If you want to make money in video games, you have to establish new IP and understand that it's going to be a sequel or two before the real pay-off happens.

nova18:
I read this as:

"Franchises that have made lots of money will continue to make lots of money"

Which, correct me if Im wrong, is like saying that in 2009, grass will still be green.

Congratulations, you just stole 90% of people's comments on this thread!

But yeah, I definitely agree with Nova. Why is this news?

It is news because right now society is in a decline and when industries go into a decline the only way to fallback is to make their franchises look new and also appeal to the base that got them there in the first place to ensure that steady stream of income.

Sure us gamers that post here no longer make the dents of massive profits that the video game industry used to have. Now by todays standards you can get every child and true blue tranformers fan to support transformers 2:revenge of the fallen and that 200 million dollar total would be missing those two zeros.

But the point isn't about the loss it is about the gain and us gamers are the niche audience that want and demand games to continue to be made and despite our low incomes we support the corporate machine to stay afloat despite this decline in the video game industry that used to take major risks.

While 2009 hasn't been the year for the rookies in the video game industry the old fashioned franchise that helped get the video game industry where it is today has been here. So that means for all us gaming elders is that we get to see games based off the video game characters we know and love. Did anyone really expect after all these years that the video game community would finally get a four player 2D Super Mario Brothers game?. Heck even some of the rookies have enjoyed being an instant mega franchise status with Call of Duty 6:MW 2.

So hopefully this post explains WHY this makes news because all those risks and innovations are slowly going away waiting for the chaos of motion controls to hit the 360 and PS3.

heliosa:

Kwil:
In other news, sky remains blue and water is wet.

[nerd] Although technically the sky isn't blue [/nerd]

Of corse not, he didn't include any color tags.

nova18:
I read this as:

"Franchises that have made lots of money will continue to make lots of money"

Which, correct me if Im wrong, is like saying that in 2009, grass will still be green.

This.

Seriously, what? Mega Franchises will dominate? Really?

Thats like saying, when you throw things out of your window, they'll fall.

I don't know games like Plants Vs Zombies are doing incredibly well whats so strange about rubbish games having rubbish sales thats always been the case

randommaster:

heliosa:

Kwil:
In other news, sky remains blue and water is wet.

[nerd] Although technically the sky isn't blue [/nerd]

Of corse not, he didn't include any color tags.

And you need to put in [nerd] tags there, son.

heliosa:

randommaster:

heliosa:

Kwil:
In other news, sky remains blue and water is wet.

[nerd] Although technically the sky isn't blue [/nerd]

Of corse not, he didn't include any color tags.

And you need to put in [nerd] tags there, son.

why would I put innard tags on my posts? Am I trying to get them to spill intestines when you select them, or something?