[quote name='Strell']I never said a thing about manufacturing costs. You have me confused with someone else. I can't change the subject when I've only had one to begin with.
You're the one throwing out various factors in how much a game costs for the sake of "oh gee the size of the carts is what really matters here."
How do you know manufacturing costs don't go down as time passes on? Memory gets cheaper every day. You can buy USB drives of X size for Y price, and in a month it's 10% cheaper. DS cards from waht I know are based on SD cards, and if that's the case, then doubling the memory between cards wouldn't make the price skyrocket. This would effectively make the manufacturing cost associated with memory size almost negligible over time. Seems like a pretty weak reason to base an entire argument on.[/QUOTE]
Since there appears to be about 40 Bleach games in Japan for every one released here, I would be curious about the the sunk costs for this one game. It appears there is a lot of reuse of code and art resources happening with that franchise. Costs attributable to this one game could very, very low compared to the first entry. When a game's initial production run is ordered, the bean counters have to reach a figure for the development cost to be spread across that setof units so that complete sell-through will cover the cost and garner a small profit. If more production runs are merited, then the serious profits kick in.
Another issue is how much Sega felt they could trade on the source material's reputation. Square is confident that anything under their brand is going to get positive consideration for that alone. Bleach in the US doesn't have the massive brand awareness it does in Japan. There is a deep crossover between gamers and anime fans but still, we're talking about a show with a far more limited exposure in this market. Then there is the negative reputation of games based on media licenses to consider.
So it comes down to the same thing as before. Square charges more because they can get it based on past customer satisfaction and this lets them go into profits much sooner. This assures cash flow and the consequent ability to secure the best talent for their projects. (Almost everybody I know with more than five years in this business has had an experience with an employer not meeting payroll.) Sega, OTOH, while being a top brand publisher, does not have nearly as good a reputation for consistent quality.
So, Sega charges less and defers profitability because they believe they must. Assuming the dev costs weren't unusually low, allowing them to make the risk lower with a more accessible price.
You're the one throwing out various factors in how much a game costs for the sake of "oh gee the size of the carts is what really matters here."
How do you know manufacturing costs don't go down as time passes on? Memory gets cheaper every day. You can buy USB drives of X size for Y price, and in a month it's 10% cheaper. DS cards from waht I know are based on SD cards, and if that's the case, then doubling the memory between cards wouldn't make the price skyrocket. This would effectively make the manufacturing cost associated with memory size almost negligible over time. Seems like a pretty weak reason to base an entire argument on.[/QUOTE]
Since there appears to be about 40 Bleach games in Japan for every one released here, I would be curious about the the sunk costs for this one game. It appears there is a lot of reuse of code and art resources happening with that franchise. Costs attributable to this one game could very, very low compared to the first entry. When a game's initial production run is ordered, the bean counters have to reach a figure for the development cost to be spread across that setof units so that complete sell-through will cover the cost and garner a small profit. If more production runs are merited, then the serious profits kick in.
Another issue is how much Sega felt they could trade on the source material's reputation. Square is confident that anything under their brand is going to get positive consideration for that alone. Bleach in the US doesn't have the massive brand awareness it does in Japan. There is a deep crossover between gamers and anime fans but still, we're talking about a show with a far more limited exposure in this market. Then there is the negative reputation of games based on media licenses to consider.
So it comes down to the same thing as before. Square charges more because they can get it based on past customer satisfaction and this lets them go into profits much sooner. This assures cash flow and the consequent ability to secure the best talent for their projects. (Almost everybody I know with more than five years in this business has had an experience with an employer not meeting payroll.) Sega, OTOH, while being a top brand publisher, does not have nearly as good a reputation for consistent quality.
So, Sega charges less and defers profitability because they believe they must. Assuming the dev costs weren't unusually low, allowing them to make the risk lower with a more accessible price.
) for the PSP and I don't regret it.
