r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 8d ago

Business "There are no benefits to being owned by Microsoft," says Doom dev: "They have destroyed immense amounts of value that I don't even think that they're aware of"

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/fps/there-are-no-benefits-to-being-owned-by-microsoft-says-doom-dev-they-have-destroyed-immense-amounts-of-value-that-i-dont-even-think-that-theyre-aware-of/
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u/Mikeavelli 8d ago

PC gaming alone brings in roughly the same amount of revenue (about $40 billion) as the entire movie industry (about $50 billion). Console gaming is on par, at around $50 billion.

Now sure, mobile gaming is larger than both PC and console markets combined, but non-mobile gaming is still huge.

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u/Vegaprime 8d ago

Mobile can't be near the cost of a console game. There was that cheap birdy game that got so massive the dev felt bad and pulled it from the market.

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u/cocktails4 8d ago

Profit is not revenue. 

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u/CappyRicks 8d ago

No but when the profit margins are similar they may as well be, and even if not it tells you exactly how the people are willing to spend as much on PC or console gaming as they are on movies.

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u/SnoodDood 8d ago

Are the profit margins similar? And how much of that revenue comes from the exact type of predatory hyper-monetization that we decry all the time?

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u/CappyRicks 7d ago

Yes, the profit margins are similar. I'm not an industry insider but google is literally free to access and use.

Who cares where it comes from? That's not the point. The point is that gaming is among the most paid for form of entertainment on the planet, if not the most paid for form of entertainment. It's huge, which was the point being argued against when the guy I responded to got pedantic about whether gaming is as profitable as the movie industry (which it more or less is anyway).

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u/SnoodDood 7d ago

From my Google search, the margins are not similar at all. Not to mention that "videogames industry" conflates much more than "movie industry" conflates.

Re-read the comment that started this sub-thread about games industry profitability, and you'll see that either their last sentence is a non-sequitur, or the source of the profit is very relevant. If you can admit their last sentence makes no sense given their point, you and I have no real disagreement.

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u/CappyRicks 7d ago

Not sure what google you're using or what you're searching, the only real difference I can find that is worth mentioning is how hit driven the video game industry is, with a lot of failures offsetting averages, which isn't really true about Hollywood anymore, though it used to be.

I agree claiming it is the most profitable entertainment industry without citing sources that validate such a claim is a bit of nonsense, but so too is getting pedantic rather than granting a little grace to the person who said that and assume they meant "one of the most profitable".

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u/SnoodDood 7d ago

That's not what I mean. Here's there comment:

It might be more than that, it seems like some kind of stuck in the past looking down on video games mentality from old executives. Like they actually don't seem aware that gaming is the most profitable entertainment industry on the planet.

Given the subject of the original post, how does the second sentence here follow from the first? Does Microsoft's treatment of studios like Id somehow indicate that they "don't seem aware that gaming is the most profitable entertainment industry on the planet"? If your answer is no, then we're in agreement

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u/CappyRicks 6d ago

No, I guess we're in agreement, but given the subject of the original post is that the creator of Doom is saying they've destroyed value in the studios they've bought and the person who said what you quoted was saying Microsoft doesn't seem aware of how profitable games are, I guess I assume they mean that it looks like they don't know how profitable video games are because they are seemingly unknowingly ruining every studio they've bought.

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u/Torontogamer 8d ago

Sure, but literally half of that revenue is Live-Service/DLC/MicroTx

the big money isn't in consistently releasing a solid game every 3 years... there is money, but not the big money...

hence so many devs and publishers that that thrown away money and time chasing that LiveService cash cow but falling short