Blue Omega: Games need to adopt a film-style business model
"Tons and tons of money just being thrown away," says lead designer
Damnation developer Blue Omega believes the games industry needs to adopt a film-style development model in order to stop "tons and tons of money just being thrown away".
Speaking exclusively to our sister site Eurogamer.net, lead game designer Jason Minkoff urged large independent studios to downsize to a core team that oversees outsourced work - suggesting a failure to do this will "bite them in the ass".
"I think that the industry has to go this way, because the larger the teams get the more inefficient it's getting," said Minkoff.
"Towards the end of development, everyone on a given team gets sort of done. You've got tons of bodies hanging around who are doing nothing but playing World of Warcraft all day because they don't actually have anything left to do on that project. But they're still being paid, they're still on the team, and they're being held around until the execs decide to green light the next project.
"That's tons and tons of money just being thrown away. And big companies have that money to throw away, but eventually it's going to bite them in the ass," he added.
Damnation producer Rich Gilbert went on to point out that publisher studios are not in the same wasteful position as they have a pool of talent they can shuffle around from project to project.
He also highlighted the benefits of being able to pick and choose the best external companies to work on a certain aspect of your game.
"I would rather work with another team that specialises in one division. And maybe it's going to cost me a little bit more, but I don't have to carry them for a month," said Gilbert. "I also get to pick and choose and work with the best people, and not just those who are about."
Damnation is to be published by Codemasters on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 this winter.