Making games is risky and hard, right? You need to make it profitable (and for those who still don’t understand simple economics, the game needs to be profitable so that you can think making another one).
That’s the premise. So you’d think game developers would reduce risks, at least a little bit. But these are the trends these days:
-Make exclusives, trying to be system-sellers. I think the 90s are over and system sellers are unicorns today. The masters of system selling, Nintendo, haven’t really done it since Wii Sports seven years ago. People buy their devices, there will be (good) games on it, the end.
-Actually they are not really exclusives. Players know the game will eventually come to their platform, especially if people are on WinSteam. Everything ends up there, eventually. People adore sales and always will.
-Be the first big buzz on a new platform, even if the platform is pretty much inexistent for now (Leap, Ouya, XB1 PS4).
-Avoid a big platform with no competition (Win8), dedication for a big platform with insane competition (iOS).
In some way, game developers add as much risk as they can on an already very risky software business. I mean, it’s just weird. Even weirder, navigating this professionally.