Entertainment Technology Advisor

For over a decade the game middleware industry has been fighting the attitude from game developers that they can make their own technology better, faster, and cheaper. While that is a debatable position, it is not a debatable attitude. But, could it be that the meltdown of the financial industry will have the unintended side effect of making developers more willing to purchase off the shelf middleware solutions? I know, crazy. But before you start asking me what I am smoking and where I got it let me lay it out for you. A big developer/publisher cancels a game. The team could be deployed to another game, but the developer decides they are going to take the opportunity to say good bye to team members that are making “too much money” (now remember this is from the developer/publisher’s point of view not the guy making the money). So, for the next game they bring in a new team member just out of school whom they can pay much less. Short term gain maybe, but they lose all of the experience from that team. Where does that team go? Well, how about a new independent development studio. They are popping up all over, and what they know is that they do not have the engineering resources to build a game engine, AI, physics, interface, and so on technology to develop a game. They have a small window of opportunity before they have to start filling out applications to the local Starbucks. That means they have to buy the technology.

Add in new distribution opportunities and models and you have new cycle of independent game developers who just might be more open to middleware this time around.

I may be crazy! I’d love to hear what you think.

Christine