The video game industry has become one of the most profitable industries around, and the sheer level of importance given to this particular vertical has increased over time. Fans from all over the world have invested a ton of time and money in the video games of their choice while supporting entire genres in the best way they can. Games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Fortnite, and Minecraft becoming all the rage is proof enough of the fact that the lands💞cape of video games is massive in every sense of the word.
In fact, one can confidently say that the landscape of video games has shifted to such an extent that fans have even become quite engrossed when it comes to what happens at the video game studios. We're pretty sure that fans of Fallout, The Witcher, and Titanfall would like to know how their favorite series has be🧜en made from the ground up — it's only natural, after all.
However, we're pretty sure you've heard the popular saying — never meet your idols. It's a statement that might not seem all that relevant in this conversation, but the fact of the matter is that most fans would not r꧃eally like to see what happens behind closed doors at a video game studio. After all, you'd expect organized deliveries, mapped-out plans, and a streamlined process to be synonymous with these studios. However, the reality is nothing like what you're dreaming of — here are 25 wild things happening in video game studios that will make you question your obsession withꦕ these developers.
23 Clunk🐓y Games Are Generally A By-Product Of Unreasonable Deadlines
All of the issues t✅hat we've discussed above contribute to an overarching problem that absolutely needs to be addressed — games that are released well before they should be and don't end up resembling anything close to a quality title.
While these clunky and irresponsive games might understandably be lambasted by the general public, do keep in mind that developers always try and put their best foot 🐎forward with their releases — with some minor exceptions. So, if these games aren't all that great, then chances are that it might be because of unreasonabl🌜e deadlines.
22 The Infamous Viꦑdeo Game Development Crunch
Video game development is a time-consuming process, an🃏d time is a commodity that isn't considered precious by many. Thus, when developers or publishers announce the release date for a game, you know one thing for sure.
The months before release are going to be an absolꦉute nightmare🎐.
Horror stories of empღloyees working from anywhere between 12 to 16 hours is a common thing. This perhaps explains why some games get delayed at times — the expectation that has been set is just way too unrealistic.
Expecting every employ♒ee to work themselves to the bone is just not right, after all.
21 Empꦍloyees Voting On Character Designs🃏 (Sometimes)
The video game industry is a creative industry at the end of t🐻he day, meaning that clashes are bound to happen over time. However, instead of tꦐhrowing a fit during these arguments, most staff members try to resolve their arguments like gentlemen.
So, they decide to spread something like a character design — or anything else along the same lines — around the office to get a popular vote on the same. This is the case with Tifa's iconic character design — Tetsuya Nomura finalized two versions of Tifa's clothing and circulated🐬 them around the office to get a vote on the same.
If the votes were skewe꧅d in a different direction, then our perception of Tifa's character would've been🧔 wildly altered.
20 Mic𝄹rotransactions Have Become A Necessary Evil
Sigh... you knew we were bound to come to this topic sooner or later. After all, the fact of the matter is microtransactions have become one of the most controversial forms of in-game purchases for valid reasons. Critics of this system are right to point out the fact that players are being cheated out of their money f🉐or something that's not even worth it in the long run.
Mobile gaming is rife with microtransactions, but — sad as it may be — proper gaming releases also feature this system at times, which is what doesn't s🐼it well with the majority of hardcore gamer👍s.
19 Crippling Debt I🌳s A Common Thing For Developers 🌠
An investment is required to launch any product — something that is pretty obvious at this point. Obviously, video games are no exception to this golden rꦿule, meaning that developers need to figure out the best course of🐓 action that can be taken to secure this funding.
More often than not, this course of action is accomplished by taking a loan or🅷 anything else of the sor༒t — especially if the project is quite overambitious. This makes it all the more important for studios to attain a profit, lest they have to shut their doors down.
18 Doing Whatever Is Required To Obtain More Revenue 🐟
The prospect of closing down a video game studio is never an exciting one — in fact, it's downright horrifying, especially for the people who've put in all their money 𓆉into this venture. There's a pressing need to obtain as much revenue as possible to turn over a sizeable profit... and most of the times, the route that studios take to achieve this goal is not all that ethical.
There are many avenues games opt for to boost their revenue streams. DLCs, expansion packs, and anything else along the same lines 🌜are highly overused in games nowadays.
17 🔴 The Story Behind 0451 ꦜ
The number "0451" is one of the most popular references in video games, being featured in pretty much every immersive sim game — along with a number of titles in differen♋t genres.
The story behind this number has etche🔯d itself into video gam෴ing history.
Looking Glass — one of the pioneers of immersive sim games — had this number as the keycode to enter their office, which became a staple across most of their games. Deus Ex, System Shock 2, Dishonored, Prey, BioShock, and Thief are just some of the many titles where this number ✱has been mentioned in some capacity.
16 Mobile ♉Gaming Is Incredibly Profitable Now ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ
Mobiles are truly the best way to describe just how far we've come along in terms of technology, providing us with the power of a computer in the palm of our hand.♉ It's an amazing innovation that most people just tend to take for granted, which is why studios are looking forward to mobile games as a viable source of revenue.
The idea of being able to play a game whenever you♌ please is something that is quite an amazing idea indeed, but the manner in which companies leech money from players through these apps is not exactly ethical.
15 Bug Testing Is A Massive Pain ൲
The consequence of teams working in silos varies across industriesꦡ, and in the context of the video games the last-minute work — something we're already discussed before — becomes way too egregious near the end when kinks need to be sorted out.
A game that is great but sports too many bugs becomes an unplayable mess, making it all the more important to ensure that no glitches impact a player's e🙈xperience. However, this is easier said than done, since the team responsible🔯 for fixing these bugs — more often than not — don't mesh well with the rest of the company.
Bethesda is a great example of this phenomenon.
14 🌠 Promoting Inꩵ-House Platforms For Monetary Purposes
We're already discussed Steam — although not in detail — and that's just the cusp of all ♐the developer and publisher platforms that are available on the market. From EA's Origin to the Bethesda Launcher, it ওseems that more and more platforms are going to come up in 2019.
It's obvious as to why studios are going for this particular course of action — the fact of the matter is that more money lie✤s in providing a platform since it can lead to another stream of i🌺ncome.