The video games industry is worth over a hundred billion US dollars – approximately $138 billion by 2021, in fact. According to estimates, it’s only going to get bigger over the next few years. What drives the growth of the industry is, of course, the games. With billions being spent purchasing the games, you would think that the companies that make them are extremely wealthy. Some of them are, but a lot of them don’t have nearly as much money as they like. That’s where public arts funding steps in.
Video Game Development Costs
In just about every sort of media production industry – TV, film, music, and gaming – there are companies of all different sizes. You have the major big-name ones that have significant market shares and whose releases are well known around the world. You also have a range of smaller companies that aren’t as popular or successful but still release content that consumers appreciate.
The video game industry is no different. As well as the giants at the top of the ladder, there are countless independent start-ups and smaller companies at the bottom trying to work their way up and earn recognition along the way. Some of the biggest video game producers are listed below:
| Sony Interactive Entertainment | Tencent Games |
| Nintendo | Microsoft |
| NetEase | Activision Blizzard |
| EA | Take 2 |
The bigger companies are self-reliant. That is to say, they have the funds to invest in new games and don’t have to rely on others. Smaller ones, however, don’t necessarily have the money to get their games created and effectively promote the finished product.
Video game development can be very costly. Below are some factors that can influence how much a game costs to create:
- The budget given by the company
- The timeframe for getting the final product ready
- The number of people involved
- The complexity of the game
- Licensing
- Voice acting
- Music
Games can cost anything from tens of thousands to tens of millions of pounds or more. Once a game’s finished, there’s then the cost of promoting it. The bigger the budget is, the more a game can be promoted. If a title’s being produced by one of the biggest publishers, it’s going to have a substantial advertising campaign and will probably sell millions of copies. If a title’s being released by a smaller developer, it probably won’t sell as many copies since the company won’t have as much money to promote it.
Funding for Public Arts
Many smaller, independent companies have only been able to release video games and watch them become successful because of public arts funding. One of the longest-running providers of funds for video games developers is the Australian programme Film Victoria. It’s been investing in video game start-ups for over twenty-five years and has helped bring to market some games that would otherwise have never been created.
Funding from schemes like Film Victoria helps developers. It’s especially helpful for the smaller, less-known companies that struggle to get funding. They don’t get investment because they don’t have a track record; in other words. It’s a vicious circle: to be investable, they need to produce and release games, but to do that, they need funding. Thanks to the support from Film Victoria and other similar schemes, independent companies have more of a chance of breaking into the industry and establishing themselves.
As a way of thanking the funds provider, video game developers often give them credit through on-screen gestures. When the game’s credits play, for example, you’ll see the logo of all companies that have helped develop the game and get it to market in one way or another.
Creating Unique Games
Games created by the bigger companies tend to be aimed at the mass market. This makes sense because if a company invests millions of pounds into a game, the game will have to have a broad appeal if it’s going to make a return on the investment.
Games funded through public art schemes aren’t necessarily aimed at wider audiences. In fact, a lot of them are unique in their theme, design and storytelling; they focus on ideas and stories associated with the culture of the place they’re developed in. They’re developed not just to make money but to add value to the area’s character, history and culture.
The Online Casino Games Industry
It’s worth talking about online casino games. These are very similar to video games, but they took considerably less time and money to develop. Video games can take dozens or even hundreds of hours to complete; casino games are designed to be played in very short amounts of time.
Games such as the Little Red Riding Hood slots are relatively cheap compared with video games. Even the most advanced slots and casino games don’t require anywhere near as much funding as video games. That’s why the providers that create online casino games aren’t as reliant on public arts funding as those who develop video games. If you’re after some online casino games to play, give some free slot machines with free spins a try.
Summary
A growing trend in video game development is having games funded by public arts schemes. This can be a great help to smaller studios struggling to get their game off the ground. It also enables the more creative, less commercial game to make it to market. While the larger trend will always be on popular IPs and well-established characters, there’s always room in the market for ‘indie’ games.
Thanks to the public arts scheme, smaller developers can make unique games that can be just as enjoyable, if not more so, than huge titles that cost millions to produce. If you’re looking to play video games – or even play pachinko online or give some other type of game a go – have a think about how the game was produced and whether or not a public arts scheme helped its development.
