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Analyst: Game Developers Need to Be More Like Rock Stars

By Alex Petraglia on Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 3:15 PM EST  

Talented game developers are hot commodities, claims Evan Wilson, a senior research analyst with Pacifici Crest Securities who specializes in the gaming industry.

“There are very few people in this world who know how to create hits. Not create a hit, but create multiple hits,” said Wilson in an e-mail exchange with the MTV Multiplayer blog.

“Those creative minds should be recognized and remunerated in the video game industry for their contribution as much as other forms of media. From a business perspective, that might be more expensive, but if the reward is better selling games the trade-off is worth it.”

The problem, he claims, is that most publishers see individual developers as dispensable.

Wilson cited BioShock developer Ken Levine as a prime example.

“Development would go right along without him [Levine] and that would be a shame,” he said. “If George Lucas died today the probability of another Star Wars installment would go to 0%. If Stallone died today, the probability of another Rambo installment would go to 0%.”

Which is precisely why Wilson believes it’s so hard for the industry to elevate the more creative talent.

“In the video game industry developers usually do not have ultimate control over intellectual property,” he said. “[In most cases], publishers do…I think much of this has to do with the perception of video games as ‘technology’ and not ’stories.’”

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