# Why is the video game industry so poorly managed? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 20, 2013, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-video-game-industry-so-poorly-managed/661412 "2013-06-20T00:34:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-video-game-industry-so-poorly-managed/661412/61 "2013-07-04T16:38:51Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Because no one cares. In every technology company I’ve ever worked, regardless if it’s a small software startup or a giant like Deloitte or Accenture, they all work the same: > Account managers/partners/salespeople sell projects. They don’t care if it’s properly scoped out. All they care about getting the sales credit. > > Project managers like me don’t care. I’m technically “responsible” for the project. Of course it’s hard to actually feel responsible since I didn’t scope the project, plan the project, put together the team or actually lead them. Some combination of the sales guy, technical architect, team lead and resource management staff do that. So my job becomes basically reporting on the project and figuring out which of these idiots to try to fix the blame on when it fails or goes over budget. > > Developers/engineers/analysts care because they are the ones who have to do the work (and they are delicate geniuses who are so smart they don’t need things like coding standards or documentation). But they can typically be replaced or outsourced. The company I work for (a small software consulting firm) has about 50 engineers and another 8 or so staff. The president and co-founder are both engineers. While the president pretty much handles the running of the business, the co-founder still does a lot of engineering and management. We have no dedicated sales force. Everyone who works there is empowered to do sales. While managers (approx 15% of the engineers, and yes, all our managers have engineering backgrounds) are required to meet certain sales goals as part of their position, non-managers have no requirement. But the important part is the people who are going to be directly involved in the work (either from a management or technical standpoint) are the ones making the pitches. This is something our president feels is extremely important, because sales people have a tendency to not know how their own products actually work, and by having the people who are doing the work actively involved in the ownership of the project, there’s incentive to make the project a well-defined and achievable thing. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2013, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-video-game-industry-so-poorly-managed/661412/62 "2013-07-04T22:15:35Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > That would largely defeat the purpose of a Union as established under US law. It couldn’t do any of the things unions in the United States do; such as negotiation or fighting over workplace conditions or work rules. Which is a problem with how unions are regarded in the US and their standing in law. Which is what I said in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2013, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-video-game-industry-so-poorly-managed/661412/63 "2013-07-05T02:21:32Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Which is a problem with how unions are regarded in the US and their standing in law. Which is what I said in the first place. Assume I’m not a mind-reader and don’t know what laws or customs are in place in the unknown land you hail from. What, specifically, do you want unions to do for techworkers? ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2013, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-video-game-industry-so-poorly-managed/661412/64 "2013-07-06T08:49:27Z")
I figure [this](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57592491/double-fine-productions-broken-age-game-over-budget-delayed/) is relevant to the thread, maybe. Double Fine Adventure (now titled Broken Age) just went over budget despite raising $3.3million when they only asked Kickstarter for $400000, which means they got _scratches numbers on paper_ about 825% of what they asked. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2013, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-video-game-industry-so-poorly-managed/661412/65 "2013-07-08T14:39:20Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I figure [this](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57592491/double-fine-productions-broken-age-game-over-budget-delayed/) is relevant to the thread, maybe. Double Fine Adventure (now titled Broken Age) just went over budget despite raising $3.3million when they only asked Kickstarter for $400000, which means they got _scratches numbers on paper_ about 825% of what they asked. This is mostly me playing Devil’s Advocate, because I am firmly of the belief that anyone who backed this Kickstarter, which was basically Double Fine picking a number of dollars that they wanted and scrawling “We will makez an Ahdventoor Gaem” on a piece of paper in crayon, got what they deserved, but, in the defense of Double Fine: Games are not multiplicative. You can’t take a budget for a game that was designed to be a $400,000 game, (Note: This is not enough money to make much of a game at a studio like Double Fine, which is another reason the Kickstarter was…sketchy.) and multiply it by 8 and get a game that costs $3.2m. It just doesn’t work like that. If you’re trying to make a game on $400k, you are working to keep the scope very small. While some things like certain art assets are easy to budget for (“Well, if we need 32 backdrop screens for the smaller game, we’ll need 240 for the bigger game!”) things like writing and puzzles and whatnot are not really strictly linear variables, because they grow in complexity as well as in scale. What this does prove to me, though, is that Double Fine has no idea how to budget for stuff. Because the smart thing to do in this sort of situation is take your $3.3m and fly to Tahiti… er scratch that. The smart thing to do is take your $3.3 million and take a million and set it aside. Make (or rather, AIM FOR) a $2.3m game. Then if/when (mostly when) you go overbudget, you can cover that, AND, if you somehow get to the end of the development cycle and still have money left over, you polish the \*\*\*\* out of that game. All that said, The Banner Saga is in a somewhat similar situation to Double Fine Adventure, EXCEPT that they A) Published the ‘combat system’ of their game as a Free-To-play offering/beta test, and got a bunch of flak from people who can’t/didn’t read their kickstarter before backing it, and B) Are, as a result of A), unlikely to need any extra-extra money to finish their game. One of their team wrote a very well thought out update on this stuff, [HERE](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/the-banner-saga/posts/529873#comments) (Skip down to the section titled “A CONVERSATION ABOUT KICKSTARTER” unless you actually care about this game in particular.) So there are better ways and worse ways to do this. And I’m glad I didn’t back Double Fine and their vaguely defined ambitions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-video-game-industry-so-poorly-managed/661412.md?page=3)