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Lenny · 18th September 2007, 07:32 PM

Saying that, though, EA are the biggest developer in the world, so they can afford to have a lot of projects on going at once. At least count I think they had something like 5,000 developers, with Ubisoft next biggest, and the Sony in-house developers third.

If you think about it, 5,000 developers is huge! Take Insomniac. For Resistance: Fall of Man they had a team of around 120 permament members, maybe hitting 200 when they had specific things to do. LAIR (Factor 5) had a team of about the same. I reckon I'm safe by going out on a limb and saying Squenix teams have about the same number, and I'm pretty sure that the team making Killzone 2 at Guerilla Games again have a similar number. I could list more, methinks. An nth one that springs to mind is the folks at Bethesda who created Oblivion.

Obviously, these figures are just vague rememberings from months back, but that's about the size we're looking at for a game development team. If you think how many games EA are producing (a number of which they'll only be publishing, rather than developing - that is, they'll outsource the game creation to smaller teams around the world and then publish the game under the EA brand) and then think how many dev's they have - 5000/200 gives 25 games at a time. Maybe more if the teams are smaller. They can afford to have a lot of ongoing projects at once.

Recently Peter Moore left Microsoft (he was Corporate Vice-President of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division - a posh way of saying high-up from the Xbox division) and is now head of EA Sports. He has gone on record saying that from now on, EVERY EA Sports game will run at a minimum of 60fps. Even PS3 games (a nice change from the abysmal 30fps of the latest Madden, compared to the 60fps of its 360 brother).

However, unlike EA, Squenix take their time. Look at how many times KH2 was delayed, but also look at the final product. Fantastic!

You know what? I've forgotten the point I was going to make.

Meh. I'll leave it as it is.

Oh, stop me if I start babbling about things, by the way. I can easily get carried away in discussions like these!

18th September 2007, 07:32 PM	#31 (permalink)
Lenny Resident Untanned Guy Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Vatican City Posts: 1,932	Re: What Game Can't You Wait To Play? Saying that, though, EA are the biggest developer in the world, so they can afford to have a lot of projects on going at once. At least count I think they had something like 5,000 developers, with Ubisoft next biggest, and the Sony in-house developers third. If you think about it, 5,000 developers is huge! Take Insomniac. For Resistance: Fall of Man they had a team of around 120 permament members, maybe hitting 200 when they had specific things to do. LAIR (Factor 5) had a team of about the same. I reckon I'm safe by going out on a limb and saying Squenix teams have about the same number, and I'm pretty sure that the team making Killzone 2 at Guerilla Games again have a similar number. I could list more, methinks. An nth one that springs to mind is the folks at Bethesda who created Oblivion. Obviously, these figures are just vague rememberings from months back, but that's about the size we're looking at for a game development team. If you think how many games EA are producing (a number of which they'll only be publishing, rather than developing - that is, they'll outsource the game creation to smaller teams around the world and then publish the game under the EA brand) and then think how many dev's they have - 5000/200 gives 25 games at a time. Maybe more if the teams are smaller. They can afford to have a lot of ongoing projects at once. Recently Peter Moore left Microsoft (he was Corporate Vice-President of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division - a posh way of saying high-up from the Xbox division) and is now head of EA Sports. He has gone on record saying that from now on, EVERY EA Sports game will run at a minimum of 60fps. Even PS3 games (a nice change from the abysmal 30fps of the latest Madden, compared to the 60fps of its 360 brother). However, unlike EA, Squenix take their time. Look at how many times KH2 was delayed, but also look at the final product. Fantastic! You know what? I've forgotten the point I was going to make. Meh. I'll leave it as it is. Oh, stop me if I start babbling about things, by the way. I can easily get carried away in discussions like these!