[edge17]

games used to cost a lot of money and used to be hard. now they cost nothing to make except your time, and you can do it in your garage.

let people have the opportunity to access the distribution channel, and they will figure the other problems out.

people in this community seem to think that they're the ones that are going to solve all the problems in an industry to move it forward.

colleges have access to expensive equipment - if students have access to quality distribution channels, they'll take time to produce high quality content.

my first company made software and hardware; we started in my dorm, used electronic equipment (scopes and power supplies and stuff), and build a product and company that made money. if I can do it with technology, someone else can do it with cameras, recording equipment.

music has itunes, software has app stores, artists/painters have the web, online retail has warehouses without floorspace (and in some cases, not even warehouses). there is absolutely no reason movies don't fit into the equation.

[kooshball]

> games used to cost a lot of money and used to be hard. now they cost nothing to make except your time, and you can do it in your garage.

Let's not go overboard here. Just because there is a growing market for indie games like Minecraft does not mean big budget productions like CoD, WoW or Skyrim is at all feasible for a single person to design, code, test, and support from a garage.

Good games are still very hard to make. They dont have to cost a lot of money but if you want to make the next WoW, you better have a big budget.

[edge17]

you missed the point. the point is that the distribution model has changed and parties interested in participating has increased. this doesn't mean that the larger parties with deep pockets no longer participate. but if you are implying that competition has not increased and won't increase because making games, good or bad, costs less then you would be wrong.

the average game does cost less to make, because there are a lot more low-budget games out there.

the game changes when the distribution model changes.

[molmalo]

Large games are still costing an enormous amount of money to make. Think in something like GTA 4, Skyrim, COD Series, WOW. Indie games have their market and can even become massive (Rovio?), but console and pc games in general are at a whole other level. I wish I could make Skyrim in my garage =) !! But that's not going to happen any time soon.

As you said, I think that there are platforms already here to distribute music. What we should start to put our focus on is in how to finance TV series, and eventually Movies (that are much more expensive).

[inkaudio]

Indie movies have itunes too. Still, just getting your game in the app store or your music or movie in itunes, doesn't mean it will sell well. Angry birds cost over $100,000[1] to make and those Modern Warfare games cost tens of millions of dollars market and produce. The big budget production typically dominate mind share in these markets.

[1] http://mobilewebgo.com/how-did-angry-birds-become-blockbuste...