Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Why Game Developers should unionize or revolt! (Score 3, Insightful) 35

Here is some math, using only Horizon Forbidden West as an example, showing only one thing...

The employees who build these games getting royally screwed while executives are lining their pockets (because I'll bet you my next 10 year's salary that if the game developers for these companies either unionized or created their own company through an exodus...they could continue developing games (doing something they love) while getting paid dramatically more for their time (valued). /// GROSS REVENUE CALCULATIONS
Total Units Sold to Date = 8,400,000
Per Unit Price (MSRP) = $69.99
Gross Sales = $587,916,000.00 (does not include sales tax) /// DEVELOPMENT TEAM COSTS
[According to (conflicting information, see NOTE BELOW) data available on https://www.salary.com/researc... ]
# Employees = 300
# Years to Build = 5
Avg. Salary per Employee at Guerilla Games ~= $125,000.00 (used tabular data to calculate average, excluding executives, not prose/copy at beginning...it is incorrect)
Total Estimated Game Development Cost ~= (5 years * 300 staff * $125,000 per year on average) = $187,500,000 //// NET REVENUE CALCULATIONS
Net Revenue ~= $400,416,000.00 // algorithm --> (gross revenue - development cost = net revenue)
Sales Margin ~= 68.11% // algorithm --> (revenue - cost) / revenue /// NET PROFIT CALCULATIONS
Assuming Sony makes 20% of (Gross Sales) as part of agreement to distribute ~== $117,583,200
Assuming marketing costs an additional 50% of build cost ~== $93,750,000
Assuming operational (server ) setup costs are ~== $2,500,000
Assuming 1st year operating costs of $5,000,000
NOT INCLUDING EXECUTIVE PAY, DIVIDENDS, DEPRECIATION, and INTEREST INTENTIONALLY FOR SIMPLICITY
TOTAL EST. 1st Year NON-DEVELOPMENT COST ~== $218,833,200
TOTAL EST. 1st YEAR COSTS !== $406,333,200 (DEV COST + NON-DEV COST)
EST. 1st YEAR TAXABLE INCOME ~== $181,582,800 (GROSS REVENUE - TOTAL 1st YEAR COSTS)
EST. 1st YEAR TAX ~== $38,132,388
1st YEAR NET PROFIT ~== $143,450,412

Est. NET PROFIT for just this one title ~== $143,450,412 (almost enough to fund 100% cost for development of a net-new title, or fund an ACTUAL PENSION for these people to incentivize them to stay on and be loyal to the company until they retire)!!!

Of course, we all know, that net profit is NOT benefitting the people who built the game, but rather...it is going into executive pay, bonuses to executives, kickbacks to board members and where applicable dividends to investors.

Wouldn't the world be a better place for everyone, if instead, that net profit was divided equally across the game development staff??

FOR EXAMPLE: If, for just this one title, Guerilla Games gave that net profit to the people that built the game, that would be ~== $478,168 (per employee), an amount that has the potential to dramatically change the lives of each of those three hundred (300) people forever for the positive!!!

Comment The Real Battle (Score 1) 333

Here's what we don't see. There is a battle going on, and it has nothing to do with which codec to use. The real battle is between Apple and Adobe. Apple wants to control everything on iOS (and everywhere else...can anyone say AppStore?), so Flash doesn't play so nice on those 64bit gizmos eh? Flash has embedded itself into the web because of video. Sooo...how do you beat Flash, in comes the MP4 wrapper for H.264 encodings (and Apple's on the patent bandwagon). Google is drawing a line firmly between them in many ways: Google Apps, Android, Chromium Tablet...and now they've closed the door on H.264 moving to WebM. Adobe will make the switch...why? Because f4v flopped, Flash Media Server bows down to MP4 encoding, which makes it an open target against Apple who doesn't support Flash on their cool little gizmos everyone buys. Hrmm...the real battle is over the mobile market and who dominates. Google is using their muscle to push open standards, which I for one will always vote for VS Apple's system (CoCoa, WebKit). We'll see who wins.

Comment Power-production (Score 1) 997

I was speaking with a colleague at another location about this very topic today. I believe that web development and design would be far more productive if ALL parties involved (Decision makers, Managers, Producers) worked a 4 hour day, here's how it would work: 8am - 12pm (Decision makers arrive, review previous days work, decide what they want done). 10am - 12pm (Managers arrive, speak with decision makers about what they want and define the day's goals) 12pm - 4pm (Producers arrive, get instruction from Managers and produce dilligently to accomplish the day's goals). If any one group needs to work beyond 4 hours...they can, and they're still ahead of the game. There would be 3 main challenges to overcome in order for this situation to be successful: 1. Priorities must be realistic. If a task takes more than one day to produce...break it down into smaller units which can fit into a single day's production. 2. High-caliber, hard-working, no-bullshit, uber-intelligent, ultra-talented, honest to the core, dedicated producers and managers. 3. Trust. Every person involved in the process MUST have faith, proven reliability and trust that the people they're working with can get the job done right the first time. The reason I brought this up and in this manner: Because there is a fundamental differing between the measurements of performance from all parties in the current scheme of life which makes owners, managers and even producers believe that more time equals better work.... THIS IS A FALSE CONCEPT!

Comment Re:So what you're saying is... (Score 1) 311

Mugshot. Because anyone caught using the word face before any other noun will probably be persecuted like a teenager and RIAA! I wonder if they can lay claim to the word "Facade", that's close enough for trademark infringement isn't it!? This world is so screwed. Nobody should have rights to a word...EVER!

Comment Innovation vs. Regurgitation (Score 1) 266

A friend of mine and I did some research about what causes the "Next BIG Thing" on the internet (or nearly any other product or service) to be the next big thing. Based on that research, I don't think that creating a sub-culture is going to evolve attitude; I feel that Diaspora (and any other social network) is only achieving that goal...creating a subset of a larger culture. I feel that MySpace inherited from Geocities, Facebook inherited MySpace, Diaspora inherited from Facebook...everyone seems to be percolating over how to become the next step in the chain, but no real innovation is occurring. This seems to be in opposition of where I really feel we should be growing as a global community. When we consume X, then barf up Y it is still X. Diaspora (and nearly any other "Social Network" engine) doesn't seem to be offering any true innovation...just a perspective on the same system with a few twists != INNOVATION
Australia

Submission + - Australian Government Delays Internet Filter (theaustralian.com.au)

An anonymous reader writes: It seems the Australian Federal Government are being forced to delay the introduction of the much hated, much refuted and much misaligned Internet Filter.
It will not be introduced in the next two sittings of parliament which realistically delays it until after the next election.
News on withdrawing the filter, which was an promise from the previous election, has disappointment lobbying groups such as the Australian Christian Lobby.

Submission + - Arm based servers coming in 2011 (tomshardware.com)

markass530 writes: "Arm Holdings chief executive officer Warren East told EE Times Wednesday that servers based on ARM multicore processors should arrive within the next twelve months. The news confirms previous speculation stemming from Google's acquisition of Agnilux and a recent job advertisement posted by Microsoft. East said that the current architecture, designed for client-side computing, can also be used in server applications."

Submission + - F.D.A. Approves Vaccine for Prostate Cancer (nytimes.com) 1

reverseengineer writes: The US Food and Drug Administration has given its first approval for a therapeutic cancer vaccine. In a clinical trial 'involving 512 men, those who got Provenge (sipuleucel-T) had a median survival of 25.8 months after treatment while those who got a placebo lived a median of 21.7 months. After three years, 32 percent of those who got Provenge were alive, compared with 23 percent of those who got the placebo.'

“The big story here is that this is the first proof of principle and proof that immunotherapy works in general in cancer, which I think is a huge observation,” said Dr. Philip Kantoff, chief of solid tumor oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and the lead investigator in Dendreon’s largest clinical trial for the drug. “I think this is a very big thing and will lead to a lot more enthusiasm for the approach.”

Medicine

Submission + - Docs Perform First Remote Control Heart Surgery (inhabitat.com)

ByronScott writes: Doctors at a British hospital have just carried out the world’s first surgery using a remote controlled robot! The procedure fixed a patient’s irregular heart rhythm, and although the doctor was in the same hospital as the patient — just through the wall in another room — developers of the RC surgery technology believe this is the first step towards long-distance operations. Imagine a doctor in London performing surgery on your heart in New York!

Submission + - What Happened to Obama's Open Source Adviser (whitehouse.gov)

gov_coder writes: Back in January of 2009, various new articles announced that former SUN CEO, Scott McNealy was to become the Obama administration's Open Source Technology adviser. Currently, however, a search for Scott on the whitehouse.gov website yields zero results. Searching a bit more — I found that Scott is currently working on CurriWiki, a kind of wikipedia for school curriculum. So my question is what happened? Did some lobbyist block the appointment? Did Scott decide his other activities were more important? Scott, if you are out there — please tell us what happened. There are many people working in government IT, such as myself, who were really excited about the possibilities of an expanded role for open source software in government, and are now wondering what went wrong.
Businesses

Submission + - Japan hopes for humanoid robot on moon by 2015 (examiner.com)

JoshuaInNippon writes: A Japanese manufacturing cooperative named Astro-Technology SOHLA announced on April 27th that they are planning to create and send a two-legged humanoid robot to the moon, have it draw the Japanese flag on the surface, and hopefully then get it to return to the Earth, all by the year 2015. The group wants to inspire people, particularly in Japan, about space and generate confidence among SMEs to create low-cost space technology. While the idea may seem far-fetched to some, SOHLA had success in building a small low-cost satellite, named "Maido-1", which was launched into space aboard a Japanese H-IIA rocket in early 2009. The group also commented that they want to have their future humanoid robot hitch a ride to the moon with a surveying rover that JAXA is building.
Education

Submission + - Students Flock to GMU for BFA in Video Game Design

Hugh Pickens writes: "The Washington Post reports that officials at George Mason University are quickly finding out that they have vastly underestimated interest in the school's new bachelor's degree in video game design. "We've been overwhelmed," says Scott M. Martin, assistant dean for technology, research and advancement at GMU. "Our anticipated enrollment for the fall is 500 percent higher than we expected." George Mason first offered the program last fall when officials anticipated that it would enroll about 30 full-time students but currently 200 students are enrolled and that number is increasing. Course titles under the program include "History of Computer Game Design " while other courses focus on computer programming, digital arts and graphics and motion capture. Although many colleges offer courses and degrees in computer gaming in the United States, GMU offers the only four-year program in the DC area, an important market for gaming because serious games — those used to train military and special operations, doctors and others who use simulators — are becoming a market force in the region because of the proximity to federal government centers. "Gaming has been shifting from Silicon Valley," says Eugene Evans, general manager of Bioware Mythic, part of Electronic Arts located in Fairfax, Virginia. "The team at GMU is putting a strong emphasis on a broad set of disciplines and instilling an entrepreneurial spirit, which could mean many new start-ups within a few years.""

Submission + - Gardening on Mars (newscientist.com)

Calopteryx writes: Following Obama's announcement to send humans to Mars by the mid-2030s, New Scientist reports on plans to piece together the elements of a starter kit for the first colonists of the Red Planet: "The creation of a human outpost on Mars is still some way off, but that hasn't stopped us planning the garden."

Slashdot Top Deals

"Never ascribe to malice that which is caused by greed and ignorance." -- Cal Keegan

Working...