Do Developers Affect Game Sales?

By George Walker | July 25, 2008

A twitter contact of mine recently stated, “does the customer care about the game, the publisher, or the developer? I think the MAJORITY care about the game and nothing else.”

While I think he may be MOSTLY right, there is enough evidence to at least have a lively discussion on the matter. Firstly, I’ll agree that the gibbering masses (those that don’t know or care what video game bloggers have to say… not that they should) probably don’t even KNOW what the major publishers or developers are. They seem to be in a constant mode of title parsing, searching for keywords such as “Halo”, “Call of Duty”, or “[whatever]craft”.

That being said, I’ve run into more than a few people who have bought a console JUST because it’s the latest machine from Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo. Blizzard has been a well known name in gaming, as well. Just look at the buzz surrounding Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3. Granted, these are sequels, but people have come to expect a certain level of polish from Blizzard titles. It should also be noted that EA had made a name for itself by locking up the NFL license.

On the more hardcore side of the market, there can really be no argument that people pay attention to the developer or publisher. Before Gears of War became an Xbox 360 staple, I was hyped mainly because of Epic’s past work on UT and UT2k4. I was also previously familiar with CliffyB as a level designer for the some of the best UT maps.

I am most interested, however, in what YOU the Aeropause reader think? Does the publisher or developer affect your game-buying decisions?