Realtime Crisis

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the industry, companies have radically changed their perspective on development. Monolithic, five-year-cycle MMORPGs are still in development, of course, but short development cycles and fast iteration are becoming popular models for many online games. Companies using those models are constrained creatively to a degree, of course, but at least they're not betting $100 million on the launch of a single product with a tortured development history.

That's the kind of model some developers are getting used to already, and others are going to have to accustom themselves to. The creation of monolithic projects funded by publishers isn't going to go away, of course, but if you're setting up as an independent studio, putting together millions and spending years building your opus simply doesn't look like an attractive option any more - and even if it does look great to you, RTW's demise is going to have investors spooked for years.

Independent developers can thrive by being nimble, efficient, and innovative, by latching onto new technologies, new creative concepts and new business models faster than those in lumbering publishers can. They can create and launch products on timelines bigger firms can only dream of, unencumbered by internal politicking and red tape. They can build prototypes and turn them into products, iterate quickly and let the public in early - and of course, they can build massive goodwill simply by being independent, by being seen as the "good guys" by media and consumers alike.

What they can't do - what Realtime Worlds tried to do, and failed in such dramatic fashion - is tell themselves and others that making a game costs $50 million (or $100 million, for that matter) and takes years and years. That's a notion which everyone needs to disabuse themselves of - developers and investors alike. The kinds of game which take tens of millions and many years to create are the preserve of giant publishers who can absorb that kind of investment in turnover figures that extend into trillions - not of an independent studio which will end up destitute should the game fail to be an enormous hit.

That, more than anything else, will be the impact of RTW on UK development - a final curtain, perhaps, on the peculiar notion of independent studios which give up all the advantages of independence in favour of chasing the dream of the big-budget blockbuster. The numbers just don't make sense, the risks don't balance out - and nobody knows that better than those facing an uncertain future in Dundee, or counting their losses in investment firms around the world.