No, not in the industry they don't. They get pay checks. The more successful the company, the more skill, the better the pay. But they're working for their hourly just like everyone else, and they get paid before the game comes out, not after. The LEAD developer, owner, that's a different story. Their monies are based on success, by way of their contractual agreement with the publisher.
Er... That's what I said. Pretty much verbatim. Maybe the profit part was confusing - I meant no profit from the game itself, for the company.
Maybe. But bigger companies and publishers aren't satisfied with a few hundred thousand sales at $10, and paying year by year to maybe sell 5% more units than they did last year. The whole industry is currently built on the "big sell". Smashing records. $60 a unit. Make your money and run. Until the people that foot the bills for these things are willing to accept a lower/different revenue stream, things are going to stay the same and they're not going to invest in a 5 year project. MMOs only get made because they can bill straight to people's credit cards and project their revenue. You can't make profit forecasts on the indie model, you really can't. No one could have predicted Minecraft would do so well, not even Notch.
And let's not forget. Fan expectations are directly proportional to how much they pay for a product. Your chances of surviving selling a $60 game in beta and slowly trying to reel in more people as it develops are pretty slim, in my mind. When you're throwing around AAA budgets, first impressions are the only ones you get.
That's really why I said it wouldn't work for every game. For risky titles like Spore, it really, really pays to listen to your fanbase. Maxis went off their rocker in the last year or so of development with the cutesy simplistic gameplay (who really is entertained by rock-paper-scissors combat resolution, no matter how well your avatar can bust a move?), and that situation could have been salvaged easily by input from the people that are actually laying down money for the game.
I can definitely see MMOs following this path, in particular. They already release content expansions over time, why not give interested players a chance to play on alpha servers from the beginning, with the caveat that pwipes may occur? Ironically, I can see this working best for bigger IPs like Star Wars, etc., where people are heavily biased towards a thematic experience closer to existing lore and stories. Early input on style choices and area design could save a poorly-directed artistic team from their own misconceptions about the setting.
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Topic: Terraria... Looks like Minecraft + Metroid? (Read 158285 times)