GCDC 2007 - Best Selling Games Panel
What's the secret sauce that makes a best-seller game? That's what the audience was hoping to hear at the GCDC 2007 panel discussion, tantalizingly titled "Best Selling Games Panel". Chaired by Gamespot's Justin Calvest, the panelists were 
Best Selling Games panel at GCDC 2007. From the left: Calvest (chair), Daglow, Capps, Eggebrecht
The panel got underway with the fundamental question of how to make those elusive best-selling games. Everyone agreed that if they would know the answer to that, they would be making ten of them right now. They hoped everyone could learn the trick during the panel (yeah, right) - and one of the panelist even quipped the obvious answer: "Copy GTA IV!" Original Ideas vs. Licensed IPIn all seriousness, a best-selling game starts with a good idea. The panelists were asked to weigh the pros and cons between having an original idea and doing something based on licensed intellectual property (IP). Factor 5's Julian Eggebrecht said, "With a license, it's extremely important to love the IP," and that they had been lucky to be able to make multiple Star Wars games based on an intellectual property they all know and love dearly. In fact, Factor 5 got the opportunity to make Star Wars games by straight up pitching to LucasArts, "You have to let us do Star Wars games as nobody else is doing them right". LucasArts was apparently so impressed by their audacity - a small German company walking up to LucasArts and telling they know how to make Star Wars games right - that it led to a long partnership making Star Wars titles.  Lair is Factor 5's first game based on an original concept When Factor 5 started making Lair for the PlayStation 3, they were excited to be finally making something original instead of yet another Star Wars title, but according to Julian they soon found out that "large original IP games are hard to make" and now that Lair is completed, "I'd kill for a good licensed IP right now." All panelists agreed that the new download services for the consoles were opening up great opportunities to try out riskier original ideas "on the cheap" - if the idea failed to fly in practice in a small downloadable game, you'd lose some money spent on the development, but the loss would be insignificant compared to big budget titles.
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