Self destructive graphics arms race is wiping out game devs.

[Jizz_Beard_thePirate]

Well, what I'd argue is that its not necessarily HD development and graphics that killed a lot of the studios but the coding necessary to support all the different architectures we had last gen.

PC - x86
360 - PowerPC
Ps3 - Cell
wii - 2 Gamecubs with motion controls

If a developer was making a game that even supported 3 out of the 4 platforms, they had to know how to code for fairly different architectures. Its not a simple, save as boobs.ps3 or ass.360, it was a lot harder. I think the learning curve, specially for the ps3 development was quite a big one which ultimately resulted in games taking longer to produce while not being as great as they should have been.

Vs this gen:

PC - x86
X1 - x86
Ps4 - x86
WiiU - PowerPC

Now of course, you have stuff like OpenGL/Direct X and Operating systems and etc that are still different but compared to the last gen, if a dev wants to make a game for even 3 of the platforms, it should be vastly simpler. Now I am not saying HD didn't have any affect, I am saying that it was the architectures along with new graphics technologies that really put the strain on devs which ultimatly lead to publishers closing down studios.