How can they justify the expense?

[Scruff7]

I think this is a bad sign for the gaming world. If a software company wants to make a large profit, they follow the Nintendo example: make cheap and easy games with low R&D costs, low development costs and short development times. The casual market love games like this, they aren't demanding, they want fun, interesting and easy games that involve them.

for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles, games need to be visually stunning, on the cutting edge of technology to capture the interests of their markets. Their markets demand intuitive, visually stunning games with a high degree of development. this costs big bucks, and the returns will be lower.

Does that mean developers are going to shun the Xbox360/PS3 markets and stop pushing the boundaries of software/gaming development in favour of the 'casual market'...

being an increasingly hardcore gamer who loves the visually stunning developments of PS3 and 360, i fear for the future of console gaming...