Onimusha12 said:
The Ds isn't that significant a factor for most third parties though, it's kind of a side endeavor, not their bread and butter and none of them have pushed any massive projects for it outside of a Square-Enix's Dragon Quest 9. Most Third Party Developers still put their heavy hitters on the PSP. There are practically no third party system sellers for the DS because few take it so seriously. |
I'm going to have to seriously take issues with both of your hypotheses. Many companies are being kept afloat primarily because of the DS, and even some of the biggest players in the industry are making record profits because of that system (see Ubisoft and Activision's financial statements for proof). No, I'm actually going to say that the DS IS the bread and butter of many, many publishers. Heck, some publishers (most notably Marvelous and Hudson) have credited the DS with saving their bottom lines.
Granted, the projects are rarely massive from a budgetary standpoint, but that's primarily because the DS doesn't need high budgets to give you a massive game. In contrast to the other systems, the DS is a breeze to develop for, and its low-end graphics means the art doesn't cost much (and art is the primary reason for the skyrocketing budgets we're experiencing: HD games need 10 artists for every programmer, on average). Shoot, most DS games cost under a million dollars to develop (which is why it's many companies' bread and butter in the first place...)
As to your PSP comment, again I must fervently disagree. Capcom's raking it in on that system, but that's about it. Even Sony is moving away from it, as even Ubisoft has publically pointed out.
Finally, I don't mean this as an attack, and I apologize if it comes out this way, but your last sentence really needs more work. The DS is a beast: I can't think of any company that does NOT take it seriously anymore. Mind you, that statement was correct in 2004-5, but it's no longer the case. Which is precisely why sc94597 rightfully brought it up...
