WiteoutKing said:
Actually, he has a pretty valid point. The amount of time it would take to put together a game that has over 20 hours of adventuring/action play time would take several years at the absolute minimum. Look at how long Final Fantasy XIII is taking. It's been in the works for years and still won't see a release until early 2009. Developers cannot afford to devote that much time and money into a game on a regular basis. The Wii's development costs are significantly less, and with less focus on graphics intensity, the developers could afford to lengthen their games with the extra time and money they are saving in the process. EDIT: Granted, FF13 is an RPG, however if you (probably mistakenly, but for argument's sake...) assume that the time/money put into developing action-game fighting engines and platforming operations is approximately equal to the time/money put into developing a battle engine, then the metaphor works. I have no idea how they actually line up. |
Is that why many rpgs on the 360 are coming out in about 2 years of development time? Like say... The Last Remnant? A lot of games on the 360 have the advantage of online play, you know that thing that lengthens games to hundreds of hours of playtime.
There's also always a learning curve with new technology. Take a look at Project Gotham Racing series. The first one was in development for awhile, the second have been in development for probably half the time and looks significantly better with more tracks, etc. As companies get a handle on the technology their development time will lessen. Mass Effect is the first part of a planned trilogy, I'm willing to bet they have the next one out in 2 years (they have said they expect all 3 to be on the 360).
Also new engines and improvements to them and development tools help speed up the process tremendously.
