Are wii development costs really cheaper?

[Pristine20]

puffy said:
Look at the biggest sellers on the HD consoles. The developers are forced into creating games with the best graphics. imagine if Killzone 2 looked like The Conduit, it would have died at retail with maybe 50,000 units at best. Sure it would have been cheaper than what KZ2 was but the same game on Wii would be a million seller.

It's ok to say HD consoles give flexibility but it's not realistic.. HD gamers are just that, HD gamers and they want the best graphics, something you don't get with Wii and aren't expecting when you buy a Wii game. Developers could of course release a game on 360 with lower graphics but they just don't sell.. So its more of a risk than spending the same budget on Wii and getting a top notch game out.

 

You're really stereotyping a lot of people here. A multiplayer shooter like killzone 2 benefits from improving it's graphics because the HD consoles are saturated with multiplayer shooters and there isn't really any other way to stand out from the crowd in that genre except one brings something super-revolutionary to the genre. If this was the case with the wii, you'd have a similar scenario. It'll probably do even worse on the wii if the wii were saturated with multiplayer shooters as well because it's graphics won't help it stand out. However, even if killzone 2 had conduit graphics it would still sell over 500K . KZ2 is just a strange game to use for such an analogy because graphics have been it's selling point even before the ps3's launch.

We'll see how the conduit actually performs on wii when it launches. You should know that it has an advantage in the fact that wii gamers have basically been clamoring for FPS games whereas HD gamers have been saying "enough is enough" with the FPS games. For something like PoP though, I would not agree that if the PS360 version was toned down slightly to reach wii levels, that it would sell significantly less. I also don't believe that a PoP wii would outsell the PS360 version at the same cost level to the dev.

I'm of the school of thought that believes that great games sell when they have an audience and that graphics only matter to a certain level. this is actually one of the theories behind the wii's success. It's still not a bastion for every gamer because some people (like myself) don't care for motion controls and the nature of the games it gets don't appeal to me (and it's not their graphics). JRPG (unlike FPS) is a genre which is still struggling on HD consoles. I'd reiterate, if a dev came up with a game like FFX (assuming the original ffx didn't exist thus making it a fresh idea) with the same level of graphics as the ps2 game, I still think HD JRPG fans would buy it in droves. Why? It's a great game and it's graphics reach the "acceptable". Unacceptable would be FFvii graphics at this day and age but FFX level ps2 graphics would always be acceptable to 90% of gamers IMO especially if the game is as great as it is.

Disgaea 3(ps3) wasn't visually impressive at all and it still sold on track with it's predecessors. Did the fans boycott the game because they were now expecting kz2 graphics since they bought HD consoles? Developers take the graphics route because as NJ5 pointed out earlier, it seemed to become somewhat of an arms race. The reality is that budgets should be made based on what the studio can afford and tailored to where the fans of such games are and this approach doesn't necessarily favor the wii over ps3 or 360 or a combination of both.