"Development costs are going to go up no matter what Nintendo does. That's just a losing battle.
There isn't some magical dev environment that lets you create a great game with minimal effort. Just doesn't exist."
Lowering costs, not minimal development. There is a difference.
"HD I think is actually helpful in this regard. You can get a very nice image quality (the higher resolution smooths out a lot of those jaggies and muddy textures and creates a very nice clean look) without a lot of fuss. Whereas devs on the Wii have to really push the system and work hard with their art style to get good looking visuals and most in the end don't even bother to try."
That's a talent issue, not a cost issue. In fact, it's the need to throw money at a game that is actually helping HD development costs go up. The very purpose of the DS and Wii was to throw off this line of thinking.
"And yes, once you play a Zelda game that looks like this:
http://i36.tinypic.com/24lk0sn.jpg
You won't ever want to go back."
Strop pretending to know my tastes. And all that grass would be a bitch to render in real time, even in HD.
A flashy-first game is awesome when it comes out. A great-first game is awesome forever.
Plus, just for the hell of it: Kelly Brook at the 2008 BAFTAs
