There was a time, about two decades ago, when almost all game developers would strive to achieve the status of "not going to be sold next week" that Nintendo games have. For some reason, developers decided not to follow that path any longer right around when Sony entered the market, and started focusing almost exclusively on one-trick-pony games that nobody would bother playing twice.
I have this nagging suspicion that it was the same reasoning that causes many companies to be enraged at the Virtual Console, 360 Arcade, and other such services now, actually: quality games that have massive replay value remain in competition for the player's attention alongside modern games. The fact that some of these big-name titles are being outsold by games that were originally released as far back as 30 to 40 years ago has to be a sore point for some of the more egocentric developers, and probably also instills a fair bit of fear that the higher-ups will realize that they're basically burning money and disband their studio.
Basically, a lot of modern developers would much rather set the bar low and keep it low so people will keep buying "disposable games" than to continually raise the bar on their own productions and actually focus on delivering an ever-more-satisfying experience to the customer. It's the standard employee survival mechanism in a poorly run business: if your employer doesn't expect anything big from you, you won't have to try very hard AND you'll have good job security. That's the antithesis of how a business should run, and it's a damn good thing that Nintendo at least is evading that pitfall.
Sky Render - Sanity is for the weak.
