@Lord: I did make the same point as WereKitten. Notice my earlier post where i mention (as an example) the difference in retail, where the 10M difference in dev costs is offset after the first million the game sells. Though, that is not what the publisher makes.
Games like MW2 and GTA4 are exceptional games with their success, but they are the kind of games everyone tries to make. I already said, that somewhere between the top 20-50 games is the line for the ones that in reality have been profitable. Majority of all the games turn only into loss and that's what Reggie is addressing.
For GTA, until GTA4, the series have been increasing in popularity and San Andreas might have been the peak in the series. The series have been pretty stagnant and every new game has only been a "better" iteration of the earlier game, meaning that basically the sequel have been made for the same people that bought the earlier game. Without getting new people to buy the game, their audience shrinks due to them growing out of the game or just getting bored in the same old kind of game.
So, no matter what platform the game is on, it doesn't sell any better than on another platform if it can't break out of the existing audience.
One obvious flaw in the publishers "blockbuster hunt" is, that if you're able to continously put out games that sell 10 million copies, you would be able to put out twice as many 10M sellers for the same cost (not counting in marketing costs).
Ei Kiinasti.
Eikä Japanisti.
Vaan pannaan jalalla koreasti.
Nintendo games sell only on Nintendo system.
