I feel a MASSIVE change in the gaming industry

[Bodhesatva]

Legend11 said:

HappySqurriel said:

I honestly believe that you and Legend11 are saying completely different things ...

Legend11's standard argument is "The XBox 360 and PS3 will retain a dramatic advantage in third party development" and your argumet is "The XBox 360 and PS3 will continue to have decent third party support"

I fully agree with your logic ... The XBox 360 and PS3 will still see a steady supply of third party games, the publishers will be very careful with the types of games they get and will probably focus on multiplatform games but the games will continue to exist.

In order for Legend11's argumet to work the XBox 360 and PS3 have to start selling a lot better right away, or third party publishers must become not-for-profit agencies.

I think the vast majority of "expensive" games will be multiplatform in the future. The exclusives for the 360 and PS3 will likely be ones that Microsoft or Sony secure while those for the Wii will likely be casual low cost games like we're seeing now (Catz, Dogz, Cowz, Pigz, Zack and Wiki, cheap JRPGS, etc/whatever).

Now here we slightly disagree, Legend. I do think the Wii will get higher cost games. I don't think the Wii has proven that it prefers games that cost nothing to develop, I think it has proven it favors different genres (Pet Sims are a good example, as are Platformers and Adventure games) It just so happens that the ONLY games in the pet sim genre are all low cost right now. Someone -- probably Nintendo, actually -- will produce a polished, expensive, and immersive pet sim, and it will demolish Catz/Doz/Cowz in sales.

The best examples of this so far are things like Super Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess. Those are NOT low cost games, and they sold extraordinarily well on the Wii. What separates the Wii is the genres and styles it tends to prefer, not the cost of development.

So this isn't a big disagreement here. We still both agree that the big, expensive shooters and sports games and racing sims will land on the 360/PS3 primarily. But I do expect we'll see very polished versions of Catz/Dogz in the future, just as we'll see some companies step up and invest heavily in games like Wii Fit. I think it's likely the Wii will get "expensive" games -- just different types of expensive games.