Rumor--Suikoden VI for Wii

[Bodhesatva]

Here's a question I've been dying to ask some people: what if some genres never justify the cost needed to make PS3-graphics games?  I'm going to make a bold prediciton: apart from the occasional exception, not only will this be true for thie current generation, but we will absolutely never,  EVER see a game like Suikoden with PS3 level graphics.  There will never be a large enough market to support it.

Some markets are saturated, and will not see much growth. RPGs are an excellent example, actually -- I honestly doubt that the market for RPGs will ever get much bigger than it currently is. The market for games in general is growing, but from what I can tell, virtually none of that growth is being experienced by RPGs.

So here's the question to cook people's noodle with: are there some tried-and-true, we-can't-imagine-the-industry-without-them genres that will simply NEVER grow large enough to justify 20 million dollar budgets with consistency? I think so. Again, there will be the occassional exception -- FF XIII for RPGs is a good example -- but I think we've reached a point where particular genres just aren't going to be getting much bigger, and will never justify a development cost bigger than the ones they have right now.

Again, for emphasis -- I don't mean that just for this generation. I mean EVER. Some portions of this market are as full as they're ever going to get, and some genres are even seeing rapid and painful contraction, such as Fighting Games.