no you have it wrong, Sony MS etc don't need to help the 2nd tier the seccond teir just need to stop trying to compete with the top teir at their own game. the top teir are the top teir because they have the money and experties to create the biggest and best games. A seccond teir dev trying to to make a a top teir game will always be highly risky and will probably fail, And the top teir subsadising financial risks by seccond teir devs is unsistainable, hell they already have to subsedise the top teir to allow them to do what they do and creating more competition for your own product is stupid.
Developers just need to learn to spend only what they can expect to make from the game and not to bet the farm on a single game. This means not aiming for the stars with every game and not trying to play the same game as the big kids. They need to learn to start small and build up, the top teir weren't always making AAA titles they started small and built up over time or they were set up with huge ammounts of financial backing to create those type of games. There is no way for a seccond teir dev to compete without first teir resources and they shouldn't try. Seccond tier developers should make seccond teir games for seccond tier budgets. Many developers are very successful with smaller games, look at Paradox interactive a PC only publisher that deals in 2nd and third tier games yet is going from strength to strength and making reccord profits, profits were up 300% last year not because some big organisation helped them out but because the games they made were made with reasonable budgets.
Developers just need to learn to develop effeciantly, it has nothing to do with how powerful the hardware is or anything like that. Hell if you think that powerful hardware is the main reason for developers spending so much money on making games you have not read about Shenmue the game on the Dreamcast a game that cost well over $47 million to develop and that's 1999 money with inflation that's over $62 million far more than even most AAA titles today, and why because of inifeciant development practices. Today games like uncharted 2 can be made for as little as $20 million.
Trying to make the next bigest best game arround has always been and always will be a risky move and developers and publishers that can't afford to take the risk shouldn't be making the risk. And other bigger companies shouldn't be trying to catch them when they fall.
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