| leo-j said: Off topic you have all moved from gow developer talking about the wii, to cheaper development = better game argument(yea sure). |
Indirectly, it can be true ...
One of the main reasons game development budgets have exploded is that they require the work of a lot more people in order to create a larger quantity of higher quality graphical assets; with so many people working on a project it becomes amazingly difficult to manage the project to ensure consistent quality, and (in many cases) a small ammount of low quality work can spoil an otherwise excellent project. On top of this the large budget eliminates the publishers willingness to accept risk and the projects may have to follow a more "tried-and-tested" generic approach, and (in an attempt to keep costs reasonable) content is reduced making for a shorter game.
With less expensive development it is possible that a developer could produce a more original game with a greater quantity of content and more consistent quality throughout because the smaller development team was easier to manage, the publisher was more willing to take risk and there was less of a need to control expenses.
As an example, an experienced developer has a better chance of producing a great RPG if they have a $5 Million budget to produce a Nintendo DS game then producing a $20 Million RPG for the PS3. The reason is the budget is huge for a Nintendo DS game and the project would still be manageable for a (fairly average) experienced manager, while the budget is pretty typical for a PS3 game and the project is fairly large and complicated for all except for a very good manager.
