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HappySqurriel on 23 June 2011
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Viper1 said:
Lafiel said:

Hmm.. more powerful is good now? I thought more power = more expensive to develop for = less profits = less games, which possibly have a more shallow gameplay experience as devs focused on graphics ?

I can give 1 very good reason it's a good thing that is economic based.

Amortization of costs.   The more platforms a publisher can amortize funds across, the greater the chance for a higher return.   The figures below are for example only and do not reflect any known real world development data.

Game = $30 million to develop on 1 console | $32 million for 2 consoles | $34 million for 3 consoles | $36 million for 3 consoles plus PC.

1 console with a $20 publish rate.  Must sell 1.5 million units on one console.

2 consoles with a $20 publish rate.  Must sell 750,000 per console.

3 consoles with a $20 publish rate.  Must sell 500,000 per console.

3 consoles plus PC with a $20 publish rate.  Must sell 375,000 per platform.

 

In the early days of HD console development, scenario 1 and 2 were the only options and as we saw, dozens of studios either closed up shop or had to merge with a bigger studio just to survive.   As the console plus PC option become more valid, it helped ensure studios remained solvent.   With a 4th platform, publishers are excited because it goes even further to ensure a return on investment.

Just to expand, even if you assume that developers devote an unusual amout of resources towards taking full advantage of the special features of a platform by adding specific content and this increases the development costs by 33% per additional platform ...

With 2 platforms you need to sell 66% as many copies per platform as selling the game on one platform
With 3 platforms you need to sell 55% as many copies per platform as selling the game on one platform
With 4 platforms you need to sell 50% as many copies per platform as selling the game on one platform

Of course, with this approach you would likely see savings with each additional platform supported because it is likely that some of the additional content and features would apply to more than one system. As a result, the first additional system might add 33% of the initial cost while the second additional system might only add 25% of initial cost, and more and more systems would reduce the need for additional content.