cliffy b.: "the triple-a game might be going away"

[MARCUSDJACKSON]

i think getting back to basic's is what's needed. why do we need to push graphic's? yea everybody likes a good looking game but t wee need are games that innovate and play better.

playing on a harder difficulty should not be about loosing more health. the focus should be on smarter Ai. i've already talked about the cost of dev. increasing next gen, but most here seemed to be ok with $80.00 a game. i agree with Kb for the most part. heres the post.

Epic's Cliff Bleszinski thinks true-blue blockbusters may be too expensive to develop once next generation consoles arrive, with only a handful of big brands able to support annual instalments.

"That's a fair enough risk," he told OXM, when we asked whether next generation hardware costs could spell doom for cash-strapped developers. "The six-to-eight hour triple-A game might be going away, maybe there's only three or four that come out a year, and those are the established brands."

Triple-A games are like Gears 3 Silverbacks - pricey, powerful but all too easily wasted. For Bleszinski, the secret to survival in today's troubled market is understanding exactly who you're making a game for. "The key is to bet on people who understand technology, but also understand creative and business. Too many games are made just because somebody says 'A bullfighting game sounds cool!' And you're like 'That would only play in Spain.'
"People just get these random things they want to make, and other people throw money at them without looking at the business. We need not only to be creative but also to be surgical in terms of the games we make."

Some developers believe that second-hand game sales are among the things sapping the industry's lifeblood. Epic cohort Rod Fergusson commented recently that companies need to "actively fight used game culture" with their DLC strategies. Bleszinski skimmed over the issue in our chat. "There's a whole discussion we can have about the disc-based market versus rental and used."