| happydolphin said: @Sal. That makes sense. The issue I had is that I was hearing companies talk about the great cost of HD development, and it was in the higher numbers (figures included but I don't have them on hand). So basically you're saying that these figures shouldn't be as important after the middleware engines took more ground and were built. However, doesn't that still pose a problem for the next gen that requires a new middleware for the newer capabilities? Also, what of the companies that weren't able to tap into the 3rd party engines, or build their own 1st party engines due to unmanageable upfront cost and risk for them? |
I'm really not sure how much these engines cost to license, but as before - it's worked out for a ton of games this generation, and now with way more engines on the market their prices should be driven down for licensees. As for small companies, I remember reading that with UE3 at least the inital licensing cost is miniscule, just $100 or something, and they don't take a cut of your earnings until you reach a certain threshold. The rest is speculation on my part though, only time will tell.
