| NightDragon83 said: I don't know how much developers expect new consoles to disrupt the market and innovate when all signs point to the Next Box and PS4 simply being more powerful versions of their current gen brethren. Also, look at all of the developers that went belly-up during this gen due to the spike in development costs, despite this gen being the most successful of all time in terms of total console sales and WW install bases. New consoles means new hardware to learn meaning higher development costs once again. Who's going to be the big casualties over the next generation is a pretty big question that will definitely be answered over the next 5 years or so. |
This.
You already have the biggest games in the same ballpark as Hollywood blockbusters budget-wise. Next gen, even more AAA games will have to sell 4-5 million at retail just to turn a profit. That means more stratification--iterative blockbusters and franchise milking from the big companies, crazy little shit and niche stuff in the smaller digital space, and the continued hollowing out of everything in between. I also expect them to be more forceful in going after resales, while pushing more free-to-play and homogenized experiences (ugh). And on top of all of that, neither MS nor Sony is probably willing to go nuts with the specs after the billion dollar losses for this generation.
I have to say, of all the generations I've lived through, I've never been LESS excited about seeing the next one than I am now. This gen was pretty much a wash for me as it is, and everything I didn't like about it stands to get much worse. Hardcore console gaming is flying head-first into a brick wall, and it's going too fast to get out of the way in time.
