The rising cost of videogames, how two companies did something about it

[Legend11]

Rugger08 said:

Legend11 said:

Bodhesatva said:

I think the answer is "make cheaper games and stop pushing the tech envelope."

The problem is that it requires everyone to stop pushing the tech envelope which is of course impossible since console manufacturers pour money into games in order to show off their systems. That and some genres have become so competitive, especially first person shooters, and their doesn't seem to be a lot of places to push the genre outside of graphics, physics, AI, and all the other things that can push up development costs dramatically.

Or you could try to make creative, fun games like No More Heroes.

 How many "No More Heroes" would it require to bring in the amount of profits that something like Call of Duty 4 has?  The big titles may be risky but when they're "hits" they usually bring in a lot of money.  It also seems like unless there's a big license or amazing tech or an established franchise behind a game it's chances of success are much less.  Also if you have two games that are both "fun" and competing against each other then it could be something as simple as better graphics that allows one to cream the other in sales.