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

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Bodhesatva said:

fkusumot said:

The one console future. Uggghhhhh.

You know what's funny about that paradigm? Third parties could probably accomplish it right now by just lining up behind Nintendo and pushing hard. Even if third parties were to abandon Nintendo completely, I'm not entirely convinced that the Wii would collapse. It would get much weaker, certainly, but it would still chew away a significant portion of marketshare (say, 15-20 percent?) based on its interface and first party offerings. But without third party support, there is no question that both the PS3 and 360 would almost instantly fall on their faces.

But obviously, that isn't actually what third parties want, because then they have to compete with Nintendo.

 

What they really mean, I suspect, is that they want a magical platform that has these properties:

100% market penetration
No significant first party competition
Cheap development costs

They make it sound like they're looking out for us, but it seems apparent to me that they just want a world where all the usual financial concerns that plague a developer are removed.

The PC says hello!

Even the major gripe of piracy is a trend that has been changing since last generation. Piracy is now a problem on consoles as well as PCs and the difference to me is that a PC is far better equipped to deal with the problem.  There are already several companies having success against piracy and while it may never go away it can be made into far more of a hassle than it is worth.