Xbox co-creator on how the pressure of AAA is destroying Gaming.

[Locknuts]

RolStoppable said:

brendude13 said:

Lawlight said:

brendude13 said:
I've been thinking about this the past few weeks. Not sure what solutions there are to the problem though. Pushing indie games is a start.

What problems?

Rising game budgets > Fear of failure and less room for experimentation > Franchises become milked and gaming stagnates > DOOOOOOM.

If rising development budgets are the problem, then the solution would be a cap, no?

Are you familiar with American sports? They have a thing called "salary cap" which prevents clubs from spending as much as they wish on players, thus it's impossible for a super rich owner to buy up all the best players and win by outspending the competition (there is no Chelski and the like). Consequently, each club needs to compete on fostering talent, forming a good team etc. In other words, it's competition on sportsmanlike terms, not about who has the most money.

If an appropriate cap were applied to gaming, meaning that publishers can't simply win by outspending their competitors, then it wouldn't only be an environment where innovation is beneficial, but absolutely necessary.

Great idea but I'm not sure how you would put an international cap on game development budgets. Usually the market needs to sort itself out, especially when no one government can legislate to control it.