famousringo said:
But that does nothing to help control costs for the graphic designers, level designers, game designers, mo-cap studios, acting talent, animators, writers and management that comprise the bulk of game development costs. |
First of all, those things I bolded are optional and have almost nothing to do with how expensive it is to animate a game.
Second of all, um yes it does help control costs for the others. Look at Chivalry, it looks as good as some recent big budget games and it was made by a team of less than 20 people. It may be an indie game, but you wouldn't guess it by looking at it.
The point is that while SOME studios will spend more, they don't have to any more. Finally nearly all gaming platforms are built on similar hardware architecture so that you can reach everyone without having to reinvent the wheel a dozen times. At the same time there has never been this much performance available, so finally devs can make these crazy huge games! Studios can now put down more money if they want to, and at the same time the price of entry is far lower.
