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Soundwave on 10 December 2016
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Hynad said:
Soundwave said:

Where's the end game here? That game graphics are supposed to increase in complexity every 6 years by 10 fold and developers are just supposed to magically make their games look several times better while still charging the same cost? Imagine if the cost of making a hamburger increased 2-3x every 6 years but you couldn't charge more for the burger, I don't think McDonalds, Burger King, etc. would be happy. 

 

That's amusing, don't you think? Considering Nintendo doesn't make graphics intensive games, yet charge full price nearly the entire gen for many of their games...

From a business POV it makes sense. If you think about it as a business owner, would you accept several times the rising cost for the same price?

Where does this logically go? Many studios are going bankrupt, we have horror stories from Amy Henning (of Uncharted fame) saying that developers are practically being worked to death and basically missing out on their kid's growing up:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-10-06-were-definitely-at-the-point-where-somethings-gotta-give

Hollywood CG movies cost $100-$200 million a pop, if we keep pushing towards that level of graphical complexity, you're going to end up with an industry that has like 15 games a year made that all need to sell 10 million copies to break even.

No Japanese studio especially can keep this up. Once you get past PS3/360 level hardware IMO you reach a point where you can make a "nice" looking game, and the only big difference then becomes how "nicer" you want, but above PS3/360 visuals if you have a decent art department can realize basically any type of game scenario with worlds that are massive and still look decent.