Otter said:
Chrkeller said:
Yeah but does Nintendo start having the same issues? More powerful hardware = higher development costs. The switch 2 will be a ps4, isn't Nintendo's development costs about to sky rocket? |
I don't think Nintendo will suffer the same fate of crazy costs. It's not strictly about graphics but also about the type of games being made.
The Insomniac leaks pointed towards cutscenes being a major driver for costs, Nintendo simply isn't in the business of making games with hours worth of CGI level cutscenes. Also their games are way more conservative in terms of set peices, typically lean towards more stylised graphics and not endless detail. Their budgets will naturally increase but whereas Sony is keen on their major releases all being 30-40hour Epics, Nintendo is way more diverse in their portfolio. Zelda is honestly the only franchise I see costing much over 100m. I actually wish Sony would burrow more from Ninetendo's book. I remember the jeep set piece from Uncharted 4 and how several villages were constructed just so you can smash through them for a setpiece. That same environment could literally be used to build a whole 15hour single player experience.
And a good direct comparison may be Ratchet, which Insomniac assigned an 80million in budget to. If Nintendo put that same amount of resources in a Mario game knowing full well that they'll be little to no voice acting, far less bespoke animation etc. The next mainline Mario would probably not come in at more than 60m and moreover, very few of Nintendo's 1st party titles should pass the 50m budget range.
That equates to profitablity once games start selling beyond the 1.5m range, which is honestly a dream in the modern climate and shouldn't be issue looking at Nintendo's software sales on Switch.
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Agree with everything you said, but I also like to point out that it seems more cost efficient to develop games in Japan than in 'the west'.
There are probably multiple reasons, but one I can certainly point out is currency FX. All Japanese companies attribute higher profits thanks to the position of the Yen, but this also means off course that game development cost in US or EURO currency will negatively impact profits of Japanese companies. Sony has most development studios outside of Japan, where Nintendo makes their games primarily inside Japan.
