Reality, Console Industry has become Stagnated.

[Soundwave]

EricHiggin said:

Soundwave said:

I think 100 million is a rough go for a lot of publishers, but they're willing to go to that range for certain titles. 

It's when you are getting into budget ranges of 200 million, 300 million when things are getting really dicey, even for Sony, they can afford it but it looks like moving into that budget range has come with serious consequences, basically sounds like the end of Playstation exclusivity for their software and large cost cutting measures with layoffs elsewhere.

Lets put this in perspective Spider-Man 2 at 300+ million is more than Spider-Man 1 + Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart's combined budgets. So basically they are spending as much on one game now as they would on previously two fairly large budget games just 4-5 years ago. 

If $300 million, $400 million, $500+ million becomes the standard for "high tier" games, the industry is headed for a lot of pain. 

100% too Starfield (400 million budget) is likely going to end up on PS5 and Switch 2 at some point. 

The higher the budget, the more they charge for a game. Why not, assuming they think consumers will pay it. However, if they spend $400 mil and the game ends up like Starfield, then you've gotta bite the bullet and charge less than you would want to. Simple as.

If the consumer won't pay the higher price for the higher input cost game, assuming it's worthy, and you can't sell enough, then you know you've got to limit AAA game budgets to less than that.

I think what is actually going to happen

1.) A shift away from the standard single player/single pay title to GAAS business model where they will try to extract that extra money in a stealth ways and get player commitment for a couple of years instead of investing 6-8 years of development time + massive cost for a game that the player beats in one weekend and then never touches again. 

2.) Eventually they will probably trying bumping the standard price to $80, but hopefully not for a few years yet. 

3.) A lot of companies are just going to say "fuck this" and not even bother really even making games in that budget range. You're going to get fewer games that try to have high end graphics and production values and probably more of a proliferation of the "PS4 game on steroids" type thing. 

4.) PC and Nintendo platforms will benefit with a lot more multiplatform content that they haven't enjoyed in the past. XBox and Playstation platforms will basically have no exclusives. Even smartphones, I think developers are going to try to have more of their console content there too as tech improves on smartphone and tablet devices. 

I think Switch 2 owners will be playing games like Halo, Call of Duty, Forza, Madden NFL, Street Fighter VI, mainline Monster Hunter, Persona, mainline Resident Evil games that they did not get on the Switch 1 natively as an example. May take a little bit for some of those IPs, but eventually I think that's where that's headed. 

Last edited by Soundwave - on 01 March 2024