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Dulfite on 03 March 2024
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Qwark said:
Dulfite said:

I think the solution is simple.

Let this generation last until 2034. Make it a two gen generation. Sony and Microsoft desperately need to slow down the graphics race so developers can catch up on how to make modern games more cheaply without crunch. Sony and MS overextended over many years by pushing the hardware more than the software teams could reasonably handle, and now games are too expensive to make and many have abysmal profit margins.

Another solution is slow down AAA development and ramp up AA development significantly. Nintendo is really good with this. Their games are far cheaper to make on average. Sony and MS should follow their path.

Many publishers already dont bother with the graphics race anymore and are still successful. Capcom is the best example of this. Their games look good, but not out of this world good. They still are selling quite well. Same goes for Sega, although Atlus could invest a little more in graphics and Bandai Namco/From Soft also care little for the Graphics race. Mostly Western Devs are really pushing graphics and budgets to the point that only a few IP's will become viable by there own standards.

Look at Rift Apart that game has no reason to have a budget of 80 million, if the leaks are true. Uncharted 4 was made for 50 million. So even if we account inflation the budget is similar. Anyone who thinks Ratchet and Clank could come remotely close to Uncharted 4 in revenue and sales should evaluate that thought.

No matter how pretty Ratchet is, it was never coming close to Uncharted 4 revenue wise. Now I get Ratchet was also meant as a showcase of PS5 games and Spiderman makes enough profit for Ratchet to get to the breakeven point, but still.

A longer gen definitely seems like a good idea, since not a lot of games use the power of the PS4 to begin with. We are over 3 years in this gen and there are still plenty of cross platform games releasing. So I don't get the rush to a new even more expensive gen.

It's madness to me by going to the next gen in 2026 or 2027. If MS and Sony made games at Nintendo's hardware power level exclusively, we would be in this mess.

Nintendo figured this out a long time ago after the failure of the GameCube (which was graphically an insane console for its time). They only leap forward in power every 2 generations and that allows their devs to not have to rush to figure things out every gen.

GC to Wii was basically not a jump. Wii to Wii U was a huge jump. Wii U to Switch was hardly any different to most people (not digital foundry like people). Switch to Switch 2 will be the next big leap, then I expect their next console after that to be a small jump again and focus on some new innovation while their dev teams can breath a little. It's a sustainable business model, unlike what MS and Sony have been building towards the last two decades with pushing hardware to the max every 6 years, plus pro models 3 or so years after that. Their model isn't sustainable.