Would you be okay with graphics staying at PS4/XBO level if it meant cheaper games and shorter dev times?

[PAOerfulone]

At some point, developers, publishers, fans, and the entire industry has to say "enough is enough. We don't need to go higher than this!"

GTA VI - with its $1-2 billion budget, 6,000 devs, and 8 years of development. There's no reason any game should go beyond that. As a fan or developer, if you're not satisfied or content with a game on THAT scale - It may be time for you to find another hobby or career.

And with those dev costs, GTA VI would need to sell an absolute absurd number of copies within a reasonable timeframe JUST TO BREAK EVEN!!! And I'm 99.9% it'll do just that. After all, it's Grand Theft Auto. But on the 0.1% chance that it flops or fails, Rockstar Games would be in HUGE trouble! That's the kind of budget and project that, if this were any other game or franchise, can absolutely bankrupt a studio and put hundreds, if not thousands, of people out of a job if you fuck it up. Shoot, even if you don't, it's still not a slam dunk.

It gets to a point where you have to weigh the risks and rewards and realize that it's just not worth it and you're just being ambitious for the sake of being ambitious - Which is where padding happens and a game quickly wears out its welcome. NO game should take THAT long, require THAT many people, and cost THAT much to make, in order to make the most of hardware that is too powerful for its own good. All that efford for what? To simulate each strand of hair having its own individual animation pattern when the wind blows? To see each brand of glitter on each individual eye lash? To have a million and one extra customization options nobody asked for? Minor stuff and insignificant details that the majority of your audience doesn't care for, just serve to pad out the development time, add to the costs, and risk your audience losing patience and interest.

If Rockstar just kept things more simple and dialed it back a bit, GTA VI would already be out by now, would have already turned a profit, and tens of millions of people would be happily playing the game to their hearts' content.