By that logic, all the developers who develop for the PS3, are the most non-lazy developers because the ps3 is the hardest to program for. Yes?

you do know that flash, embedded videos, etc, and sites such as the ones you are using, run like terd on older hardware? Yes, it's not necessary for things to look prettier, but it's also not necessary for you to play games at all.

What if these devs, also wanted to create a bettter looking game to go with the better looking gameplay?

What is better?
A great game with great graphics
or
A great game with crappy graphics.

Developers shouldn't get a pass on gameplay because they make a game prettier. Gamplay is most important I'm not denying that.

But they also shouldn't get a pass on graphics because they were too lazy to create good graphics.

They're supporting the 3DS because they think they can make cool games which suit their vision and they can take advantage of a new paradigm, 3D whilst making good money at the same time with a high average sale price on the cartridges.

If it was all about the money they probably wouldn't be in the industry, most of the great developers could have likely made far more money in other fields. If you make an unloved platform (Wii) then its quite likely that its not going to get a lot of grass-roots support in spite of the potential money to be made.

The support for the 3DS which has been pre-ordained is indicative that Nintendo has been able to win over not only the end users but the developers and publishers to a greater degree than the DS and Wii.

"What is better?
A great game with great graphics
or
A great game with crappy graphics."

Try not having a false dichotomy. You're implying that the game has no other factors, even art direction.

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You're implying that a developer wanting to create good graphics would neglect artstyle.

What I said still applies,

a game with great art direction and great graphics is better than

a game with great art direction and bad graphics

yes, if one dev tries harder in art direction, it can make up for the graphics. Same with the other way around to an extent. But if it pushes both boundaries, it can't be matched.

Also what advantage does a 3DS have over say a DS

3D,
Better Graphics

Why not just support the DS forever then?

Define graphics in this case. Polygon count, texturing, and effects? If so, then I say it would take a system even weaker than the Sega Saturn to make that look bad, as that system and its contemporaries still made some of the best looking games ever.

You have a very common misconception.

You believe specifications only improves graphics.

Everything can be improved just by having better specs. Obviously.

For instance. Having low memory reduces what you can draw at any given point.

Developers work within bounderies.. .. They are limited by the specifications.. so with better specifications they can take more liberties.. Make better games.. More advanced games.. even down to a fundamental core such as AI..

That's not to say that no new game has bad AI... just that they have the opportunity to make good AI.

I agree with some of what you say, but I'm more optimistic for 2 reasons

1st-I don't think that 3DS, it's powerful enough to make developers spend all of their finacial resources on graphic development, like nintendo said by itself (I don't remember if it was Iwata or someone else) the developing costs of 3DS can approach the one of a Wii game, (not a Ps3/X360 game),

2nd- On 3DS developers don't have to produce stunning graphics at all costs, look at the new Professor Layton for example, it doesn't look so different form the original one on DS or Kingdom Hearts which is not very different form the ps2 game. My point is that on HD consoles, the high graphic quality and the online were the added value of the consoles since the beginning (I'm talking about the hardwere), so the games on them have to reflect that value, you can't make a game on Ps3 with Ps2-like graphics, you won't sell. On DS, it is different, the actual user base has not bought the system for graphics, but for its games and accessibility, and this thing hasn't changed with 3DS, even thoght its graphics are really improved, accessibility remains a key-value, in fact it will be easier and more intuitive to use than the original DS, thank to the use of the motion sensor,gyroscope, the cameras, and 3D itself which gives better perception of distances and depht in 3D games. In the Love plus trailer for example there is an interesting example about how using motion controls to make camera controls more intuitive (about 0:50)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-khobY1H2KE

I wasn't pretending that wasn't the case. I was just stating that if the only improvement is graphical detail, it's not an improvement. It's a coat of paint.

GTA III used 6th gen specs to create a living city. That was a great use, but also clearly didn't sacrifice graphical detail for it.

On the other side, we have Perfect Dark Zero, which was considered an inferior game to the first Perfect Dark, and the improved graphics not being anywhere near enough of a trade off.

So maybe I should have qualified in the thread title that I meant specs in the sense of graphical detail, but I didn't have the space for it.

So if I hear the RE games on the 3DS actually have some improvements over RE4, I'll give them a shot. If they just ape RE4 again, like RE5 did by most accounts, then they are just using the system to make pretty games, not good game.

While I agree on a lot of your points, the God of War collection doesn't really increase the graphics that much, and sold well, because the first two games are solid, even compared to games with far more detailed visuals.

So a game with good art direction, that doesn't try to wow us with the visuals but with good talent, can still appeal even to the HD system crowd.