I didn't think you thought the money wasn't for a reason I just assumed you thought that graphics was what was driving game budgets so high. A perfectly logical assumption I think considering the comments you were replying to. My point was that there were other factors some of which have bigger impacts than increasing the level of graphical fidality in games, there are many other factors driving up costs including voice acting, music, motion capture, reinventing the wheel with new game engines (most of the most expensive games around use a new or highly modified engine) adding content just so you have a tick on the back of the box like multiplayer etc, there is also the fact that there are now "rockstar" developers that demand high salaries and a tone more factors and there is also the fact that multiplatform development is more common that raises costs. According to many developer blogs I have read on sites like Gamasutra and altdevblogaday there are also a lot of badly designed tools and inefficiant procedures in most developers.

I'll give that, but it still raises the costs just the same (and that inefficiency makes it more shameful), and just means it's a race to top themselves in general instead of just graphics. Still a problem when sales don't increase accordingly.

Sad but true

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LOL WUT. Do you know anything about programming and developing at all!?

ugh. Here we go again.

Saturn < PSone

DC < PS2

I thought that Saturn > PS1, just that Saturn was impossible to properly program for, so no-one could quite get the best out of it except Sega.

do you? I've been a web developer since I was 7, and game development is very similar to web development in many ways. In both fields you; need to know what your making for the client; know how to program it; know how to create visuals; know how to put it all together; test functionality and compatibility with platforms; fix bugs and retest; release product; fix bugs that arise post-release.

Programming is done by code called C , OpenGL, and several others.

Graphics in general are skin textures, wall textures, 3D objects, and random other things that have been developed for years and created using Photoshop, Maya, and several others. Yes increase in power allows for better looking graphics because you can create larger objects with more depth to internal structure. A Xbox/PC game back in the day should have been harder to create than now due to less functional tools to create certain textures, but with Photoshop CS5, newer 3D modeliong tools, and such it should be a lot easier since there are more advanced tools that allow for better looking things in the same amount of time. 

Now things like fire, smoke, ragdoll animation, lighting, and other things come under programming, more specifically physics programming which takes animation or textures created by the graphics team and coded to work in a game. While code has advanced to be more complex, once learned at the beginning of a generation it becomes easier and less time consuming.

The one thing that majorly affects costs overall is understanding. If you have a programming team that are still learning a platform costs will rise as they discover how to actually make things function.

He's a fool

Horse Power never decides a generation

I nominate you for VGChartz voice of reason