I did know about the distribution for retail games, but I have never heard how the digital game costs are distributed. I'm not saying I don't believe you or anything, I just want a source.

More and more games will need to go multiplat other wise we will see more closures.

This sounds like to me that Sony and Microsoft might have a first year drought that completely over shadows the Wii U's. Nintendo seems to have done the impossible once again. I think I'm going to go hug my Wii U now.

Yeah, it just astounds me that nobody seems to think that PS4/Xbone will struggle at all post-launch. Sure, they're going to sell big at launch, but come January at those price points...

Whereas Wii U finally seems to be reaching "the light at the end of the tunnel" of its first-year struggles. And while Nintendo can't truly control sales and the install-base, they can surely heavily influence it with the barrage of titles this holiday, PLUS the even stronger lineup confirmed for next year so far. Also, at this point with the 2DS introduction and Pokemon X/Y releasing, 3DS hardware/software is now a MAJOR profit generator for Nintendo and for third parties it's a comparatively low-risk system to develop for, as others have pointed out.

lol remember when somebody said production costs only would rise by a 20%

lol this is bad.real bad. at least for non Nintendo devs, publishers

This must be why Sony recently said they were no longer making midsize games, its all AAA or indie from now on.

They were saying this not long ago:

I can very simply share with you that when we did Killzone 2 and 3, we probably maxed out with a team size of 125. We have 150 now, so it's marginally bigger. This is about a two-and-a-half year development cycle, which is roughly similar. It includes a hardware transition, so that explains potentially the six months of extra time.

It's actually quite comparable. But if you look at the scale of what we're doing and the detail in not just the assets but the more believable detailed animation and things like that, the effects, I think a lot of the effort has gone into tools. Making sure we can develop smart.

We've also learned a thing or two in previous installments on the PlayStation 3. So it's not, in terms of the cost, it's not as scary as maybe some people have led you to believe.

There's more art outsourcing, but that's not necessarily very expensive. We're outsourcing between double and triple [from previous games]. There's a lot of art.

-Herman Hulst, Guerrilla Games

Other developers seemed to agree:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/187037/

So what's the true story?

Going multiplat became a necessity during the 7th gen. Most third party games have PS3/360 and PC versions, and they will keep doing that with PS4/X1/PC. The only way to add more platforms would mean including the WiiU, which some are reluctant to do.

This time is all about being smart with their budgets, and learn that the graphical race must stop in order to survive.

The question is, will they be able to learn that before it's too late?

remember the Genisis and SNES era? i miss that. a lot. a ton. a gigaton.

1. It was a rehash of an 8 year old idea at the time.

2. Yes, but what's wrong with it being borrowed from the handhled market? Especially since no comprable gaming console used the idea in the eight year period between the DS and Wii U launches.

3. And no, tablets don't count. They are not primarily gaming devices, sacrifice power and control options, and lack high quality software support. Yes, tablets are increasingly powerful, but even the most recent iPad is weaker than the ancient 360. Yes, you can buy snap-on controllers for tablets, but they are not standardized and are therefore useless for many consumers. And yes, there are good games on tablets, but other than the ocassional Infinity Blade or decade-old console port, there are few that have production values even on par with typical handheld games, let alone major console games.

P.S. Great Avatar. Nice to see a fellow fan.