First, I want you to create a 3d box. Now Create a 3d Dragon. Did they take the same amount of time to create? Definitely not, the same goes with creating anything in a 3d environment. And when you have more and more polygons to work with, that means it takes more and more time to put in every last bit of detail. And that's not even including animation, AI etc. Better hardware means they can do more, which will also take more time. So ultimately they have to decide to either spend more money to create better visuals, or spend the same amount of money but either make it look like a last gen game, or cut something out. Lately Sony has been giving us a bunch of games that lack content, Knack, Killzone, Infamous. None of those games are worth 60 bucks, the amount of content is comparable to most indie games, but hey, they look pretty.

You honestly only see a marginal upgrade in visual fidelity here?  To me it is night and day between the two.

lol

The only reason i still read your threads it's because there's always something funny like this.

AAA games may be limited then (surely a good thing). Most budgets were just over the top in the 7th gen, if they it done again, alot of developers would close

It's obvious development costs of AAA games are rising.


It's also obvious that the plethora of smaller games (remakes / indies / etc.) only increases the risk for AAA games.


And obviously we will have less AAA games this gen than last.

Development costs? Whatever. Budgets are what tear apart developers. As long as developers continue to raise their expectations for their game's performance along their budgets, they'll be in trouble.

You can believe all you want, that's not going to change reality.

Studios closed down during the 7th gen:

3D Realms - 2009
7 Studios (Activision) - 2011
Backbone Vancouver
BigBig (Sony) - 2012
Bizarre Creations (Activision) - 2010/2011
Black Rock (Disney) - 2011
Blue Fang Games - 2011
Blue Tongue (THQ) - 2011
BottleRocket - 2009
Brash Entertainment - 2008
Budcat (Activision) - 2010
Castaway Entertainment - 2008
Cheyenne Mountain - 2010
Cing - 2010
Clover Studios (Capcom) - 2006
Codemasters Guildford - 2011
Cohort Studios - 2011
Concrete Games - 2008
Deep Silver Vienna - 2010
DICE Canada - 2006
EA Chicago - 2007
EA Bright Light - 2011/2012
EA Japan - 2007
Eidos Manchester - 2009
Eidos Hungary - 2010
Ensemble Studios (Microsoft) - 2008
Factor 5 - 2009
FASA (Microsoft) - 2007
Fizz Factor - 2009
Flagship Studios - 2008
Flight Plan - 2010
Frozen North Productions
FuzzyEyes - 2009
Gamelab - 2009
Game Republic - 2011
GRIN - 2009
Helixe (THQ) - 2008
Hudson Entertainment - 2011
Humannature Studio (Nexon Vancouver) - 2009
Ignition London - 2010
Ignition Florida - 2010
Incognito Entertainment (Sony) - 2009
Indie Built (Take-Two) - 2006
Iron Lore - 2008
Juice Games (THQ) - 2011
Kaos Studios (THQ) - 2011
Killaware - 2011
Killspace Entertainment - 2011
KMM Brisbane - 2011
Krome Studios (might still be operating on skeleton crew) - 2010
Kuju Manila - 2009
Kuju Chemistry - 2009
Kush Games - 2008
Locomotive Games (THQ) - 2010
Luxoflux - 2010
Mass Media (THQ) - 2008
Monte Cristo - 2010
Monumental Games - 2012
Midway Austin - 2009
Midway Newcastle - 2009
MTV Games - 2011
Multiverse - 2012
NetDevil - 2011
Ninja Studio - 2009
Outerlight - 2010
PAM Development (Take-Two) - 2008
Pandemic Australia (EA) - 2009
Pandemic LA (EA) - 2009
Paradigm Entertainment - 2008
Pi Studios - 2011
Pivotal Games (Take-Two) - 2008
Propaganda Games (Disney) - 2011
Pseudo Interactive - 2008
Rainbow Studios (THQ) - 2011
Realtime Worlds - 2010
Rebellion Derby - 2010
Red Octane - 2010
Rockstar Vienna - 2006
Sandblast Games (THQ) - 2008
SEGA San Francisco - 2010
Shaba Games (Activision) - 2009
SOE Denver - 2011
SOE Seattle - 2011
SOE Tuscon - 2011
Stormfront Studios - 2008
Straylight Studios - 2009
Team Bondi - 2011
The Code Monkeys - 2011
Titan Studios - 2009
THQ Studio Australia - 2009
THQ Digital Warrington - 2009
Transmission Games - 2009
Universomo (THQ) - 2009
Venom Games (Take Two) - 2008
Vicarious Visions California - 2007
Visceral Australia (EA) - 2011
Wolfpack Studios - 2006
Yuke's Company Of America - 2010
Zoe Mode London - 2009

Even if development costs stay the same (they aren't and won't), it's bad news any way you care to slice it.

I think the model is the one that needs to change, but the prevalent AAA model of US companies will stay until it busts.

I have noticed several new european companies releasing games for the new hardware. These are modest companies wich are trying to gain some notoriety.

These can be cdprojectred with the Witcher, CI games with Lords of the Fallen and sniper elite, Focus interactive with Bound by flame and even From software with The souls series.
These are companies that dont have huge budgets but are still making good looking games. To be completely honest, since i heard from Pachter that game developers many 68k dollars a year i suddenly stopped feeling sorry for them when they are fired and i understood a bit more why game development costs in the US are spiraling out of control.

The future for the games industry is outside the US, where development can assume more controlled costs. That or things need to change in the US.

I still say PS2 graphic level games were fine, but apparently that isn't the case....