You do realize that is PS4 in both pics right?? Oh I get it, those screens were a joke because of the time of day...

You should rename the thread from

"I Do Not See How Development Costs Can Possibly Go Up This Gen!"

to

"I Do Not See."

Yes, Titanfall looks might like a 7th gen game, but inFAMOUS is more than higher resolution + framerate...


I doubt that publishers are willing to spend much more money on games.

7th gen graphics were mostly restricted by hardware. I think that money restrictions could be more important this gen. But good graphics also become easier to make. The Order and Projekt CARS are made by relatively small teams.

First of all, those things I bolded are optional and have almost nothing to do with how expensive it is to animate a game.

Second of all, um yes it does help control costs for the others.  Look at Chivalry, it looks as good as some recent big budget games and it was made by a team of less than 20 people.  It may be an indie game, but you wouldn't guess it by looking at it.

The point is that while SOME studios will spend more, they don't have to any more.  Finally nearly all gaming platforms are built on similar hardware architecture so that you can reach everyone without having to reinvent the wheel a dozen times.  At the same time there has never been this much performance available, so finally devs can make these crazy huge games!  Studios can now put down more money if they want to, and at the same time the price of entry is far lower.

Some here actually rthink that the ps4 and x1 are so easy to develop for that costs will go down? Thats just too funny.costs will most definitely go up. To think otherwise is delusional. Just look at the overpriced re releases, just look at the overpriced single level of ground zeroes. This is just the beginning. Especially ground zeroes. If that game does phenominally well, you dont think companies will try and capitalize on that? If they can sell millions of copies of a 1 hour game for 30, why on earth would anyone sell an actual full game? Thats already a sign of increased development costs. Bigger, better looking games will cost more to make.

Pacher's words making sense to me makes me feel bad.

Well said. The budgets for big blockbuster games are going to keep on increasing. Got this from gameinformers coverage of Destiny. (http://www.gameinformer.com/games/destiny/b/playstation4/archive/2014/04/04/a-player-39-s-journey.aspx?PostPageIndex=1)

"The scope of Destiny is suitably impressive to warrant its presumptive role as a flag-bearer for next-generation software. That scope is still a work in progress, with months of work ahead that will determine its success. However, Bungie certainly has the groundwork in place. Nearly 500 developers now call Bungie home, all working together over the last five years to make Destiny a reality. The art team alone is pushing 150 individuals. This level of investment of resources and manpower would have been unheard of in the gaming industry just a few short years ago, but it’s necessary to redefine expectations for an online-enabled shooter. "

Someone's got to pay all those developers and five years is a long time. Also nearly 150 people working on art direction alone. God damn. 

I don't think that's an outrageous income for a University educated person. I think the average wage in the US is around 50k, so a higher qualified person should make something north of that. Of course average wage figures are often skewed by mega-high income earners, but still shouldn't be too far off.

you shoud research closures in previous gens  , I'm sure you would find similar outcomes.

It's just the nature of the business also balance it out by adding studios that started in the seventh gen .

You can look at it whichever way you like, it's not changing the fact that all those devs closed down, regardless of whatever happened in the past. Of course studios closed down then too, but I'd very much like to see such a list of earlier gens.

If we're being honest, and not spinning anything, I think most people with even a slight knowledge of this industry would agree it's well-known and undeniable fact that the industry nowadays mainly consists of indies doing low-budget or crowdfunded projects, and giant publishers that mostly rely on annual AAA franchises with budgets numbering tens of millions of dollars, funding uninspired sequels. Very, very little in between.

This was not the case in earlier gens, where even small to medium-sized studios could do very well and prosper, but this tendency is increasing rapidly. And even for the giant publishers it's not so easy anymore to keep being successful and profitable, when a single failed game can cause entire studios to close down for good. There are plenty of well-known recent examples of even big developers/publishers being in financial trouble, just look at Capcom, Square-Enix and Ubisoft.