Except natural selection is a balance ration unlike here and no THQ is not the exception, Capcom needed Sony to fund SFV because they were in a dire financial state, Konami have completely left the AAA scene it seems and were incensed MGSV cost 80m to make, Irrantional Games had mass lay offs etc... I don't mind if someone wants to sit there and think eveything is all fine but reality is reality and it's clearly had an impact. Even games like Bayonetta highlight the problem as no one wants to fund games unless they're a guaranteed seller.

Even if those games came out on time the would still be droughts you're moaning about 1 game being delayed here, the reason for the drought was because the out put is divided across 2 platforms, even if the Wii U didn't have a single drought the problem would remain.

Capcom has not left the AAA sector though, and those examples are still outnumbered by Activision, Sony, MS, EA, Ubisoft, Bethesda, and others that are doing fine.

And delays don't just mean more waiting, they cut down on software output over time. For example, in a three year dev cycle you can make 3 games in 9 years, while in a five year cycle you could only make 1-2 games in that time.

Capcom would not be developing one of their major franchises had they not entered a deal because of the impact the financial strain put on them, they probably would be still doing a slow development of it now with their other projects on hold no spin can hide the affect it has had on the industry.

No it doesn't work that way because you're talking about delays not development cycle which is a different topic all together a delay is missing a deadline, if Nintendo didn't announce any date it wouldn't be a delay for example.

Doesn't change the fact that most of the big publishers are doing just fine. In 5 years from now, AAA games with polish issues will still be tearing up the charts, just watch.

And it does work that way, because delays mean longer dev cycles.

No shit AAA games will still be around the point is the won't be as many of them because of the costs, in fact the aren't as many released now days as the was last gen due to developers hit by it.

That doesn't mean the AAA model isn't viable though. It brings in billions of dollars a year. But we're getting off track; the fact remains that the sales charts consistently demonstrate that most gamers are okay with game releasing with minor issues. If some people don't want to deal with this, they have the option of waiting for it to be patched, while those who don't mind can get it right away. This approach gives consumers a choice, while delaying takes it away.

It brings in billions of dollars but also costs billions of dollars, again you're parroting your earliar sales argument despite the fact we've established how a number of series are seeing declines.

Giving the customer a choice for the sake of it doesn't make it a good option that's naive thinking as if the game has severe problems at launch those waiting can be put off and won't buy the game, best just remove the problems to begin with.

You can cherry pick a few series and say they're in decline, but the AAA sector as a whole still dominates the sales charts and the console market. That's not changing anytime soon.

Most consumers would rather play something than nothing. Game droughts are worse than a few framerate dips or minor bugs.

Cherry picking what, it's you yourself who refuses to ignore the clear effects on the industry feel free to keep thinking nothing is happening though.

Most consumers want to play something that works as intended if the product is hampered to the point that it doesn't deliver most consumers would have rathered played something else or nothing, again these aren't minor bugs like you keep parroting that we're talking about.

Cherry picking what, it's you yourself who refuses to ignore the clear effects on the industry feel free to keep thinking nothing is happening though.

Most consumers want to play something that works as intended if the product is hampered to the point that it doesn't deliver most consumers would have rathered played something else or nothing, again these aren't minor bugs like you keep parroting that we're talking about.