It is not about dying but about being necessary, I am used to 'we don't need xbox because we have pc' but the comments 'we don't need ps because we have pc' are also getting common especially after Helldivers 2. It really feels like a game if it was only on PS5 it would be surviving but because it is on steam aswell it has become a game that lives and thrives.    Is it really beneficial to not release games day one on pc or does it cost money?

I don't think Nintendo will suffer the same fate of crazy costs. It's not strictly about graphics but also about the type of games being made. 

The Insomniac leaks pointed towards cutscenes being a major driver for costs, Nintendo simply isn't in the business of making games with hours worth of CGI level cutscenes. Also their games are way more conservative in terms of set peices, typically lean towards more stylised graphics and not endless detail. Their budgets will naturally increase but whereas Sony is keen on their major releases all being 30-40hour Epics, Nintendo is way more diverse in their portfolio. Zelda is honestly the only franchise I see costing much over 100m. I actually wish Sony would burrow more from Ninetendo's book. I remember the jeep set piece from Uncharted 4 and how several villages were constructed just so you can smash through them for a setpiece. That same environment could literally be used to build a whole 15hour single player experience.



And a good direct comparison may be Ratchet, which Insomniac assigned an  80million in budget to. If Nintendo put that same amount of resources in a Mario game knowing full well that they'll be little to no voice acting, far less bespoke animation etc. The next mainline Mario would probably not come in at more than 60m and moreover, very few of Nintendo's 1st party titles should pass the 50m budget range.

That equates to profitablity once games start selling beyond the 1.5m range, which is honestly a dream in the modern climate and shouldn't be issue looking at Nintendo's software sales on Switch.

Agree with everything you said, but I also like to point out that it seems more cost efficient to develop games in Japan than in 'the west'.

There are probably multiple reasons, but one I can certainly point out is currency FX. All Japanese companies attribute higher profits thanks to the position of the Yen, but this also means off course that game development cost in US or EURO currency will negatively impact profits of Japanese companies. Sony has most development studios outside of Japan, where Nintendo makes their games primarily inside Japan.

I might have missed it, but did Sony talk about the PS VR2 at all during the financial briefing? It was the first holiday for this new device, I would be interested how well it performed.

No word about it..

The doomed and gloomed stuff has been always very strong everywhere for PS, especially here, but it's funny to see a lot of people after today's MS podcast saying that Xbox is in a better position than PS atm.

It's interesting how Totoki's statements blown out a lot when the company clearly specified what multiplatform means to them.

It doesn't help when outlets/journalists use clickbait headlines. 

Still, you would think Sony is barely breaking even when looking at some of the reactions lol. Even the most bullish news out of the report, Sony planning an IPO for their financial unit, was overlooked. 

There's only a few Nintendo IP that I think they will allow to have a monster budget.

Zelda (mainline 3D games), Smash Brothers, and that's about it, lol. I think Pokemon will get a boost in budget too especially in the light of the Palworld fiasco. But even Mario Kart and 3D Mario I think will have reasonable budgets. Though 3D Mario maybe they will pony up a bit more for because people have all seen the Mario movie and they will want some more expressive animations. That sort of thing.

I don't think they're going to even allow a $100 million dollar budget for the next Mario Kart. Nope.

Sony/MS are basically locked in to their massive budgets.

Pretty sure, Metroid Prime 4 is gonna have a consequent budget enough to rival the Zelda games hahaha. It's one of the longest game the publisher has had in development I'm afraid.