I wrote "hardcore games", not "every game". At least address the points I actually make.

Ok, so for "every game" replace it with "hardcore game" in my post and I mean the exact same thing. There are many paths to success for HARDCORE games, too. I believe that's obvious based on the results for other games.

i agree with this. enough with the subtle (or obvious) anti-GTAIV jabs. (not in reference to this thread)

we all know it hurts to lose the best rated game of all time, but you don't have to smash its usurper, its not GTAIV's fault.

it's even worse when you clearly haven't even played the game.

Isnt thia the same guy that was convinced HD dvd would win, even after WB went blu exclusive? I lost all respect for thios guy and this thread doesnt change a damn thing.

This post is futile, but people, if you can't be bothered to read the OP in full, don't bother posting about what you assume the rest of it said. That's just the bullshit version of a strawman argument.

I did not state HD DVD would win at any point. I was insisting on looking at the format war objectively. It was the blu-ray fanboys who labeled me an HD DVD fanboy, because I didn't agree with their BS and trolling. You obviously paid more attention to them then to my posts.

Sop your "lost all respect" for me is worthless, as it's based on false assumptions of me. 

GTA as a series definately has mass-market appeal, but I don´t agree that the rest of the hardcore-game developers will suffer. As proof of that is that many new, AAA, with very high standards IPs were developed and achieved multimillion status.

Eventually, some niche genres may suffer as gamers may demand better technological quality. However, such hardcore of niche genres already know that gameplay always comes first, so I really doubt that such genres will suffer.

Thank you, and a few other posters here, for actually having a discussion about this (even windbane, although that wasn't clear at first).

That was the actual purpose here. A simple discussion. 

BTW, if one developer just happens to get it in their head that throwing money at hardcore games is the best thing, which one do you think would do it?

I can't think of a developer off the top of my head, but a company like EA will try to do whatever is popular. And EA seeing GTA IV being this successful could see themselves needing to pump out 4-5 100mil games. Although putting time into development is not an EA strong point so who knows.