Game development costs rise for next-gen consoles

Developing games for next-gen consoles could be around twice as expensive as current-gen development, according to those already working on projects for Durango, Orbis, and Wii U.

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While it's not necessarily newsworthy to note that cost of making games for next-generation consoles will be higher than that of current-generation hardware, it's interesting to note that some game makers are forecasting that the process could be up to twice as expensive. Things like cross-platform functionality and baked-in social networking features add to the cost of making such a game, as do higher polygon counts and better textures.

"I'm having to double my budget for models," one unnamed developer told GamesIndustry. The game he or she is making for Durango (the working title for the next Xbox) is apparently a sequel to a game that came out for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. "If we want to take advantage of Durango's capabilities, it takes a lot more time for each model," the developer said. If true, studios might find themselves working more hours to finish a title, or feel the need to hire more artists.

Development costs for Sony's eventual PlayStation 4--code-named, "Orbis"--are expected to be about the same as Microsoft's new hardware, but Nintendo's Wii-U is in a slightly different situation. As reported, some developers working on the Wii U claim the system isn't even as powerful as Microsoft or Sony's current-generation hardware. However, the Wii U's new tablet-like controller (see above) will likely cost developers a bit more on the front-end. The price of designing functionality specific to the Wii U tablet controller would carry with it additional costs, and it's still not clear how much multi-platform developers will be interested in expending resources to create extra unique content to take advantage of it.

The upshot is that making games for next-gen hardware will be more expensive across the board. Better, higher-fidelity experiences will undoubtedly be appreciated by gamers, but it's not unreasonable to posit that game publishers will explore ways to transfer some of this new cost burden to the consumer by way of things like online passes and DLC.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 4, 2012 3:00 PM

    Jeff Mattas posted a new article, Game development costs rise for next-gen consoles.

    Developing games for next-gen consoles could be around twice as expensive as current-gen development, according to those already working on projects for Durango, Orbis, and Wii U.

    • reply
      April 4, 2012 3:05 PM

      "baked-in social networking features add to the cost of making such a game"

      HHHHHHNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

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        April 4, 2012 5:38 PM

        Thats clearly a stupid developer right there... or some kind of bs source gamesindustry humped on.

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      April 4, 2012 3:09 PM

      if games are $70 instead of $60 people will just wait for them to come down. i mention this because obviously costs get passed down to the consumer. there are games out that i want, ssx and tigerwoods tbh, but i'm waiting until they go down to a spot im confortable with.

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        April 4, 2012 3:10 PM

        ssx is $30 all this week, and I picked up TW 13 CE for $35 at target this week.

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          April 4, 2012 3:22 PM

          i looked yesterday for tw but im going to check again today because im off today and not in a hurry lol. been thinking about ssx, the demo was a ton of fun.

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        April 4, 2012 3:10 PM

        One of the major benefits of game distribution going digital is that I will never again have to purchase a game on release for full-price "because they might stop making it and it'll become super rare". Discount shopping is so much easier.

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          April 4, 2012 3:23 PM

          I don't think this is guaranteed to be true. It's certainly likely but looking at Sony's latest antics, digital games can get pulled permanently and just vanish forever if they determine the game to have exploitable weaknesses. I'm sure the list of reasons will grow over time, like being unwilling to support multiplayer services or what have you.

          As much as I like digital distribution, I really don't like the dark sides that are coming out.

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            April 4, 2012 3:29 PM

            While it's true that some games can get pulled for weird reasons, I doubt you'd ever see the wealth of quality software on shelves that you see now via digital distro. Just look at GoG. So many amazing gems that no one would ever play otherwise.

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          April 4, 2012 5:20 PM

          There are digital distribution takedowns when a publisher gets bought out, or the ownership of the IP is unclear. This happened to Midway's games after they went bankrupt, and before the vulture publishers who bought the IP decided on distribution plans.

          I run into this on iTunes all the time with songs from old independent record labels that went bankrupt. Apple takes down entire albums, since there's "nowhere for the royalties to go" (I don't know if this is actually true; Beatport seems to sell songs from defunct labels without any problems).

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        April 4, 2012 3:38 PM

        I think you guys should be more worried about the future console DRM than the price point. There is a lot of talk about cutting out secondary/resell markets from both hardware and game developers. A lot of them are wanting to use a few tricks they learned from the 10+ years of DRM on the PC side.

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      April 4, 2012 3:11 PM

      Great, even less innovation in console games and more day one DLC

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      April 4, 2012 3:16 PM

      IS THE WHOLE MEDIA OUT OF THEIR MIND - WTF THIS UNAMED DEV TROLL SOURCE IS BACK AGAIN

      TOTALL TOTALLY WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY DOING - THEY DON'T REPORT THE ACTUAL CONFIRMED NEWS AND HAMPER ON THIS IDIOT FAKE BS FROM GAMESINDUSTRY.BIZ

      I HAVE TIPPED SHACKNEWS TO REPORT THIS AND THEY HAVE NOT - sent 10 tweets alos
      http://www.nintendo-gamer.net/2012/04/04/wii-u-has-more-ram-than-other-current-consoles-and-really-great-processor-says-aliens-colonial-marines-director/

      INSTEAD THEY REPORT ANOTHER FAKE NEWS FROM GAMESINUDSTRY.BIZ that i just saw on shacknews and not else before ... but another NEW fake one "not capable enough"
      -----------------------

      CVG REPORTS ANOTHER new FAKE one:
      http://www.computerandvideogames.com/342718/wii-u-games-look-just-as-good-as-ps3-but-its-still-not-as-capable/

      CVG was so nice to FREAKING mention the CONFLICT of "rumors" ...

      Freaking unnamed source ... damn anti-nintendo trolls. If this is april fool you're terribly screwing with nintendo ninjas this is so late 4.april now and nintendo is really pissed about it - it's they who made gearbox to release info to nintendo magazine to stop spreading of FALSE INFORMATION.



      Discussions:
      Brian Martel WiiU RAM & CPU damage control from nintendo ninjas to hamper down fake news:
      http://thewiiu.com/topic/3051-wii-u-has-%E2%80%9Cmore-ram%E2%80%9D-than-current-consoles-and-%E2%80%9Creally-great-processor%E2%80%9D/
      http://www.gamepur.com/news/7647-wii-u-has-more-ram-and-great-processor-ps3-and-xbox-360-brian-martel.html

      Here We Go Again:
      http://thewiiu.com/topic/3059-are-you-wiin-kidding-me-or-what-another-bs-weak-troll/

      BRAINCELL MELTDOWN (not seriously - im not jumping around ... just kind of upset cause it's damaging the console's perception and good info hype ... fake bad info ... WE ALWAYS HAD GOOD INFO - ALL BAD INFO IS FAKE)

      WIIU MEGAINFO LINK: http://pastebin.com/RVSjVUqZ

      • reply
        April 4, 2012 3:17 PM

        [deleted]

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          April 4, 2012 3:24 PM

          nope it is not - i cooled down now - sorry for caps
          click those links on thewiiu forums - im posting there actively (nickname: Stewox)

          Im from EU GMT1 , it's past midnight now.... ater

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          April 4, 2012 5:18 PM

          I don't understand the purpose of your question. If you wanted to complain about some of his points you could have. Instead you chose to question his English skills. How many languages do you speak? Is your 2nd language as good as his English?

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        April 4, 2012 3:20 PM

        Thanks

      • reply
        April 4, 2012 3:21 PM

        You may want to buy a new keyboard it appears that your cap lock button is stuck. I suggest unplugging your current keyboard and throwing it out the nearest window for the time being.

        • reply
          April 4, 2012 5:16 PM

          That keyboard was actually not mine has a half broken shift button ... i wasnt on my own pc at the time, my keyboard is what im used to, microsoft sidewinder x4.

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        April 4, 2012 3:22 PM

        [deleted]

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          April 4, 2012 3:25 PM

          sry .. but it was a shocker today evening after martels to see another crap piss fake rumor taken as fact ... here we go again

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            April 4, 2012 3:36 PM

            An unnamed source is still a source. I agree the reports are conflicting but there is nothing "fake" about a source just because it is unnamed. Nothing has been officially released so everything is speculation at this point.

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              April 4, 2012 3:50 PM

              You haven't seen the gearbox brian martels ram and cpu qoute news article i just posted the link here.

              devs officially say what nintendo allows them to and this is exactly what nintendo said theat ill let through some news via developers / implied.

              man im staying up late just a few moments because of this clustershell .. cant type as fast and im not english so my talk might appear angry - no im fine here - stop criticising me for that guys - always this unimportant stuff ...

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                April 4, 2012 4:02 PM

                I did see it. It's a conflicting report, like I said. He did not provide actual specs, so all we are doing is speculating, right? Until we have real specs that's all we can do.

                That being said, I think you need to relax man. People love Nintendo here, but we just don't have real info.

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                  April 4, 2012 5:19 PM

                  it was a damage control from nintendo most probably ... since it was directed to a nintendo fan site ... devs cant spill beans on everything / they let small stuff out what nintendo allows this is exactly what nintendo said some time ago letting some news via devs out .. its a trick that should work to be more interesting to fans but looks like the freaking unnamed sources with OLD alpha kits prolly more important ... read below about the theory of old kits and stupid devs ... old info as well.

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                April 5, 2012 1:02 AM

                Oh well if gearbox said it, it must be true.

      • reply
        April 4, 2012 3:22 PM

        who let you out of your cage?

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          April 4, 2012 3:56 PM

          if youd understood in what situation i had been ... i dont think thats important so i didnt talk about it, focus on the important news ..... im actually sacrificing my self getting this information straightened out or else this thread would end up like the previous "wii u weak" fake rumor news.

          I just care for the community / dont like to see misinformation floating that makes nintendo look bad again ... its always was the perception of people towards nintendo that actually made peoples opinion about the whole company which i think wasnt very accurate assesment. Not to mention the constant bias against nintendo just because of their short-term history.

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        April 4, 2012 3:22 PM

        You make excellent points but the random caps scream REPTILIAN CONSPIRACY

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          April 4, 2012 3:59 PM

          it was just me ... mad at the media business ... sooner or later the freaking media will notice the very fresh brian martel wiiu specs quote OFFICIAL / props to CVG huge rep on that .... nobody else yet acknowledged the conflict of rumors

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        April 4, 2012 3:23 PM

        The previus:
        http://www.shacknews.com/article/73151/wii-u-less-powerful-than-current-gen-say-devs#item_27955750

        Will talk tomowrrow - midnight now - going to sleep (might make a few comments from mobile device from bed :P , prolly fall asleep - enough for today this crazy internet fake news omg)

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        April 4, 2012 3:23 PM

        Holy capslock, batman.

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        April 4, 2012 3:23 PM

        I hope Idle Thumbs turns this into a song

      • reply
        April 4, 2012 3:26 PM

        I hope you never leave shacknews. If you do, I will be sad.

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        April 4, 2012 3:31 PM

        * S M E L L X ' D *

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          April 4, 2012 4:17 PM

          Oh yeah here we go again - double time!

          I have sense of humor / but this situation is nowhere the need to be joking about that ... again. Realize im sacrificing my self for that info tonight ... spare the damn caps.

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        April 4, 2012 3:40 PM

        this dude is like the Mirror, Mirror universe version of valcan_s

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        April 4, 2012 3:41 PM

        I almost nuked this because it looked exactly like a spam post... to be honest I'm still not entirely sure

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          April 4, 2012 3:45 PM

          The use of caps makes it hard to take seriously.

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            April 4, 2012 4:12 PM

            I was afraid of that ... somehow when caps started i didn-t cared to switch off / sorry guys never again im a longtime shacknews reader wont let you down.

            Also ... i was more focusing on getting the post done and pasted all links and OMG ...

            You guys even know what i was doing , typing 3 posts and making 2 threads at the same time ... having 20 firefox pages opened ... and so i rushed to make this thread here and that was a key priority to get it done asap before people take the news seriously.

            Ofcourse theres games thatll cost more on higher hardware ... theres room for bigger scoped games but its so silly to tie that in with just hardware ... and dev can choose what to do. I could explain this in better detail later as to why HD development is not that hard ... better tools and more hardware features ... also the ART is made as it is / high quality as it always was ... they just wont have to compress it as they had on older systems.

            sorry for grammar again. talking from mobile device and staying up late ... i know im sacrificing my self but for the sake of this info let it ... don-t worry this is not something i do often but for once ... now focus on the info i provided ... if you guys are tech savvy and want to know more about wiiu check out the pastebin i made it has all the links you need .. convinient ... that pastebin was made exactly for these kind of situations , getting out info for those that surely are lacking sources on their own ... or lazy to research hehe. ... well im not doing anything else these days on internet besides wiiu speculation ... that doesnt mean thats all days work ... sorry but no.

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          April 4, 2012 3:59 PM

          ruskisnajper has a proud history here on shacknews

      • reply
        April 4, 2012 4:00 PM

        He's back!

      • reply
        April 4, 2012 4:02 PM

        I can't tell if you're a dev who is about to get fired for leaking a fuckton of nda'd shit, or some escapee from the insane asylum who stumbled upon a lost jar of crack.

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          April 4, 2012 4:38 PM

          look what others say .. nobody said that except you ... stop giving shit about caps i was in a hurry. and the news i posted are all legal / the uncofirmed rumors are very good sources that also match with what the devs have been saying all the time ... the devs have been saying positive things for months now ... named devs, nobody breaking nda, they have permission to say that, its actually a method to how nintendo gets some news out, they said this them selfs.

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        April 4, 2012 4:03 PM

        you guys are giving him shit for capslocks but he's dead right in what he's screaming. ShackNews has gone full retard with repeating unfounded rumors and it's getting pretty god damn annoying. it wouldn't be so bad if their "news" articles weren't posted about in chatty

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          April 4, 2012 4:05 PM

          People are giving him shit because he's been getting progressively more insane in these posts over the past few days.

          This one looks like he finally flipped his lid.

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            April 4, 2012 4:52 PM

            I said it was not LITERAL ... im normal over here ... hello. It was just the caps that i didn-t cared to turn off i was in a huge hurry ... stuff happens fast on internet and i was overloaded with other sites and forums at the time / it's all over now im typing from cell phone and about to fall asleep.

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            April 4, 2012 6:43 PM

            The meds haven't kicked in yet

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        April 4, 2012 4:04 PM

        So wait, you're saying that the WiiU is going to be the dead last system again? I thought you liked the Wii?!? I'm confused bro.

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          April 4, 2012 5:00 PM

          That speculation is in the name of the tech community over at nintendo fan sites and neogaf who found common ground and agree between each another and tech experienced individuals are always detecting hidden stuff and information that gives us high probability rates of the validity of the speculation ... dev qutes and rumors only fuel the fire that we all know what nintendo is trying to do is to catch 3rd parties and regain the hardcore market.

          Speaking about hardcore market and Wii ... ofcourse i liked it ... i play all of the nintendo firstparty games and thats the hardcore that never went away if people think nintendo is all casual are somewhat wrong, but im a tech PC enthusiast as well so thats why these stuff is specs fun to speculate, but serious stuff, not just nonsense talk. I like the idea of researching and the effort that goes into finding this little bits of info that makes up the puzzles ... it-s like a real life game, its a challenge, but boy its a lot of fun ... however this today is the situation when its not fun but it-s panic mode, but there wouldnt be a world without these happenings.. nothing is perfect. heh

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        April 4, 2012 4:41 PM

        Thanks for the Interesting Star guys / have a feeling of accomplishment.

        Sorry for the caps really - will remember it next time. I'll be going sleep soon so take care of those who would haunt me about caps all the time ... I admit it was wrong and my mistake.

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          April 4, 2012 5:28 PM

          Explanation of source:

          1. old rumors getting out / leaking info from devs with old kits, alpha pre e3 2011 were underclocked and overheating.
          2. april fool
          3. fake fanboy BS
          4. stupid inexperienced dev troll

          Named devs talk about the final expectations of the hardware ... those are nintendo approved statements, they arent actual dev leaks or rumors. Can you please understand that / if those were leaks all of them would have been sued by now for breaching NDA. nintendo is letting info out progressively but not too much and to help stop the old bad news that might be severely OUTDATED leaks from the old alpha kits that everyone knew were not nearly what the final is going to be.

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        April 4, 2012 4:53 PM

        This guy has a HILARIOUS post history.

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        April 4, 2012 5:25 PM

        FIRE EVERYTHING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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          April 4, 2012 10:37 PM

          Your father was captain of a starship for 12 minutes. He saved 800 lives, including yours. I dare you to do better. Enlist in Starfleet.

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        April 4, 2012 10:54 PM

        [deleted]

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        April 5, 2012 3:42 AM

        hi ruski

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        April 5, 2012 4:34 AM

        slacknews ... ... no reports yet .. prolly night there in usa we'll see later what happens, i think they simply didn't notice, shacknews wouldnt go full retard like this, afaik!

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        April 17, 2012 1:11 PM

        Half a month later --- it's clear that i "lost" it that few days - i really does sound like someone rampanting the heck on the computer on the other side hahaha.

        It was stressful with so much news coming in a few days and stuff was moving SO FAST - in march people were making funny comments on the fake bs sources and "low power" sources since we knew it won't be true in the final console -
        - saying stuff like:
        "one week it's 5x more powerful than X360, next week it's "50%" more powerful, another week it's weaker than X360, the week after it again "more" powerful "
        "here we go again"

        When this stuff peaked before April 1. ... it was just the sunday here, the day of silence before the storm.
        Whole shitstorm broke loose and we got all those rumors ALL OVER AGAIN ... if you would took all of those seriously ...eh. WiiUs specs would bee changing every 12 freaking hours in those 4-5 days for a person takin that seriusly meh. It was the whole story of march ... all over again. in morning it's "pretty powerful" at noon "it doesn't have enough shaders" .. in afternoon it's "50%" more powefrul ... at night it has "weak CPU" ... the next day in morning development costs on WiiU doubled so devs all whoked up scared ...

        But in the end im still happy as ever! Can't wait to see what Retro studios makes .... and i want to be surprised ... i hope it's F-ZERO whoever makes it better be really hard!

    • reply
      April 4, 2012 3:32 PM

      Translation: We've been pushing shitty graphics for years now since the present consoles could only handle 10 years old graphics. Now we actually might have to work so what we were overcharging you before for ten year old technology is now going to be really overcharging because we have to...you know...*ahem* work now.

      On the flip side, at least now PC gamers can look forward to updated models and graphics from the shitty console ports.

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      April 4, 2012 3:33 PM

      Result: dozens of casual games that would be better on mobile devices anyway.

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      April 4, 2012 3:45 PM

      This is where the Indy market succeeds and the mainstream publisher market fails. New tech is a tool to open new possibilities. Just because your game can be high budget for production values doesn't mean that it must be. Just because the technology exists for graphics that push the boundaries, doesn't mean they have to. A solid gameplay experience can be accomplished on a meager budget.

      The current and even last generation's standard for graphical fidelity are adequate and hard to complain about. They accomplish a lot of stunning cinematic visuals that rival story telling of big budget movies. I would even say they've accomplished this at the expense of the actual gameplay itself and that's been a huge problem for this generation's games.

      I'm not saying that we should stop pushing our technical limits. I'm saying we need to stop putting so much importance on games that fry hardware for the sake of mere presentation rather than mechanics. Technical accomplishments and cinema a game does not make. We need to shift our philosophy on what makes a game attractive and marketable to focus on mechanics and level design. The indy market has accomplished this and on a very meager budget and sold at a price that's a strong fraction of the costs of a high production.

      A game like Trine has accomplished this as well as giving a solid graphical feast. They did this not by pushing technical limitations of hardware but through thoughtful aesthetic effort. I think many publishers are trying to build a birdhouses with jackhammers and steam shovels. Just because you have the technology, doesn't mean you are obligated to use it. An elegant birdhouse can be built with simple tools and a lot of thought.

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        April 4, 2012 3:49 PM

        "Just because your game can be high budget for production values doesn't mean that it must be"

        This, one thousand times.

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      April 4, 2012 3:59 PM

      Could budgets actually be less since they don't have to focus as much on optimization?

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        April 4, 2012 4:07 PM

        As long as there are multiple gaming platforms, optimization will always be a costly issue.

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        April 4, 2012 5:23 PM

        not when every company wants the latest and greatest graphics

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      April 4, 2012 5:22 PM

      if they had any brains they would have gotten together and agreed on a hardware platform and then concentrate on just software.

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      April 4, 2012 5:38 PM

      Just like the previous generation and the generation before and all generations before it, this pretty much applies to the cutting edge, make-your-own super-engine development houses that have huge fucking budgets anyway.

      Everyone else is going to just leverage better middleware to offset the costs and largely avoid the OMG AAA EYE BLEEDING MOCAPED WE NEED 8 BILLION DOLLARS TO MARKET THIS THING situation.

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      April 4, 2012 6:47 PM

      [deleted]

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        April 4, 2012 10:58 PM

        So more people will just wait 3 mo before buying games.

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      April 4, 2012 11:11 PM

      The same was said for the last gen as well.

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        April 4, 2012 11:31 PM

        [deleted]

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          April 4, 2012 11:46 PM

          I would say this is equivalent to hollywood making only summer blockbuster movies. It seems like the big studios rarely go for smaller or unusual projects with lower budgets.

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            April 5, 2012 7:02 AM

            I think this is part of the reason there has been a bit of a surge in smaller independent games. There are a lot of Xbox Live Arcade and PSN games doing very well. They look a bit retro and don't have crazy cut scenes but they are still a lot of fun to play. With the next generation it's possible that we might see a larger gap. So the AAA big budget games will be fewer and further in between... and the smaller indie and arcade style game market will most likely grow even bigger. There are only so many development houses out there who will be able to make huge games which push the new systems and look great. And the risk of failure for those games will be huge.

            I wonder if it makes sense for developers to make a short, bite-sized version of their game for XBLA or PSN to see if people like it and see if it catches on. If it sells well and people like it... they can go full ahead on the big budget version. Almost like a demo... but just a smaller self-contained version of what a full game could be.

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        April 5, 2012 3:29 AM

        Yeah, it's a big deal every time, and it worked out this time. Also, what's the big deal? The Witcher 2 looked fucking stunning, like that's surely the baseline for next gen console development.

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      April 5, 2012 12:19 AM

      Are next-gen consoles going to be that much more powerful than current PCs?

      Oh, it's lowest common denominator development, right.

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        April 5, 2012 4:36 AM

        PC's will be 10x more powerful then the next-gen consoles but the prices will still go up for PCs.

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          April 5, 2012 11:00 AM

          You don't buy a PC like you buy a new washing machine or something.

          The prices of PC hardware have never been lower - the hard drive price increase was caused by thai floods that destroyed the factories.

          DDR3 costs like 40$ for 8GB ... that's a steal !


          You don't suppose to buy branded PCs ... stuff like DELL and HP ... that's wasting money.

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