I belive the higher development costs have really hurt a lot of companies this gen. One flop has the potential to force larger companies to layoff employees, or even kill a small company. This is one reason why I think this gen should last much longer than the traditional 4-5 year console cycle. If this gen's costs are too hard to swallow for most companies, then how much will costs increase next gen?
The Wii has much lower development costs, but most devs can't seem to compete with Nintendo. I have to admit, when I decide what Wii game I'm going to buy next, I usually look to see what Nintendo has available first. Why? Because I know that my money is far less likely to go to waste on a Nintendo-made game which are almost always well designed and polished. They also tend to offer me the most replay value.
Money is something I don't have a lot of these days. With work giving me as little money as possible, and paying my way through school, I have to be careful. Do I spent $50 on a new IP like Bloom Blox? Or do I buy Animal Crossing? Bloom Blox is a much higher risk than Animal Crossing, so I went with Animal Crossing. I might be considered an ass for choosing the "safer" game, but $50 is a lot of money to spend on a game I might like. I'd rather spend my money on a game that I know I'll like. I believe this is true for most people too, especially when the economy is this bad.
Listen to Iced Earth and play Doom
Mix of bad economy (tons of stocks are getting pounded) and the huge big budgets of todays games. Companies have to be a lot more careful with their games, they need to make the best quality games possible and stand out to get them to sell. In this regard EA has been great, both Dead Space and Mirror's Edge are fantastic games, you can see they took the time to make those games right, sadly it didn't translate to sales that EA games normaly get. Companies need to figure out which games are worth making at full budget and which ones they can make cheap for the download services.
The industry will have to pull back next gen, there will not be as big a jump as last gen to this gen nor stupid crazy high priced consoles. I guess we can thank Nintendo for that.
Same thing we do every generation Reggie,
MAKE VERY SLIGHT GRAPHICAL IMPROVEMENTS, PORT HUNDREDS OF OLD GAMES, AND FURTHUR DISTANCE OURSELVES FROM OUR ORIGINAL FANBASE FOR THE MORE LUCRATIVE "CASUAL GAMER" MARKET.
Maybe I'm giving too much credit to the general public, but after about 3 more generations I think the whole ponzi scheme will collapse unless one of the Big 3 comes up with something truly groundbreaking (gimmicky Wii controller does not count.)
Coopersville said:For Factor 5 and Free Radical, I called it cutting out the deadwood, but it does seem like the industry is starting to implode.
Sometimes I feel like Edge! 
Sorry dont have much time to post. I saw this and thought it was relevant. Apparentely Prince of Persia producer Ben Mattes is peeved that the industry isn't recognising his games innovations:
Prince of Persia producer Ben Mattes has said he was surprised how reluctant fans, developers and critics were to support new ideas trying to "shake up the industry and push things forward".
His worry, he told IGN, is that "our industry in fact has a stronger appetite for the familiar than it wants to admit".
"For years we've all been reading complaints about sequels and companies churning out carbon copies of proven formulas without focusing on innovation or taking risks. Fans, developers and critics alike seemed ravenous for new ideas - new IP, major innovations - advances in this art-tertainment form we all love," said Mattes.
"We tried to really embrace this challenge on POP. We set out to keep a few core fundamentals but to re-imagine everything else, discarding some very well entrenched ideas not only about the brand but also about videogames in general. And we weren't alone. EA took some major risks this year with new IP and innovations - Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, for example.
"What surprises me is how little these high-level risks seem to be noticed and appreciated as attempts to shake up the industry and push things forward," he added. "Perhaps I'm an idealist, but I think perhaps I was expecting a few more virtual pats-on-the-back for our attempts to do something new."
We gave Prince of Persia 6/10, our biggest sticking point being the absence of challenge when clambering around, which formed a repetitive and unsatisfying core for our money.
Mattes believes he accomplished what he set out to do with POP, and likes the realistic length and opportunity for people - both casual and hardcore - to finish the story. However Mattes, in hindsight, admits difficulty was something he would have done differently.
"I think we could have done a better job in giving more challenge to those gamers who play a game to accomplish and achieve, rather than experience," he said.
"We talked a lot about it during development - multiple difficulty settings, etc. - but could not come up with a way to modify all aspects of the game - combat, acrobatics, trap difficulty - in a graceful and interesting way."
The next step for Prince of Persia will be "significant DLC", which Mattes said will be new content such as unseen areas, enemies, powers and fight moves. No dates have been mentioned.
Yarcofin said:What are we going to do next gen Miyamoto?
Same thing we do every generation Reggie,
MAKE VERY SLIGHT GRAPHICAL IMPROVEMENTS, PORT HUNDREDS OF OLD GAMES, AND FURTHUR DISTANCE OURSELVES FROM OUR ORIGINAL FANBASE FOR THE MORE LUCRATIVE "CASUAL GAMER" MARKET.
Maybe I'm giving too much credit to the general public, but after about 3 more generations I think the whole ponzi scheme will collapse unless one of the Big 3 comes up with something truly groundbreaking (gimmicky Wii controller does not count.)
That's great.
Can anyone work this out? It seems like everyday you are seeing new stories about huge job losses and studio closures.
Is it the world economy? Jobs are being lost across many industries, the car industry recently.
As a recession is in place people buy less games? Or is it because of stuffing games into an already crowded market? Or is it the sheer cost of next-gen development? Is the Wii reponsible for underperforming 3rd parties? The black sheep was ignored, development shifted onto more expensive, argulably less mainstream consoles and now without success on that platform (1st party domination) now if the big budget games on other platforms fail they dont have a back up plan?
Is the PS3 responsible, Factor 5 and Free Radical both had notable next gen flops.
Are consumers now more picky, one analyst called gaming a winner takes all market. Some like Epic and Bethesda are doing great, but when sales are clustered in a small number of high quality titles, does the market as a whole suffer while gamers profit?