Quote: "Bleeding edge graphics..."
"Bleeding edge"? Does that come after "cutting edge" and before "therapy edge"?
Quote: "Anything releasing with less than the best of graphics isn't going to hit that AAA sweet spot they need."
Isn't this a massive vicious circle? You must make ridiculous sales to profit from a ridiculous budget, which you need to make ridiculous sales, which you need to profit from a ridiculous budget...
I think the games industry is quickly approaching its ceiling. AAA's have gotten so expensive and the public are only getting poorer. It's simply not going to be profitable to make those kind of games in a few years. Companies are already starting to rely on DLC sales to counter-act poor uptake.
It's going to get pretty grim. People will prioritise certain games, and you can guarantee that the priority for many people will be CoD. So we'll end up with fewer and fewer AAA titles. Interestingly this also creates space for new indie titles and smaller budget games that don't have to make crazy sales to be profitable. It will be like a big ugly snake shedding its skin from the tail up.
I think big budget games are going to have to, counter-intuitively, cut their prices to survive. The entry point is too high and there is money to be made from DLC and cosmetics that they are missing out on by pricing people out of the initial purchase.
I have lost interest in consoles because of the high price of games and lack of interesting games. Why pay $80 (yeah that's how much AAA's cost in the UK now) for a rehashed old franchise when, for the same price, I can buy 8-20 really fun and interesting games on PC, and even get a bunch of games for free. Shiny graphics can't enhance a crappy game, honestly, most console games these days are inherently broken.
