THEJORRRG said:
I've struggled with the idea too. They don't make a huge profit from $60 games as it is. Making them is not cheap. What happens to games like Fallout that have no multiplayer at all? Do they go down in price, and make a much slimmer profit? If that happens, you can bet that the quality and attention that Fallout gets from Bethesda will drop. Or, do they stay at full price? Tat way, won't they seem like they're ripping you off? Nobody will buy it new if they can get other brand new games for $20 less.
OR console manufacturers and game developers could devote less attentions to graphics and, say, intricate physics engines, thusly lowering the costs of development and easing the strain on the consumer. Suffice to say, the games wouldn't be worse--they just wouldn't look as good.
But anyway, this is sort of a moot point--developers won't seize creating graphically expansive mega-projects because doing so would reduce barriers to entry, thus potentially opening the floodgates for more competitors to enter and for the quality of games to be broadly improved (and for it to potentially grow faster, BTW). As it stands, developers and publishers reinforce their own hegemonic stranglehold over the industry by initiating massively expensive projects, then inflame anyone--pirates, used retailers, etc.--who try to avoid paying the premiums they demand. At the end of the day, it's their fault.
