Ok, dispensing with the first natural response of Derp!
I find the situation SE, as well as most of the other major players who are "Making more money but are less profitable" down right aneurysm fodder baffling. As easy as it would be to say "No this guy is just stupid" You do have to understand and respect these people are for all intents, the captains of this industry. These are educated individuals who are deeply immersed in day to day understanding, navigation, fluency and frequency of the wide array of finite factors in this industry. You simply do not become the leader of a company with literally thousands of employees without having at least a little bit of vision to generate foresight and intellect to capitalize on it.
So It is so painfully astounding to see these captains of industry lead their organizations in such an oblivious, naive and disassociated perspective that honestly is basically common sense for even the most novice of outside observers.
The reason sales are up but profits are down is because the industry wrongly has this idea that "bigger, better, faster, stronger" is the only way to move forward and that consumers are essentially little more than gullible puppets who will endure and tolerate anything they are handed. These largest of studios are too fixated to try to "outdo" what has came before with larger textures, more lights, more complex physics and the incredibly technical framework games are built on striving forever for infinitely more technical complexity to the point they lose sight of the fundamental core of what a game and honestly any form of entertainment media is intended to be.
An experience. A cohesive, logical set of events that can challenge us, be it our physical skill, our decisive wit, our emotional boundaries, our preconceived notions, essentially anything that might captivate and incite our imagination and or ambition.
The existing generation has existed as unquestioned testement to this. In the face of this current generation of optimized computers that made the last generation appear as little more than a pale shadow in the face of its new horsepower, this generation more than any before showed us that you do not need cutting edge visuals. You do not need thousands of models rendered on screen at the same time, you do not need to infinitely layer complexity on complexity. Some of the best, most notable, memorable and historically notable games of this generation you can honestly look at and question if such a game would have been feasible on earlier systems.
Look at games such as Limbo, Bastion, Dark/Demon's Souls, Amnesia, Minecraft, The Walking Dead, FTL, and so many more that (while not all obviously) will in the eyes of history be defined as major titles that helped define this current generation and not being put out by the largest "triple A" houses. These games succeed where yearly Modern warfare/Bethesda releases fall flat because they stay true to basic core principle. They get right the most important things for any and all games to get right. To be an enjoyable experience for which one can immerse themselves in and accomplish it through making such experiences readily immerse and enjoyable through their elegance in their simplicity.
These experiences do not try to overwhelm our senses with increased fidelity, or previously impossible dexterity. They do not beg the player to be awe strucked by their unimaginable glory. These games encourage, challenge, and outright beg the player, not to simply witness them, but proactively experience them. To give a wide canvas, all manner of paint and brushes and begs to see "What sort of disastrous masterpiece can YOU create?"
These triple A studios are failing because they essentially waste too much time effort and resources on the technical aspects of gaming and pushing the envelop to new climbs but all the while forgetting the player wants to play, to experience, to manipulate, to create, to destroy, to craft their own story within the story. Not to stand idly by as little more than the awe struck with mouth agape only able to bear witness to such a obscene and profane monument so ambitious daring and wild that can only leave those who look at it directly blinded by its opulent brilliance.
And this is but one of the reasons why these paragons will in fact serve their role to rend the industry asunder and crushed by their own weight so that the old intimidating lumbering beast can be slain so the agile new creatures can begin to rebuild the industry out of the beasts bloated corpse.
Captcha: Civil war. I think you might well have hit the nail on the head Captcha, because this industry as well as all economic systems flowing outward are moving to a point of inpass with humanity that only one will truly be able to move forward and remain in its current state unaltered. Perhaps not civil war, but an ecomonic war might loom on the horizon.
Edit: Forgive the verbosity. Been re-reading through Kafka and Nietzche for light summer reading and its leaving me more philosophical than usual.
