Are next gen consoles feasible?

[Laa-Yosh]

Character artwork, especially when not based on real life people, isn't like buildings or cars, there is a lot of artistic effort behind them, particularly when stylized.

Difference between some everyday modeler's stuff and someone's with traditional art background is night and day. I'm constantly amazed by the character concepts our guys create and have no illusions about ever being able to get to their level...

 

[Cheezdoodles]

That's true because tools improve. however, we have historical precedent in the games industry. There was discussion as to what BluRay would enable, and the likes of Laa-Yosh and friends said filling 50GB with content would be prohibitively expensive. This has proven to be right, with most games using a DVD's worth of assets. Generating three times the amount of content will cost three times as much. .

I disagree.

nobody filled a bluray game because a 50gb game on the ps3 is ridiculous. There simply is no need for this on a console with 512 mb of fairly slow ram. Unless you fill it with audio or cutscenes your down to doing stuff that nobody will notice. PD which has unlimited budgets and unlimited time compared to
mortal devs, made gt5 how big?

How large are the biggest pc games today(which use vastly higher texture Rez etc) ? 50 gb is/was alot for assets in games!

Anyways, the original discussion is silly from an economic view as has already been pointed out. Why doesn't pixar movies cost more and more to create? Because pixar found out it did not pay off to do so.

Similarly, when next gen consoles are out, developers still build budgets on expected sales. they will spend only as much as they think is necessary.

Look to the Movie industry. Not everybody can afford something like lord of the rings but you can still survive well on half the budget. The same will apply to the games industry. In particular if you consider that Joe gamer does probably not see a difference between kz2 and kz3. With graphics getting better every day, at somepoint devs are gonna start thinking more about other ways to differentiate themselves!

 

[Sonic]

I can see dev costs staying the same if more and better tools to make the art pipeline more efficient come with the new generation. It's not necessarily about automation but more of making the process more seamless and natural. I'm not sure of the amount of "stock art" that is used in games but that could be an avenue devs can look into.

But then again of course dev costs are going to go up. You may end up having developers who just feel to use current gen level of graphics with full on FSAA and full aniso filtering and higher geometry/texture assets and call it a day. I can't say that would entirely be a bad thing for many games considering how they already look good and with more effects enabled they would look all that much better. And they might do it because it is a model that doesn't increase costs by much. Then you will get the devs that will want to get every last bit of power out of the next gen machines. They will release games that put the rest to shame (graphic wise) and one of them will sell like hotcakes. Then the race is on, blah blah blah. Sorry, high as F right now.

I have to revert on my stance of purchasing games through an online servie and downloading them. It is obvious that downloadable games and content are the future. The only thing really holding it back is broadband penetration (not really any more) and the stupid bandwidth caps of ISP's. It's convenient. And I see a lot of people prefer it that way. I personally like having the physical media, box and all. So MS obviously has set the bar this gen for that, and will likely set the bar next generation as well. Sony is too scattered right now in this department, if they bring out a unified interface/experience it would be highly beneficial to them.

 

[-tkf-]

Hello there..

Well isn´t there plenty of reasons for the size being essentially the same across all platforms for games that has to go for the lowest common dominator, aka the XBOX

Well Well.. looks like there is more meat to this than i even imagined:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-24-why-microsoft-wont-publish-psn-firsts

"Titles for Xbox 360 must ship at least simultaneously with other video game platform, and must have at least feature and content parity on-disc with the other video game platform versions in all regions where the title is available," it reads.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Discussion of that Sony PR comment moved here.