*TWO PEOPLE* created (most of) this game?!?

[Wahnsinniger]

Archonsod said:
Just hope Illwinter survives the crash of 2010

I'm not going to predicate that such a thing will happen, but there is some truth to that. This mostly applies to consoles, which hardware advancement has been slowing down over time (PS2's still sell better than PS3's. The PS3 is a fantastic piece of hardware, but relative to previous generations?...). Eventually, you can only make so-much improvement to 3D-prettiness. Plenty of genre's and themes are getting worn out: WWII has been beaten to death; Too many First-Person Shooters seem like every other FPS; etc. Couple those with the skyrocketing development costs for mass-market games, and one would suspect that something 'has to give' sooner or later.

Actually thats another reason the Nintendo Wii is so cool; by exploring such new-areas of gameplay, it could theoritically prevent such a "video game recession" cycle from happening. This doesn't really apply to computer gaming, which mass-market has been slowing going downhill compared to consoles(Though WoW sure has given it a shot in the arm).

Note: My mentions of PS2, PS3, and Wii are merely observations and not meant to spark any potential fanboy arguement.

*cough*Wii

[Archonsod]

Console wise I think the problem is the cost of the basic unit. As the prices for the console themselves rise, people's expectations go up, yet the games remain the same (once you get over the shiny graphics effect).

I don't think we'll ever see a crash to the same extent on the PC again though. Most people don't own a PC for gaming, they own it for the internet, work or similar. Gaming (for the majority anyway) is simply an added bonus.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Whatever other problems they may have, Nintendo's been rather smart about pricing. They didn't release the GBA, for instance, until they could get it out with an original retail price of $80.

I hear that on the wii manufacturing costs, they have a profit margin of around $40. That number's by autopsy, though, and doesn't consider overhead, just parts.

Edit:
As Archonsod said, I don't expect will see a big computer crash. At least in the gaming market. For instance, with ATI joining up with AMD, they're coming up with a new standard of integrated graphics - and even the intel its not quite the joke it used to be, not to mention what's been available on mobos (but often overlooked by manufacturers such as Dell).

That said, retail's on its way to a grisly demise. A CompUsa employee told me that they reshelve the PC games maybe once a month, or get in new stock they put up. I'm not sure how serious and how joking they are, but it actually feels plausible from my browsing experiences. And GameStops gobbling up stores and has managed to shrink its one shelf of PC games down even further. I'm not sure they're even trying to capture that part of the market. Those are also the only two concrete ('brick and mortar', but we're in florida, where everythings built from concrete) stores in my area. For crying out loud, Target competes with EBGames.