Have you ever considered how high production costs may be affecting the industry? Not really? Well you should.

I will start by admitting that games with 200million dollar budgets look and sound fantastic! I would love to live in a world where every game received such budgets.  But have you ever wondered what the downsides may be? Well, I certainly have and I believe we are seeing it whether we acknowledge it or not.

When developers / publishers /shareholders invest such sizeable amounts in a game, it obviously puts them in a rather precarious position. If said game flops, there is always a great chance that the developer may go under or, at the very least, the next few titles will be “safe” titles, thereby holding the industry back. Just look at recent history. How many development houses have you seen go under, often due to over-investment? How many iterations of a game do we see released in order to generate safe and consistent revenue?

I have noticed a trend on forums and with gamers in general, whereby gamers are creating and being subjected to a cycle of ever-increasing expectations that exponentially increase in line with improving production values. Gamers now expect ever more, which in itself is certainly not a bad thing but, at the same time, those expectations can be difficult to meet when taking chances.

Here is another thing to consider. All these titles with their inflated production value tend to focus primarily on the art of replicating life (usually visually) rather than focusing on what makes this medium so special – the interactive element; the gameplay. Less time is spent on making a fun game, and is instead spent on making it look awesome.

Also, as costs rise, more and more developers are forced to huddle under mega umbrella publishers to survive, who then go on to be heavily influenced by those publishers, inevitably stifling creativity. Just take note of all the real creativity being seen in the bursting indie scene. This is largely because they do not have to worry about these mega publishers. The Indie side of the industry is showing that awesome gaming does not necessarily require awesome monetary investment – just a solid fun idea implemented well.

So, I implore all you gamers / developers / publishers out there to consider what it really means to keep upping the bar as far as realism and visuals are concerned. Certainly this is an industry based on such evolutions but we have to be careful not to impose new boundaries in the process. How long can the industry keep a steady flow of gameplay innovation when it suddenly becomes commercially unviable to take any chances? I believe we are seeing that already.