He's not condemning anyone, he's simply pointing out why we're seeing a rash of studio closings & mass layoffs in an industry that generates more revenue than home video!
Sit down with a calculator & play with the numbers. With a dev cost of $50 million you're likely looking at a title that costs roughly $100 million by the time all is said & done. $100 million budget puts you in the Hollywood blockbuster neighborhood as far as costs go, but you don't have a theatrical release to recoup costs & a DVD release to generate pure profit. You have to sell roughly 2 million copies of a big budget 360/PS3 title just to break even & close to 5 million copies to fund your next project. How many 360 or PS3 titles have sold anywhere near 5 million copies?
3rd parties will have to cut their dev costs to survive because there simply isn't a viable market for $50 million titles on the HD consoles. 2009 is going to be the year of the Wii & I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing the release calendars for 360 & PS3 thin out.
View