Dev wrote on Feb 13, 2012, 04:56:
Orogogus wrote on Feb 13, 2012, 03:19:
Dev wrote on Feb 13, 2012, 02:38:
Or, if the pie slices are split up into 1 part instead of 4 parts, that one part might be larger than any one slice in the 4 part pie.
It might. But it's not likely that it would be larger than the 4 slice pie (3, really; the Wii doesn't get most of the multiplatform games), so it's less overall money cycling back into development.
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But generally speaking, if aliens wiped out every Xbox and PS3 on Earth, it would be hard to say that the entertainment software industry would be making more money. And the mega-budget titles most likely to be held back by console limitations are the ones that need that money.
And I'm not saying the interactive entertainment industry as a whole would be making more money without consoles... i.e. I'm NOT saying that the 1 slice pie is larger than the 4 slice pie. In fact, if the 1 slice PC only pie in the alternate universe is only half the size of the 4 slice pie, it would still be bigger than the current PC market. Thats my argument, that without consoles PC would be bigger than it is today, but the industry as a whole would not likely be bigger in total dollars.
It depends on how much of the revenue from consoles currently also goes into the PC version. If there's one code base that takes a relatively minor amount of work to create 360, PS3 and PC versions, then 2 slices of the pie ends up being much less money to work with, even with all of it going to PC. If you have a game like Witcher 2 that was actually made for the PC first, how is it going to make CD Projekt more money if there's simply no second market to sell to? Again, you have to hope that in the alternate universe every single Xbox 360 sale is taken up by people who bought a gaming PC instead, which seems like a best-case scenario.
Well, not quite. Best case would be that all the PS3 and Wii owners also bought PCs and they all buy Witcher 2. But still, optimistic. In the case of this PC-centric developer it's more likely that they'd just have less money to play with for Witcher 3.