So, your telling me that the software programming market, who already spend massive amounts of money to create a game because of the need to hire the talent behind the games, thus increasing game prices... your saying that they will, in a short period of time, take full advantage of a DVD that has around 3 or 4 times the current capacity (depending on that format of bluray media/discs come out). The actual production team for a game in todays market already looks like the production crew for a movie. It will take MANY more man hours. The way to alleviate that? Either you go ahead and keep the same staff, and just take longer to release the software and risk the possibility of having it outdated by the time it releases because the engine is outdated, you increase work hours (dont see that happening, as we already work MASSIVE hours as it is), you outsource to a 3rd party company some of the least sensative game material and make them sign a nondisclosure agreement (usually this incurs a higher price), or finally, you almost double your current staff to release games in a timely manner. Why do you think some games are rushed out the door? There is a finite window to release them in before they are outdated. Thats why you also see "such and such game was scraped", because they couldn't get it out in any amount of reasonable time and the cost of retooling would of been astronomical, but more often than not they take the people working on a cancelled project and put them on another one that has a better monetary promise. Now, withthe hiring of all these programmers, how are they going to get paid? Well, the answer is by jacking up the prices of games. More than the 360, I'll be willing to bet you that one.
Now, here is another solution to this conundrum. We now have 2 next gen consoles out there. We want to release in a good time frame. We have developed for the 360, and a port would be VERY easy, with maybe a FEW improvements, nothing that will destroy our projected budget. So, we do this. The outcome? Something that does NOT take advantage of such large storage space for the game itself, but for grins we'll add in the making of make 'em feel a little special because we dont have the man power for anything else, but essentially the game is close to what the 360 shows. THAT is why it is to soon. Wait for developer tools to be able to render and set high polygon counts with less human interaction, only THEN can you do this and keep it in an acceptable cost range.
.. people may disagree but hey who cares!
