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Thanks for making the statement less 1 to 1.
Finally, as a consumer, your most powerful vote is with your wallet. Ubisoft's "always on" was well documented and I don't want to speak too candidly on other companies so I'll close with this - The flip side of demanding better quality is supporting the stuff you do like. Support the games you like so when the Xenogears of this console generation rolls around you can let the teams know and maybe get another one."
These numbers are important because games have a very short window to make back the money spent on them, let alone profit. It's like movies at the box-office, you need a good opening weekend because every week after is smaller and smaller. Sometimes the movie biz can rely on DVD to recoup some sales but unfortunately that's an untapped market for video games, at least by publishers.
Secondly, the idea of halving cost to halve the number of units sold is kind of crazy. A budget exists to pay for things that will be in the game. It's a bit of a guessing game, how much a feature or cutscene is worth compared to its impact on sales and with a good producer those numbers get cut and trimmed all the time. If you halve a budget during the process of making a game then you're no longer making the same game and sales expectations need to be readjusted based on what this new game will be.
The used game market is great for consoles and games that don't have manufacturer support anymore. Some games like Xenogears have exorbitant prices not just because of quality but scarcity/availability as well. I can check ebay right now and find Metal Gear Solid on PSX for $16. Heck, I frequently go to the local collectible show and pick up games like Super Metroid ($20) on SNES and Skies of Arcadia ($more than it was online) for Dreamcast. But when it comes to buying new releases, I buy new. I even went out of my way to find Dead Space Extraction new, just to show support for that team.
In short, yes developers should make good experiences that will last but we as consumers need to hold up our end as well and support them for making the games that we love."
For all its flaws it struck a chord with those that makes games now; in gameplay, pacing, and atmosphere. I bought this game 3 days ago at a flea market and spent the weekend playing it. This was my first experience with it as I was a Genesis kid too. After finishing it I can see that it deserves its status, not for being flawless but for being a backbone of gaming for 16 years and counting.
Like Greg I played this recently for the first time. I'm sorry that expectations magnified the mistakes. He's right about its flaws, the wall jump was awful, the space jump lacked consistency, and the grappling hook is best avoided if you can. But they weren't bad ideas. I didn't go into Super Metroid expecting perfection and what I found was a progenitor of modern game design."
