That was the last time AAA publishers allowed devs to take risks. Those games, while profitable, were considered financial failures by executives.
That era taught the industry to be risk averse.
Gaming was profitable long before by decades at that point, mostly due to the quick evolution of technology propelling a lot of the innovation and novelty of new titles. Yet, due to how the economics of capitalism work, the industry reached the peak of how much they could ride those coattails before they had to begin creating their own industry growth, which was around the time of those consoles.
Publishers and Devs scrambled to find new ways to bring in more players. They eventually learned what worked and what didn’t, and the economic necessity of growth forced those companies to rely on what they knew had mass appeal instead of taking those risks like before. The wiggle room just wasn’t there anymore.
That was the last time AAA publishers allowed devs to take risks. Those games, while profitable, were considered financial failures by executives.
That era taught the industry to be risk averse.
Gaming was profitable long before by decades at that point, mostly due to the quick evolution of technology propelling a lot of the innovation and novelty of new titles. Yet, due to how the economics of capitalism work, the industry reached the peak of how much they could ride those coattails before they had to begin creating their own industry growth, which was around the time of those consoles.
Publishers and Devs scrambled to find new ways to bring in more players. They eventually learned what worked and what didn’t, and the economic necessity of growth forced those companies to rely on what they knew had mass appeal instead of taking those risks like before. The wiggle room just wasn’t there anymore.