LogFAQs > #984595178

A game in the 90s was usually made by like 10 people. (In terms of programmers, artists, designers.) For example, Doom was literally made by 6 people IIRC.

But a game today is usually made by hundreds of people (AAA games anyway).

End game credits used to fit on one screen, now they scroll for 30-45 minutes!!

Going from 10->100 salaries is HUGE. From that perspective, games should really should have gone from $50 to $500 each, by now (10x more).

Sure, if a game is $50 and sells 10x better than a hit 90s game, then it should make enough to cover those 10x more salaries. But there's no guarantee that a game sells that well.

Doing some quick wikipedia math, looks like MK8 deluxe only sold about 6.7x more copies than MK64, that's not 10x more. (And MK8 Deluxe is basically the best-selling game of all time, isn't it?)

If we want the video game industry to "heal" and not lay everyone off after every game, then this seems inevitable.

(Unless you want more microtransactions.) (Or unless you can fix the CEO wage disparity, but that's not a video-game-specific problem.)