With development costs higher than ever and games like Minecraft and League of Legends proving that gamers don't need flashy graphics, is it worth it for studios to prioritize state of the art graphics?
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I think at devs should look at graphically intense games as a car... at best you make one franchise or game standalone as the flagship or prototype to show what your studio can do then bring it down to something more realistic, because obviously it costs too much to make every production car exactly like the prototype.
But, they should really just divide their time across different games with smaller budgets with more creative freedom and a more flexible time table to make sure its done right.
will get rid of alot of this: "companies are investing millions of dollars into single games, just to get it to the high levels of standards that are being held against them. The high budgets of these games mean the company can’t afford to take risks, and so they resort to tried and tested formulae to produce a blockbuster game."
In my opinion, the problem occurs when devs focus too much time on graphics when they could use it to make sure gameplay is fun and varied. We can have both fun and graphically amazing games if a lot of time is put into both areas but that could take many years. I also believe that 60% graphics stat is based on developer choice and shows Crytek cares more about graphics.
As the graphical improvements get higher the money needed to improve further get exponentially higher and the graphical improvement get less. So devs and publishers are shooting themselves in the feet many times striving for always being better. I would much prefer a good art style which stands the test of time, like Wind Waker, out Mario 64.
AAA Games like Ryse, Uncharted and Quantum Break with their more cinematic, realistic look will certainly prioritise high end graphics with mo-cap, but I can also see games like Ni-no Kuni requiring a lot of power to match the look of high quality animation.
Of course graphics aren't everything, but for AAA big budget titles like Assassin's Creed Unity, the first thing that you notice is the graphics.
Cutting edge graphics are great, no one is going to deny that. However, if the game isn't fun because all their time and money went to making it shiny who cares? It's a game, being fun is the whole point.