Most of the AAA games seem geared toward tackling high sales, when its unfair to judge a market based on self made expectations or even expectations based on similar games success.

@erathol

The expectations aren't "self-made". In fact, there's this new thing the kids are doing called "market analysis" and "focus-groups". Fact of the matter is that

A) You're gonna have to make a dazzling game if you want a new IP to sell.
B) Dazzling games cost a lot of money to make.
C) If they turn out bad (everyone can run into problems) it's extremely expensive to delay the game or have it sell less.

Of course, there are success-stories like Minecraft out there, but that doesn't stop the fact that for most studios, taking a chance on a new AAA IP is pretty bold.

At the end of the day, game development has a lot in common with other IT projects, and are subject to huge, unexpected issues. That costs money too. Especially for a project that's on a deadline.

They flop though cause of bad management. Which SquareEnix seems to be failing hard at this whole generation.

It happened with both Sleeping Dogs and Tomb Raider.

Sleeping dogs only issue was the marketing

I swear there a lot of people didn't know the game exists .

And about Tomb Raider .. Its SE fault rather than the game.

They expected to sell more than it should be.

Good or bad .. it could be Win or loss ... You can't always win :)

Compare it to the myriad of games that don't do those things. Innovative is the wrong word but it was definitely what a mature game with a story should be like and hell the mp is pretty awesome too.

Innovative no but as you said it blended every element nearly flawlessly

Also it was one of a few games at the end of a consoles lifespan. People were ready to move on.

Just Cause 2 sold pretty well. And wasn't heavily marketed. Gaming cost have gone up but the price hasn't. Just look at your own paycheck. All of your cost have risen over the last ten years. But most peoples salaries have barely moved. Games have cost the same thing for almost 10 years without a increase in price. But salaries in the areas of people needed for gaming have been going up because it's a demand field.

That's why games have gotten shorter and mechanics haven't changed much. We might need to just pay a little more. Or maybe the multi-player and core game need to be sold separately. Or maybe episodic content. People don't like micros-transactions. Or day one DLC. But companies have to do something.

I don't think it's that simple. We're still paying ~$60 for a game, but that one game is also selling millions more than previous generations. More people are playing games, which means more sales (generally), which balances out the increased development costs.

Also, digital sales are rising, too. Publishers make a lot more profit off of a digital sale than they do a retail sale. Then there's DLCs, remakes, special editions, etc. If they weren't making enough money, there wouldn't be so many games for consoles. They'd all move to tablet and mobile.

There are a lot of things people don't take into account. Taxes, labor, administrative overhead, license fees and royalties. Many people seem to believe that the developer gets every dime of that $60. They first pay taxes, 20% or more. Then the $10 royalty to the platform maker. That's over twenty dollars there. Fees for middleware, disc cost, packaging, electricity for months of the development process, rent. Pressing master disc, then duplication. Transportation to retail. Publisher fees(Some of this stuff comes under publisher cost). And don't forget advertising and retail mark-up.

A game that cost forty million to make may sell a million copies. Okay, they sold 60 million worth. Now subtract all of those things. You immediately lose more than twenty million to taxes and the royalty to the platform holder. Everything else is a loss. Also remember a lot of games used to launch with gift cards or rebates toward a future game. All of that hurts too. Which is why you rarely see that anymore.

Digital sales will make a difference. That is very true. That is why there has been a push toward that. As well as a lot of resistance to it. And you must have missed all of the developers that have moved to mobile gaming or have closed period. It's why we live in the world of the annual series. The people have spoken and they have made it clear they want more of the same. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I would rather pay a little more and get better quality and new mechanics. If someone would really try something new.