The minute they target the mass-market, they are targetting the lowest common hardware. Unreal 3 was sold just about everywhere.
If a retailer (let's call it Walmart) sees a high return rate on a software app (let's call it "Unreal 3"), the buyer for that retailer (let's call him Zeke) is unlikely to buy the volume on future releases from that software company.
I'd say releasing playless drek with pretty graphics will kill the game industry far faster than any number of under powered integrated graphics chips.
Being on the cutting edge has never been profitable in any industry, really (at least not immediately). When your business model depends upon early adopters to pay your bills, that's the risk you take. If you see losses, attribute it to that, or mismanagement, but certainly don't blame the people who provide the platform for your application. That's like the tail wagging the dog. Software momentum encourages the state of hardware power, but it certainly doesn't drive it.
Perhaps they should scale back their efforts a bit and concentrate on the far more profitable and higher demographics of the "dumbed-down" model. Maybe the money they save on R & D of cutting edge graphics could *gasp* be applied to engineering some game play with pacing and design that's not so erratic or formulaic.
If a retailer (let's call it Walmart) sees a high return rate on a software app (let's call it "Unreal 3"), the buyer for that retailer (let's call him Zeke) is unlikely to buy the volume on future releases from that software company.
I'd say releasing playless drek with pretty graphics will kill the game industry far faster than any number of under powered integrated graphics chips.
Being on the cutting edge has never been profitable in any industry, really (at least not immediately). When your business model depends upon early adopters to pay your bills, that's the risk you take. If you see losses, attribute it to that, or mismanagement, but certainly don't blame the people who provide the platform for your application. That's like the tail wagging the dog. Software momentum encourages the state of hardware power, but it certainly doesn't drive it.
Perhaps they should scale back their efforts a bit and concentrate on the far more profitable and higher demographics of the "dumbed-down" model. Maybe the money they save on R & D of cutting edge graphics could *gasp* be applied to engineering some game play with pacing and design that's not so erratic or formulaic.