Nothing vague about it. Every point you're making about AAA games, graphics and "bloat", thinly veiled insinuations about "gameplay focus" and "movie" stuff has been repeatedly shown not to be the case.
Jason Scheier himself has noted that indie games are taking too long and costing too much.
Spider-Man 2 is lean to the point of some people calling it short, reusing assets from 2 prior installments, and cost more than TLOU Part II and GOW 2018.
Callisto Protocol.
Immortals of Aveum.
ZA/UM (Disco Elysium studio)
Embracer's entire library of studios, with is almost nothing but AA Eurojank sweatshops.
This isn't about graphics or "lack of gameplay focus" whatever the hell that means, or as if the most holistic game design would be cheap or quick, or any of that. This is an issue of economic background and organizational structure.
The bulk of the budget goes on salaries. A significant reason why Spiderman 2 cost more than TLOU2 is because average salaries are higher these days.
So the more time you spend on a project, the more expensive it is.
Last edited: