"I'm not going to buy this AAA game unless it costs more than the GDP of a small country just to make."
It was inevitable when the graphical appearance of a game was the biggest "challenge" for most of video game's early life. The mechanical complexity of something like an action game or an RPG didn't really jump a lot from the 80s-00s, so the focus was entirely on being less blocky and ugly.
And because each game that was "mindblowing" did usually become a massive seller, it taught those companies to chase that shit forever. Look at the just released Hellblade 2, which thought that having absurdly realistic character motions and graphics would turn a niche cult sequel into a huge seller.
Its also partially a problem that games journos don't get blamed for enough. Because they will write gushing articles about beautiful graphics over and over, but their sheer lack of gaming skill or knowledge means they can't really understand or hype up anything else. So Game Corporations, who still treat games journalism as a legitimate focus, will push graphics to get that article mill going.
Unironically, I think if gamergate had happened a decade prior and prevented the strong bond between games journos and Game Corpos from forming, the graphical fidelity (and thereby budget explosion) focus might never have happened.
It was inevitable when the graphical appearance of a game was the biggest "challenge" for most of video game's early life. The mechanical complexity of something like an action game or an RPG didn't really jump a lot from the 80s-00s, so the focus was entirely on being less blocky and ugly.
And because each game that was "mindblowing" did usually become a massive seller, it taught those companies to chase that shit forever. Look at the just released Hellblade 2, which thought that having absurdly realistic character motions and graphics would turn a niche cult sequel into a huge seller.
Its also partially a problem that games journos don't get blamed for enough. Because they will write gushing articles about beautiful graphics over and over, but their sheer lack of gaming skill or knowledge means they can't really understand or hype up anything else. So Game Corporations, who still treat games journalism as a legitimate focus, will push graphics to get that article mill going.
Unironically, I think if gamergate had happened a decade prior and prevented the strong bond between games journos and Game Corpos from forming, the graphical fidelity (and thereby budget explosion) focus might never have happened.