Veteran game developer Raph Koster believes that the next major gaming platform needs to lower the barrier for graphical performance to bring down the ever-climbing costs of content production. In his view, one of the most critical features of such a platform should even be "bad graphics."
Koster, who worked on Ultima Online, served as Creative Director for Star Wars Galaxies, and is currently developing the MMO Reach for the Stars, stated that he had warned as early as 2005 that continuously rising costs would eventually become a serious problem for the gaming industry.
He cited texture creation as an example, noting that a single 128×128 texture from the past might now be replaced by multiple 4K textures combined with shaders and other elements. Although procedural tools like Substance and ready-made texture libraries have improved production efficiency, the vast number of combinations between textures and shaders still requires testing, causing ongoing costs to continue accumulating.
Costello also believes that game prices have not risen in tandem with development costs, and frequent sales further limit actual selling prices. He used the question, "Who still buys games at the original $60 price these days?" to illustrate the imbalance between rising costs and revenue.
Regarding new platforms that could change the landscape, Koster proposed two conditions: First, it must offer gameplay that other platforms cannot achieve; second, it should not be suitable for directly creating traditional games, making it difficult for existing major publishers to simply transplant their experience and quickly dominate the market.
He further pointed out that the most important condition for a new platform is that its graphical capabilities should not be too high, citing Flash games, Facebook social games, the Wii, and mobile platforms as historical examples. These platforms eventually caught up with technological advancements, causing costs to rise again, but the gaming industry has not seen a new platform capable of resetting the cost curve for a long time.