Only about 15 years ago, it was nothing strange that an entire trilogy could be released for a single console, such as Gears of War, Mass Effect, Uncharted, or the Tomb Raider reboot.
Today, development times for big games has completely spun out of control and many game series can cleanly skip a generation. For example, there was no new Grand Theft Auto or The Elder Scrolls (the main series) released for PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. And unfortunately, most indications are that it will get worse.
Since the Wii was released in 2006, Nintendo has focused on simpler hardware and has games that are not as bloated with alternative game modes and the like. But even they can’t escape the fact that game development will require more resources and take longer going forward.
Nintendo boss Shuntaro Furukawa recently explained to his investors:
“Game development today is more prolonged, more complex, and more advanced. That is unavoidable. To deal with this, we are continually expanding our development resources and making the necessary investments.”
The company’s executive officer Takashi Tezuka agreed, but added that Nintendo will still strive to make unique and entertaining games:
“As hardware advances, it is inevitable that software development takes longer. But I believe we are succeeding in our efforts to shorten development cycles, for example by steadily improving the development environment following the release of the hardware. Whether titles take a long time or a short time to develop, we want to make games that are fun.”
To cut a long story short, it seems likely that Switch 2 will also have fewer games than we’re used to, something that has definitely affected both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X.