One of the major setbacks about the big-AAA gaming companies is the risk of increasing production values with little return on investment. The obsession with movie-quality realism in games comes to a screeching halt the moment it comes to the question of whether or not the wrinkle detail on your character’s face (which took an artist a week to perfect) ultimately makes a difference when it comes to the profitability of your game.

In the words of the recently deceased “Ensemble Studios” creator of “Age of Empires” and “Halo Wars”:

“I think we may have tried to do too much with each game,” Shelley admitted, saying designers tend to suffer from that mentality across the board. The company used its last game, Halo Wars, as a chance to try and take a more stripped-down design approach.

Admittedly, high production values do sell in numbers. The question is whether it sells enough.

The question becomes even more embarassing when you check the profitability vs. production cost ratio of games that look like this:

Bejewelled 2 by PopCap Games