If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you follow them and do the same thing? Apparently that adage doesn't just pertain to high school popularity, as one publisher believes that same mentality is prevalent in the gaming industry today, and why we see the rising cost of videogame creation.

The spiralling costs of next-gen games development are embarrassing, unworkable and an ego trip for publishers, according to Blast Entertainment CEO Sean Brennan.
Speaking at last week's Northern Exposure conference, Brennan slammed publishers for embarking on multi-million dollar development projects that he believes are financially unworkable and nothing more than an ego trip in the face of competitors.

"What a joke. What embarrassment. There's no way on a USD 20 million development project that you can break even on a game – not now in the cycle," said Brennan.

"Maybe in two years time when the installed base is high enough, but it's an embarrassment at best. But all the publishers are doing it because it's a copycat mentality."

"Some of the costs are absolutely outrageous. I did a project for THQ about 18 months ago and it's like a big ego trip for publishers," he said.

Read the full article over at gamesindustry.biz