System Shock 2's performance didn't give publishers much confidence
What's interesting to me is of course how cheaply Bioshock got made compared to today's blockbuster hits. Somewhere, we took the wrong turn in regards to modern game development, truly.
Too many managers to pay and as a result too high personel costs, I would assume. :<
Yeah it's amazing what you can accomplish when you're not blowing millions of dollars on the salaries & golden parachutes of completely worthless executives.
And AAA budgets could crank out fantastic games if they put all their money into think-tanks full of designers instead of thinking graphics hit as hard as they did 10 years ago.