Agreed that it takes a team of experienced developers to build an engine, but modifying the engine itself only requires 1 or 2 experienced developers at most, and remember that iD almost gives the Q3 engine away. Marketing costs on it are pretty low. I think it lets them dictate the pace and direction FPS's are going to go. They provide full source for the engine, so your developers don't need to be as experienced, and experience costs alot of coing. Hiring 4 or 5 deveopers + a bunch of 3d modellers and graphic artists is much cheaper than a full team of 9 or 10 developers + modellers+artists.
That's my experience in this industry anyway.
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Remember Dieppe
