This statement caught my attention:
"It’s also a Catch 22 that will sink most projects – you’re spreading your team out to add features that don’t actually fit the project theme, and at the end you’re left with a game that people are comparing unfavourably to projects like Battlefield or Halo, with 100 plus developers working on multiplayer alone."
I immediately thought about BioShock 2 and Assassin's Creed. Both seemed to have had their quality decreased due to multiplayer additions, and neither really seemed to have compelling multiplayer, from the reviews I read. I haven't gotten around to playing the multiplayer-enabled Assassin's Creed titles, but I've played through about half of BioShock 2, and I can say it is a noticeable step down from the first title. I'm not sure how much of that had to do with the decision to add multiplayer, but it's what I thought of when I read that sentence.
It's also a concern I have when I think about The Elder Scrolls Online. I'm concerned that the great campaign of Skyrim won't translate its play style to an MMO, and we're going to get another crappy attempt to clone/kill World of Warcraft. We'll see how it ACTUALLY goes, but given that Bethesda's not put multiplayer in its Fallout and The Elder Scrolls franchises so far, I'm wondering if this will go over well at all.
Oh, something else that I noticed and wanted to comment on: "splurge the extra $4 to support the people creating your hobby."
He overstates the matter a bit here. When you're subscribed to GameStop's Rewards program and magazine, you get 10% off of used games. So, a used game that's $55 will be $49.50, $10.50 cheaper than the new copy, before tax. I've considered getting MLB 2K13 for a while now. It's currently $50 used. With that discount, it's $45, $15 cheaper than the new copy. I've also considered getting the Combo Pack that comes with MLB 2K13 and NBA 2K13. That's $65 used, and would be $58.50 after the discount. Considering that it's $80 new (or $21.50 cheaper), it's not just throwing the extra $4 on top of it, in many cases.
The real problem is that games take WAY too long to drop in price. GameStop will drop a used game's price LONG before the new price is dropped, making it quickly become more than just the $5 difference that is there at the start. Halo 4 is $40 new right now. It's normally $38 used. In THAT case, I might be willing to forego the $5 I'd save with the used copy and discount, but it's currently on-sale for $30 used, or $13 cheaper after a discount. When you're talking about getting 5+ games per year, saving $10-20 adds up. I mean, heck, the FIRST Black Ops is still listed as being $50 new on GameStop's site, and it's 3.5 years old. It's $25 used. I'd like to support developers, but they need to have a talk with publishers about their pricing.