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A developer who worked on the classic MMO Ultima Online argued that the games industry's next major breakthrough will need to embrace deliberately unpolished, low-fidelity visuals in order to escape the spiraling costs of modern game development. The developer pointed to the jump from simple 128x128 textures to multiple 4K textures as a driver of ballooning budgets that make ambitious projects increasingly risky. The comments, reported by PC Gamer, add to a broader industry conversation about unsustainable AAA development costs, as studios face mounting financial pressure and layoffs tied to expensive, high-fidelity productions.