by Zerbique
Thanks for chiming in, but I don't believe in "increased cost is passed on to the consumer, as it should be". Say a publisher hires a famous designer, and a famous board game artist. Probably it cost the publisher more than hiring a first-time designer and an obscure artist. Will they really sell their games at a much higher price because of this? I don't think I have ever seen this trend (fortunately) where the price of a game matches the popularity of its creative team.Yet the popularity of the creative team does incur an additional cost for the publisher (I guess, I may be totally wrong). But that cost translates into better market exposure, larger volume of sales, etc.
Publishers invest in their product to make it a success, if only, for instance, with a longer development process and playtesting, but the success is their payback - games are not priced to match the pedigree of the creators and the polishness of the design.