Im implying the effort it probably takes to maintain 3D fighters. Most games thats 2D is hard in itself and 9 times outta 10 its designed by a different team because its so time consuming.
Design work is done... I mean I'll admit they've not made some of the best design decisions but that is done.
The rest is just ignorance. So I'll take a stab at this.
Let's take a look at Injustice as an example. It is a fighting game that primarily takes place in 2D space, but the game is fully 3D.
The difference between 2D and 3D is the render engine. So primarily we're looking at the code base used within that or the Graphics API. Option wise we have Direct X (lets say DXD9 because 8 year old hardware, not too sure but it may run 10) and OpenGL.
For the last 5+ years PC GPU's have been running DXD11, GPU's are backwards compatible with Direct X versions. So a GPU that runs 11 is capable of running the older API's, you have to link the code library regardless of the version in use.
Long story short as long as they weren't doing anything incredibly hacky in the GPU then the graphics engine will port pretty quickly. All the shaders should be fine off the bat (welcome to the world of HLSL) and I'll have to check what the XBox uses but I know the PS3 is a slightly modified OpenGL library.
Basically if they wrote their code well (which they will have as it is a multi-platform game already) all that they'll need to do is alter a few sections of the render code and the graphics engine will port straight up.
"But what about all the different hardware for PC's?!"
Negligible. What we're talking about is graphics API's, which are standard. They just have to set a minimum bar AKA run on DXD9/10/11.
The game is already built to run on 32 bit systems and x64 is compatible with x86 (or you'd be royally fucked) so the CPU architecture shouldn't have too many issues. The struggle here will be multi-threading and pipelines. Most of the time will be focused on bug testing.
What is interesting here though is that generally fighting games will have a fairly strict game loop. So actual computing frame by frame should be pretty strict and not worry too hugely about concurrent programming. Each players action does have to be calculated before effects can trigger so it would make more sense to run and wait or run 1 by 1 then calculate game logic from there. This should save a lot of the concurrent stuff in game logic so that'll be less weight on hardware differences.
Ultimately the "2D vs 3D" is a flat out ignorant argument so I hope some of this sheds light on that. Design work is just what it sounds like, design. This is now a software engineer discussion, do they have the technical capabilities over the creative ones. So lets bin that one too.
Modding and hacking is still a concern, you're right. But lets look at it from another angle. Steam is pretty well protected. Sure it isn't 100% but that all comes down to the developer. As far as locking down a game online goes it is easily possible, look at how many games you acquire that will need you to use Hamachi to access online functionality because you simply cannot connect to the servers.
Mods however you'll have to worry about data encryption etc. If the art assets have decent lockdown and the way the DLC functions are built into the .exe it might be okay (this is only a fleeting thought, I can probably come up with something better if I had 5 minutes to actually think).
Hope this shines some light on a few area's.
