There goes my dream of an Agents of Mayhem sequel.

  • twistedtxb@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    There’s your problem. Hiring an entire team for 6+ years and then cancelling the project. That’s hundreds of thousands, if not millions, down the drain.

    The current AA / AAA gamedev industry isn’t sustainable

    • EnglishMobster@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      That’s all game development.

      Baldur’s Gate took 6 years to make. Starfield has been in development since 2015 - that’s 8 years. As gamers demand more, games have grown in scope. The ones that stayed behind have gotten punished.

      If a AAA game doesn’t have at least 8 hours of story and realistic graphics in the modern era, it gets panned by reviewers. People’s expectations have been raised - and are continuing to be raised - and in turn, that inflates how long it takes to make a game. People will say “Why should I spend $60 on this game when I can spend $60 on this game that gives me more stuff?” (See: Immortals of Aveum, which itself has been in development for 4-5 years.)

      The games that don’t take that long are the stale yearly franchises - the FIFAs and CODs of the world. Even COD alternates between studios, with each installment taking 1-3 years. Some franchises (like Pokemon) have multiple teams within a studio that operate independently of one another; Arceus was made by the Let’s Go team, while Scarlet/Violet was made by the Sword/Shield team.

      If studios stop betting on long-term projects, you’re going to wind up with stale yearly iterations - or half-baked games rushed out the door to meet a deadline. If it’s true that you say AAA (and even AA!) dev isn’t sustainable, then that’s effectively calling for stale franchises pushing out cheap content for quick cash grabs (see also: Hollywood movies over the last decade).


      It’s also not just games this is happening to. Disney recently canned a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea show that was ready to go. There’s the Scooby-Doo stuff that Max recently pulled before release as well. That stuff isn’t my industry; I don’t know how long it takes to make those things… but I know it costs about as much to make as a AAA game does.

      There’s probably a reckoning to be had for both industries, but I don’t think the correction should be that drastic - and I think it will be bad for people who consume that content.

      • Radicalized@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        I wish studios like Bethesda would adopt a more stylistic art style and games that were smaller in scope. I don’t need to explore 10 000 planets with realistic graphics. I just want a tight RPG with good world building.

        • frog 🐸@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          games that were smaller in scope

          I think this is the crux of the issue. There’s been a trend for AAA to push for bigger and more ambitious games, which leads to long, expensive development cycles. But pretty much everyone who is passionate about gaming can point to a game that stuck with them not because it was huge and ambitious, but because it did one thing really well. Games don’t have to be huge to be amazing.

      • raptir@lemdro.idOP
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        1 year ago

        With TV/movies that are made for streaming this seems to be some classic Hollywood accounting. They are taking the write-offs in the cancelled content, while keeping subscribers strung along with the promise of new projects. The question is how long until consumers stop buying it.