What even are AAA games anymore?

Thanks for watching folks! I know it's a bit more of a rant than anything but hey it is what it is lol

Jeez dude you referencing Infamous like it’s ancient history hurts my soul

Was the whelmed comment a young justice reference

Better question is WHY aaa games are a thing anymore. Being a big studio means nothing if the top crust keeps wages low, job security nonexistent, and workload high, all the while they buy another yacht while contributing nothing.

piracy is more and more a necessity and less an taboo... the amount of lies and deceptions that exist within the review space and the advertisement... it just doesnt add up... so i just pirate the game play it a few hours if its good i buy it and start over again or if possible migrate my game save...

Adjusting for inflation is only part of the story. If wages haven't risen, and costs in general have, then people have less disposable income than before. So as a fraction of that disposable income, games are more expensive than ever.

‘AAA game’ refers to the budget the games with the biggest budgets are classed as ‘AAA’ hope this helps :) 👍🏻

I flat out stop buying as many games, I’ll only play like 4-7 different games max a year for the last few years. I’ll tell ya what. It’s a great choice, u only get the thing u really want, u have the time to check and make sure they didn’t do stupid shit that means u shouldn’t have bought it. Lastly u can spend plenty of time with each game cause it’s one of ur few.

SUCKER PUNCH MADE INFAMOUS??
thats one of my favorite never-played game, something that i wish i knew of at the time— even if i wasn't even able to get it at the time

For me, Yakuza has always been such a consistent reminder that AAA games can still be amazing. Yakuza 7 (or Yakuza: Like a Dragon) is one of my favorite games of all time and it's the 8th or something entry into the series that's been going for almost 2 decades now. It has a big name (SEGA, and now in a way RGG studios themselves), it has quality (each entry in the series is good in their own right and even the ones that stumble still end up being incredible) and they have size (big stories, tons of side content, tens of little funny substories in each game, plus much much more). If you feel that AAA games have let you down recently, pick up any Yakuza game

I do not think you really have the competence to estimate the costs of producing a videogame, because if the tools grew together with the times, it might be cheaper now to develop a videogame than before. Inflation is sometimes just a Trojan horse to smuggle in price increases over counter arguments, such as increased productivity and just wanting better margins for a higher bonus for the CEO. I just know some business, I'm not in the gaming industry, so neither can I really, but without a balance sheet and an income statement to back it up I would not discuss the price of a video game, seems negligent.

The best thing we as consumers can do is not pre-ordering video games, and then giving time to reviewers, and early adopters to tell us more about a game once it's released so that we can make an informed purchasing decision.

Video games is no longer a physical product, it's a fungible digital product where unlimited copies can be sold. There is no reason to pre-order. And if publishers try to add a pre-order incentive that should be rightly criticized in as loud a manner as possible as that is an exploitive tactic to pass off a product before its quality can be verified.

All this going on, and at the same time Remnant 2 comes out costing only $50.

I have heard it called an AA game though. Still, a great game for a great price.

we don't expect a purchased car to be fixed later but it is something we actually do. automotive recalls are just car patches and I can't be convinced otherwise.

"please buy this dodge grand caravan, the Takata airbag might just be an antipersonnel mine aimed at the occupants for the first 4 years its on the market but don't worry about that!"

Consumers not being able to help themselves is the problem

Lmao, to this day, "I got what I came here for." Is followed up by me raising my hand and just flexing it because that black and red lightning was so worth it

Thats so funny I also go by cod releases for timespans.

I have seen and played so many "Early access" games that have more content and polish than AAA games.......yes Early access is a whole other conversation but thats for another time

The AAA industry and its consequences have been a disaster on the gaming labdscape.

Modern gaming is dead. Long live the PS2 Emulator

Apex legends may not ask for 70 dollars but it milks you for well more than that if it can get you

It's crazy that we live in a time that a billion dollar game is not worth your time, and a cheaply made game, sometimes made by a single dev, has a lot to offer, and most of the time even under 60 bucks, that's just insane

Yeah I just wait a couple of months till the game is on sale

Cod ghosts wasnt so bad if u look at todays cod games

Bg3 came out and set a new bar for rpgs but tbh i wouldnt mind if some rpgs stayed the way they are anyway cuz i enjoy them the way they are but i enjoy new stuff too. Sometimes old stuff is great too. xD

Everything you've said has really resonated with me. $70 for an unfinished game that might be fixed in 6 months or 5 years is insane how did we get here? Everyone kept letting gamers know not to pre-order games and to vote with their wallets, told them not to buy it on release without knowing if the game will be good. None of that worked so what's the option now? Pirate the game and make it easier for the average person? If a piracy scare is what it will take for companies to get in line I'm happy to do it, it worked for the music industry and it temporarily worked for the film industry. There's no reason it won't work for the games industry.

A bit back I spent ~$70 on 6 small games and had a blast with each one(still playing some to today) and the a few days later redfall came out, and I could only laugh.

While can't stop them from increasing prices, thanks to competition and consumer rights (being able to resell your games), Makes it easy to just, not buy 70 dollar games. Can't control the masses. Can only control yourself and there's too many good games under 60$ to ever consider spending 70 for one rather than just waiting for a price drop/buying it used.

the last 3 games i paid more than 30 dollars for are cyberpunk, destiny and eft everything else i buy from key resells

Starting the video with a 2 minute commercial then have 4 commercial breaks in a 22 min video. Gratz on milking people for money for very little money. AAA video on AAA games is born.

Bro, what are you driving???? My Chevy HHR can have a full tank at like, $40 tops.

As someone who hasn't "completed" Hades yet, I have to say I'm very glad with what I bought.
Huge amounts of content, the ability to tell its story while interweaving it with the gameplay without making it feel generic but rather organic.
It's a refreshing type of product coming from a studio I absolutely never heard of before which is surprising to say because Hades is definitely the type of game that people would be talking about.
And now that Hades 2 is in production I can safely say I'm glad I have something to look forward to in the future with that studio

I tought that a AAA game was any game that had a Development budget over 25 Million.

i‘m new here and i love that you acknowledge that you are not the average working person

70$ price is stupid as fuck. No MTX is not an excuse.

No one makes hard copies anymore, and even if "it costs more to make games" worker wages Did NOT change significantly enough.

70$ price tag is inexusable when they also fit MTX into them, not even gonna meention game companies probably rose 30920394809% in revenues from microtransactions, for 60$ games non the less.

I absolutely fucking hate that argument, and is one of the reasons we are where we are.

I know i am late but this is an interesting topic. For me my money is worth an experience.

I have beaten Hifi Rush, Armored Core 6, MK1, Remnant 2, Starfield, Diablo IV nad have played/purchased many others over the year

Some games it is hours, Starfield wasnt the best by any means but i got a couple hundred hours out of it and coming off of Armored Core tinkering with my ship was so fun

Armored Core feels like a Ps2 era game in all of the best ways, i wanna do more playthroughs and though i got around 40 hrs it was worth the money as there is so much there i havent tried

I always get the deluxe Mortal Kombat game and pretty much do the story and play the new characters as they release

I think that as long as you are satisfied with the experience it was worth the money

Also coming from someone who was like you very passionate and wanting to get into game dev you can do it. I started in testing but you can get some certifications to become a Producer which is what i do now. Good luck!

Triple A is typically referred to by games published by major publishers, that have a higher development and marketing budget than others. It doesn’t means quality, it just means they have the weight to throw around. Then you get into AA games, which are mid sized publishers.

And lastly, there are Indie. Who typically do not have the funds to compete, as a result. They live and die on how well they can make a game with what they have. And I have seen many Indie devs create amazing games. Far more than the other categories.

And another thing to note, AAA games tend not to take risks. They prioritize money, which can make their games come off as repetitive or just bad. They put in so much resources into the game, that they have to try and make up the loss plus a profit. Hence, brand recognition sells them.

Brand does a lot, even when a game is just awful in terms of performance, content, etc. People will still buy it, and if they buy it. Then there is no need to try and take risks.

I’ve bought many Indie games.

Pricing point between $1.99 to $49.99.

Only very few I was disappointed in, but most? I can play them multiple times. In the end, it is the quality of experience that makes these games attractive. I once spent $49.99 on a game that was like 5 hours long. Though, the amount of time I got out of it was truly invaluable. Still, I do agree the price point should have been lower, and they did lower it to like $34. Though, what was shown in the game was just great.

1. Amazing graphics and detailed animation.

2. Fluent character controls.

3. Fluent combat.

4. Pretty good camera controls.

5. A nice idle character action.

6. A nicely deep battle system.

7. A fair bit of dungeons.

8. Exploration was fun, but also unsettling(It was like part horror).

9. A pretty tragic story.
—> There wasn’t much to it, but the environment and what was there really strongly pulled it.

10. New Game Plus.

11. It has like 6 fun animation videos around 30 seconds each.

12. It was actually more strategic, but action paced.

13. It actually looks, feels, and plays like a game.
Etc.

So, I wouldn’t say it is entirely the price point. Though, what you’re getting out of it. Are those 5 hours worth what you’re getting? Everyone has a different meaning on worth. It can even be argued, that the more people spend, the more they want to believe they are getting their money’s worth. They allow the money to bind them to it.

Then there are also those who actually do think spending a lot means it is good, and then those who truly enjoy it. Take out two of those equations, and Triple AAA games would be in a bind. As if people stop tying their worth to the money, or the mindset that spending a lot means it is good. You’ll really start to see Triple AAA games falling, and have to get the ball rolling again.

prices hiked in australia like 10 years ago, from 90 to 100 and some being 110 on console, i now use steam and they are mostly 100, andd on sales so cheap it makes me wonder why console is so expensive

Except that 16 years later you have not only a much bigger audience, but people much more inclined to purchase. So yeah, games take a lot more to develop, but their sales are exponentially bigger, so all in all there is no point in a drastic cost increase, especially considering the games are frequently released in a horrible state compared to current standarts.

Thank God for gamepass.

AAA game is a metric of development cost, not quality.

Coming from United States and Europe the increase is not so big. But coming from Brazil where the price went from 200 hundred reais which composes a 20% of the average wage third of avarage wage is an absurd. Not count the deluxe edition and what nots which composes half of the avarage wage.

I just think certain games aren’t worth such a price such as Anthem or Starfield or NBA2k or any sport games for that matter

I remember n64 games such as resident evil 2 being at a very high price back in the day. Ps1 games seemed to be more mixed in terms of pricetags. A 70 dollar game made by so called AAA developers should first of all feel like a finished product, something it's often not.

idk bro. This year hss been pretty good for gq’ing so far

apart from one or two studios, aaa has become an insult

Imagine saw this person’s video for the first time and he shows you 2 mins of advertisement without the actual content.

I remember when an 8h campaign was considered freakishly short, patches, sdk's and maps were expected to be free..... and games were cheaper.

yeah boi, great video