[Polygon] You can’t make AAA games for just one platform anymore

[John Elden Ring]

Do you agree?

The prevailing wisdom in the video game industry used to be that exclusive games were the pillar that could prop up a whole platform. Must-have games that couldn’t be played anywhere else were the reason to choose one console over another, or to buy one in the first place. The games drove the console sales, the console audience drove the game sales, and the whole system raked in money from third-party publishers eager to be part of a healthy platform.

To put it simply: Games have gotten too expensive to make. To put it only slightly less simply: Game budgets are growing much faster than the audience is. In fact, at the moment, the audience for AAA games barely seems to be growing at all.

So how do publishers address the fact that the cost of making games is growing, but the audience for them isn’t? The most straightforward answer is to raise prices, and Navok predicts this change is coming, possibly with Grand Theft Auto 6.

Failing that, a quick fix is to increase the potential audience size of your AAA production by simply putting it on another platform. A PC version, at least, is clearly considered a necessity by both PlayStation and Xbox now. It seems the need for these games to make a decent profit has exceeded their value to the platform holder as incentives to buy into a console ecosystem

Source

 

[Vertigo]

Well, who says you should budget your games to sell 15 - 30 million units sold.

Too much open world bloat. Industry is wide open for new ideas.

Hopefully they don’t just turn everything into Marvel and Star Wars by the numbers trash like film.

 

[Orangee]

Stop bloating your games.

Release more games, but shorter. If your generic AAA action adventure TPP over the shoulder sob story game costs the same amount as RDR2/GTA 5, then you are the problem. Not the market.
Ghost cost 60m$ to make and is completly fine.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

GoW Ragnarok made more revenue than Cyberpunk 2077.

explain that.

 

[Neversummer]

Hmm seems like the industry can learn a thing or two from the market leader, Nintendo

 

[Umar]

You can if you dont have unrealistic expectations or want "infinite" growth

 

[Luffy123]

The gaming media makes me want to stop this hobby and just play Pokémon or something ffs

This is an absolutely ludicrous statement

 

[Sloane_Ranger]

Well you can, and you should. Hello Nintendo and Hello many Sony 1st Party games. Focus on a specific platform has always led to great games that can truly leverage all that platform can do (usually later in gen lifestage).

EDIT: Also love that pushing of Xbox narrative Polygon (IMO)

 

[Petekilla]

Hmm seems like the industry can learn a thing or two from the market leader, Nintendo

False PS is the market leader. You can’t be the market leader when most 3rd parties skip your system. Console sales aren’t everything.

 

[Nhomnhom]

GoW Ragnarok made more revenue than Cyberpunk 2077.

explain that.

That's because the universe knew it would be ported to PC in no time. Without the PC port this game would've completelly unsustainable.

Hmm seems like the industry can learn a thing or two from the market leader, Nintendo

Instead of learning that exclusives are still viable they'll learn that is better to not make AAA games.

False PS is the market leader. You can’t be the market leader when most 3rd parties skip your system. Console sales aren’t everything.

Tell that to Nintendo then, because they are unaware of that and have become market leaders, selling the most consoles, the most games and making the most game. Not having to depend on other publishers is a positive thing not a negative like you are suggesting.

Also, don't worry third party publisher will show up for the Switch 2 like never before in a Nintendo platform, brace yourself.

 

[Dabaus]

Stolen from Neogaf:​

Ozzie666​

Member​

• Today at 2:51 AM
• 
  
• #13

This seems like a behind the scenes campaign from Microsoft being feed to their zealots. Exclusives are suddenly bad and not profitable. Nintendo and Sony prove otherwise.
Yes it's not ideal for third-party or Gaas games. but for successful Platform owners, it's still important.

 

[Killer_Sakoman]

Polygon

 

[voke]

MS pushes Gamepass
media narrative -
AAA games going on to subscription services ala Gamepass is the future, $70 is anticonsumer and outdated (nobody outraged over TOTK price)

MS goes 3rd Party
media narrative-
AAA exclusives aren't sustainable, everything must be on everything to be successful. PS exclusives all flops (somehow Nintendo is excluded)

It's just too on the nose, MS is pushing these narratives intentionally. They all just feel like jabs at Sony while glazing MS.

 

[Nhomnhom]

MS pushes Gamepass
media narrative -
AAA games going on to subscription services ala Gamepass is the future, $70 is anticonsumer and outdated (nobody outraged over TOTK price)

MS goes 3rd Party
media narrative-
AAA exclusives aren't sustainable, everything must be on everything to be successful. PS exclusives all flops (somehow Nintendo is excluded)

It's just too on the nose, MS is pushing these narratives intentionally. They all just feel like jabs at Sony while glazing MS.

The anti-consumer narrative lives on, not porting to PC is anti-consumer these days.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Perhaps publishers and developers should rethink their strategy of sizing game success according to how much time gamers are sinking in it, instead of the old sales volume that worked just fine for 3 decades.

The old strategy favored making fun games that people wanted to buy, the new strategy favors making overbloated messes that have a one in a thousand chances of getting good attach ratios.

 

[Gediminas]

Do you agree?











Source

 

[peter42O]

Third party publishers should be 100% multi-platform (PlayStation, Xbox, PC and Nintendo) day one because it makes the most sense to maximize the sales and revenue when the hype and interest in the game is at it's highest. Also saves money on advertising and marketing because you only have to market the game once.

Hardware manufacturers should be 100% console exclusive (their respective platform and PC) because the other console brands are the competitors. I will never view PC as a competitor to consoles because of the much higher price point of entry along with everything being digital. While Sony/Microsoft will rarely if ever get PC gamers to jump ship due to PC being the ultimate gaming platform if you're willing to spend the money to do so but at the same time, console gamers will rarely jump ship due to the fact that if you're going to PC, you have to be willing to spend thousands of dollars on a top tier high end PC because otherwise, there's no point in going to PC to begin with.

 

[SLB1904]

If you are a 3rd party yeah.

 

[Old Gamer]

Do you agree?











Source

That's MS propaganda, not a genuine opinion.

 

[Zzero]

People talk about open world like its the issue, it isn't. The real issue is graphical detail, mocap, VA work, assessability options that .005 percent of the population actually use and most of all "iterative design" that sees you rebuild the same content five different times over the course of multiple years. (okay for small stuff, a disaster in the making for AAA.)