Death of large scale AAA titles?

[Mr Croft]

It seems the latest discussion in gaming circles is the death of large scale AAA games. For example huge games have completely flopped this year and had massive budgets on top of it. A few games I'll mention are skull and bones, immortals of avenum, and forspoken. While on the flip side smaller AA or even indie titles are making unbelievable returns on investment like palworld, helldivers, and lethal company. Do any of you believe we will see less large scale titles going forward as companies move toward smaller development for better returns?
I personally think games like gta 6 will be bulletproof if this continues tho. Other games not so much

[Random Encounter]

AAA games don't really cater to my tastes anymore. And that's okay, since I've likely just aged out of their target demographics. My tastes tend to skew more retro and indie, so I go with those instead.

The expense doesn't help either. It's very rare I pay full price for a new game. Traditionally that's been $60, but the market is beginning to trend towards $70 for new releases. It's just more cost effective to wait for a game to be out for awhile so bugs get patched out and it goes on sale.

[Althena]

I feel like when I like a AAA game, it's in spite of their AAA status, not because of it. At the risk of sounding like a hipster, my tastes tend to run to the more obscure, unique titles anyhow. There are some mainstream franchises I enjoy, and probably always will, but I wouldn't be sad to see the priorities of game studios shift more towards quality over "throw lots of money at it"

[Deimal]

The AAA "designation" has been a bad joke for nearly a decade anyway. Everyone losing a job from a major studio should be doing so with the full knowledge that whatever they have contributed to over the last 7 to 10 years was one of the hottest pieces of shit ever conceived of by their industry. I don't give a flying shit seam if hundreds of people "worked really hard" on something like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Working hard on something that is a worthless piece of code scrap isn't virtuous or worthy of praise. Anyone that contributed to any of the recent "AAA" failures should be cognizant of the fact that they contributed their efforts to fucking dog shit. Garbage not worthy of even basic consideration. This is endemic of "AAA" games these days. So many are pushed to the release point before they are ready by publishers that it would be hilarious were it not so goddamned common.

"AAA" should not just die an ignominious death, it should be taken out to a field, drugged, and shot to pieces.

[Selbaek]

AAA games used to be such an anomaly that it was a treat to sit and play the occasional multi-million dollar game. Now it's the norm, and they all seem to have these checkboxed features that feel more tacked onto the game than chosen as a core element - to the point that they all just feel so tedious. I don't think any of us have grown out of the AAA target demographic, but rather the AAA development has skewed what it believes is the target, and while they're getting the sales, the taste left in people's mouths is getting less and less desirable overall.

[Mr Croft]

AAA games used to be such an anomaly that it was a treat to sit and play the occasional multi-million dollar game. Now it's the norm, and they all seem to have these checkboxed features that feel more tacked onto the game than chosen as a core element - to the point that they all just feel so tedious. I don't think any of us have grown out of the AAA target demographic, but rather the AAA development has skewed what it believes is the target, and while they're getting the sales, the taste left in people's mouths is getting less and less desirable overall.

It feels like alot of these big games lack passion. Video games in general seem for more corporate then ever before. It feels like majority of them have no soul

[Destian]

I'm head over heels in love with Deep Rock Galactic right now, which is made by a small Danish studio. Helldivers and Palworld are likewise smaller devs just making fun games.

I think the biggest issue is that AAA games try to triple dip: not only do they often have exorbitantly priced "collector's editions" on top of the box price, but they also have microtransactions AND paid DLC and battle passes, and a lot of it isn't optional if you want to experience new content.

The Assassin's Creed games started making the grind extra long and boring so they could sell an item in the cash shop that reduces the grind, and this is a SINGLE player game.

AAA studios are also notorious for crunch culture and burning out their employees. Seeing them start to flop is definitely progress.