I wonder if it has anything to do with all the layoffs.
Well I mean when games are designed by a committee of worthless executives, what the hell do you expect?
I feel like a big reason why AA disappeared is poor visibility in a saturated market.
Indies get visibility from just posting on social media and indie-specific events, because many people genuinely just love seeing labors of love.
AAA games get visibility from just pumping millions into marketing.
As a AA game, you’re kind of caught in the middle. You’re not enough labor of love to reach the indie enjoyers, and you’re frequently just drowned out by AAA marketing. Not to mention that AAA releases are frequent enough that you’ll pretty just reach gamers who enjoy a certain genre or franchise.
Having said that, we’re on the tail end of the games wave that came from the pandemic. Maybe in a year from now, AA games are in a better place again.
In AAA studios this seems to be the case. Right now it seems like the mid size studio is putting out the most consistently good quality work.
In contrast to this exec and many of the responses, another Steam Next Fest is happening right now! Go play free demos of upcoming games, 99% of which are Indies you’ve probably not yet heard of.
