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[LakeOf9]

AAA games this year haven't really done a lot of great shit. Instead, it has been smaller and/or indie developers who have delivered some of the best games of the year.

Seriously, this lineup is

Dogubomb with Blue Prince...
Fellow Traveller with Citizen Sleeper 2...
TVGS with Schedule 1...
Semiwork with REPO...
Neuludic Games with Tiny Book Shop...
Hazelight Games with Split Fiction...
Heart Machine with Hyper Light Breaker...
Toby Fox with Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4...
11 Bit Studios with The Alters...
Warhorse with Kingdom Come Deliverance 2...
Too Kyo Games with The Hundred Line Defense...

And of course, Sandfall Interactive with Claire Obscur: Expedition 33

And somehow, this isn't everything. We still have some amazing indie games slated for release for the remainder of the year, including Mina the Hollower, Hades II, Yooka Replayee, motherfucking Hollow Knight Silksong... like what have AAA developers really managed to put out this year? Donkey Kong Bananza is excellent, sure, and you can make a case for Death Stranding 2 maybe, but pretty much everything else from AAA developers has been underwhelming to some degree or the other. Assassin's Creed Shadows, Monster Hunter Wilds, DOOM The Dark Ages, Civilization 7, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Mario Kart World, all disappointed or generated some dissent with their fanbase.

Meanwhile games from indie and smaller developers have been on fire this year.

I think this is the year that smaller developers really came out swinging and cemented their value and place in the industry beyond dispute

 

[Fabieter]

Kdc 2 is aaa. Budget would have been like 150m if it was made in the us.

 

[jufonuk]

I hear that independent developer Nintendo has done some good games too.

But seriously I think a lot of lower budget devs are not afraid to experiment and create passion projects/homages

The margin for failure for bloated budget AAA games is too high.

I've had a shit ton of fun with shotgun cop man and games like hunt down, Door kickers, Rico, overcooked etc.

As well as Nintendos output.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Don't include Doom TDA in disappointment list.

Its excellent.

People were overhyped and had different expectations. Thats all. And expensive for a linear shooter.

 

[Senua]

It's been that way for a good while. AAA is 90% generic and safe shite for the normies, us nerds have been rejected and have to dig deeper. It's the same with music, most popular music is garbage now but there are still great bands out there, you just have to actively seek them out amongst the bilge

 

[Dr.Morris79]

It's been that way for a good while. AAA is 90% generic and safe shite for the normies, us nerds have been rejected and have to dig deeper. It's the same with music, most popular music is garbage now but there are still great bands out there, you just have to actively seek them out amongst the bilge

Spot on

 

[HJuggernaut]

I think this has been the case for the past 5-6 years. I can't even remember when my GOTY was a AAA game

 

[RetroGamingUK]

American AAA has been shit for a decade now

 

[drganon]

AAA gaming is in a rough spot, but most indie games are hipster garbage.

 

[The artful mincer]

This generation feels like the most disruptive generation in a while in terms of software. Multi million sellers are popping out of teams we haven't heard of before like weed.

It seems to be Unreal 5 at the heart of it empowering smaller teams to create Triple A production.

China and Korea getting into the Console/PC space are also a cause for it.

 

[owandeseis]

I think it's more about big publishers vs independient or smaller ones instead of AA vs AAA.

These big publishers are developing great games.... if you've been gaming for a couple years or less, for those who have been playing for decades it's the samey boring forgettable games

 

[existensmaximum]

AAA gaming is in a rough spot, but most indie games are hipster garbage.

Or tributes to old-school games (rip-offs) with little to no original ideas.

 

[Felessan]

It's been that way for a good while. AAA is 90% generic and safe shite for the normies, us nerds have been rejected and have to dig deeper. It's the same with music, most popular music is garbage now but there are still great bands out there, you just have to actively seek them out amongst the bilge

You are proud that you are nerd? Mmmm.... okay
Wouldn't boast about it

 

[ecosse_011172]

Indie games are a minefield of garish with unimaginative pixel art or poor cell-shaded style rubbish, I wish there was less junk to sift through, in the end I disregard anything with 16-bit style graphics as I'm bored of it.
What I am appreciating more are AA type games like Still Wakes the Deep and Atomfall.

 

[ecosse_011172]

You are proud that you are nerd? Mmmm.... okay
Wouldn't boast about it

I imagine they mean geek rather than nerd.
I imagine you're some incredible "jock" or whatever that just fetishes Playstation, you spend endless hours drooling over how much money your favourite corporation makes but you're definitely not a nerd, no way.

 

[SpokkX]

dont drag Nintendo into this - they are still top tier (Totk, kart, bananza)

Otherwise yeah i agree.

Except Doom - which is excellent

 

[Felessan]

I imagine they mean geek rather than nerd.
I imagine you're some incredible "jock" or whatever that just fetishes Playstation, you spend endless hours drooling over how much money your favourite corporation makes but you're definitely not a nerd, no way.

You have a rich imagination. In original message it was nerds, so I meant nerds too.
I am worse than nerds so it's always funny to see edgy kids that thinks they are special just because they are not "normies"

 

[ecosse_011172]

You have a rich imagination. In original message it was nerds, so I meant nerds too.
I am worse than nerds so it's always funny to see edgy kids that thinks they are special just because they are not "normies"

You are worse than a nerd but telling people they shouldn't be proud to be a nerd?

 

[Felessan]

You are worse than a nerd but telling people they shouldn't be proud to be a nerd?

Yes
There is a scattering problem. The further you out the less dense space becomes. I would like to discuss quantum teleportation or wide-spread diseases impact of genetics etc - but there are not much people out there to discuss it with. Like not not not much people who can reasonable discuss this stuff.
So I have to scale down. And I rather scale it back to normies than to nerds who are just edgy kids who think they are special.

 

[Holammer]

Back in the PS2 days we saw a lot of innovation and crazy games from major developers. Today with budgets in the 100's of millions they have to play it safe with walking simulators developed for mass appeal, with directors that look down on gaming and fancy themselves a movie director with dreams of Hollywood. So the innovation and risk taking is only found in the indie space now.

Schedule I, R.E.P.O & Peak are some of the highest grossing games this year, putting AAA games to shame and they see little discussion here on GAF.

 

[RAIDEN1]

If nothing else we now know, that 2025 is the year of the Ninja, - Shinobi, Ninja Gaiden, and the last ninja soon making his entry....

 

[calico]

Warhorse got bought, which is why they pivoted from 'Henry is straight' and 'There were no black people in medieval Bohemia, period' to making a diverse gay sex simulator.

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

Western AAA is just brainless slop now.

 

[Chairman Yang]

Back in the PS2 days we saw a lot of innovation and crazy games from major developers. Today with budgets in the 100's of millions they have to play it safe with walking simulators developed for mass appeal, with directors that look down on gaming and fancy themselves a movie director with dreams of Hollywood. So the innovation and risk taking is only found in the indie space now.

Schedule I, R.E.P.O & Peak are some of the highest grossing games this year, putting AAA games to shame and they see little discussion here on GAF.

I wonder if roughly PS2-level budgets (which seem approximately equivalent to modern big indie/AA budgets) are the sweet spot for game quality.

 

[bender]

Smaller scoped games have been carrying my interest in gaming for many, many years now. That aside, 2025 is going to go down as one of the least memorable years in gaming in my book.

 

[ecosse_011172]

Yes
There is a scattering problem. The further you out the less dense space becomes. I would like to discuss quantum teleportation or wide-spread diseases impact of genetics etc - but there are not much people out there to discuss it with. Like not not not much people who can reasonable discuss this stuff.
So I have to scale down. And I rather scale it back to normies than to nerds who are just edgy kids who think they are special.

So you are a real nerd who looks down on the fake nerds because their nerd levels are not as high as yours.

 

[Holammer]

I wonder if roughly PS2-level budgets (which seem approximately equivalent to modern big indie/AA budgets) are the sweet spot for game quality.

Sounds reasonable. REPO & Schedule are special oddities as they have teams you can count on one hand. Peak on the other hand has 50 professional credits listed on Mobygames, Sly Cooper for a comparision got 80. Likely very close to a PS2 era budget/team size, but much cheaper as the development time was a mere 4 weeks with some polish afterwards until release.
Game sold over 4.5M copies and it's still trending on Steam.