Jubenhimer
Member
It may just be me, But it feels like 8th generation has seen less AAA productions yearly from major companies (excluding first party exclusives as that's a separate can of Worms) compared to even last generation. For example, we went from 3 excellent Mass Effect games in 7th gen, to one buggy, glitchy, terrible Mass Effect game in 8th gen. We've gone from 2 Dark Souls Games, to just one. 3 Borderlands titles and a spin-off, to a single Borderlands game. Three Main Final Fantasy games, to just one. Even Ubisoft is slowing up on Assassin's Creed releases from a new game each year, to one or two games every other year. Hell it's the only generation to not receive an exclusive GTA game as GTA V debuted on Last gen Consoles a mere 3 months before 8th gen's launch. Only the yearly franchises like CoD and Sports games can come out regularly. Obviously, the main culprit is the sheer costs AAA game development these days.
With next gen systems being more powerful, costs are obviously going to go up again as developers will take advantage of that new power. Now AAA games will never disappear. There will always be big developers with big ideas who want to make big games. That's always been the case, and that always will be the case. That said, I'm willing to be that the amount of AAA games released each year will be even less than current generation. As it stands, right now, we get around 5-6 AAA Multiplatform games at the beginning of the year till spring, followed by a whole bunch of nothing for Summer, then finally few more AAA multi-platform titles, mostly the annual franchises release for the Fall season. The rest of that is filled with indie games and other smaller, cheaper releases like remasters and mid-budget titles like RPGs.
So with next gen rearing its head and seemingly going to require even more time and money to make AAA games for, how much will that number reduce? Will we dwindle to just 3-4 AAA multiplatform games at the beginning of the year, followed by the sports games for Fall? And if the cost increase does reduce the AAA 3rd party games releases, should publishers spread out their games more through the year so that they have something big for Summer and Fall? Obviously First party AAA games don't have as many of these problems because they typically don't take as much to make due to being exclusive to their respective platforms. But as far as third parties are concerned, they're the ones who should be the most worried, as they put nearly all their eggs into the AAA basket each year.
My guess is that 3rd parties will concentrate largely on the Spring season for their AAA releases, then let the platform holders take the most of the spotlight for Fall to release their games. This is already somewhat the case now, but I imagine it'll be even more-so going into next generation.
With next gen systems being more powerful, costs are obviously going to go up again as developers will take advantage of that new power. Now AAA games will never disappear. There will always be big developers with big ideas who want to make big games. That's always been the case, and that always will be the case. That said, I'm willing to be that the amount of AAA games released each year will be even less than current generation. As it stands, right now, we get around 5-6 AAA Multiplatform games at the beginning of the year till spring, followed by a whole bunch of nothing for Summer, then finally few more AAA multi-platform titles, mostly the annual franchises release for the Fall season. The rest of that is filled with indie games and other smaller, cheaper releases like remasters and mid-budget titles like RPGs.
So with next gen rearing its head and seemingly going to require even more time and money to make AAA games for, how much will that number reduce? Will we dwindle to just 3-4 AAA multiplatform games at the beginning of the year, followed by the sports games for Fall? And if the cost increase does reduce the AAA 3rd party games releases, should publishers spread out their games more through the year so that they have something big for Summer and Fall? Obviously First party AAA games don't have as many of these problems because they typically don't take as much to make due to being exclusive to their respective platforms. But as far as third parties are concerned, they're the ones who should be the most worried, as they put nearly all their eggs into the AAA basket each year.
My guess is that 3rd parties will concentrate largely on the Spring season for their AAA releases, then let the platform holders take the most of the spotlight for Fall to release their games. This is already somewhat the case now, but I imagine it'll be even more-so going into next generation.
