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[Men_in_Boxes]

You can't just follow trends... or once you finish your AAA game the trend could be over.

You have to understand trends.

The music game trend that lasted 3.5 years (Rockband, Guitar Hero) always felt like a flash in the pan. I can see companies not following that one.

The survival genre feels like it's here to stay.

 

[The artful mincer]

Rust is huge.
DayZ is huge.
Ark is huge.
The Long Dark is huge.
The Forest is huge.
No Man's Sky is huge.
Minecraft is huge.
Valheim is huge.
Lego Fortnite is huge.

Now...Palworld is huge. What are the odds?

All the above games were made by small teams and they all went on to outsell a number of AAA games.

Why hasn't the AAA industry recognized this market trend sooner and delivered a proper big budget survival game? I think the only one in the cooker at the moment is Blizzards Project Odyssey but that is still likely a few years off. What's with the hesitancy? Why have the big publishers avoided the genre for so long?

Those games are big but Palworld is on a completely different level. (Accept Minecraft) I think they will absolutely take note now.

I think there will be a race similar to battle royal last gen to grab market share early before brands get established.

Then again AAA is slow to react or doesn't see the true sales potential. There’s only really been one true AAA souls like attempt Jedi Survior and Fallen Order. The rest have all been lower tier AA efforts like Nioh and Lies of P.

 

[bender]

The Long Dark is huge? I kickstarted the game way back when and it's definitely my favorite of the genre, mostly because it feels the most grounded and believable.

 

[Fabieter]

Those games are big but Palworld is on a completely different level. (Accept Minecraft) I think they will absolutely take note now.

I think there will be a race similar to battle royal last gen to grab market share early before brands get established.

Then again AAA is slow to react or doesn't see the true sales potential. There’s only really been one true AAA souls like attempt Jedi Survior and Fallen Order. The rest have all been lower tier AA efforts like Nioh and Lies of P.

Didn't games like ark also sell like 20 to 25m copies. I dont think this will change much.

 

[Zelduh]

"Survival crafting" is simply a shit genre

 

[Bry0]

They can’t figure out how to dumb it down enough to make the “hardcore” 2 hours of gaming a week playtesters happy.

Snarky, I know, but it points at the bigger problem in AAA imo. Risk averse to a fault.

 

[Sakura]

It's kind of interesting really. I think the same thing with games like Stardew Valley. One dude made that game and it came out 8 years ago, how is it that the devs behind Harvest Moon, who actually have a team of multiple people and a budget, can't make a game of that quality?
Maybe it is just a lack of passion and/or creative vision.
A lot of these indie devs seem to just be making games that they want to play and that they think would be fun.

 

[ReBurn]

Focus groups haven't given them the thumbs up yet.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

Do not talk about bad luck

 

[Clintizzle]

I'd imagine the higher-ups at AAA studios don't like the results of their cost-benefit analysis. These games have a LOT of content for a small base price.

 

[Dorfdad]

I love these types of games and spent a ton of time in H1Z1 zombies mode building bases and surviving

Not me I spent more time running from gangs of toxic twats minding my own business just to be killed for some rations and ass cream I had!

Id prefer a major CO-OP vs World type of game.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I'd imagine the higher-ups at AAA studios don't like the results of their cost-benefit analysis. These games have a LOT of content for a small base price.

Why are small, jank @** teams able to provide so much content then?

What makes them so much more capable than the top studios?

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Rust is huge.
DayZ is huge.
Ark is huge.
The Long Dark is huge.
The Forest is huge.
No Man's Sky is huge.
Minecraft is huge.
Valheim is huge.
Your mom is huge.

You better watch your mouth, boy.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Not me I spent more time running from gangs of toxic twats minding my own business just to be killed for some rations and ass cream I had!

Id prefer a major CO-OP vs World type of game.

In H1Z1 my group flipped between PVP and PVE servers depending who was on

At times I actually prefer PVE

 

[Clintizzle]

Why are small, jank @** teams able to provide so much content then?

What makes them so much more capable than the top studios?

I'll rephrase. These games have a lot of content that the player can use to make more content.

AAA teams can easily produce the content in these games and probably at half the speed and higher quality. The problem is AAA studios haven't figured out how to have recurring revenue from games like this and would rather spend their time and resources on other things.

 

[Laptop1991]

Probably too busy making games you can buy stuff in, i'm not sure a survival game where you could simply pay your way out of trouble would take very long to play.

 

[IDappa]

They are still figuring out how to implement SBMM

 

[bender]

Probably too busy making games you can buy stuff in, i'm not sure a survival game where you could simply pay your way out of trouble would take very long to play.

Cosmetics a la Minecraft.

 

[Laptop1991]

Cosmetics a la Minecraft.

Because cosmetics will save you lol, i'm sure if they sold a lot they would be making more survival games, but your right they would put them in, and Fallout 76 was suppose to be cosmetics only but that didn't last long.

 

[bender]

Because cosmetics will save you lol, i'm sure if they sold a lot they would be making more survival games, but your right they would put them in, and Fallout 76 was suppose to be cosmetics only but that didn't last long.

No, what I meant is that they wouldn't need to monetize crafting materials to save you when they could just go the route that other games do and offer cosmetics.

 

[Laptop1991]

No, what I meant is that they wouldn't need to monetize crafting materials to save you when they could just go the route that other games do and offer cosmetics.

Yeah, fine, although you can't say they would only do cosmetics and not gameplay changes and that they would sell a lot as well, but there not doing that as they are not making survival games, that's what the OP is asking, i just gave a maybe point of view.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Because Survival games aren't really designed to sell you MTXs.

 

[StueyDuck]

I feel like Sony really could of made something with days gone. Turned it into a coop survival. Expand the map some. Intensify the survival elements.

Make those freaker hordes even stronger.

Could've been special.

 

[Negotiator101]

Isn't State of Decay a survival game? Maybe SOD3 will finally make the jump to AAA?

 

[Danjin44]

Because most survival games are booooooooooooooooooooooooooooring!

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Another entry has landed...

Once Human - Steam Charts

An ongoing analysis of Steam's player numbers, seeing what's been played the most.

steamcharts.com

Once Human, made by Starry Studio (25 employees), is lighting up the charts.

AAA...

 

[SHA]

I'm not that good at ratios but, part of it for sure is personal, once in a while you hear them regretting their decisions for even stepping into this industry, another part usually is it takes some random writer to get out of his way to get the attention which is rare, another part is you just mentioned it, an aaa game, a survival game usually doesn't qualify for whatever reason to step into the AAA industry, again, it takes some dudes getting out of their way to do what they want without backing up their decisions with solid qualifications just cause they want to do it.