this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2024
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Borderlands 3 and The Elder Scrolls Online director says AAA game studios are playing it safe since "you have people who get nervous because big money is involved" (www.gamesradar.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works to c/games@sh.itjust.works
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[–] BlackAura@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

If the studio is already rather large and retains a number of employees then you're either asking for them to divide into small teams and produce a bunch of projects in parallel (none of which will potentially sell well or be able to maintain the momentum the studio has with previous AAA title releases), or you're essentially asking them to downsize into a smaller studio, laying off 80-90% of their workforce, to produce non-AAA titles again.

Those smaller projects now have smaller marketing budgets (1/10th each). Smaller marketing budget generally means less sales, unless something goes viral (0.1% of the time or less, so really you need 1000 projects not just 10). Not to mention price point is going to be at $20 or maybe $30.

Internally on each game you'll need people to take up the roles of like art director, or whoever decides the look and feel of the art for the game. With AAA titles you used to have one of those (I assume), but now one person has to look after 10 projects, or other people have to step up (one for each project) to do that job. Should they get paid more? Now your smaller projects are costing more money.

It's sort of like saying 9 women can make a baby in 1 month. We know that's impossible. AAA studios are not structured around creating 10 smaller projects.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

They probably ought to start then. It makes sense to build a small successful project and then build up that team to make a larger version of it, like Larian going from Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2 to Baldur's Gate 3. It makes far less sense to just start with the big team and make something outside of your wheelhouse like Suicide Squad. If the thing they used to make is not trending toward a place where it allows them to scale up, or if the team is just tired of making it and needs a new creative outlet, maybe what the industry needs is an off ramp that will change a large team into multiple small teams.

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 weeks ago

What workforce?

Big studios are already ditching the idea of maintaining insitutional knowledge by doing more and more using cheaper contractors.

The downsizing is happening either way.