Time will tell. Though I think the torch is well in the process of being passed. Larian and Pearl Abyss, not EA and Ubisoft, will be the AAA studios of the future.
Great breakdown! I also hope that these developments open a path for more indie projects. Over the past decade, the single player FPS genre has already gone through somewhat of a revival thanks to bold indie devs (Dusk, Ion Fury, Selaco). I hope that other genres can follow in picking up the pieces where Western AAA collapsed in on itself.
In terms of AAA, over the past months I've mainly been playing games by Koei Tecmo, Nintendo and HAL Laboratory. One thing I noticed is the relative lack of bullshit in their products. Little after-purchase monetization, no need to make extra accounts or install several layers of DRM, and a near total absence of bugs because these products weren't rushed past the finish line. Just put the game in the console and have fun. It's so refreshing.
Oh I think that process is well underway. Indies are already outperforming AAA on Steam, and this will only accelerate since indies are far more attuned to what players want. Just the releases from this past month (Slay the Spire 2, Crimson Desert, Mouse: PI, Windrose) are showing the way forward in many genres. It sucks that AAA has fallen as hard as it has, but the indie scene has so much creative ambition and it's well-positioned to forge a new path forward.
I hear you on Tecmo and Nintendo/HAL. If you look at the AAA studios that are still doing well, they're almost all Japanese developers (add FromSoftware and Capcom to that list, too!). I don't think that's a coincidence.
The Western AAA industry is cooked if they dont wake up.
Time will tell. Though I think the torch is well in the process of being passed. Larian and Pearl Abyss, not EA and Ubisoft, will be the AAA studios of the future.
Great breakdown! I also hope that these developments open a path for more indie projects. Over the past decade, the single player FPS genre has already gone through somewhat of a revival thanks to bold indie devs (Dusk, Ion Fury, Selaco). I hope that other genres can follow in picking up the pieces where Western AAA collapsed in on itself.
In terms of AAA, over the past months I've mainly been playing games by Koei Tecmo, Nintendo and HAL Laboratory. One thing I noticed is the relative lack of bullshit in their products. Little after-purchase monetization, no need to make extra accounts or install several layers of DRM, and a near total absence of bugs because these products weren't rushed past the finish line. Just put the game in the console and have fun. It's so refreshing.
Oh I think that process is well underway. Indies are already outperforming AAA on Steam, and this will only accelerate since indies are far more attuned to what players want. Just the releases from this past month (Slay the Spire 2, Crimson Desert, Mouse: PI, Windrose) are showing the way forward in many genres. It sucks that AAA has fallen as hard as it has, but the indie scene has so much creative ambition and it's well-positioned to forge a new path forward.
I hear you on Tecmo and Nintendo/HAL. If you look at the AAA studios that are still doing well, they're almost all Japanese developers (add FromSoftware and Capcom to that list, too!). I don't think that's a coincidence.
Anyway, thanks for reading! Glad you enjoyed it