![2549999-styx-09[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/HLv2pUh.jpg "2549999-styx-09[1].jpg")
Do you know what's the biggest problem in the industry today? Lack of AA games. What are AA games? Something between huge AAA games and small pixelshit indie titles.
AA games were prominent a few years ago, where we got tons of them for PS2 and PC. Little, cheap projects that were allowed to innovate and made with a small team. The graphics could still be similar to AAA games, but the game usually was less polished, shorter and targeted more of a niche demographic. Nowadays, these small games can't compete with big budget AAA games on the graphical side, so I think that's why we see such a gap. Instead of big publishers giving 10 developers 1 million dollars, they give 1 developer 10 million dollars and bet all their money on one horse - which is a mistake, in my opinion, and why we see so little new IPs.
So yes. If you ever again wonder why industry feels shittier and shittier - this is it. Kickstarter was a good thing for a while and we got some great stuff out of it (Chivalry, Divinity Original Sin), but ultimately it got crowded with hacks and losers. Hopefully things will change soon with accessibility of UE4 and other big engines, but it seems like people tend to do open world survival games only. We'll see.
Pic related is one of the best AA releases in years. If you got more, please share! I can think of Singularity, Cryostasis, Divinity Original Sin and a bunch of jap games like Dragons Crown.
>>321693015
it's called middleware
they still exist but are usually just thrown in with all the other indie games because no marketing
the whole thing used to be much bigger back when movie tie in's etc were a thing
You're right.
I usually call them middle market games, but "AA" works too.
Anyways, they died out during 2007-2008 when CoD 4 took the world by storm.
The recession didn't help either, so you saw more risk averse games, but with higher budgets.
Higher budgets resulted in justifying DLC out the ass because "games are expensive to make :^)"
>>321693015
Blame cancerous esport shit for taking all the publisher interest.
Almost done with this hobby. Thank god.
I had hoped that indie games would step in to fill this gap, but that didn't happen. "Indie" became a genre rather than just an adjective.
>>321693674
>>321693781
Yeah, didn't know the exact term, so I just call them AA. It seems weird that publisher think one game is less risky then 10 games.
Surely, one of those 10 games might be successful? At least one. And then they can make it into a franchise and milk the shit out of it if they want.
>>321693930
Nah, I don't think it was the esport thing, that's pretty new and only happens with multiplayer games.
>>321694276
They did, but badly. Most people make pixel platformers or shitty open world zombie survival games. There are some here and there that are good, but they're tough to find out about. I mean, nobody knows Styx, most big sites either ignored it or hated it because the combat sucks. IN A FUCKING STEALTH GAME.
So yes. Lack of AA games + normalfags storming video gaming + retarded journalists who are pretty much the normalfags from before + recession. Hopefully normies move to another thing to ruin soon.
>>321693930
>>321694526
it's not esports that shit is small time
its more to do with publishers and how they would rather make fewer big budget games rather than a bunch lower budget games and a lot of them shut down just look at THQ
![maxresdefault[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/DP1O8b9.jpg "maxresdefault[1].jpg")
One AA title I'd really recommend is Death to Spies, especially the second one since it's more refined.
It's like a WW2 Hitman knock off, and since Hitman is so unique and Absolution was pretty bad (for a Hitman game) I don't mind it at all. A sequel is coming out in February, might be worth checking it out. Sadly nobody even knows about it.
>>321694526
>Yeah, didn't know the exact term, so I just call them AA. It seems weird that publisher think one game is less risky then 10 games.
>Surely, one of those 10 games might be successful? At least one. And then they can make it into a franchise and milk the shit out of it if they want.
I think this is simply because the priorities have changed. Game companies aren't content to just do well; they want every game to make as much money as CoD. A game can't just be successful - it has to be a mega-hit blockbuster.
>>321694526
They're actually less risk averse, since the lower budget means they can make a profit with lower sales and publishers are too ambitious thinking "go big or don't go at all".
Sadly, investors only care about NPD sales figures being high and push publishers (who are happy to oblige) to copy what's popular.
That's why games are mostly the same nowadays.
>>321694854
>>321695034
THQ made some really poor choices though, like their own fucking tablet or something. If they would stuck to making good games like Company of Heroes, Darksiders, etc., they would make profit.
>>321695068
Exactly. I think that once big games like Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed go down, we can have another gold period where they bring out their developers and try to look for the next big megahit.
that fat fuck Notch could fund a few hundred of these games.
Did you post this thread yesterday where I said Styx and now you use that for the OP?
>>321695369
That's what I'd do with that kind of money at least. Especially when he says he's bored and lonely - he could make so many people happy and he could overlook the development. He could make an incubator for indie teams. Sooner or later, if he hangs out with "smart" people trying to make games so they share interest, they would get along and he'd get friends.
>>321695467
I made a thread yesterday but I think I used Styx as OP image as well since I bought it on sale and I'm playing it now.
I wonder how much of this is a result of consoles trying to be multimedia entertainment centers rather than just gaming machines. They add all these multimedia features to draw in more people, so in turn, the games get changed to appeal to the biggest mass market possible. That results in games trying to be Hollywood movies instead of, well, games.
The PS2 and Xbox could play DVDs, but it was a side feature. They were pure gaming machines.
I know this sounds like I'm saying the stereotypical line of "It used to be about the art, man, but now it's all about the money!", but I'm not sure that's wrong.
>between huge AAA games and small pixelshit indie titles.
>muh generalizations
>>321695858
It is true, normalfags ruin everything.
But it's weird how in every other media, you have middleware stuff. Especially in movies, which is the most comparable one. You have shit like Star Wars, and then you have things like last years Whiplash which was a fantastic "small" movie.
Publishers need to branch out. Between their mega hits, they need to make some smaller stuff or they will die out fast. EA has their sports games, but Ubisoft is kinda fucked if AC and Far Cry games stop making profit.
My biggest fear is whats current AAA trash wont lose a great deal of sales until something comes along to dethrone it: especially for yearly intervals like cod it feels so much like just going through the motions, an automatic action to buy it each year (provided you're a fucking casual)
Kind of how Minecraft took the 12 year old kid world by storm.
>>321694526
>They did, but badly. Most people make pixel platformers or shitty open world zombie survival games. There are some here and there that are good, but they're tough to find out about.
That's what I meant when I said indie became a genre. Indie didn't mean "normal games made by a small team with a small budget", it meant pixel/puzzle platformers and games trying way too hard to be "quirky" and "funny".
Pic related is an indie game, made by one guy. That's the type of thing I wanted to see more of. Apparently it's not great, but it's the best example I could think of quickly.
>>321696732
Of course, the problem there is that even if something dethrones the AAA trash, it will likely just become the new AAA trash as it's changed to appeal to an even bigger audience. The underlying problem would remain.
>>321696732
>>321697232
It's slowly moving to open world trash. Every game must be open world, at least 50 hours long with tons and tons of pointless fetch quests and collecting shit.
>>321695858
PS1 was the start of when it became about the money.
You know why gaming is so terrible now?
Because third parties have too much power and influence.
Nintendo was right to keep them in line during the 80s because
This is actually one reason why "indie" games are cancerous. You have publishers who would, in the past, give money to AA developers, but who are now funding horrible "indie" games with AA budgets. Example - Child of Light with Ubisoft.
>>321693015
>got Styx on Holiday sale
>mfw the first level is already bigger and more complex than most AAA games first levels
>mfw finding out that its getting a sequel
I'm not even an hour in and I already love it, its a actual stealth game and not a "STEALTH" game
>>321699110
>stealth has been reduced to an optional gameplay mechanic and not an entire genre because of modern publishers/devs.
Let that sink in for a moment.
>>321699110
>>321699346
Go read the reviews. They're complaining that the combat is shit in a STEALTH GAME.
As much as I love Dishonored, it wasn't a very good stealth game. But Styx and Alien Isolation were two very good stealth games released in 2014.
>>321693674
>it's called middleware
Holy shit.Just, fucking google that word.
>>321693015
Amen. Been saying this about movies and videogames since 2008.
>>321693015
They still exist, they're just labeled as "indie" because it's more marketable. Hell, I've seen people try to label ArmA as indie because it sounds like they're a GROUP OF FUN GUYS JUS TRYIN TO MAKE IT IN THIS WORLD. Instead they work for a hundred million plus publisher.
tl;dr plenty of AA games, they just disguise themselves as A games because thats poopular.
>>321693015
I call them B games, and we still get plenty of them, especially on PC. Just clicking over to Steam's front page I see: Vermintide, Sword Coast Legends, Black Guards 2, Neptunia Rebirth 1, D4... etc.
At least the weeb scene still exists in this regard, if you're into that. Deception, Drakengard, you know what I mean.
>>321700093
>>321699913
They're hard to find and most aren't really that good since they're trying to follow AAA gaming.
Well, except for weeb games.
