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Nier creator Yoko Taro reveals the sad reality of modern AAA game development, “there’s less weird people making games” (www.videogamer.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/gaming@beehaw.org
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[–] 12 points 1 year ago (6 children)

It costs so much to make an AAA game these days that it must earn an enormous amount of money to be profitable, which means it needs to appeal to as broad a market as possible, which means nothing niche or unusual. I think movies are having the same problem.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    The problem is that it's actually not as expensive to make a triple ehh game as people are led to believe. What's expensive is overpaying all the greedy executives and their unearned bonuses. More people need to be aware of this.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    If it isn't ridiculously expensive and inefficient, it doesn't really fit the definition of a triple-a game, because it specifically is the term for games with the highest production values and costs.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Don't forget marketing: be it movies or games, marketing likes to cost as much as the production of the media itself.

    Sadly it seems to be necessary as many people just won't know about some piece of media without it. Streamers play games they are paid to play, "reviewers" cover games they are paid to cover or know about through the hype generated by ads.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    True though I can't even begin to understand how marketing justifies its price when a common "fact" that goes around is that the marketing step accounts for 50% of the total game's budget. Like, how does it cost that much?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago*

    Billboard ads can cost hundreds of thousands depending on the location and duration (e.g. Times Square, NY). TV ads, YT ads, streaming services ads, and search engine ads likely add up too. Big streamers will likely take quite a bit too. Maybe they'll do a press conference to promote their game, which can be incredibly expensive location-wise.

    But I agree, I can't comprehend how it can be that expensive either.

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