Defining "AAA"

[Chaosolous]

What's your definition of AAA?

For me, it's not about budget, it's about legacy.

In my mind AAA are all the legacy companies from yesteryear that went from studios to massive multi-national conglomerates ran by CEO's and board room executives.

Companies made from the corpses of once beloved studios. Corporations whose growth almost outpaced the hobby itself.

Conglomerates like Activision/Blizzard (or Microsoft now), Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Rockstar Games, Capcom, Bethesda, Bungi, Take-Two, and the rest of the corporations that siphoned up all the previous smaller studios.

I wouldn't consider studios like FromSoftware or Larian AAA, despite their success and budgets. The reason being is that they're not beholden to investors or board members, only to their customers, the players.

I used to consider CD Projekt among them too but once news about why CyberPunk 2077's launch was such a ♥♥♥♥ show got out (about how upper management pushed it out the door despite multiple pleas from the developers for more time, claiming it wasn't ready. Management wanted their product on the shelf though so that's, unfortunately, exactly what they and the rest of us, got) I lost a lot of faith in them. Time will tell if they pull back to sanity.

I think the major difference is who they're making the game for. If your company has investors, you're not making the game for the gamers, you're making it for investment returns. Before you get on it too; I don't mean "WaT? uR SaYiNg a bUsInEsS WaNtS PrOfItS AnD Ur uPsEt? RoFlCoPtEr lMaO LoSeR DoEsN'T UnDeRsTaNd mOnEy" either, I mean that the point of selling the game for a lot of these AAA companies isn't to sell a good game, it's to get you to buy more stuff after you buy the game. Purely for the sake of investor returns and CEO payout bonuses.

[90054321564584560]

3 letters

[sleeps]

well, it refers to big, oftentimes public companies. that's about it. indies can be a (private) company, if the leader of the team wants to. to be fair, i think "AA" is a dying term as people are too obsessed with dichotomy and purity.

does kojima productions count as indie at that point?

[WeeHawky]

Mario
Sonic
GTA
Street Fighters
Mortal Kombat

[Chaosolous]

Weehawky Pittsburg Hotlinks Pwn님이 먼저 게시:

Mario

You make a decent point about Nintendo also being AAA.

They seem to be strutting the line of games first pretty well though, despite how much they hate their customers. Very few MxT in Nintendo first party games, if any.

sleeps님이 먼저 게시:

well, it refers to big, oftentimes public companies. that's about it. indies can be a (private) company, if the leader of the team wants to. to be fair, i think "AA" is a dying term as people are too obsessed with dichotomy and purity.

does kojima productions count as indie at that point?

If Kojima has to answer to investors in regards to game sales, then no, they're not indie. If they don't have investors, then yes, they're indie. That's how I'd look at it. Then the game can stand on it's own merits without the lingering question of intention behind design decisions that reek of greed.

[Kargor]

Chaosolous님이 먼저 게시:

What's your definition of AAA?

I don't need one -- whether it's "AAA" yes/no, "Indie" yes/no, genre, ... I look at games, not at labels that people stick on them.

Still, while I don't stick labels on games, other people do. And then they talk about "AAA" games, or "FPS" games, and other stuff, and I need to have some idea what they are talking about.

For "AAA", I seem to do reasonably well to assume it's about "games made by Ubisoft, EA, Rockstar". Budget is a bit of a problem since I don't know the budgets for a game, so "high budget" doesn't really work -- and it would still require a boundary where the budget is high enough for AAA.

[Dadpool]

To me AAA means that the game required a lot of effort typically made by a big company, this does not mean that AAA is good, it just means that the game was taxing to make.

[Phirestar]

I think it’s pretty easy for us to all collectively determine what ‘AAA’ companies look like. Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Activision, Ubisoft, EA, etc.

The problem comes in when we’re trying to determine the edges of the classification. Where exactly does the line get drawn, and how?

Like for example, why is Elden Ring considered AAA, but Baldur’s Gate 3 is labeled as indie or mid-tier? What’s the difference between FromSoftware and Larian Studios that makes this distinction?

[Steve]

Chaosolous님이 먼저 게시:

What's your definition of AAA?

American Automobile Association.

[AustrAlien2010]

It's a buzzword that doesn't mean anything in particular. Game retailers made it up.

If you are a retailer, it probably means something to you. But if you're a connoisseur, it doesn't mean much.

[qb]

a buzzword, i don't really see any new stuff anymore that much, when i was younger i saw, but now its like looking at kids toys, sometimes its just a tiring thing to play.

[Crazy Tiger]

It's a gimmicky marketing term that mainly "gamers" like to throw around. It has no real meaning.

I look at games to see whether I think they're fun or not, I don't care about the labels "gamers" want to put on them.

[Menzagitat]

Chaosolous님이 먼저 게시:

What's your definition of AAA?

For me, it's not about budget, it's about legacy.

...

I wouldn't consider studios like FromSoftware or Larian AAA, despite their success and budgets. The reason being is that they're not beholden to investors or board members, only to their customers, the players.

...

I think the major difference is who they're making the game for. If your company has investors, you're not making the game for the gamers, you're making it for investment returns.

I think it is about the quality of the game considering also the budget, polish and complexity / number of features.
When a company makes more such games and can afford working on multiple ones at the same time, you can already say it is an AAA company.
When they fail to deliver quality, they gain bad reputation. But everyone tries to take our money, indie developers too with their Early Access games. Some end up really good but not everyone is equally skilled.

[steven1mac]

It is a battery size.

[Mauserich]

Credit rating

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_credit_rating

[vkobe]

Chaosolous님이 먼저 게시:

What's your definition of AAA?

For me, it's not about budget, it's about legacy.

In my mind AAA are all the legacy companies from yesteryear that went from studios to massive multi-national conglomerates ran by CEO's and board room executives.

Companies made from the corpses of once beloved studios. Corporations whose growth almost outpaced the hobby itself.

Conglomerates like Activision/Blizzard (or Microsoft now), Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Rockstar Games, Capcom, Bethesda, Bungi, Take-Two, and the rest of the corporations that siphoned up all the previous smaller studios.

I wouldn't consider studios like FromSoftware or Larian AAA, despite their success and budgets. The reason being is that they're not beholden to investors or board members, only to their customers, the players.

I used to consider CD Projekt among them too but once news about why CyberPunk 2077's launch was such a ♥♥♥♥ show got out (about how upper management pushed it out the door despite multiple pleas from the developers for more time, claiming it wasn't ready. Management wanted their product on the shelf though so that's, unfortunately, exactly what they and the rest of us, got) I lost a lot of faith in them. Time will tell if they pull back to sanity.

I think the major difference is who they're making the game for. If your company has investors, you're not making the game for the gamers, you're making it for investment returns. Before you get on it too; I don't mean "WaT? uR SaYiNg a bUsInEsS WaNtS PrOfItS AnD Ur uPsEt? RoFlCoPtEr lMaO LoSeR DoEsN'T UnDeRsTaNd mOnEy" either, I mean that the point of selling the game for a lot of these AAA companies isn't to sell a good game, it's to get you to buy more stuff after you buy the game. Purely for the sake of investor returns and CEO payout bonuses.

budget game able to pay at least 100 employees for at least 3 years

aa are more in dozen employees and only for one year, it is why they often release jrpg every year

indy few dozens employees, sometime less than 10 and is not rare it is only one dude, it is possible they have another job and their game is only extra $$$, but they may work in something else to pay their bill, but the guy repair computer or give advice how to fix pc

aaaa is equivalent to walt disney and their crappy movie of 200 millions $$, budget at least 100 millions $$ maybe 200 millions $$, their price is alway the most expansive