Cliff Bleszinski Warns That Triple-A Game Development Is "Nearly Unsustainable"

[Semantics]

It cost less to develop than the majority of AAA titles. I realize that a good reason for that is they are based in Poland, but the point remains - many other AAA developers have studios worldwide and in cheaper countries. And it was a very good game, that really raised the bar in a number of areas for open world games, especially in quest design, writing, and scale. I had never before played a game that actually felt like I was in a city, but Novigrad in Witcher 3 is enormous. Compare it to a "city" in a game like Skyrim and there is no comparison. It felt like they still took some risks with the game and gave it the attention it needed, whereas most of the big name AAA franchises are more concerned with churning out a new title every year or two.

Quest design lol, writing yes but quest design the majority of witch quests are fetch/kill quests well it's pretty much all kill quests with some fetch mechanics mixed in. The only thing "innovative" about their quest design is it always told a story well.

 

[Rizen]

Quest design lol, writing yes but quest design the majority of witch quests are fetch/kill quests well it's pretty much all kill quests with some fetch mechanics mixed in. The only thing "innovative" about their quest design is it always told a story well.

But that's exactly the point - yes, the quests are mostly fetch / kill quests, but

A) You are playing a character whose job in the lore is literally to kill monsters,
B) Each individual quest had a plausible, unique story which was generally told well

That's a pretty big departure from how the filler quests in most open world games are told.

 

[Nytegard]

There have been studies on this in the past. When even a well known company stops advertising, it can start to really eat into their returns. It pays off to have "we're still here" ads in the long run. It's the reason you still see Coke and Pepsi commercials today even though everyone on the planet knows about them.

A lot of people here have much more faith in humanity than me. Good marketing can sell practically anything to the public. Case in point: The Pet Rock. I understand this is an old example, but it's still a great example, as it's an extremely lazy product that sold quite well due to marketing. And despite what we might love to think of ourselves as above it, we're all susceptible to marketing and buy products every year that we were manipulated into.

 

[tetris42]

A lot of people here have much more faith in humanity than me. Good marketing can sell practically anything to the public. Case in point: The Pet Rock. I understand this is an old example, but it's still a great example, as it's an extremely lazy product that sold quite well due to marketing. And despite what we might love to think of ourselves as above it, we're all susceptible to marketing and buy products every year that we were manipulated into.

There are examples of great games with little marketing getting sales by word of mouth, but they're rare and usually not to the tune of AAA sales numbers. I'm convinced good marketing can sell a so-so game that looks good to the point of record numbers. It can't sell an absolute turd (beyond pre-orders), but anything else often brings back the money invested in it.

 

[chenw]

Witcher is designed in Poland for also the fact that the author of the Witcher novels and short stories is Polish, and it hasn't gained much popularity outside of Poland AFAIK until the Witcher games came out.

 

[ruffbytes]

I read the article and don't agree with him.

This is exactly how the film industry has ended up, and it is fine.

You know when you go see the latest big superhero / action / romance movie that there isn't going to be anything offensive to almost anyone in the plot and you probably can guess the end of the movie after 15 minutes in.

You also know when you watch some strange straight to digital /disc movie you found on Netflix that it is probably going to be crap, but it has a chance to be one of your favorite movies of all time. The plot might have things in it that are terribly offensive to one group of folks or another, but it might just speak to you.

The market supports both of these types movies just fine.

The market will support both of these types of games just fine as well.

 

[deton8]

Nearly unsustainable business models are the bedrock of capitalism.

Once there are no more untapped foreign markets to break into and no more fixed costs to offshore how do you continue to generate increased shareholder value?

I read the article and don't agree with him.

This is exactly how the film industry has ended up, and it is fine.

You know when you go see the latest big superhero / action / romance movie that there isn't going to be anything offensive to almost anyone in the plot and you probably can guess the end of the movie after 15 minutes in.

You also know when you watch some strange straight to digital /disc movie you found on Netflix that it is probably going to be crap, but it has a chance to be one of your favorite movies of all time. The plot might have things in it that are terribly offensive to one group of folks or another, but it might just speak to you.

The market supports both of these types movies just fine.

The market will support both of these types of games just fine as well.

One could argue the film industry is equally unsustainable.

In the short to medium term it's probably business as usual. But I can't see how these paint-by-numbers rehashes with marketing budgets as big as production budgets can somehow break the law of diminishing returns.

 

[M76]

Nearly unsustainable business models are the bedrock of capitalism.

Once there are no more untapped foreign markets to break into and no more fixed costs to offshore how do you continue to generate increased shareholder value?

That's not the problem of any particular industry, that's the problem of capitalism itself. One we have to deal with unless we want a depression the likes noone has seen before. It will be anarchy and chaos, destruction, our entire cvilization might go poof in nuclear fire. Or the alternative is we start to slowly dismantle capitalism on our own terms in a controlled fashion. Basic income is the first step in that direction.

 

[twonunpackmule]

All those poor people being fed, what evil capitalism has caused.

 

[tetris42]

That's not the problem of any particular industry, that's the problem of capitalism itself. One we have to deal with unless we want a depression the likes noone has seen before. It will be anarchy and chaos, destruction, our entire cvilization might go poof in nuclear fire. Or the alternative is we start to slowly dismantle capitalism on our own terms in a controlled fashion. Basic income is the first step in that direction.

Well it's like that quote "Anyone who thinks endless growth is possible in a finite world is either a madman or an economist."

 

[M76]

All those poor people being fed, what evil capitalism has caused.

In my country we have a saying for that: "Ha hallgattál volna, bölcs maradtál volna"

Which roughly translates into English as:
Better to remain silent and appear wise than speak out and remove that guise.

 

[lcpiper]

There will always be millions of idiots to buy Call of Duty Remake #20, Battlefield Remake #12, Morrowind Remake #6 and Scifi Morrowind Remake #4. AAA games are going nowhere.

Just look at the Fast and Furious movie franchise, ROFL.

Does that mean Fallout 4 and Skyrim weren't Triple A titles?
The Division ?
Mass Effect Andromeda ?

I'll admit this isn't my area of expertise. But from what I see, I agree with you.

Not every game needs a complete redo anyway. Just upgrading graphics and the rest of the visual experience to keep up with hardware development and capabilities. Then change up the window-dressing, WW1 or WW2 or anti-terrorism, or fighting the Chinese Army, whatever. Sometimes a nice twist on the UI and the model control, like peeking around corners or blind fire. What else does it take? Micro-Transactions or no, Achievements or no achievements. 1St person, 3rd person, switchable cams.



I always wanted a ShadowRun game, user actions have real-world effects. The big power players are the Corps and the Governments, make the player actions, successful and failed missions impact this bigger world, make the news, etc. When I am in-game and I go into a cafe, if I see a news flash about a corp that got robbed, it was robbed by players, it's not scripted it's living. The corp loses stock, a competitor announces a new product, (based on tech stolen in the robbery), etc.

Behind the scenes, my resume just got a boost, my rating went up, I'm worth more on a job, someone might pay to have me killed.....

I don't think you can do this as anything but a Triple A so ...

 

[lcpiper]

Nearly unsustainable business models are the bedrock of capitalism.

Once there are no more untapped foreign markets to break into and no more fixed costs to offshore how do you continue to generate increased shareholder value?

One could argue the film industry is equally unsustainable.

In the short to medium term it's probably business as usual. But I can't see how these paint-by-numbers rehashes with marketing budgets as big as production budgets can somehow break the law of diminishing returns.

But, if you have enough models to use, albeit over and over again, fresh paint on old wood. If you have enough ...... you can do it forever, because people are born, become children, teenagers, young adults, parents, retirees, etc.

Who here saw Outland, a SciFi looking flick with Shaun Connery from the 80's, and didn't think of it as a Space Western?

Same old wood, new paint.

 

[Staples]

There are indie games that score really well. Are these not AAA games? He acts like AAA games need to be 100M dollar games.