Yoshida Doesn't Understand Gamers Who Only Want AAA Games

[Ratty]

I'm usually a retro and indie gamer myself but the AAA gamer mindset isn't hard to understand. People have a limited amount of time and money. So they're looking for the highest enjoyment return on their investment of both. Multimillion dollar marketing campaigns say the "latest and greatest" AAA games fill that role. And whether that's true or not it's believed.

Even more important is the fact that for many (most?) consumers media consumption is primarily a social activity. Where the quality of a piece of media is a very distant second in importance to its (perceived) popularity. You didn't go see that movie, buy that game, watch that show, read that book or listen to that band because you really wanted to, but because everyone in your social circle did and you didn't want to be out of the loop.

The "must see" phenomenon is not new, it's been the case for best selling books and blockbuster movies for a very long time. The "Pop" in pop art/music stands for "popular" after all.

PS- Another person might be vocal about "only enjoying real, fine art" be that games or anything else. This is really just a different way of using media to try and boost your social status. Only instead of trying to fit in with your chosen group you're trying to appear especially refined or discerning to your peers. Taken to an extreme you wind up with a smug better-than-thou hipster, with the vapid celebrity gossip couch potato (or misogynistic AAA dude-bro gamer) on the opposite extreme of media consumer.

 

[Foolery]

Some people just don't have the time or interest to play indies. So they stick to what they know. Big budget titles that can be enjoyed over a weekend or whichever. Like my cousin for example. He's 40, getting married this year, and his go-to game is the Assassin's Creed series. Nothing wrong with that. Indies are more suited for the hardcore crowd, I guess.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

preach it brother

as far as console goes, sony has my vote for supporting the small guy

i do enjoy some AAA titles, but lately they have been getting so dull and they keep putting barriers between the players and their enjoyment

 

[Aramis Night]

Admittedly the term indie does turn me off. I blame the music title. If one doesn't like indie music, why would someone want to play an indie video game which would likely have a music soundtrack that will make me want to die in a dumpster fire. It's just terrible word association. On the other hand, I don't play a lot of AAA games either. I am not interested in a game produced by the American Automobile Association. It just doesn't sound like they would make a quality product instead of an interactive insurance commercial.

 

[CaitSeith]

People think that the games are either AAA or Indies. But there is a middle grounds, like the side projects. Side projects are smaller games made by the big developers to test new waters or different approaches and are released with much less hype and publicity than their main projects. Three perfect examples of these are Portal, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and Link's Crossbow Training.

 

[Ratty]

The "must see" phenomenon is not new, it's been the case for best selling books and blockbuster movies for a very long time. The "Pop" in pop art/music stands for "popular" after all.

i don't object to popular games.

and yes there were always "must have games"...even if it was just a decent space invader clone...and even if people feel "the strength of the draw" differently.

its more about how they are being sold and how we are being led to believe the industry must be structured.

imo the games industry should be recognised to perhaps be more naturally shaped like the movie industry.

are there the small independent films ? yes.

are there the huge blockbuster films ? yes.

is that all ?

fuck no ; there a whole load of other stuff of "in the middle".

to me that is a far more natural feeling model for our industry.

and you'll note blockbuster movies don't cost vastly more "at the door".

and more than that, although i will admit this is from the pov of someone who plays a lot on PC as well as console, the majority of the games i personally now play are basically already..."in the middle".

i will also admit this is undoubtedly affected by the fact that i am not happy with their asserted production/pricing model and actively avoid paying "AAA asking prices".

and no one needs anything like blockbuster action movie money to make a Spunkgargleweewee shooter. assertions like that in particular are just a flat out lies. nor does "the fate of the industry" rely on us buying their latest product. that kinda talk is rank bullshit and annoys the fuck out me. that's like saying "if you don't go see Transformers 4...in 3D...it might be the death of the film industry"...with a straight face...

as long as there's a market for "Spunkgargleweewee shooters"...it will be served.

but this whole "AAA" tag thing is...well it looks and feels contrived basically...in an attempt to get us to accept a vastly inflated pricing model.

people feel that, object to that and the people doing it suffer...but that's kinda the natural way of markets.

that's where one of "the survival of the fittest" bits is.

what can be alternately framed as "soaring production costs"...are not really our problem...especially when others can demonstrably make and deliver basically the same quality of product for far less -.-

if anything its perhaps even because the market is becoming more popular that this view is becoming more prevalent.

i know kids now who are basically restricted to "new games" on birthdays, maybe "the school holidays" and at Christmas...or at least that's roughly the starting gambit by the adults at any rate...like they're trainers/sneakers or something...which coincidently they now cost the same as...

but tbh my "full price/brand new" buying probably isn't far away from that...

the "price point" now causes A LOT of people to pause...is my experience anyway.

it didn't used to be like that...and imo personally...nor does it somehow have to be like that.

and imho "that" is a pretty dire emergent purchasing pattern if what we really all want is a vibrant, healthy, and productive games industry/market full of choice and variety.

this position is not in any way anti "Spunkgargleweewee" aficionado or anti "must have games".

I think you can blame the mass-death of mid-level developers and publishers on the last console generation. When the cost of producing a single game that was graphically "up to par" shot up so much that many of them had to shutter their doors after only 1 or 2 unsuccessful or only just-modestly successful games. I suspect that with graphics finally starting to level off into the land of diminishing returns costs to create them will eventually go down enough that we'll see something of a return of mid-level games. But the sheer amount of man power needed to produce AAA-like games will keep the mid-tier category dwarfed by Indies though.

 

[kortin]

The only people who only want AAA games are the pretend dudebro gamers who only play Calladooty and...Battlefield, I dunno, I don't have a snarky nickname for battlefield...

but yeah, those are the only kind of people who only want AAA games. Any real gamer would want more games, regardless of who made it or how much money was thrown into it.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I think you can blame the mass-death of mid-level developers and publishers on the last console generation. When the cost of producing a single game that was graphically "up to par" shot up so much that many of them had to shutter their doors after only 1 or 2 unsuccessful or only just-modestly successful games. I suspect that with graphics finally starting to level off into the land of diminishing returns costs to create them will eventually go down enough that we'll see something of a return of mid-level games. But the sheer amount of man power needed to produce AAA-like games will keep the mid-tier category dwarfed by Indies though.

There is truth to that, but I will add that there are a LOT of business factors going into the death of mid-grade productions.
I'm strapped for time, so I'll skip the long explanation and just say the two biggest factors are:

1) The enormous bloating cost of marketing (one could probably develop two, maybe three quality mid-tier games on the budget of any AAA marketing budget these days)

2) A shift in AAA's business philosophy that is EXTREMELY unfriendly towards mid-tier value productions. (We can blame recession, economics, and a willful distancing between gamer and businessman for this. I will add that never in my 25 years of gaming have AAA games felt less like games and more like completely interchangeable fungible products than now)

Basically, the new AAA paradigm is to turn profit using a Golden Goose approach (only making annually milkable, highly derivative franchise blockbusters). This in turn has driven their reliance upon and cost of marketing into the sky.

The only other productions AAA offers now are shovelware grade garbage designed to exploit the shit out of newer markets (mobile shit like Dungeon Keeper and All the Bravest).