How Many Years Does It Take To Develop A AAA Game?
If you said “6-7”, you’d be right, and also just completely fucking cooked. Good morning everyone. A rare occasion is upon us: I’ve somehow been inspired to write two posts in the same month. Whether that means next month’s entry is doomed remains to be seen, but given that it’s the holiday season, I may be a little occupied anyway. On Sunday night, I ended up in a lengthy conversation about the current state of AAA games and the time it takes to make them. It all started with a post from someone annoyed that Naughty Dog’s upcoming Intergalactic is only the studio’s second release this generation, and that this is, apparently, some kind of scandal. We’re in an unusual moment for gaming. We’ve never had such steady access to great new releases, but we’ve also never had to wait this long for them. This year alone we’ve had Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 , Hollow Knight: Silksong , Hades II , Death Stranding 2 , and plenty of others proving the post-COVID drought is finally behind us. ...