Ryuu96 said:
Yup Yup...Forgot about Mistwalker which backs my point up a little more. That is exactly my point though, it's rare and it's unique but it isn't impossible, Lighthouse could very well set themselves up like The Initiative and The Initiative's Perfect Dark is AAA. I don't think this is what Lighthouse Games is doing but I'm just saying, just because they're only 30 employees right now, doesn't mean they aren't AAA...When they say they're AAA, they just mean the game they're working on is AAA. They've only just set themselves up, they could very well grow to over 100. We've no idea how much they plan on outsourcing either. But desires right now are to be AAA. I don't see why they should be doubted when investors are throwing dozens of millions lately, the Co-Founder of Playground is going to receive a lot of investment on top of the millions that Microsoft gave him for Playground Games, Lol. I don't really think we are in a position to say to a studio claiming to be AAA "no, you're wrong" when we have no idea at all about their plans, investment, financials, etc. I know that isn't what you're doing though. |
Well we'd need to first ask Lighthouse what their definition of AAA is but let just say to compare them to The Initiative I use a roughly 100M budget (no source for this number just seems about right for the Perfect Dark project).
The initiative approach to do such AAA with a small teams is really smart but only possible due to the facts they aren't independent and have a really strong backing parent company.
A new entity is normally bound by growth pain which rate vary region to region but still form somewhat of a paradox. Take a projects your small team can already tackle bare low risk but limit your growth or take a larger project which would increase your growth potential but substantially increase the risk.
The Initiative use of Crystal dynamics as a partner circumvent the issue raised when they started a larger project then they could chew and now are able to slowly replace the dependance on CD by hiring themselves at an appropriate rate without affecting their schedule much. However The initiative backing environment is strong and stable because it's not independent. if Lighthouse try the same with the only insurance that is the money is currently flowing they have a high risk and non-stable context. They run the risk of getting their fund cut at any time the economic context change or any set back on their development. For instance, Xbox could easily replace CD with another third party if CD put an end to their joint venture for any reason. With lighthouse being Independent an event like this may just kill the project and possibly the studio itself.
But with that said Lighthouse definition of AAA might just be way more modest than The Initiative one or they may have giant balls of solid steel to manage the risk while being independent or they may just be already on the lookout to being acquired like haven studio did shortly after creation.
Last edited by EpicRandy - on 27 March 2023
