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shikamaru317 on 27 March 2023
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Ryuu96 said:
shikamaru317 said:

Well, The Initiative is a bit of a unique case, much like Mistwalker was when they made Lost Odyssey. Both are smaller studios made up of mainly lead and senior devs, while most of the grunt work was being outsourced, with Mistwalker the grunt work was outsourced to Feelplus, with The Initiative it is outsourced to Crystal Dynamics (though some of the lead and senior devs on Perfect Dark are at Crystal, it's not all grunt work there). I think with The Initiative you need to take into account both the 50 current internal devs, and the likely team of 100-150 at Crystal Dynamics that is assisting on it.

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.

Yeah, I think it's a safe bet that 30 is only their initial size because they just opened, they likely plan to hit at least 100 before their first game ships since they are advertising as a AAA studio, it would be difficult, though not impossible, to make a AAA with less than that in this day and age.

Here are the current sizes I could find on LinkedIn for some of the other new "AAA" studios that have opened over the last 5 or 6 years from my earlier list:

  • Jar of Sparks- 16 devs (this is the AAA studio headed by the former 343 design head Jerry Hook, seems like he may be struggling to recruit as the studio has been open for about 8 months now)
  • Lightspeed L.A.- 80 devs (opened in 2020 by Tencent as part of their plans for western AAA expansion)
  • Maverick Games- 11 devs (this is the other "AAA" studio opened by former Playground devs, same as Lighthouse, but they only opened 2 months ago so the small size isn't surprising here)
  • That's No Moon- 118 devs (opened in 2021 by former Sony and Infinity Ward devs with a $100m investment from Smilegate)
  • Smilegate Barcelona- 62 devs (opened in 2019)
  • SkyDance New Media- 38 devs (opened in 2019, so they seem small, but they are actually setup just like The Initiative where lead and senior devs come up with concepts for games and oversee development at SkyDance and then the grunt work is outsourced, they are developing their Marvel game in collaboration with one unknown AAA partner, and their Star Wars game with another unknown AAA partner)
  • 31st Union- 161 devs (opened in 2019, this is the new 2K studio headed by former Sledgehammer head Michael Condrey, the other former Sledgehammer head Glenn Schofield opened Striking Distance Studios which developed Calisto Protocol, both studios opened the same year, 2019, but Condrey is clearly taking more time to develop his first game than Schofield took with Calisto Protocol)
  • Cloud Chamber- 174 devs (opened in 2019 though technically 2018, as previous work on Bioshock 4 was done at a different 2K studio starting in 2018 before that Bioshock 4 team at the other studio spun off to create Cloud Chamber in 2019)
  • Ridgeline Games- Current size unknown (opened in 2022, this is the EA Studio headed by Bungie veteran Marcus Lehto)
  • Unnamed EA AAA studio headed by the former head of Monolith- Unknown size currently (opened in 2022)
  • Build A Rocket Boy- 344 devs (opened in 2017 by former Rockstar head producer Leslie Benzies using money earned in an unpaid royalties lawsuit against Rockstar heads Dan and Sam Houser, and rapidly expanded and opened satellite studios in other countries, they are developing an ambitious open world casual MMO with shooting and racing elements in Unreal 5 called Everywhere, which is said to be essentially Ready Player One as a real game, but in addition to developing Everywhere itself, games will be launched by Build a Rocket Boy within Everywhere using it's create your own game tools, including a AAA action game by Leslie Benzies called MindsEye, which has a near future conspiracy storyline and GTA like gameplay, and will be released in episodes)
  • Fool's Theory- 59 devs (developing the Witcher 1 remake, likely in Collab with CD Projekt themselves since they are on the smaller side)
  • Humanoid Studios- 46 devs (opened less than 2 years ago, this is the new AAA studio by former Bioware director Casey Hudson that is developing a AAA new sci-fi IP that is said to be similar to Mass Effect)
  • Fuse Games- 15 devs (opened just 2 months ago by 5 former Criterion devs who left EA after Need For Speed Unbound released in December)
  • Skeleton Key Games- 15 devs (opened less than 8 months ago by Wizards of the Coast as a new AAA studio, seems to be expanding slowly with lead positions still being staffed and senior and grunt work position staffing hasn't even begun yet)
  • Atomic Arcade- 21 devs (another new AAA studio opened just last year by Wizards of the Coast, developing a AAA GI Joe game)
  • Haven Studios- 133 devs (opened in March 2021 and acquired by Sony in March 2022, they seem to have expanded quickly using Sony funding

Last edited by shikamaru317 - on 27 March 2023