Yeah, these AAA budget increases aren't sustainable for sure, the bubble is heading for a pop soon, I've even seen developers saying it. We've gone from the average AAA costing maybe $80m in combined marketing and development costs a decade ago, to the average AAA now costing probably $150m, and the upper end now over $300m, with Sony now having set aside $385m for the upcoming Spider-Man 3 according to the Insomniac leak, and GTA 6 likely in excess of that. Gamers seem resistant to paying more for games, and many now skip games at full price and wait for discounts, and refuse to buy microtransactions in protest of increasing prices.
AAA devs need to learn to shrink scale somewhat, just look at Alan Wake 2, they made that game for 80m euros in combined development and marketing budgets, and it is 3rd place in GOTY rankings for last year and seems to have sold pretty well. AAA devs need to shrink scale somewhat, and get the average AAA budget back down to maybe $100m and hold there for awhile.
Last edited by shikamaru317 - on 06 February 2024
