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haxxiy said:

JEMC said:

'You've seen the number of releases from AAA publishers dwindle and dwindle and dwindle': Clair Obscur's runaway success was helped by staying smaller scale in a world of inflated budgets
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/youve-seen-the-number-of-releases-from-aaa-publishers-dwindle-and-dwindle-and-dwindle-clair-obscurs-runaway-success-was-helped-by-staying-smaller-scale-in-a-world-of-inflated-budgets/
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a tight, 30-hour RPG from a relatively small team that, since release, has sold over 3.3 million copies. In short, it's been a resounding success—singular and distinct, it looks and feels like nothing else around.
It's a game that's particularly interesting when compared to probably the most well-known turn-based RPG series in the world. As much as people love the Final Fantasy games, it's hard not to see how unwieldy they've become—expensive and time-consuming to make, the pressure is clearly on for them to sell increasingly unrealistic numbers to be considered a success. Both FF7 Rebirth and FF16 failed to meet the mark according to Square Enix's own financial reports.
In contrast, Clair Obscur operates in a different development space—smaller scale and with a much smaller budget. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Matthew Handrahan, the portfolio director at Clair Obscur's publisher Kepler Interactive, opined on the game's place within an industry that he sees as growing increasingly obsessed with big-budget releases.
>> I’d say that this trend started with the HD consoles, when most AA games and studios went down.

I don't think that comparison works. Square Enix has released modest RPGs from their mid to small-sized teams every year (Bravely, Star Ocean, Octopath, etc.). Most of them have failed to make bank, as do most AA games out there. Exception vs. the rule and all of that.

SE doesn't want FF to sell 3 million in a couple of months, they'd easily do that with brand recognition alone, regardless of the budget. What they want is that Witcher 3 or Skyrim golden egg goose.

I agree that S-E is trying to chase the 15+ million seller club with their main games, a feat that few games manage to do, but one of the problems of their smaller games is that they usually make them exclusive to one console platform and that, for some weird reason, they go with a "unique" visual style that's not for everybody, shooting themseles in the foot.

Also yes, the size of a studio and how long they've been working on a game are very important metrics to gauge success or failure. Many games are a financial success selling 500k copies, and then there are others that sell 2 million and lose money. It's not a "one size fits all" situation.