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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Do the console makers games count as triple A?

Qwark on 26 July 2018
MrWayne said:
Qwark said:
Of course they do. They spend a lot of money on their games. Since triple A simply stands for big budget game. Also why do you assume most people do not consider Nintendo games triple A games. I still have to meet the first person who thinks BoTW is not a Triple A game.

So to answer your question they all make triple A games, but not every game they produce is a Triple A game.
pxrocks said:
None of the Nintendo games are AAA.both in terms of quality and production value.some of PlayStation and Xbox games can be considered as AAA.

That didn't take long..

 

Lol well I guess I finally did meet him. 



Please excuse my (probally) poor grammar

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pokoko on 26 July 2018
couchmonkey said:

put on your tinfoil hats!

I believe the term AAA is marketing nonsense used to cow hardcore gamers into buying big industry games. If you think too hard about it, you might be brainwashing yourself.

I thougt it would be more interesting to know how the term originated. I found one answer online from someone who claimed to work at EA.  He said in the mid 90s they had a meeting where the presenter claimed nbig budget, AAA games were thenonly hits, backed up with data from the previous year that showed the low budget, "B" games all failed badly.  It seems like a plausible answer, how it got out into the minds of gamers, the thread failed to answer, but maybe it was more organic than I suggested above, e.g. maybe devs started using it in interviews with media.  I feel like I started seeing it used often after Wii and DS launched, but that may be confirmation bias since I am a Nintendo bot.  

 Sorry no link, I'm on my ancient Samsung tablet, the origin thread is on gamedev.stackexchange -131731

 

 

 

 

I used to be the buyer for a video and game rental store.  Before people corrupted the meaning of the phrase, it had to do with investment potential.  Yes, exactly like how "AAA" is used in financial matters.

I used to get catalogs from major wholesale video and game distributors (oddly, there is a porn distributor that still sends me catalogs).  Many of the games were rated with AAA, AA, etc.  It was a way for retailers who didn't know much about gaming to select key releases with a high ROI.  

It had absolutely nothing to do with how much a game cost to make but instead with how much a game was projected to earn.  

It's kind of funny now to see people calling big budget flops AAA.  I remember specifically some 3DS titles being rated AAA.  I remember Pokemon being AAA and, I'm pretty sure, Kirby.  It wasn't rare to see games like Cooking Mama rate an AAA, as well.  

So, yeah, this is really a case where people who didn't know what a term really meant creating their own definition and then everyone else repeating it as gospel until it effectively replaced the original definition.  



OTBWY on 26 July 2018
pxrocks said:
None of the Nintendo games are AAA.both in terms of quality and production value.some of PlayStation and Xbox games can be considered as AAA.

BotW and Mario Odyssey are better than anything out on Playstation 4 or Xbox One (if we take review aggregates). So i'll be stuffed if the arbitrary triple A label matters lmao



GoOnKid on 26 July 2018

pokoko said:

couchmonkey said:

put on your tinfoil hats!

I believe the term AAA is marketing nonsense used to cow hardcore gamers into buying big industry games. If you think too hard about it, you might be brainwashing yourself.

I thougt it would be more interesting to know how the term originated. I found one answer online from someone who claimed to work at EA.  He said in the mid 90s they had a meeting where the presenter claimed nbig budget, AAA games were thenonly hits, backed up with data from the previous year that showed the low budget, "B" games all failed badly.  It seems like a plausible answer, how it got out into the minds of gamers, the thread failed to answer, but maybe it was more organic than I suggested above, e.g. maybe devs started using it in interviews with media.  I feel like I started seeing it used often after Wii and DS launched, but that may be confirmation bias since I am a Nintendo bot.  

 Sorry no link, I'm on my ancient Samsung tablet, the origin thread is on gamedev.stackexchange -131731

 

 

 

 

I used to be the buyer for a video and game rental store.  Before people corrupted the meaning of the phrase, it had to do with investment potential.  Yes, exactly like how "AAA" is used in financial matters.

I used to get catalogs from major wholesale video and game distributors (oddly, there is a porn distributor that still sends me catalogs).  Many of the games were rated with AAA, AA, etc.  It was a way for retailers who didn't know much about gaming to select key releases with a high ROI.  

It had absolutely nothing to do with how much a game cost to make but instead with how much a game was projected to earn.  

It's kind of funny now to see people calling big budget flops AAA.  I remember specifically some 3DS titles being rated AAA.  I remember Pokemon being AAA and, I'm pretty sure, Kirby.  It wasn't rare to see games like Cooking Mama rate an AAA, as well.  

So, yeah, this is really a case where people who didn't know what a term really meant creating their own definition and then everyone else repeating it as gospel until it effectively replaced the original definition.  

I believe this story.

On topic: What is AAA? What is AA? What is A? Where is the line?

To those who say that prodiction costs are the difference: how big need those be to be considered AAA? What is high, what is middle, what is low?
Is it rather in relationship to something? If so, to what? And most of all, how do we even know what costed how much? There are no numbers
anywhere, so how can we think we could categorize anything?

We can't. We lack the most basic thing: the numbers. We can only make educated guesses based on

a) how the game looks. This doesn't mean anything as we still don't know how much the middleware costed, how long the core production went on,
how much time was spent during concept phase, how many working hours were needed for prgramming, how much each developer receives as a
salary, how much it costed to outsurce specific issues - we don't know shit.

b) this sad list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop. Sad because it's in no way expansive or reliable.
It may only be a reference for very vague extrapolations based on nothing.

So after all, we can only project what each of us believes this ambiguous term is supposed to mean. Personally, I believe it's nothing but a marketing
term which has the intention to make me think that a game is supposed to be of high quality. Like a premium product. The more As the better.
Production values do not matter in this regard, it's all just a fancy dancy glitter shitter term. But that's just me. I am very cautios when someone tries
to sell me something, anyway.

BUT: this term actually serves as a categorization system for those who don't know much about a game and need some sort of relation to other games.
So basically, it serves the exact same purpose like it did back in the days in Pokokos story. It's a shining star for the unknowing to make them feel less
insecure about their purchase.



couchmonkey on 27 July 2018
pokoko said:
couchmonkey said:

put on your tinfoil hats!

I believe the term AAA is marketing nonsense used to cow hardcore gamers into buying big industry games. If you think too hard about it, you might be brainwashing yourself.

I thougt it would be more interesting to know how the term originated. I found one answer online from someone who claimed to work at EA.  He said in the mid 90s they had a meeting where the presenter claimed nbig budget, AAA games were thenonly hits, backed up with data from the previous year that showed the low budget, "B" games all failed badly.  It seems like a plausible answer, how it got out into the minds of gamers, the thread failed to answer, but maybe it was more organic than I suggested above, e.g. maybe devs started using it in interviews with media.  I feel like I started seeing it used often after Wii and DS launched, but that may be confirmation bias since I am a Nintendo bot.  

 Sorry no link, I'm on my ancient Samsung tablet, the origin thread is on gamedev.stackexchange -131731

 

 

 

 

I used to be the buyer for a video and game rental store.  Before people corrupted the meaning of the phrase, it had to do with investment potential.  Yes, exactly like how "AAA" is used in financial matters.

I used to get catalogs from major wholesale video and game distributors (oddly, there is a porn distributor that still sends me catalogs).  Many of the games were rated with AAA, AA, etc.  It was a way for retailers who didn't know much about gaming to select key releases with a high ROI.  

It had absolutely nothing to do with how much a game cost to make but instead with how much a game was projected to earn.  

It's kind of funny now to see people calling big budget flops AAA.  I remember specifically some 3DS titles being rated AAA.  I remember Pokemon being AAA and, I'm pretty sure, Kirby.  It wasn't rare to see games like Cooking Mama rate an AAA, as well.  

So, yeah, this is really a case where people who didn't know what a term really meant creating their own definition and then everyone else repeating it as gospel until it effectively replaced the original definition.  

wow, very intersting!  Do you mind if I ask when you were doing this? Sounds like about 5-10 years ago?

 

@GoOnkid: I agree with your comment that AAA is used by marketing to impky  a game is "best" quality, I also feel like it would originally be most attributed to big westen publishers like EA! and Activision, thoug it has spread to pretty general usage.

Last edited by couchmonkey - on 27 July 2018

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pokoko on 27 July 2018
couchmonkey said:
pokoko said:

I used to be the buyer for a video and game rental store.  Before people corrupted the meaning of the phrase, it had to do with investment potential.  Yes, exactly like how "AAA" is used in financial matters.

I used to get catalogs from major wholesale video and game distributors (oddly, there is a porn distributor that still sends me catalogs).  Many of the games were rated with AAA, AA, etc.  It was a way for retailers who didn't know much about gaming to select key releases with a high ROI.  

It had absolutely nothing to do with how much a game cost to make but instead with how much a game was projected to earn.  

It's kind of funny now to see people calling big budget flops AAA.  I remember specifically some 3DS titles being rated AAA.  I remember Pokemon being AAA and, I'm pretty sure, Kirby.  It wasn't rare to see games like Cooking Mama rate an AAA, as well.  

So, yeah, this is really a case where people who didn't know what a term really meant creating their own definition and then everyone else repeating it as gospel until it effectively replaced the original definition.  

wow, very intersting!  Do you mind if I ask when you were doing this? Sounds like about 5-10 years ago?

 

@GoOnkid: I agree with your comment that AAA is used by marketing to impky  a game is "best" quality, I also feel like it would originally be most attributed to big westen publishers like EA! and Activision, thoug it has spread to pretty general usage.

At least 10 years ago, probably a bit more.



Cobretti2 on 27 July 2018

Yes,

but they arn't all AAA



 

 

Zoombael on 27 July 2018
pxrocks said:
None of the Nintendo games are AAA.both in terms of quality and production value.some of PlayStation and Xbox games can be considered as AAA.

 

...

 

https://www.forbes.com/consent/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2016/06/30/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-needs-to-sell-2-million-copies-to-break-even/

 

A the number that makes a game triple A.



Hunting Season is done...

Nem on 27 July 2018

This is a malformed question. It's the game production itself that defines wether it is triple A. It's not the studio and publisher that works on it.

So, yes and no. Depends on the game.



Azuren on 27 July 2018

I mean, I would argue that most AAA games are made by console manufacturers. Sure, there are some big name third party AAA titles, but the ones made most frequently are those designed to push hardware.

A lot of games people consider AAA are what I consider AA, though. So yeah.



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