AAA game development has become unsustainable, admits former PlayStation executive

What to develop AAA games It’s not cheap at all, it’s not new. The numbers behind top level titles such as star field, Spider-Man 2, God of War Ragnarok or saga Call of Duty are in hundreds of millions of dollarsand even exceed the budgets of some of the most ambitious Hollywood films of recent years. The industry has long quietly debated how long this trend will continue, but a former PlayStation executive has now admitted that the strategy is simple and straightforward. insolvent.

Shawn Laydenthe former president of PlayStation Studios and for many years one of the main faces of Sony Interactive Entertainment in North America, spoke candidly about the situation with AAA games and their exorbitant costs. In an interview with EurogamerThe above highlighted that the audience is not growing at the required rate to support such high numbers.

According to Leiden, games on consoles stagnation because the next generations of potential gamers are being consumed by TikTok. And this leads to the fact that studios and producers continue to try to squeeze the pockets of the same group of users with each new release. Thus, he felt that the industry faces two critical issues that need to be addressed as soon as possible. Firstly, the development costs of AAA games are very high; another, an extension of these.

“We need to solve two or three problems in particular. One of them is the explosive growth in game development costs. With each new generation, creating a game costs twice as much. What cost $1 million on PS1 later became $2 million, $4 million. or 16 million. The increase was exponential. […] The game would cost $150 million to develop if you were aiming for it to be among the best, not including marketing. So, according to these calculations, PS5 games should cost between $300 and $400 million, and that’s just not sustainable,” he said.

AAA games are cost prohibitive and should be shorter, says former PlayStation Studios head

Sean Layden admits that rendering graphics in 4K at 60 frames per second is much more expensive than rendering at 480p on older consoles. However, please note that obsession with photorealism and settings with extreme levels of detail have played a decisive role in inflating the budgets of AAA games.

“On PS1, when we walked down the street in the game, we expected that we wouldn’t be able to open every door. Now we expected that you could enter every house, open every drawer, and everything could be destroyed. This is fine. but it’s expensive. We must analyze this. If only 50% of the players make it to the end of your game, what will you do with all those millions you spend on the last level if only half the people make it to the end? see a lot of money invested in creating great experiences? a game that people don’t see,” said the former head of PlayStation Studios.

According to Layden, the solution to reducing the cost of AAA games could be make them shorter. The former Sony executive believes there is no longer any point in making games that last 80, 90 or 100 hours, as the average age of gamers is now close to 30, rather than the previous 18 to 23-year-old range. Additionally, it mentions that video games should last no more than 23 hours. gameplaybut with gameplay so addictive you won’t want to let go of the controller.

“It’s as if we are living in the late 18th century and we understand that building cathedrals is very expensive. Can we continue to build these huge buildings for God with so much labor and time? Or should we just build four walls and a roof?” and say that this is a church? I’m afraid we’ve turned AAA games into a bit of a cathedral business, and it just can’t grow anymore. In fact, she’s probably already gotten too big.

Shawn Layden, former president of PlayStation Studios.

Sean Layden is one of the first senior industry executives to admit that AAA games are unsustainable at their current prices. Especially when it comes to games that are exclusive to one platform. Failure agreement It was a very hard blow for PlayStation and was estimated to cost $400 million. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League It was also a blow to Warner Bros.’ coffers. In May, the firm admitted it had lost $200 million on the game.

Layden’s comments aside, it’s unlikely the studios’ strategy will change immediately. While there are AAA games that are successful despite the very high cost, such as Spider-Man 2with a budget estimated at $350 million, some companies will continue down this path. Same thing, although the corporations behind some of the research and publishers are ready to continue financing projects of this type.

star fieldFor example, it is said to have cost between $200 million and $400 million, but it is believed to have sold no more than 3 million copies. It’s true that Bethesda’s game was announced before Microsoft bought ZeniMax, but its completion, promotion, and launch were led by the Redmond natives.