The Sorry State of AAA Gaming
Gamers are lucky to have their definitive experience last even a decade.
For readers of books, unless there is some disconnect between the editors and an author, the definitive edition will always be with us in text format. Reading Moby-Dick in 2021 is as incredible and accurate in its depiction as it was when published in 1851.
Unfortunately, nothing is ever definitive about games.
Not only had I heard in the month of April (the cruelest month) that the PlayStation 3 store would be closing its access, (note: Sony has since walked back this decision) but that The Last of Us would be getting a remake.
It defies belief that hardly any time has passed since the “remaster” of The Last of Us before hearing what we’ve heard now. The PlayStation 3 title got an uplift for the PlayStation 4 in 2014 that, we believed, would be the final say on the matter.
Granted, Demon’s Souls, a game that was released in 2009, saw a remake from Bluepoint within a decade of its introduction as well. But the slow uptake on the souls genre, combined with the cult classic that it was, meant that the turnaround was more palatable to an audience. But with all these remakes, consider the predicament that Sony is placing on its developers. Hogtying people (who would like to make new things) to not only a gaming genre that feels dated, but spending time updating a game graphically–that was already a fantastic looking showpiece–is a recipe for stagnation in an already terrible industry.
An industry that is not interested in paying out bonuses to games that sold well, even when they claimed they would do so. An industry that frequently lays off its employees while offering bonuses to its CEOs. An industry that runs on the fumes of poor working habits and even worse labor standards as the largest games are outsourced overseas. An industry that, even with all this intense pressure, still produces the same style of game that has been done for so long that innovation is often found in the indie scene. These games are typically open world, story-lite, lore heavy (text in a menu), action-oriented games with loot or roleplaying elements.
Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, what was already a draconian and stale industry has only given us a backstage pass into how unwieldy these larger companies can be when put in disaster mode. Recently, the looter shooter Outriders has been on a “one step forward, two steps backward” path. After patching the game for stability with its servers, poor as they were, an unintended bug arrived during cooperative play which would delete your entire inventory. A game, designed around cooperative play, would delete your loot…in a looter shooter.
The problems run deeper. It is not only the technical issues, but the design philosophy of Outriders that has people worried. Reports of poor balancing, untold nerfs, and strange leveling problems with guns (where weaker guns do more damage) have cropped up across platforms like reddit, in order to combat the inconsistencies felt while playing. At its outset, Outriders was supposed to be a game that would stand out for threading the needle through the budget, B-tier hole that we had not seen for quite some time. While AAA gaming was focusing on monetization, and indies were focused on low poly systems-based rogue-lites, finally we would have an action RPG that promised not only a robust spectacle graphically, but a “full” experience out of the box. Almost a month in, and Outriders has not risen to either of these expectations.
And with disasters like Cyberpunk 2077 fresh in our memory, we’ve learned that the “release date” of a game is never cut and dry. It’s “early access” everything these days. Hell, even movies enter early access at this point.
With the delay of games like Deathloop added to the pile, part of me is nervous about the AAA scene. When it can produce, it does so poorly and routinely. When it cannot, it remakes. When it cannot remake, it delays. For the scope of the PlayStation 5, a system that most of the gaming world cannot get their hands on, the paucity of titles does not seem like a damning issue yet. For PC gamers, the world is our oyster. On the one hand, perhaps so many turned to PC gaming in the late 2010s because of the incredible prices of parts. On the other hand, perhaps PC gaming was the only way to exit the atmosphere of a ludicrous mainstream gaming scene that hampered more of what the gamer wanted in a system. For novelty, for innovation, gamers either had to wait years at a time, or play elsewhere.
Developers need to start asking the big questions when it comes to making games. If remakes like The Last of Us are less labor intensive to update in the short term than they would be for a longer gap like, say, Diablo 2: Resurrected, that is cause for alarm. If it is easier to do all of these things than create a new product, that too is worthy of scrutiny. The switch from film to digital in photography and movie making paved the way for democratizing the medium. Gaming needs a solution like this. Games like Dreams on the PlayStation could usher in a new style of development, one where the labor-intensive paradigm we are in right now is shifted. Otherwise, with each new console released, the added graphical boost becomes a curse, producing groans from those lower developers pinched in the middle, who end up consolidating into these global mega developing chains because they cannot afford the shift. The result is an even bigger staff and even greater risk, producing a safe industry similar in style to big budget films.
Perhaps Nintendo had it right all along, we might say, when they stuck to their simplistic yet impactful designs of their characters and their geometry in order to focus on the gameplay. They created iconic symbols that they could reuse over time. Yet even Nintendo has been having a difficult time with output on their Switch, which turned four last month. Consider the Legend of Zelda series release history.
In the time between the first Breath of the Wild release and the as yet unknown sequel, Zelda had released Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, AND The Wind Waker. Critics who condemned Nintendo for reusing assets got a style uplift with Wind Waker on the Gamecube as well. This is not to forget Four Swords, which brought a multiplayer twist to the old style formula.
If even Nintendo is struggling to put their fan favorites out at a reasonable pace, there might be a problem.
I can imagine plenty of solutions for the AAA slump. First, develop games that are ends in and of themselves. Have these games perform in ways that make them last for ages. People still play Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, ugly as they are, for their stories, ideas, themes, and atmosphere. The Halo games, though they receive uplifts, still call out to be replayed for their mechanics placed in a systems based world where warthogs fly and rockets arc. The Battlefield games of old still maintain a community due to their long legs graphically, but also to their modding communities.
Second, focus on systems rather than fidelity. People continue to return to action against smart AI like those in Halo because of the variety of encounters and outcomes. The same cannot be said of scripted sequences and quick-time events of the late 2000s era. Give those dedicated players something to show off on YouTube with a high skill ceiling. Creating that moment requires systems and not the endless repetition offered by Ubisoft.
And I could go on. But, unfortunately, legacy titles do not bring in the big bucks. Critics may adore certain titles, but the money awarded for these watershed moments is not incentivized in the industry. Gaming seems plagued with a chicken and egg problem, where one is needed for the other to take place, but few are willing to take that step. Especially in a pandemic. Truth and success are not correlated here.
For the gamer? Life is simple: go play indie titles. For the developers who want to make their dream projects in a big way? I do not know. Maybe that is why we read over and over again how senior developers leave companies to pursue their passion projects. It’s not a safe space any longer for their expertise.
For those who were unaware of the problems of AAA development in this generation, The Last of Us getting a remake should be the canary in the coalmine.
Originally published at https://theroyleline.blog on April 17, 2021.
