Have you noticed the overall quality of AAA (Triple-A) games becoming worse and worse the last few years? If so, it’s not just you.
AAA games are high budget video games funded by large studios, which are expected to feature high quality gameplay. Over the past few years, the AAA gaming industry has been declining for more reasons than one. Not only have AAA games declined in quality, sometimes released as unfinished products, but most AAA games suffer from excessive monetization or lack of creativity.
In recent years, the priority of AAA game distributors has shifted towards generating profit, allowing games to release in unfinished states to cut costs and maximize game sales early. Take the immensely anticipated game “Cyberpunk 2077.” The game was first announced in 2012, but wasn’t released until late 2020. Despite that, the hype behind the game only grew until its launch. However, gamers were left disappointed by the state of the game, with nearly 25% of reviews on steam being negative. Many of the promised features, such as more non-player character involvement and strong role playing game elements, never made it to release, with the features that were implemented barely working. The game wasn’t stable on most devices, and it took two years for the game to be fixed.
But “Cyberpunk 2077” isn’t the only recent AAA game to do this.
Electronic Arts released “Battlefield 2042” a year after the release of Cyberpunk to overwhelmingly negative reviews on release. The majority of the game didn’t function, the same false promises were made, and the game was ultimately a disappointment. Games like “Overwatch 2,” “Fallout 76,” and “Mass Effect Andromeda,” all followed this same pattern, making false promises and releasing an unfinished game in an attempt to make more money off of game sales.
Adding on to that, many games now have adopted new and more predatory monetization systems. The most common system in this day and age is the implementation of loot boxes along with the infamous battle pass. The battle pass was made popular by the game “Fortnite,” serving as a subscription service for in-game items or cosmetics. While it serves as a sustainable way for free games like “Fortnite” to make money, when $60 games like “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare,” begin implementing $10 battle passes, it highlights how money-hungry the publishers are.
However, the battle pass isn’t the worst form of monetization. The modern day loot box in video games serves as a dumbed-down gambling system. Most loot boxes open like a slot machine, where a reward selection area is highlighted and the rewards are flashed on screen. The rarest rewards typically end up being just outside the reward area when the spin comes to a stop. When these loot boxes are thrown into AAA games that are marketed towards younger audiences, such as the “FIFA” or “Star Wars Battlefront” series, they become extremely predatory. In fact, loot boxes are being regulated in many countries in Europe due to their effects on the brain being too similar to traditional gambling. Again, AAA publishers putting these into their games only serves to load their player with dopamine after spending money, making these a cash cow for the studio.
Lastly, the overall creativity of AAA games has dropped. Think about a few hotel rooms you may have stayed in. In each hotel, the bed, pillows, and couch may look different, but they all feel the same every time you go to a hotel. It’s the same with gaming. When Ubisoft first launched “Assassin’s Creed,” the game’s movement was extremely innovative and felt new to the player. However, when AAA studios try to play it too safe—like when Ubisoft launches the same game with a different time period and graphics—it feels repetitive. Sure, one character uses a dagger, and the other a katana, but it’s still the same game being sold over and over again. Almost no AAA game studio is willing to take chances with new games.
In 2023, the majority of the top 20 best selling games were all existing intellectual properties or just sequels to previous games, with the exception of “Elden Ring” and “Starfield.” “Elden Ring,” produced by the company FromSoftware, was the game of the year in 2022 despite it being marketed towards more hardcore or experienced gamers. Additionally, other AAA game developers have tweeted that the game breaks everything they know about game development, later privating the tweets due to community backlash. However, the main reason for the success of “Elden Ring” was the breath of fresh air it provided from formulaic, safe AAA games.
The biggest offender of formulaic games are sports games, with a new “Call of Duty” releasing every year, or “Fifa,” where the game is only there to make more sales. Making new properties is risky, so studios make sequels for as long as possible so they can make more money off the same game.
Overall, the AAA gaming industry has been flooded with overly monetized, unfinished, and uncreative games. These profit-driven video game models alienate the community, only being profitable in the short term, before reviews go out and the game becomes obsolete. The AAA gaming industry needs a breath of fresh air, with new and innovative games instead of the safe, formulaic, and profit driven games that the gaming community has been receiving. While big publishers were once famous for breaking the norm and making creative games, the thought of profit now comes before they are willing to take any form of risk.
