The Master of None
An army of AA games is set to usurp the hegemony of AAA – and Cliffy B is leading the charge...
Clifford Bleszinski has clearly been reading this magazine. Back in issue 249 we pointed out that the current binary system of describing games as ‘AAA’ or ‘indie’ was insufficient, and we proposed a more granular scale to categorise games ranging from ‘AAA’ through to ‘FFF.’ Fast forward to April this year, when Cliffy B addressed the Reboot Develop conference in Croatia, where he stated that the AAA business model is largely unsustainable, and that AA games are the future.
He compared the AAA gaming scene as it stands to the insidious march of globalisation, where identical chain stores and restaurants erase all regional distinctiveness. “They’re not bad, but they’re not great. They’re just kind of there. Salad and bread sticks. Whee.” He pointed out that companies like Sony can pour millions of dollars into console-selling games that don’t even have to make a profit, which in turn gets gamers hooked on the very highest quality graphics and gameplay. If you’re a game developer, and you’re not a Sony or an Activision, these customer expectations are problematic.
“So, what do you do? I’m proposing that if you want to make games that aren’t just indie darlings or cool little VR experiences, is this new idea of not Triple-A, but Double-A.” As examples, he cited Warframe, Rocket League, and Rust. “These games that look and play great, but they pick their battles in regards to budget and marketing, and they’re also digital, and reasonably priced or free-to-play. And that’s kind of what we’re gunning for with LawBreakers.”
Cliffy B also talked about the way his
Double-A games look and play great, but they pick their battles in regards to budget and marketing
haircuts have evolved over the years. He describes his current look as ‘Trashy Pitbull,’ which he asserts is better than his old look which made him look ‘like someone out of a condom ad.’ It’s a highly informative talk, and well worth tracking down on Twitch.
But what does it mean to ‘pick your battles’? In what key ways do AAA and AA games differ? Cliffy B stated that for LawBreakers his team is concentrating on 5v5 multi-player – they didn’t even bother with a story campaign. It seems like an obvious decision now, but it’s one that many devs have struggled with for years. There is simply no point in creating a story mode when multiplayer is the core of the game, and vice versa. It costs millions of dollars to tack on modes that are ultimately just a distraction.
An extreme example would be to compare, say, House of the Dying Sun with Star Citizen. House of the Dying Sun is a pared-back, bare-bones space combat simulator reminiscent of the old X-Wing Vs. Tie Fighter games. It offers a modest selection of short, intense dogfighting missions and literally nothing else. Meanwhile the harried Star Citizen devs are modelling everything from office furniture to working toilets, and the space combat side of things, ostensibly the beating heart of the game, has kind of fallen by the wayside.
This wastefulness in game development is reminiscent of the psychological phenomenon of ‘Displacement Activity.’ A pigeon, uncertain whether it should fight or flee an aggressor, might compulsively peck at the ground or preen itself instead of doing something constructive. In the individual, displacement activity hints at confusion or stress. For an organisation, it is a sign of dysfunction. The classic example is a re-branding exercise. THQ put on a big song and dance about how they had re-designed their logo shortly before they went out of business.
At a meta level entire games can be a form of displacement activity, so long as superior products exist. The endless, tiresome grind of Destiny and The Division is almost like a drug habit, shackling the very souls of their afflicted players. To think that there are YouTubers out there who actually offer guides to these sorts of games, serving as enablers to mediocrity. When someone dangles out a carrot of false hope, that these games can eventually become fun if you get good at them... it’s almost evil. But a banal kind of evil, like working as a political staffer, or at a merchant bank.
But back on topic: Another point that Cliffy B made in his talk was that when you’re a new studio you only get one chance to make a big splash. The sobering example he gave was Raven Software and Singularity. The subtext: If LawBreakers fails, Boss Key Productions will fade into obscurity. So keep an eye on Cliffy B’s social media output. If he starts talking more about his haircuts than about his game, then you’ll know it’s in trouble...