Cliff Bleszinski Criticizes AAA Game Development Model

Speaking to attendees at Reboot: Develop 2017 conference in Croatia recently, veteran developer and Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski likened the AAA model of game development to the American restaurant scene, devolving into a monotonous, cookie-cutter and bland monstrosity that churns out games regularly that are the same thing repeated again and again. He states “they are not bad, they’re not great, they are just there”. He does this while bringing up slides featuring Call of Duty and Uncharted. He says that companies are too afraid to take a risk on new IPs. Moreover, it does not help that consumers are also afraid to take risks on purchasing a different title rather than “the name you know”.

Bleszinski: $60 is  “a lot of money”

Bleszinski defends the consumer for their choice. “$60 is still a lot of money to ask people for,” he said. “And to ask them to make that bet multiple times per year? Gamers are picky, they’re smart.”

He continues that “(AAA development) is a nearly unsustainable model, unless you’re an Activision, 2K or a Sony.” Suggesting to other developers to aim for an “AA” game instead. Which he describes as “games that look and play great but pick their battles” in terms of budget and marketing. He picked Warframe, Rust, and Rocket League as some examples of these AA games. He also noted that most of these are free-to-play and are digital-only releases.