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[Sinatar]

Bethesda is still making them. Last couple of years has seen Doom, Fallout 4, Dishonored 2, Prey, The Evil Within 2 and soon Wolfenstein 2.

Other than Beth though, it seems most publishers are either moving all in on Games as a Service shit or stuffing their single player games full of gross microtransactions and loot boxes.

 

[Steel]

Feel free to post a definition of what AAA means, cos all of those have as much polish, Content and Quality as any other 60$ retail game.

AAA is purely a budgetary qualification. AAA is often bottom of the barrel in terms of content and quality.

 

[Trago]

Yeah, once we move below the $60 bracket, game variety increases astronomically.

And the console vendors have incentives to appeal to audiences that are otherwise not served to help sell consoles, even if they make less money doing it, so they're one of the main exception vectors, yes.

And even then, I think we'll see more and more of them at least come with some kind of multiplayer mode ala Gears and Uncharted.

 

[TheXbox]

We'll see a decline but not an outright extinction of AAA single player experiences. First-party platform holders, especially Nintendo and Sony, will continue to do as they have always done. Zelda and Uncharted don't just sell like crazy, they help push machines.

Third-party publishers, however, don't have that hardware incentive. So your EAs, WBs, and Activisions have and will continue to wean off of fixed-length single player games.

If you're distressed about the rise of GaaS and the goings-on at EA, just remember that games like Skyrim, Zelda, and Uncharted continue to sell to the tune of millions. The audience for these kind of games is huge - I'm not even sure that it's diminished. it just hasn't grown fast enough to account for rising development costs. Either way, there's a market for big-budget single-player games, and on that basis alone I'm confident they aren't going to disappear.

 

[Ray Down]

Feel free to post a definition of what AAA means, cos all of those have as much polish, Content and Quality as any other 60$ retail game.

It's budget.

 

[Ryde3]

Sony has plenty on the way, I don't think so.

 

[blakep267]

Depends who developing it.

Yup. Activision EA and MS are likely done with it. Ubisoft are gonna be 50/50. Singleplayer games that may have a co-op element that doesn't really affect anythibg(Far Cry) along with their SP/MP games(division for Honor)

Bethesda will likely keep with it as well for Sony

 

[Animagne]

NieR Automata and Persona 5 are absolutely AAA. If they aren't, neither are any of Square Enix games, because Final Fantasy XV is barely above them in terms of biggest JRPGs out there.

 

[Alexander DeLarge]

Feel free to post a definition of what AAA means, cos all of those have as much polish, Content and Quality as any other 60$ retail game.

That's precisely why they're so appealing. They're able to take risks and they're just as "high-end" as the AAA projects without costing a hundred million dollars.

 

[XandBosch]

Why is this a question being brought up now? These games will always be made. Just because EA showed its nasty ass true form doesn't mean the entire industry is just gonna toss everything in the trash.



The majority of Nintendos focus for Switches first year has been multiplayer games.

Sure about that? Zelda, Mario, Rabbids, Xenoblade, Fire Emblem vs Mario Kart, Arms, Splatoon.... If you count the other AAA games Nintendo is bringing to Switch, Doom, Skyrim, LA Noire, etc.

What you talkin' 'bout?

 

[Orb]

Nintendo has put a pretty even focus on both SP and MP games since the N64 era. Switch hasn't changed that.

Mario Kart, Splatoon, and Arms were the biggest releases besides Zelda in the first half a year.

 

[RedHill]

Speak with your wallet. I'll be getting God of War and Spider-Man on launch. Let the industry know what you want.

 

[IKizzLE]

Feel free to post a definition of what AAA means, cos all of those have as much polish, Content and Quality as any other 60$ retail game.

I think people are referring AAA as level of investment.

 

[Bronetta]

AAA is purely a budgetary qualification. AAA is often bottom of the barrel in terms of content and quality.

AAA was a mistake, its mostly trash.

 

[Steel]

NieR Automata and Persona 5 are absolutely AAA. If they aren't, neither are any of Square Enix games, because Final Fantasy XV is barely above them in terms of biggest JRPGs out there.

Nier and persona 5 aren't even in the same planet of budget as FF XV.

 

[KORNdoggy]

Feel free to post a definition of what AAA means, cos all of those have as much polish, Content and Quality as any other 60$ retail game.

AAA means high budget. nothing else.

 

[texhnolyze]

Yeah, people can only cling to first party games from the big 3 in the near future.

 

[CanUKlehead]

Eventually, when multiplayer team games take over.

Prediction:
They'll be as popular as bowling, tennis and single player sports compared to football and basketball. They're not going away, but the popularity will continue to spiral.

And this is coming from a 95% single player gamer.

 

[Orb]

Sure about that? Zelda, Mario, Rabbids, Xenoblade, Fire Emblem vs Mario Kart, Arms, Splatoon.... If you count the other AAA games Nintendo is bringing to Switch, Doom, Skyrim, LA Noire, etc.

What you talkin' 'bout?

Arms and Splatoon are very aggressively multiplayer lmao.

And I'm talking Nintendo first party.

 

[Ray Down]

NieR Automata and Persona 5 are absolutely AAA. If they aren't, neither are any of Square Enix games, because Final Fantasy XV is barely above them in terms of biggest JRPGs out there.

XV has ten times the budget of those games.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Mario Kart, Splatoon, and Arms were the biggest releases besides Zelda in the first half a year.

.....and Super Mario Odyssey, Fire Emblem Warriors, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 are the biggest releases of the second half.

As I said, there's a pretty even split.

 

[jsnepo]

For EA, Activision, and Valve perhaps.

The rest will still make single-player AAA games I bet.

 

[Currygan]

I think so, yeah. Dont care much as long as Bethesda and Nintendo keep making them

 

[Duxxy3]

Mega budget single player. Maybe.

AAA single player can still be profitable, but costs have to be kept down. In development but more importantly in marketing.

 

[Aters]

Big budget open world games will still be around.

 

[Lime]

Yes, at least in the sense that the current volatile climate of capitalist games development means that the resources and exploitation of labor move toward Games as service that retain consumers to spend money on cheaply produced digital items.

Look at Goldman Sachs recent analysis of the Games industry and the options for investment at the moment.

As Ian Williams tweeted It is pretty much entirely about games as worthwhile stocks to buy on the back of virtual items and microtransactions

 

[Damn Silly]

We perhaps might be in for a leaner few years on the AAA front, but maybe in a few years publishers will realise there's only so much of that multiplayer, GAAS pie to go around and not everyone can get the big slice.

Spoiler

I might be a little hungry writing this

 

[MosquitoSmasher]

Someone in the Visceral thread yesterday made a post of all the upcoming SP games and they were quite a few. I am not gonna and don't wanna worry that SP are on their way out.

We really should simply buy these games. Buy Wolfie2, buy Metro Exodus, Shadow of the Tomb Raider etc.

 

[Hispanic! At the Disco]

Didn’t Prey, Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, Crash Trilogy, Nier: Automata, BotW, Horizon, Shadow of War, Resident Evil 7, and The Evil Within all release just this year? And 3 more coming in about a week?

12 good single player AAA games in 1 year is amazing imo, and most of the sold, or are tracking to sell, really well.I dont see them going anywhere.

 

[low-G]

AAA games are on the way out. Single player games are on the way back in.

 

[Trago]

Bethesda is still making them. Last couple of years has seen Doom, Fallout 4, Dishonored 2, Prey, The Evil Within 2 and soon Wolfenstein 2.

Other than Beth though, it seems most publishers are either moving all in on Games as a Service shit or stuffing their single player games full of gross microtransactions and loot boxes.

Aren't there rumors of Starfield having a multiplayer focus?

 

[Akuun]

deleted

 

[Animagne]

XV has ten times the budget of those games.

Just because it had horrible management behind it. Regular development prices aren't significantly higher. It's like saying that some Ubisoft game isn't AAA (wildlands, watch dogs 2, etc.) just because call of duty costs 10 times as much for their marketing.

 

[Steel]

We perhaps might be in for a leaner few years on the AAA front, but maybe in a few years publishers will realise there's only so much of that multiplayer, GAAS pie to go around and not everyone can get the big slice.

Spoiler

I might be a little hungry writing this

Last gen made it quite clear that big budget companies are more than happy to die for the chance to be one of the people who have a slice of the biggest pie.

 

[Hektor]

It's budget.

AAA is purely a budgetary qualification. AAA is often bottom of the barrel in terms of content and quality.

Then OP asking for games of a specific but simultaniously arbitrary amount of budget makes only half as much sense to me.

See: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=252403869&postcount=95

 

[dumbo]

AAA single-player games?
No. There will be a witcher 4, a fallout 5, horizon second dawn, and a skyrim 2 etc.

"Linear" AAA single-player games without multiplayer?
To some degree, yes. You can't really sell DLC, the game can be rented and a lot of sales in the first few weeks will be second hand.

It seems the current business model makes linear AAA single-player games difficult to justify.

 

[Kill3r7]

SP experiences are not going to cease to exist. They just won’t be as prominent in the AAA space. That said, most successful AAA games have adopted GaaS.

 

[brian!]

In general i am for the diminishing of AAA uncharted style games, need this wave to die out soon

 

[Drewfonse]

Honestly I've found a lot of the AAA single-player games to be one-note over the past few years anyway. Every game looks similar to me (hyper-realistic, grey), play pretty similar, etc. Zelda was a breath of fresh air for me because while it took queues, it was such a different approach.Seems like Nintendo are the only ones still pushing these types of games, and they do put a big single player game out, they're still striving to bring the player a different experience. Indies are as well (obviously), but they aren't AAA. Maybe that's the answer, but even these get a little one-note after a while because they can only do so much with pixel art.

It's still a massive bummer though. I'll never get into a "service" game just because I don't really have the time, nor are video games the only thing I like doing when I DO have the time, so a game like Destiny wouldn't work for me since I'd never be able to keep up. These games pretty much demand all of your attention, while games like Zelda and Mario are very much" do it at your own pace, explore a bit, have fun".

Call me a fanboy.

Sony has had much more interesting and varied SP for several years, and will continue to, compared to Nintendo. IMHO

 

[Magic Mushroom]

These aren’t AAA.

Yet, people keep saying the mid-tier is dead. So what are games like Nier, Nioh, The Last Guardian, Bloodborne, Bayonetta 2, Yakuza and Persona 5?

At what arbitrary budget does something become AAA?

 

[bizzarewars]

People will still make AAA single-player games, just don't expect any from Unicronic Arts. They're too busy basing everything they produce off of focus tests from adolescent boys.

 

[BiggNife]

Define AAA.

If we're talking about $100 million games, yeah, I think that's going to be pretty hard with a few exceptions here and there.

If you consider $20 million AAA, I'd expect those to stick around for niche audiences. Certainly games like Nier and Persona can subsist on 1-2 million copies and their niche audiences.

Also it depends if you classify games like Ghost Recon Wildlands and Dying Light as singleplayer or not.

Basically this.

I think we're going to see a lot more games like Borderlands or Destiny that have a multiplayer focus but can be played solo. That doesn't mean single player is dead, but it also means that purely story-based, single player experiences just aren't viable for massively budgeted games anymore unless you're Sony or Bethesda. And stuff like Nier and Persona will still exist.

 

[KORNdoggy]

Yeah, people can only cling to first party games from the big 3 in the near future.

you mean the big 2? because i don't see MS touching massive budget single player titles anymore really. it's bitten them in the ass too many times.

 

[Markoman]

EA is out, of course. Bethesda is to follow. Activision? What was their last sp-centric game? Take2: RDR2 and GTA6 will completely be designed around GaaS fore sure.
But this trend started last gen with the huge shift to MP.

We can call ourselves lucky that the Japanese devs bounced back this gen with single-player centric games like Nioh, TLG, Yakuza 0 etc. to hold that flag a little bit longer, since they are apparantly not capable of creating popular games (and stemming the necessary marketing budgets) with the Destiny formula - MH being the exception.

I'm kinda curious what CDPR are going to do with Cyberpunk.

Stuff like The Order or Quantum Break will go the way of the dodo. But in those cases I won't shed a single tear.

God of War, Mario Odyssee, Spiderman... are going to be huge hits, so I wouldn't worry to much.

 

[VN1X]

2017 has been an amazing year so far and we are simply spoilt for choice. I don't think there's ever been more diversity in games in that regard. Story-based-TURRIPAL-AEY-Games won't go anywhere.

Regarding the 'definition of AAA'...

Mid/low-tier 2017 Japanese game:

Full Western dev budget 2017 game:

 

[FlaygletheBagel]

Nah. Single-player AAA games will always be a thing as long as there's demand for them. Multiplayer/GaaS is definitely the trend lately but there have been numerous incredible, successful AAA games this year alone.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

We still have Nintendo, Square Enix, Bethesda and Sony at least.

 

[Astral Dog]

NO

 

[Ragona]

I don't think singleplayer games will ever die, but as many before have accurately described, it wont be the sole priority for the big publishers anymore.
However, games like Battlefront 2 and Titan Fall 2 have shown that they still feel the need to push single player components into their multiplayer focused games.

I feel like they are going for the complete package, i.e. sp+coop/multiplayer for microtransactions/dlc in the future.
Which could revitalize the AA sector as pure single player producers again (Hellblade, Elex..)

 

[facetheslayer92]

Yet, people keep saying the mid-tier is dead. So what are games like Nier, Nioh, The Last Guardian, Bloodborne, Bayonetta 2, Yakuza and Persona 5?

At what arbitrary budget does something become AAA?

There is no fixed number. The games you listed have taken the place of what used to be occupied by your THQs of the world.