At the opening of Gamescom Asia in Singapore, Sony exec Sean Layden shared his thoughts on the state of the gaming industry. He emphasized the disappearance of AA studios and explained why it is bad for the future of the industry.
«In the gaming business, you have Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, indie projects. But the middle ground, the middle layer where Interplay, Gremlin, Ocean, THQ, and all these companies used to make money… That middle ground has disappeared. If you can become AAA, you survive, or if you do something interesting in the indie space, you have a chance. But AAs have disappeared. I think it’s a threat to the ecosystem,» Leyden emphasized.
He explained that developers used to pay more attention to the evaluation of games themselves rather than monetization issues or plans to generate regular income.
«We asked simply: Is it fun to play? If the answer was yes, the project usually got the green light. Of course, back then, millions of dollars weren’t spent on development, so risk tolerance was higher»,” Leyden said.
According to him, today the cost of creating a AAA game reaches hundreds of millions of dollars, which leads to a decrease in risk taking. This leads to the emergence of numerous sequels and copies of successful projects.
«We’re seeing a decline in creativity in games due to studio consolidation and high production costs,» Leyden emphasized.
He compared the situation to the movie industry, where only blockbusters and independent films remained, and the middle segment moved to streaming platforms. In the gaming industry, according to Leyden, no such transition has taken place, which has led to the disappearance of the middle segment.
Despite the pessimistic outlook for AA games, Leyden noted positive changes in the quality of video games in general.
«With the advent of technologies such as the latest Unreal Engine or what Unity has to offer, we can all say that the standard quality of video games is now quite high compared to ten years ago,» he said.
As for the strategy for the remaining AA studios, Leyden advised to focus on creating new things rather than copying AA projects.
«Bring something new, challenge yourself. The gaming environment is so flexible, it can do so many different things,» he urged.
Leyden also warned against excessive attention to monetization in the early stages of development.
«If you present me with your AA game and the first two pages of your presentation are about monetization and revenue scheme, I will refuse. The first page should explain why this game should be created,» he emphasized.
Speaking about artificial intelligence, Leyden noted that it is only a tool, not a savior of the industry. He sees practical applications of AI in testing and idea generation, but does not consider it a revolutionary solution.
Finally, Leyden drew attention to the potential of the Asian market. «I look at Asia, South Asia, this part of the world as the place where all the next big opportunities will come from,» he concluded, urging developers to create games for local markets and cultures.
Source: Gamesindustry