There are substantially fewer developers working the ever-inadequately defined "AAA" circuit this generation, EA's chief creative officer Richard Hilleman has alleged in a new report. What's to blame? HD gaming, apparently. "What is true today is that there are fewer AAA games being built than at the same point in the previous generation," Hilleman wrote in a white paper picked up by CVG. "I've done some calculations that say there were about 125 teams in the industry worldwide working on what I'd call a AAA game on a console, and that was 7 or 8 years ago. That number today is well south of 30; probably in the 25 range."
This doesn't mean there are 80% fewer individual developers at work, however - teams have merged into one another rather than vanishing. "What's interesting is that, if you look at the composition of those teams, the numbers are exactly the same: those 125 teams became 25; the size of the teams increased by a factor of four."
All this apparently "has everything to do with the standard definition to HD change". "If you look at the math," Hilleman went on, "that change is about content - richly about content - and as we evolved, our costs went substantially up. And the number of people on teams with that kind of vision went up by necessity."
So there you have it: HD killed the videogame star, or something. Xbox One exec Boyd Multerer made related comments to OXM in our reveal feature, claiming that the rise in budgets is chiefly the result of investment in high resolution art.
For more on the industry's blockbuster budget problem, read this piece I did yonks ago about how developers will survive "the death of triple-A".
Source: OXM[SUP][1][/SUP]
[h=3]References[/h]
Thanks to: Rheena.com
This doesn't mean there are 80% fewer individual developers at work, however - teams have merged into one another rather than vanishing. "What's interesting is that, if you look at the composition of those teams, the numbers are exactly the same: those 125 teams became 25; the size of the teams increased by a factor of four."
All this apparently "has everything to do with the standard definition to HD change". "If you look at the math," Hilleman went on, "that change is about content - richly about content - and as we evolved, our costs went substantially up. And the number of people on teams with that kind of vision went up by necessity."
So there you have it: HD killed the videogame star, or something. Xbox One exec Boyd Multerer made related comments to OXM in our reveal feature, claiming that the rise in budgets is chiefly the result of investment in high resolution art.
For more on the industry's blockbuster budget problem, read this piece I did yonks ago about how developers will survive "the death of triple-A".
Source: OXM[SUP][1][/SUP]
[h=3]References[/h]
- [SUP]^[/SUP] Source: OXM (www.oxm.co.uk)
Thanks to: Rheena.com
