Assassin’s Creed 3 dev: ‘big triple-a games are dying out’

Assassin’s Creed 3 is “the last of the dinosaurs”, according to creative director Alex Hutchinson. The developer suggests that games of AC3′s size – that require teams in their hundreds – are becoming a thing of the past.

[TheMasterShake]

so the Future is that every franchised series will be milked. sounds very sad

[BrutallyBlunt]

Well when costs have risen so sharply of course something has to give. We also live in an era where episodic content can be used instead. Look at the game The Walking Dead for example.

Either you charge the consumer $100 for a game or you find other avenues to recoup development costs, it's not hard to figure these things out. Games on the NES system were $50, how much money do you think those games cost to make back then and how many people were involved compared to development teams today? It's no wonder the publishers keep playing it safe and milking existing franchises.

[brish]

"Games on the NES system were $50, how much money do you think those games cost to make back then and how many people were involved compared to development teams today?"

Don't forget that revenue isn't how much they make on one game. Revenue is the amount they make per game times the number of games they sell.

COD costs significantly more to make then an old NES games but when they sell tens of millions of copies which works out to over a billion in revenue. It costs significantly less than a billion to make a COD game.

Even smaller franchises can have a million sales. If the average amount they make per game is $20 (retail gets some of the total cost, so do console makers like Sony) then that's 20 million in revenue.

[BrutallyBlunt]

COD is one franchise out of hundreds that don't prosper. We have seen time and time again of studios being shut down. Super Mario Bros. 3 sold over 18 million copies on one system. It generated 1.7 Billion, yes billion, dollars when you factor in inflation being adjusted. So i too can cherry pick a game.

How many games have done that recently that was an exclusive title and non-bundled? Now compare that to the ratio of development cost. It's no wonder Nintendo was so rich back then. Do you see Sony or Nintendo making anywhere near the amount of profits now as they did early on?

The fact is games do cost more now than any time in history and it is far riskier now. Yes there are many games that are still profitable but those that do fail fail big time. It's a much bigger gamble now because of so much resources now that go into making these games. That's why we see most of the innovation and creativity come from the indie scene. That way if they fail it's only 10's or hundreds of thousands of dollars that it took to make them, not 10's of millions.

It also explains why we see so few 3rd party console exclusives this generation, they need the exposure now more than ever.

[thedizzle23]

i surely hope not

[Baka-akaB]

Can't he just shut up ? Assassin creed 3 is looking awesome , so the guy might be talented , but every time he opens his mouth , it's quoted ad nauseum and a fresh batch of can worms

[nihonlight]

I don't think so.
Once the shallow cash cow of downloadable pad titles wear off,
And devs see the possibilitlies of new hardware
They'll get inspired.
Sounds like ubi is worn out and tired.

[Sephiroushin]

“We’re the last of the dinosaurs. We’re still the monster triple-A game"

This guy is talking too much crap lately, he's becoming another Itagaki -.-

[bubblebeam]

I love Assassisn creed, havn't bought Revelations though.

But he is an ass, I mean let your game speak for itself. Nothing worse than someone who can talk the talk but can't walk the walk.

I think AC3 will most likely be good, but this crap talk makes me not want to buy it.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

Over sony's dead body!!

[DigitalAnalog]

Oh wow. Ever since they put this guy as the "Creative Director" of Assassin's Creed III, he's been doing nothing but running his mouth to piss off a lot of people. I wonder what he was working on previously:

"Army of Two."

F*CK!