AAA Games Don't Always Take Years to Develop. Former Bioware Employee Explains Why We Wait So Long for Big Hits

Source: BioWare.

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Modern games can take many years to develop. Just take a look at The Elder Scrolls 6 or even Fable, which release still seems very far away. However, according to one former BioWare employee, games take many years to develop not because of the complexity of the production process itself.

Long pre-production

Some of the information that Mark Darrah (creative director at BioWare until 2020) conveyed in another material posted on his YouTube channel is nothing new. The devs points out that many AAA projects actually don't take as long as you might think.

For a long time, a modest team of about 10 people can oversee the project, who only exchange ideas at occasional meetings. This could be seen as the earliest phase of what's known as pre-production, although even that term might be a bit of an exaggeration in this context.

The reason is prosaic: work on new games often begins either right after the release of another project, or even in parallel with it. Of course, studios have a limited number of employees, and even after the premiere, the developers have a lot to do around the already released project. This could include updates with different bug fixes (which are usually abundant in modern, highly complex titles) or new features, as well as additional content or entire DLCs. Let's not even mention games that require a lot of attention long after they are released.

However, time is money and studies cannot afford to start work from scratch only when they can assign more people to produce a new title. Especially since the development of video games - as many developers have been repeating lately - is problematic and risky even with a large budget and plenty of time.

Before the work really begins, it's necessary to develop a preliminary concept: a skeleton on which the whole game will be based. The grim reports from ZA/UM studio, devs of Disco Elysium, testify to how disastrous neglecting pre-production can be for studies.

Darrah also emphasizes that it's very rare for AAA titles to have the full team responsible for the previous installment of the series work on the continuation.

Announcement to save the studio or portfolio

However, Darrah admits that studios can announce games (even with a trailer) that aren't yet in production. While not a completely new concept in itself, the developer provided one of the reasons why developers may choose to take this seemingly bizarre step.

According to Darrah, studios and publishers may want their next title to quickly reach the awareness of players - even if its debut isn't planned for the near future. This may allow the latter to improve the appearance of their upcoming games catalog. Meanwhile, the developers themselves can use such an announcement when they fear cuts or the closure of the studio by the publisher - who may give the team a chance if they know they are working on a title that has been enthusiastically received.

Of course, it has its shortcoming, as it requires maintaining the enthusiasm of players for a longer time. Especially when the title, which had already been shown in the trailer, wasn't even in production several years after the trailer's publication.

Big games are expensive

Of course, Darrah doesn't deny that the size of current titles also plays a role, either literally, as in the case of games with a gigantic, huge world, or those that are developed over a long period of time (mainly games-services). Modern games - even sequels - usually have to offer much more for their price than - let's say - titles from the 90s.

Let's not even talk about the higher production costs, including those resulting from larger development teams (which also complicates communication and prolongs the work on the game), the requirement for full and professional voice acting, and detailed visual design. Darrah even talks about what he calls "The Fidelity Death Cult" - the obsession with creating hyper-realistic, super-intensive, or mega-customized games.

Hence the tendency of publishers to pursue "super mega hits" and titles that players will spend as much time as possible on and that will sell for years (see GTA V). This approach was adopted by Sega, although so far the company's ambitious plans have failed (although the company wasn't discouraged by the failure of Hyenas).

According to Darrah, we also owe this to the smaller number of linear titles focused on the plot. The creator argues that in the current economic situation, it's more advantageous for publishers to release multiple game-services, with all but one ending after a few months, rather than investing in one successful and "complete" production.

Of course, building such a "big game" takes a lot of time. It's not necessarily harder, but developing them requires many years of dedication. And players often expect more and more. So it's not surprising that many publishers have become interested in AI algorithms as a way to speed up at least some tasks in game development.

Long development time of AAA is an opportunity for small devs

Furthermore, Darrah mentions, among other things, the reluctance to reuse elements from previous games due to fear of criticism from players, as evidenced by the confusion surrounding the animation of getting into a boat in God of War: Ragnarok (via GameRant). He also discusses problems with changing personnel, including departures, hirings, and transferring employees between projects. Additionally, he highlights the need for dozens or even hundreds of iterations of closely related systems, as even a slight modification of the attack mechanics may require changes to the animation, model, and more. Finally, he addresses the need to adapt to new trends in the gaming industry.

This all results in the "genesis of delays" - many small issues that collectively cause significant production delays. However, Darrah acknowledges that extended development times aren't just about production delays, but rather a deliberate decision by publishers, especially for major series, where new releases are a small celebration for the gaming market (see Grand Theft Auto 6 and Diablo 4).

Of course, all this applies mainly to AAA games, although some of these problems may also be encountered by devs of smaller projects (see Hollow Knight: Silksong).

Nevertheless, it's the devs of these more little titles, such as the so-called AA or III, who benefit from the long production time of high-budget games. This demonstrates that success doesn't necessarily require games to be huge, detailed, and long-lasting (paradoxically, potentially extending the production time of AAA projects, which they may inspire).

We sincerely encourage you to watch the full material to get the full context.