The problem with AAA games is the development time is longer, the time spent working on the final game is not.
Time and time again when a game as been “in development” for 5/7/10+ years, the game that shipped was only really being worked on for the last year or two, once they finally got the design and gameplay nailed down and worked on the final game. Anthem is one of the more egregious examples in that some of the developers working on the game learned at the E3 presentation a year before launch that the game involved flying.
There’s an iceberg of effort and only a fraction of it gets released.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
It’s not a gurantee, but cutting the time down when QA is already paper thin ain’t gonna make shit better and likely won’t even retain the quality it currently has.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Who says the time getting cut is in QA? Maybe the games just scope down.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
The use of generative AI tools implies scope isn’t going to change at all.
zaphod@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Probably, which means the developers (or managers) didn’t really identify the problem.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That’s the fear the author raises, yes. I always say people are fluid, and we expand to fit our containers, whether that’s our schedules, filling our homes with junk, or anything else. Hopefully what the industry is coming to realize is that their container is smaller than they think it is, but yes, scope creep is a real threat. I’m rooting for the industry to scope down.
ms_lane@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
History and Common Sense.
callouscomic@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
I read this as shortening development time (“quicker”), not necessarily reducing the sheer amount of slop they pile in and call “content.”