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Comment on What makes a video game triple A (AAA)?

BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

It is just a buzz word in the industry and doesn’t have a tight definition. It’s basically any big budget full priced game from a big publisher. They’re just communicating that they’ve made a big budget game with an expectations of hopefully big sales and profit.

It does imply the game should be popular and high quality, but those are not a given. Plenty of AAA games end up being trash and flopping yet they’re still AAA games.

It’s similar to the Blockbuster concept in the film industry.

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tiramichu@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Exactly this, it’s a within-industry term that has leaked out to members of the public. It simply means “we put a lot of money into this, and we expect to make a lot back (for our investors)”

As for where the ‘A’ terminology came from then that itself is likely a reuse of other entertainment industry terms.

In the old days when you released a record album, you’d put the best tracks on the ‘A’ side and the less popular ones on the ‘B’ side.

Similarly, we talk about ‘A-list’ celebrities abs ‘B-list’ celebrities, and use the term ‘B-movies.’ to denote low budget.

And so what happens wben something gets “bigger and better than A?” Well, you just add more A’s!

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- AdNecrias@lemmy.pt ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Isn’t the A terminology from credit rating? Or does that have the same origin?
  
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  - tiramichu@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    No idea if that specifically is related.
    
    But a lot of fields have convention of ranking A,B,C,D etc with A being better just because it’s the top/first.
    
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    AdNecrias@lemmy.pt ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Credit was the one with AAA, AA and B which is already “trash”
    
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TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Similarly “super food” means anything the marking team wants it to mean.

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- FuglyDuck@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  well, technically not ‘food’, but water is pretty much a superfood in that drinking sufficient amounts will improve virtually every aspect of people’s lives. (unless you happen to live somewhere with Republicanite Pipes™️)
  
  But yeah. It always cracked me up when people point to berries (those Acai stuff, for example) saying “super food” because they’re “high in good stuff”. Like. Every other damn berry.) (and those greenhouse strawberries we get in winter? Much lower carbon emissions.)
  
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