Images from the Official Steam Store.

By Matthew Hughs

During the first month and a half of 2024, the gaming industry has seen dozens of new game releases, which is many more than the norm in years past. Several of these newly release games have also become extremely popular, achieving heights that the game developers didn’t even think possible; Palworld is the greatest example of this, but games like Enshrouded and Granblue Fantasy: Relink are also good examples, just to name a few. Although these games are unique in their own ways, there is one thing that all these games mentioned above have in common – they are not made by AAA companies. This is how the Gaming Industry as a whole is stepping up their games, so let’s dive deeper into why this is happening and what it means for the future of gaming.

AAA vs non-AAA

Before going any further, it is important to understand the difference between AAA publishers and all other publishers. AAA is a distinguishment given to companies that are major players in the gaming industry and have created/published games that are very well known. Some AAA studios/publishers you may know are Riot Games, Microsoft Activision Blizzard King, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo, EA, Epic, and Ubisoft. These publishers generally have well established well-known games/franchises, huge studios with lots of employees working on new games, big budgets with more lenient deadlines, and giant fan bases.

However, with all this gaming power, AAA publishers have lost touch with their communities, introduced bad practices into gaming (namely Microtransactions), and generally lost the passion that was once seen in the development of their games because money is more important than passion for AAA companies. The issue is all of these lacking qualities are extremely important to games and the people who play them.

Non-AAA companies, so AA companies down to one-person indie studios, are generally completely opposite to AAA publishers; they don’t have huge development teams or big budgets, but they are driven by passion in the development and are very in touch with their communities. This difference is why we see this huge success in non-AAA published games and declining success in AAA companies, which can be seen by the tens of thousands of people laid off by AAA companies in 2023 and 2024.

In short, non-AAA studios have stepped up the quality of their games while AAA companies have not. Therefore, we see this major shift away from AAA games toward more non-AAA games as more gamers are giving non-AAA games a chance. This is why we see so many non-AAA games do so well in the beginning of 2024 alone.

What does this mean for the future of gaming?

There are a few inferences that can be taken from this giant shift toward non-AAA games. First is that money is not everything in gaming and gamers can see through companies that think otherwise. They can see through this because AAA games are at least $70 with many microtransactions while non-AAA are between free and $70 dollars with little to no microtransactions, and the non-AAA games are still seemingly better. Look at the success of Baldur’s Gate 3, Palworld, or Lethal Company as great examples.

The second inference that can be taken is that this shift will most definitely have a ripple effect throughout the gaming industry. All companies in gaming should already see this shift and how to go along with the trend if they want to succeed. The trend being: more money poured into a game does not equal a better game, but more passion and freedom to utilize the passion of developers does equal a better game. This formula is already practiced by non-AAA games and hopefully AAA companies soon, so it should allow for a much more fun, expansive, and diverse gameplay experience and gaming market in the near future.

Lastly, this shift away from AAA games toward non-AAA games is a good thing for gaming. It means AAA studios will have to make serious changes to how they make their games if they want to keep up with all the non-AAA studios out there. It could mean reducing the prices of their games on release; listening to their communities more; giving more freedom to their game developers to create a game in their own vision instead of a vision of what would make the most money; and/or more. Once the AAA companies make their step up, then non-AAA will have to take another step up, and so on. Overall, this should lead to a big leap in game quality across both AAA and non-AAA games.

If you agree or disagree, I would like to hear your thoughts in the comments!