Cliff Bleszinski also grabbed the microphone at Dubrovnik’s Reboot Develop.

He’s a veteran in the gaming industry – without him, Unreal or Gears of War would likely not exist, and he’s currently working on Lawbreakers at Nexon. He has a tough opinion about gaming’s current situation.

He thinks that an AAA game‘s development is too expensive, and its model is „nearly unsustainable.” Not a lot of people can afford a 60-dollar game more than a few times a year, and they could have previously been disappointed with DLCs or buggy launches of the games. Meanwhile, players set a high standard for AAA games‘ graphics, features, quality, and polish.

As an example, he brought up Horizon Zero Dawn, which was in development for seven years. Sony could afford it, as it had revenue via its PlayStation consoles. However, Take-Two couldn’t wait longer with Irrational’s BioShock Infinite, which ended up launching in a cut-back form, and its performance made the developer team effectively disband.

Bleszinski sees potential in AA (yes, that’s just two A letters!) games, such as Rocket League, Warframe, or Rust – these are successful, mostly multiplayer-based games with a small development budget. His Lawbreakers (an Unreal Engine 4-using multiplayer shooter, to which you can sign up here) is following the formula. He also thinks successful AA games will be digital-only.

Regarding virtual reality, he admitted that he likes the concept, but currently, the VR-games are in their „80’s period” with a lot of wave-based shooters (Galaga. Galaxian. Space Invaders, albeit this one is a little out of reach…), and developers still need some time to utilize the technology properly.

(Source: WCCFTech)