A producer of God of War Ragnarök says the games industry should take more cues from titles like Astro Bot and Split Fiction. The message to major publishers: take risks on smaller, more creative projects without abandoning AAA. A Ragnarök producer offers pointed advice to the business.

Launching a AAA game today is a high-risk undertaking. Thanks to ballooning budgets and lengthy development timelines, the current landscape pushes developers to secure commercial hits or risk missing profitability. In the case of God of War Ragnarök, costs exceeded $200 million, and while the game sold millions, numbers like that can scare off smaller studios.

Meghan Morgan Juinio, former head of Santa Monica Studio, told Game Developer that AAA studios and publishers should also invest in AA — and even indie — projects to diversify their portfolios. The former Ragnarök producer isn’t advocating dumping big-budget blockbusters, but rather adding an alternative track many players might appreciate.

Split Fiction and Astro Bot as models

Juinio argues that larger studios should complement their AAA tentpoles with slightly smaller projects on shorter cycles, citing Split Fiction and Astro Bot. The latter won 2024’s GOTY and was developed by a team of about 60 over three years. The core point is that games need to be fun and offer a clear hook — visuals alone guarantee nothing.

“I think today’s gamers are a bit desensitized to pretty graphics, size, scale, and scope. It’s almost a given. If a game isn’t fun, it doesn’t matter how pretty it is. If a game isn’t engaging or doesn’t have any hooks, it’s not going to resonate with players.” Two studios highlighted as embodying this mindset are Obsidian Entertainment (Pentiment, Grounded, Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, Grounded 2) and Insomniac Games (Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and next year’s Marvel’s Wolverine).

Source: 3DJuegos