Is the AAA game business a dying breed?

Business

May 13, 2014

The big AAA titles are what gamers look forward to learning about when big events such as E3 come around – but are the big-budget epics where the future of gaming lies?

According to Hideo Kojima, young gamers are tired of AAA titles and are migrating to mobile and social alternatives.

Now, founder and former general manager of Eidos Montreal, Stephane D’Astous, echoed these sentiments in an interview with GamesIndustry International about why he left one of gaming’s biggest players.

“In the last 14 years in the gaming industry I like to consider myself working in a Ferrari garage. We were doing Ferraris, very proud of the high quality product, and you get embedded in that type of thinking. Once you are not exactly in that position you have the freedom to look at what is happening,” he said.

D’Astous said the video game industry was of full of “face paced and mega trends” and social and mobile gaming was one of them. “I was trying to look at the mega trends and obviously mobile is having great traction.”

D’Astous is now part of Canadian mobile studio Hibernum as its COO and partner. He describes the tablet space as a “game changer” and a space for growth outside of AAA titles.

“I said to myself: Where do I see myself in five years? I want to be in a place where there are more possibilities, more growth in all senses, in creativity and innovation and business, and… I would rather be in mobile now and see myself [happy] in five years.”

D’Astous said publishers already know a shift toward tablet and mobile gaming is happening – “the direction of the wind you cannot change,” he says – but pointed out that some companies are having a tough time making that transition.

“Again, my example of doing Ferraris, you say, ‘Okay, let’s keep the shop, let’s keep the people that are doing the Ferraris, but let’s do the Fiats, the Fiat 500, the small micro-car.’ Obviously you will have good labour to do that, good expertise, but it is not in their DNA, it is not what they are used to,” he said.

“The publishers that tried to cookie cut their different types of studios to go from console to mobile, I wish them luck. I do not think it works really well like that; that is where partnerships with existing mobile studios and indies really helps.”

Do you think big studios will start moving away from AAA titles to capture the social and mobile market? Let us know in the comments and forum.