Are AAA games getting better again?

Past of AAA gaming

In the past, AAA games were no-compromises fun.

About 10 years ago smartphone games started to rise and with that their free-to-play model packed with microtransactions.

PC and major consoles games publishers saw the money involved in that particular model and first wide attempts have started to be seen in AAA games. They started to offer cosmetics, colors, jackets, skins and players were buying them in addition to a full priced games.

It was new and not really involved in a main part of the game.

Since it worked really well financially, more publishers started with these kinds of practices. Also they got worse. Game-as-a-service started, lootboxes as a way to force your psychology to pay more by bits and it all escalated into literal casinos.

Breaking point in AAA gaming

This is where we are right now.

Players got enraged. Why?

• Pay to win - you can simply buy an advantage instead of playing and getting good, it is effectively a payed cheat.
• Unfinished full-priced games - most of AAA games released in recent era were in terrible state with a promise of "more updates" while companies were ripping you off for even more money.

And it had results. EA lost a good looking public face and thanks to that so much money on shares cost and that is the only thing changing their practices.

And they started to change.

Bethesda's Fallout 76 is a catastrophe, but latest DOOM Eternal is a masterpiece.

EA's Battlefront was horrible, Battlefront II was an attempt to find a balance, but Jedi: Fallen Order is seriously awesome game without any of that BS.

Publishers tried to infect us with thinking, that nobody wants to play single-player story-driven games. Why? Because online and as-a-service games were supposed to have long-term engagement and for all the time, they also kept sell you anything they could. And players were buying those things even the game was often almost unplayable.

It's getting better

It really is.

EA plan more single-player and well-planed games.

Bethesda can not offer to loose one of their largest franchises, Fallout, and the next one will be awesome.

Ubisoft saw what is happening and pushed EVERY game about half a year, so they can review and update all of them.

Blizzard, after their fiasco with Diablo Immortal announced real Diablo 4 with promises of high-quality games.

Many companies using as a huge selling point "no lootboxes and no microtransactions".

And there are other companies, that went rogue from this standard and never changed their passion for game towards money and showing everyone, that still is possible to create a huge game without any of those hated practices and still be in profit. Looking for you, CD Project RED and Cyberpunk 2077.

Recent years were fucked. Future looks very bright.