THE AAA APOCALYPSE: How Big-Budget Games Are Eating Themselves Alive

Get ready for a reality check, gamers! Former Assassin's Creed director Alexandre Amancio just spilled the tea on the darker side of AAA game development, and it's a WILD ride.

Amancio, now at FunPlus, opened up to GamesIndustry.biz about his time at Ubisoft, and let's just say it's a miracle he made it out alive.

Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

According to Amancio, the moment a team surpasses 100 people, **everything changes**. The management-to-developer ratio goes through the roof, and suddenly you need a whole army of coordinators to, well, coordinate.

"You start having a very management-heavy structure: You need to have people to coordinate the people coordinating," he said. Yeah, because that's exactly what you want – a game development process that's more bureaucratic than a government agency.

The Problem with Throwing People at Problems

Amancio also called out AAA studios for thinking they can solve problems by throwing more people at them. **Newsflash: it doesn't work**. In fact, it just creates "variable noise" and stagnates the people who were already doing a good job.

So, what's the solution? Amancio thinks **smaller teams** are the way to go. And honestly, it's hard to argue with that.

Learning from the Film Industry

Amancio drew parallels with the film industry, where smaller, core teams come together for specific projects. It's a temporary crew that's built for that one project, and then they disband.

Gaming, on the other hand, is a whole different beast. Projects change and evolve over time, making it harder to replicate the film industry's model. But Amancio thinks we can still learn from it – by taking a hybrid approach that combines core teams with outsourcing and co-dev for specific needs.

Breaking it Down for Grandma

Think of it like this: imagine you're building a house. You don't need a huge team of architects, engineers, and contractors working on it full-time. Instead, you assemble a small team of experts for each stage of the project – foundation, framing, electrical, etc.

It's the same with game development. You don't need a massive team of developers, designers, and artists working on every aspect of the game. Smaller teams can be more agile, more efficient, and more effective.

What You Can Do to Survive the AAA Apocalypse

So, what can you do to prepare for the impending doom of big-budget game development? Here are a few tips:

• Support indie games and smaller studios – they're often more innovative and agile than their AAA counterparts.
• Keep an eye on game development news and trends – it's always interesting to see what's working and what's not.
• Don't be afraid to speak your mind – if you're tired of buggy, bloated games, let the developers know.

Final Verdict

There you have it, folks – the AAA apocalypse is real, and it's coming for us all. But don't worry, there's hope. By embracing smaller teams, more agile development processes, and a willingness to learn from other industries, we might just survive this mess.

So, what are you waiting for? Share this post, comment below, and let's get the conversation started. And for the love of all things good, **enable 2FA** on your gaming accounts – you never know when you'll need it.