Topic: Why do AAA games take so much longer to make today than in the past?

Game engines are more automated than they ever were in the past, whether automation is creating new assets from the work you've already done, eliminating the need to do custom LODs, eliminating the need for complex light management because of raytracing features, simpler node based programming, or even various AI-based automation capabilities.

Also, game consoles don't require proprietary architecture to program for. Graphics APIs and programming languages are easier to work with than they were in the past. Games don't really have a need for significantly more artwork than games of previous generations. It's just that in older generations, you'd need to spend more time making lower poly versions of the models, which is less of an issue today. Procedural generation can also make tons of variation to make it feel like there's a lot more unique artwork than there actually is.

So what in the world is taking so long? Have developers stayed working from home ever since COVID or something? That's the only thing I can think of. Work from home is less stressful but it's also much less efficient in terms of collaboration, and can have distractions that slow down the work as well. Or has something just completely broken down in how game dev studios are managed in recent years?

If AAA linear games could be developed in TWO years in the PS3/360 generation (open world 3-4 years), when they had MUCH less capable tools and had to do so much more complex architecture programming, how in the world have things seemed to slow down 2-3x today when the tools and hardware is so much more capable and easier to work with?

I honestly don't understand what happened and I don't think it's sustainable at all.

I think the short answer is that all the advances you've mentioned have simply been outpaced by both gamer's balooning expectations for what a "AAA" title needs to be, and the level of work required to attain that.

Yeah, 360/PS4 games were made by smaller teams with simpler tools, but they were also MUCH simpler games by modern standards. It may not "feel" that way, especially with nostalgia goggles, but the fact is a job that may have taken a single person 10 years ago, now requires a team, despite the advancement of the tools.

That is only true in some cases, the idea of making games bigger and bigger. There are still AAA games being released this generation that very much feel in line with the same kind of scope as those PS3 era games, but they're taking much longer. I also think it is inherently a problem for developers to think they need to make things bigger and bigger. The constant push for larger and longer games has made games feel lower quality and more stale imo compared to smaller scope games. It's not a good thing. Often times, bigger games means the quality gets stretched thin. While there are exceptions, I think players are starting to get tired of massive open world games that just feel like 90% busywork with very little creative inspiration or strong narrative. And clearly the live service thing isn't working out either.

Also, tools are FAR simpler today than they were in the PS3/360 era.

There's just more higher quality assets that have to drawn/created by hand, and that takes times. Art is one of the biggest factors in a large AAA game. It takes time to prototype and concept and make and refine and polish and render everything you need for a AAA game. Games back then had much lower resolution textures and assets so it was much easier to get stuff out.

@Schindigg They had lower resolution textures on the final game. They typically still produced models at the same level of quality they do today or even higher, using that higher poly base to bake in the normal maps as they reduce the poly count.

Also, it takes MUCH less effort today to create a high resolution model than it did back then, because there are more tools to assist the process, as well as better procedural generation tools to make it so you don't need to make as many models or textures total as well.

@AndyGilleand It doesn't take MUCH less effort, it's still made the same way, by hand, someone drawing it out. Tools may be better, but you're outputting much higher fidelity stuff. Unless the studio is using AI to proc gen models/textures, in which case no thank you. But I'm just going off what I've heard devs and artists say, which was producing assets and animations of a high quality for an entire game takes a tremendous amount of time.

I could tell you 3 reasons:
-The hierarchy of approval
-Culture of overthinking
-Bigger teams that leads to more coordination time

20 years ago, if you wanted to change the sound effect of a shotgun, you could do it immediately.
But today, it would take a meeting to get approved for it

@Charlesalb8787 yeah I have a feeling this is a big part of it

@mlleCamill3 For the vast majority of games, they aren't really larger or more complex than they were 20 years ago. There are exceptions but that's not most AAA games.

One underappreciated aspect why games have become so much more expensive is undoubtedly bad project management.

We can see it on display at Sony. Anyone who watched the "Making of God of War" documentary knows that Sony used to have gaming executives who were also masters of quality control who were very demanding and had their hand on the pulse of their major projects.

Under Jim Ryan this approach completely changed in pursuit of their own live service cashcow. Studios were given free reign and gigantic budgets without proper controlling.

Similarly Spider-Man was developed for $70m under the old management team whereas its sequel tripled in budget despite using pretty much the same game world.

Knowing how to develop a game on budget and on time is a skill very few people have.

@matmartin Do you think work from home has contributed to ballooning budgets and poor management at all? As much as it can be better for employees in some ways, I feel like it can slow down the work. When you're in an office with other devs all around you, it's much more natural to bounce ideas off each other and get solutions to problems a lot faster. When you're at home, it takes more of an effort to do that and feels less natural, so it may result in some people holding off and trying to do things on their own, taking more time. And then it simply may take more time in general for certain things. Taking more time to do things is most likely the primary reason budgets have ballooned. Spider-man 1 was also developed in less time than 2, as were most Insomniac games before SM2.

Why do AAA games take so much longer to make today than in the past?

Management overhead. In particular, management by committee. More layers, more friction, longer processes.

Same in corporate development, a useful analogue. Average time it takes from a business user request (e.g. I want this graph on my dashboard) to it being implemented is 9+ months (according to academic and industry studies, 2025). Not because it's particularly difficult, the coding might even take minutes to do, but the molasses of meetings and groups that have to approve and give their blessing is numerous. This stuff eats time.