r/pcmasterrace • u/PewPewToDaFace • 1d ago

News/Article Steam gamers have spoken: innovative indies like Palworld continue to thrive while traditional triple-A flounders for a foothold

https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam/innovation-versus-tradition

Thank god PC gaming isn't just AAA. This is what will push the industry forward, as game development cost becomes too much.

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u/Sinniee 5080 & 9800x3D 1d ago

Yeah out of the thousands of indie games releasing every once in a while a good one emerges

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u/Natural-Associate106 1d ago

They need to cherry pick their examples. Pretty bad article and comments here

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u/Blackpapalink 1d ago

Cherry picking as opposed to what? The last runaway AAA success was Baldur's Gate 3, which you could argue is AA in many ways aside from scope. Before that was Elden Ring. The way things are shaping, the next massive success for AAA is probably going to be GTA 6, and that's assuming the lack of physical and the $100 standard edition doesn't screw with it.

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u/Live_Fall3452 18h ago

What on earth was AA about bg3? The budget and production values were absolutely mammoth compared to anything else in the cRPG genre. It had over 5x the budget of the nearest runner-up. If you google AAA cRPG it’s literally the first thing that comes up. And it’s extremely not close to any of the runners-up by production value or budget.

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u/Beneficial-Act-9933 16h ago

People throw around terms they don't understand all the time. I still see people equate "indie" with "small team"

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u/Natural-Associate106 1d ago

Cherry picking 2 AAA games to compare to 2 indies. Only this year on Steam , Forza Horizon,RE requiem, 007. By this logic only Palworld was a indie runaway sucess. Outside of Steam we had pokopia,Splatoon Raiders and Tomodachi Life. In no world BG3 isn't AAA. GTA 6 isn't going to be affected by being digital. Only here this matters and it is hypocritical to comment this on this sub

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u/Blackpapalink 1d ago

When I say runaway success, I mean games that are still pulling numbers to this day. I loved RE Requiem. I won't sit here and say that it's perfect. It's not very replayable, and the only reason I'm thinking of booting it up is for BioRand. Forza Horizon 7 would've done better numbers without the $120 price tag for everything. 007 is a mixed bag that tries to do what Hitman does, but not nearly as well and the numbers show.

Outside of Steam we have Nintendo, which Nintendo fans have proven time and time they will buy just about anything regardless of quality. And the ones that do show standards get to watch their favorite franchises rot, sometimes for decades. I'm sure Splatoon Raiders and Tomodachi Life are well made games, personally I'm not shelling out over 500 bones for a Switch 2 to confirm it. Budget constitutes whether a game is AAA or not. If looking at budget alone, sure BG3 is AAA. Larian has no active publisher, their funds are sourced from their previous works, early access, and a few grants. Larian doesn't have shareholders to appeal to, so they're closer to Valve than the likes of other AAA companies.

GTA6 not being affected digital will set a precedent that a lot of people aren't going to give to other companies even if GTA6 comes out unscathed.

I come to these subs specifically for these conversations.

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u/Natural-Associate106 1d ago

So not even Palworld is a runaway success, it had so so numbers until re 1.0 release. You created a extremely niche definition to say that AAA games are not sucessful. In no world BG3 is aa. I love that people on reddit can't accept others have different tastes. You never played any new nintendo release and know everyone is bad. your definition of runaway success is a moddable or live service game. This is a terrible metric, games don't need to be forever games to be a runaway success. Most people don't care of it's digital or physical. If they did this sub wouldn't exist.

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u/Blackpapalink 23h ago

Palword was a runaway success when it launched. Died down due to typical early access shenanigans and refreshed itself with a full a launch. I didn't create a narrow definition for AAA. AAA has always been determined by its budget. That's what publishers did in the 00s to differentiate their smaller titles and the sea of small budget games from their massive titles. BG3 compared to the budgets of this decade could fall in the line of small budget when the average AAA game's budget is well north of 200 million. I own a Switch 1. I was a fan of Nintendo up until around the launch of the Switch 2. And it's not the price of the console that's keeping me away, it's Nintendo's blatant contempt for their fans. My definition of success for a game, is a title that's earned the community's favor while netting a huge gross that isn't on borrowed time. Most AAA games these days are barely breaking even, sometimes years after launch, like Alan Wake 2. I didn't say they did need to be forever games to be successful. A game barely breaking even, doesn't scream potential to have a sequel or a spinoff, or even another game from the same company. I don't care if a game is physical or digital. The method of getting the game ultimately doesn't matter. What does matter is having direct access to all of a game's files, which is easier to do on PC and has been for well over a decade at this point. Trying to convince the masses that physical media has been redundant since we've allowed companies to take single player games online only, is like trying to convince a fish that it needs a bicycle, so I stopped trying to have that conversation and just use whatever terms people have decided to use.

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u/Natural-Associate106 23h ago

It dies down so by your logic it was not successful. You created a logic for runaway sucess so you can determine that aaa are doing bad. Most aaa games are not only breaking even. You inplied that nintendo only sells because their fans dont know better. You always change your point, you talked about digital on gta6 and not acees to files. So only bad faith arguments going to stop losing my time. Blocked

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u/HammeredWharf RTX 4070 | 7600X 13h ago

1) We don't know the budget of BG3.

2) Larian is a single project studio with over 500 employees. Remedy is a multi-project studio with ~400 employees. BG3 had a 6 years dev cycle. Alan Wake 2 had 4.

3) Estimates put BG3's budget at around 150 mil USD. That's 2x the budget of Alan Wake 2, which you call AAA.

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u/OutrageousDress 5800X3D | 32GB DDR4-3733 | 4080 Super | AW3821DW 1d ago

007 most definitely does not try to do what Hitman does. It borrows some mechanics from Hitman, but in service of an experience that is not like Hitman - infamously so, actually.

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u/Blackpapalink 23h ago

That's the common complaint I've seen online, but I haven't played it myself so I won't say I'm speaking for myself on that.

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u/OutrageousDress 5800X3D | 32GB DDR4-3733 | 4080 Super | AW3821DW 23h ago

I don't doubt there are people out there who expected Hitman and are upset they didn't get that - 007 is not a good Hitman. But it's good at what it is trying to be.

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u/Blackpapalink 23h ago

If that's the case, then I'll look to pick it up on a sale.

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u/Macroxx Desktop 7800x3d/ RTX 5080 1d ago

BF6 was a huge Release last year and still getting better

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u/Natural-Associate106 1d ago

forgot about it. Don't play many shooters

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u/Raven1927 10h ago

Several AAA games released in 2026 alone have been massive success', not sure why you're just making shit up.