In defence of Fatshark - the realities of games and software development

[UrsusOptimus]

@Ashreon

• For a Software Engineer I am flapperghasted that you don’t know what the AAA title actually means. You do well with bare minimum of research in this respect. This is not an AAA game. AAA is not quality nor the size of a game. AAA is merely a reference to a Studio’s size and available manpower to throw at a single title. Fatshark only barely gets to AA in this respect.
• The only games that requires millions of copies sold are AAA/AAAA or AAA+ whatever you want to call them. They have budgets starting at 80+ million USD. Anything below AAA can make do with as little as half a million if they sell a game for 40$ per copy and still have enough for a new title.

Gotta say I really enjoyed that you called me out for not knowing ‘what the AAA title actually means’ and then immediately following up in your next point with ‘AAA/AAAA or AAA+ whatever you want to call them’ which implies you think the ranking scale distinction is wafty, wooly and ill defined.

@Lexa

First of all, Darktide is not AAA.
It is AA, and I don’t think it was ever meant to be a AAA game. (link)

Pairs nicely with this. Based on the criteria given for AAA/AA titles in that wikipedia article you can make a strong case for it being either.

‘Double-A studios tend to range from 50 to 100 people in size.’ Fatshark have twice that so maybe they’re AAA?

‘A double-A development studio will typically be backed by a publisher but not fundamentally part of that publisher, and thus have somewhat more freedom to innovate and experiment compared to triple-A studios, though will still be constrained by specific risk-limiting targets and goals from their funding source.’ - OK, fair, that description fits fatshark

‘The first describes AAA games with additional methods of revenue generation, generally through purchases in addition to the cost of the base game’ By this criteria anything with in-game purchases.

‘In 2016, Gameindustry.biz described AAA+ games as products that “combine AAA production values and aesthetics with Software as a Service (SaaS) principles to keep players engaged for months or even years”.’ Say what you will about DT run with the graphics settings on high it looks great and production values are high. Whether or not they will succeed in retention they are definitely trying for that description of SaaS so it is a AAA+ title?

It’s almost like these categorisations are thought up by marketing people without an agreed upon definition. Would leave anyone hoping to gatekeep the scale on shaky ground and open to mockery, especially if they highlight the contradictions by linking to an article that spells out aforementioned contradictions.