Brad Shoemaker says the day of AAA launch titles is over. Why?

@ghost_protocol said:

  I cannot imagine the Wii 2  launching without a blowout title.

Really?Nintendo hasn't cared about system-selling launch games since the N64 (and considering how the N64 launched with literally 2 games, maybe that's a good thing)Personally I can't imagine Cafe launching with anything bigger than Mario Kart.

The idea was getting the hardware out is more important than waiting for a perfect lauch game to coincide with it. Apparently you don't need a launch game anymore, that was just something people assumed for a while. But consoles do just fine without one.

Because no one wants to put that much time, energy, and most importantly, money on an amazing game for a system which it's very possible no one will buy.

@Scarlet_Rogue said:

@ghost_protocol said:

 I cannot imagine the Wii 2  launching without a blowout title.

Really? Cause the Gamecube launched without one.

Uh... Melee?

@528seven said:

@ghost_protocol said:

  I cannot imagine the Wii 2  launching without a blowout title.

Really?Nintendo hasn't cared about system-selling launch games since the N64 (and considering how the N64 launched with literally 2 games, maybe that's a good thing)Personally I can't imagine Cafe launching with anything bigger than Mario Kart.

And Twilight Princess CERTAINLY wasn't an attempt at all! Neither was Wii Sports. Or PS3's Resistance, or 360's Call of Duty 2 console port (excellent fucking game, for some reason the press seems to forget it launched with the system.)

I guarantee consoles will continue to launch with Triple A titles. Handhelds might not, but consoles? Absolutely.

@528seven said:

@ghost_protocol said:

  I cannot imagine the Wii 2  launching without a blowout title.

Really?Nintendo hasn't cared about system-selling launch games since the N64 (and considering how the N64 launched with literally 2 games, maybe that's a good thing)Personally I can't imagine Cafe launching with anything bigger than Mario Kart.

And Twilight Princess CERTAINLY wasn't an attempt at all! Neither was Wii Sports. 

Luigi's Mansion wasn't bad, but it wasn't top tier.

Too much money, too small an install base to recoup costs. 

Because it hasn't happened much, if at all after the Xbox launched with Halo.

I'm not entirely convinced since we haven't had a new console released in sometime.  I believe there still needs to be a "system seller" for a new console or word of mouth doesn't spread urging other potential customers to take the plunge and upgrade.  If that's not a "AAA" title then I don't know what it is.  Playstation 3 launched with Resistance: Fall of Man, the Xbox 360's big hit for Call of Duty 2, and the Wii had it's pack-in game, Wii Sports.  Okay, the last example might not be a "AAA" game, but it served its purpose of exciting customers with its new control system.  The new Nintendo platform seems to be more traditional than the Wii, so it will need something to attract the common man as well as the experienced gamer.   Will it be a Mario, Metroid or Zelda game?  I don't know, but they will need something more than the hardware itself.  Traditional game systems advertise themselves best by exhibiting brilliant graphics and explosive action.  Improved graphics are the easiest thing to illustrate to the average man-on-the-street.  Now, day-and-date launch "AAA" games might be unnecessary, but something inside a three month period that compels someone to buy the expensive system must be available and it must be widely known. 

Resistance wasn't AAA at all though, a pretty average series by all means and it brought nothing new.

Didn't even have vibration back then.

because people will buy it anyways.  plus handheld games take longer to make these days.

I think it also depends just how badly the console manufacturer wants/needs people to move from one gen to the next.

I think you can turn it around and say, games are different.  There used to be the Triple-A games, B-Level games and then the drek-ish junk that was most games.  There were not much fine divisions of quality in the 8-bit and 16-bit era.  Therefore, what we think of as a Triple-A title is now more thoughtfully analyzed and considered. A Triple-A title is not the best game of any given year anymore, what is AAA must now actually be very good as judged against some of the best games ever in the last five or six years.  Today games are better, there are more games, and thus a Triple -A games is one that is really head and shoulders above the last three or four years of games not just the last six months of games.

The second thing at works is even the first party studios need time to get acquainted with the hardware so their best work; i.e. the truly Triple-A titles are those where the hardware is just starting to be understood and the tricks to get more out of the machine are known.

The bar is higher, the standards more refined, and the need to code 'to the metal' even more rigorous.