To answer what a B title/B game is, its important to understand what "AAA" means (as its the reason we have this seperation):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAA_(video_game_industry)
To make things short, the A's stand for "A lot of time/money/resources". This means what a considerable amount was spent to create the product.
According to Wikipedia, there isn't exactly a "B Game" term available, the term "B/Z movies" do exist. However, Wikipedia refers to something called "Bargain Bin" titles which seems like a very accurate term (the "B" can stand for Bargain which probably makes sense from a marketing standpoint).
Consider the following, back when games couldn't be purchased digitally, were the games you've bought from a "exclusive" shelf? Or were the games put in a shelf with a lot of other games? Seemingly chaotically? Thats where the B Games were.
Dan bought up Command and Conquer as a potential B Game for instance. Now if we take my example at heart and compare CC1 with a game like Warcraft 2, you will see that both were booth AAA games or B games. Why? A similar production effort have been put into bothgames. Remember both games came out in 1995 and were placed in similar positions on their shelves (if you bought them back in the day you can probably concour). You probably seen Both Warcraft 2 and CC1 in the bargain bin around 1 year later when the next CC came out. So there is a time during the lifespan of a commercially available game (from its time) where an AAA rated games turned into a B game to make room for the next "hot thing", which is just another marketing stunt of course.
Maybe another example helps to further argue my point.
Doom, which came out in 1993 which also was another game that Dan mentioned, looks like a B title in comparasion if we compare the credits. Its easy to see that time plays a very important role when it comes to seeing the differences about AAA and B Titles. Lets compare it with a B Game, for its time.
And if compared to a game like Starcraft, all these previously mentioned games will look like B Titles if we compare the credits, which is one of the sentiments on why we have to consider the age of the games also when we're talking about these sort of topics. Since I've written that any game can become a Bargain Bin game, any AAA title can eventually become a B Title as time goes by. Only a few games will forever be a AAA Title, those with massive amonts of marketing for instance, or just plain fantastic games, killer apps if you will.
However, the times of Bargain Bins and AAA Title shelves are in the past, which leads me to believe that we're hit a new era where there are no real AAA Titles or B (Bargain) Titles anymore, rather than the marketing and production value of the games and their potential lifespans we now have dozens of games coming into the market every day. In my opinion, the term "AAA" therefore can only mean what Wikipedia tells us about, that there has been significant amounts of Time, Effort and Resources been put into the games if compared to another game that came out during the same timeframe that has smaller teams invovled during production and marketing.
Now the question is. Does the term AAA only exist anymore because we allow it? I'd say that there really is no need to further say the terms AAA Game or B Game other than for marketing reason, which doesn't seem like its needed anymore.
@raven10: Fantastic post. Of course time goes both ways. Sometimes, these terms are important to tell how much "buzz" is around that game. Sometimes, the size of the production crew also. The way the game is produced also will tell a lot around how the game will can "feel" overall, as every game will always be deliberately designed.
As an example, I would say that a reiteration of old and similar gameplay (such as, a Super Mario type Jump and Run game) requires way less effort than lets say, the new Zelda did.
@fredchuckdave: Oh, I've read your text from an wrong angle :)! Edited this post too phrase it differently. You're still not quite correct by saying that The Witcher 3 isn't an AAA title, which it absolutely is. But you're right with assuming that the place of production and effectiveness of cost plays an important role in judging the overall effectiveness that played a part in production.
Though logically, by your own terms, that means any AAA games can't also never be judged as such, as budget constrains (or the lack thereoff) will still mean fewer expenses regarding the country where the game has been made. So a game produced on a lesser budget can still have comparatively the same effectiveness as lets say a game like Destiny, then its also an AAA (or AAA+) title. Which means that the "middle ground" you're talking about is to abolish the terms "X Game" and replace it with something else to be more accurate and telling about the value of production that has been put into the product and is both valid and insightful for every video game made.
Anyway, in this case of The Witcher 3, it uphelt similar standarts as AAA titles like Grand Theft Auto V.
A important complementary link with context about the situation in production regarding The Witcher 3, which puts things further into perspective: http://www.usgamer.net/articles/how-much-did-the-witcher-3-cost
If you think "the standarts of AAA" are bound in countries like the USA and that AAA titles of similar scale can't exist in other places then you're just plain wrong and theres nothing I can help you about it if you ignore bits and pieces of information and context, sorry.
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