Sure they can. That's where many AAA developers came from. Starting small and then expanding with success.

While I'd say it's more like for an indie today to get to the size of Double Fine than a full AAA studio, I think it's just a matter of time before more indie studios are capable of making games that fit with that kind of production.

As far as pricing, well, indie games can be whatever price they want to be. There's nothing AAA about a price.

Yes to the poll.

Except for the kind of expectation that comes with accepting a $60 price tag.

Perhaps? How consistent does that expectation actually hold up?

If it's about "AAA polish", I'd say a lot of $60 games don't reach that. And if it's "AAA length", well, that's just crazy, as many $60 games are relatively short. AAA is merely a term for a perceived size of team and the level of promotions around it; it rarely has much meaningful to do with the actual level of quality in the resulting product.

We talking like massive Activision, Ubisoft level development or more Platinum games level? The formal rarely makes a quality game but if the current indie devs had that much money who knows what they could make.

Double Fine started out as AAA retail developer though and ended up going downloadable/indie which actually seems pretty common now and makes the thought of a smaller studio making a retail release even more strange.

You're not wrong and I agree with you but just because you argued about that well it still doesn't change the fact that people's expectations of a $60 game still center around the concept of this specific team size and something along the lines of other big blockbuster games. That expectation changes somewhat when you focus on the gaming crowd that is actually "in the know" because maybe their own expecations for what is worth $60 is different.

All I know on a personal level is that what I've seen of Transistor so far is that it's something that I don't consider to be worth $60.

Didn't the original guys at Eidos start out making homebrew games on the Spectrum? That may not be indie in the way you mean but I think a lot of big name devs got their start making smaller, cheaper games.

You might want to look at some of the studios that are big players today. A lot of them have humble beginnings.

Uh... well technically all current "AAA Studios" were once indie developers.

So technically yes.

Epic Games. /thread

I thought AAA only meant that a game had a high budget and is a term they use to inform stockholders about how much money they've spent on a project.

ie. EA blowing 300 million on Old Republic is an AAA game.

Oh, if your concern is just with Transistor, well, it is still being made by an indie studio that hasn't claimed that it will be bigger than Bastion. So, I'm guessing this is just a placeholder listing. It will likely be $20 or so; maybe $30 if they believe it is expansive enough.

Can a AAA Developer become indie? How about that

You mean like Insomniac, or Valve? No.

Gaming is kind of having the same growing pains movies had. I think more and more big-budget developers will join the people shrinking their studios and projects to smaller, safer proportions.

@hosstile17 said:

That's Epic MEGAGames to you! Or Potomac Computer Systems if you really want to throw dark.

I hate the term 'AAA Developer/Game/Whatever'. All that refers to is the budget and marketing behind the game and not the game itself. It's just so gross and such a non-descriptor descriptor.

Peter Molyneux has done this like 5 times.

@bigjeffrey: post of the year, easy.

Everybody starts somewhere.

See this is why Indie is a such a dumb term. Because it implies a sense of struggling, contrarianism, hipsterism and deliberate small scale work that's inaccurate and unfairly unlimiting perception to too many small game companies.

It really should something like Microstudio or really anything other than Indie.

Those certainly are words.

Absolutely. Everyone starts out small. That doesn't necessarily mean they have to become triple a though. There are plenty of Indie devs who are happy just the same being small in scale. All indie really means is that they develop their games independently without a publisher.

The term Triple A simply implies a certain level of quality and polish. When you take into consideration the traditional expectations that come with the term 'Triple A", they may fall short, but they're nonetheless capable of being Triple A in quality.

that they are. Shots fired?

That is pretty dark. I also appreciate your commitment to capitalization.

Most of the 'AAA' studios started off independently. Much like a global fast food chain starts as a single restaurant. The indie term was largely applied because other forms of media, specifically movies and music use it for a similar reason. However, up until recently (and still pretty accurate for movies) it was incredibly hard to make a go of it in either industry self publishing.

There is a realm which contains a possibility and what you suggest may not be beyond it.

The Indie/AAA thing is just nonsense. Valve is an Indie studio.

I really wish people would quit using the term "AAA" to describe games or studios. Its such an inane term.

Please offer an alternative.

This is an old thread, I think most people commenting just ready the poorly worded thread title and didn't dive into what I was actually getting at.

Old thread, but in light of its resurrection the above comment is important. The term does not refer to retail price, expectations, polish, length or any of those things that were suggested in this thread. It's a term used by investors and share holders and refers to size of the investment, its expected rate of return and other financial factors that deal with risk and credit worthiness.

Look at any "AAA level" studio... chances are they started as a small group of dedicated people...

So, yes. It happens.

@kidavenger: There doesn't need to be an alternative. AAA means nothing other than "hey we have an overinflated budget" and quality of game isn't dependent on a budget. Transistor will likely be better than most so called "AAA" Games released this year and a total of seven people made it with a fraction of the budget.

From what I understand, the big difference between an "indie" dev and an "AAA" dev is funding and publishing. A "AAA" dev has a large budget, and a large company like EA or Activision publishing for them. With an indie dev, they (may) have smaller budgets and either self-publish or use a smaller company to publish. I mean, Steam is technically an indie dev.

I can't speak for everyone, but when I call something a "AAA" game, I simply use that to mean the new "big" game coming out from a large dev, from a large publisher like EA, Activision, Ubisoft, etc.. and an "indie"game is a game from a smaller dev and published by a smaller company or the dev itself. Price, quality, length, and content do not factor into it. Just how much the game costs to make and who made it.