PC GOTY so far - I know I'm premature

I don’t understand how you are viewing Bloodborne as anything other than AAA? Even by your own criteria it definitely fits. It had a big marketing spend, the studio is rather large and employs a lot of artistic staff at the very least, and all that stuff costs a lot of money. It certainly meant a major publisher had to foot the bill for it, same as the Demon’s and Dark Souls games before it which also came with console maker (Sony) or big publisher (Bandai Namco Entertainment) money.

I’m going to stick by what I said earlier though. $59.99 MSRP is AAA. You want to sell for that price, you’re telling me that you want to compete with Call of Duty, especially in the modern marketplace. I agree with you that some games don’t come with the budget or marketing at that level (or even studio size), but the expectation is definitely for top billing on the shelves, both physical and virtual.

I feel this was probably my fault in some way, but I regret nothing!

I think you’re looking for this thread.

Fuck yes I am

@WarpRattler Before it comes up… From Software employs 262 people according to Wikipedia as of 2016.

But who is to say they actually pay them.

Ok let’s take this disagreement outside, pistols at dawn!

In the meantime, what’s everybody’s PC GOTY 2017 so far?

For comparison, Sledgehammer Games (developers of Call of Duty: World War II) had 225 employees as of 2015, and I’m pretty sure being owned by Activision more than offsets that staff difference - remember, From is also a publisher themselves.

I’ll concede that Bloodborne and Dark Souls III are the closest things to “AAA” games From has ever made, if not “AAA” games themselves, but I guarantee the budget on those was a far cry from a Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, or Grand Theft Auto, and there are loads of other $60 MSRP games you guys are trying to define as “AAA” by their price points that had even lower budgets than these From games - like, say, the various Hyperdimension Neptunia games.

Andromeda. I mean it too. I didn’t pick much up this year besides that and AC:Origins, which I’m slowly realizing is not that great. I might change it to Battlefront II, too early to call.

Horizon Zero Dawn is GOTY, by far. If we’re narrowed down to PC games, I’ll say Prey and Andromeda are contenders.

I thought AAA games were games charged with a high price (ie over 40$) which had a game publisher.
If looking at how much money is spent on CG and marketing is a criteria, trying to assess that for Japanese games is sure gonna prove difficult. I doubt scientists may come up one day with a theory as to what is happening inside singularities like Nintendo, Idea Factory, From or Koei, but it would be unfair to exclude them.

Nice try, but you can’t derail this thread so easily Alex!

My GOTY 2017 is Flying Heroes, same as it is every year.

I don’t see what’s so hard to understand about those companies - Nintendo puts whatever budget they want into whatever games they want because they make approximately all the money from handhelds in Japan, From switched from chugging along making weird low-budget games that funded themselves to making Dark Souls forever, Koei makes a billion Warriors games and a bunch of niche hardcore historical strategy games that do decently well in Japan and especially China, and Idea Factory/Compile Heart switched from releasing at least two super-low-budget RPGs and visual novels a month that paid for themselves with fewer than a thousand sales each to still doing that, but with the occasional hit in yet another Hakuoki or Neptune sequel or spinoff.

Makes me think of Magic Carpet by Bullfrog which I have fond memories of…

Possibly Prey, as others games I liked in 2017 like TW1 and FH3 were from the past year…

Right now I have more games I’ve disliked than I’ve liked this year. I have chosen poorly in my purchases.

Mass Effect Andromeda, hands down. Closely followed by Elex and Prey. The only three games his year I actually finished. Battlefront 2 could pull a miracle still.