That’s why AAA+ is failing and indie games are getting better than ever. It’s insane how good the tools and engines have gotten. Making games had become much more accessible than ever.
No, AAA+ blockbuster games are dead. The 150 million budget is insane. Spending that much on a game, you end up having to minimize the risks and having to cater to the widest audience possible.
If you split that budget into maybe 2 larger and a few smaller games, you don’t put all your eggs in the same basket. You can take more risk, experiment with new mechanics and ideas. You can target different types of players. You can give a chance to smaller, lesser known writers who might have potential.
Wait, didn’t EA had their in-house engine Frostbite? They botched Mass Effect Andromeda because they moved from UE to frostbite (not the only reason) .
As a developer, it’s easy to get lost implementing things that “you might need”, and waste time on countless refactorings. This is why project management is very important, and to have capable people in the leadership that can give a direction.
I’ve seen some interviews with developers, and they definitely are building cool tech, for example procedural generators that can do very detailed models of buildings and interiors, but it takes time away from actually making the game.
Check my other comment, I found a quote saying they have about 1000 employees. At $100k/yr average salary, that’s about $100M/yr just to pay the salaries. Even if they underpay at $50k/yr, thats $50M/yr. That money is simply being burned. This whole project is a classic example of feature creep and sunk cost fallacy.
I can’t answer the first question, but developers and artists are expensive. Here is a quote I found online
As of 2020-12, CIG has a total of 695 staff. 512 of whom are developers. As of July 2023, 1100 CIG staff are working on Star Citizen, not counting third party …
At an $100000/yr salary, a team of 1100 people will cost $110mil/year. That excludes other business costs or any third party company they may contract for various assets, for example music.