Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
I believe that PlayStation wouldn't have stopped making physical copies if they are in a better condition as a company. I get that making AAA games is hard, or at least hard on the money, but does it have to be that way?
// It is just the brutal unavoidable financial reality of an industry trying to survive when games cost $300M+
Why do those games cost $300+ million? Black Myth Wukong costs less than a hundred million. It looks breathtaking. It sounds amazing. It plays amazing. It won all sorts of awards, and it sold 20 million copies. The point isn't that this is reality. The point is that this shouldn't be the reality.
This is a reality that the AAA market chose for themselves. They are the ones that caused their own downfall, and we're the ones who were expected to pay for them. No, thanks. I think the Eastern AAA game industry have way better products that are way more sustainable and are way more interesting to support. Even ATLUS who milks their consumers by squeezing as much content from their cash cow franchise, at least the products are still good.
I'm genuinely trying to think of a western AAA game that managed to excel just as well like the Japanese or eastern developers in general. I can only think of one: IO Interactive. They only have Hitman as their franchise, but they really expand upon it on every installment and every game. They even allow Hitman 3 to explore Hitman 1 and 2 maps as their core gameplay is very similar.
They also develop and publish their own games with First Light being their most expensive at over $100M, which is still somehow comparatively cheap compared to $300-400M live service garbage. The fact that the CEO says that it's about the bang for the buck, you don't see this kind of desire to optimize budget in any other AAA companies in the west. First Light is proof that western AAA companies can thrive with excellent products, reasonable budgets, efficient workloads, and achievable targets. That's not what I'm seeing in the major AAA western players, and that's going to be their downfall.
I believe that PlayStation wouldn't have stopped making physical copies if they are in a better condition as a company. I get that making AAA games is hard, or at least hard on the money, but does it have to be that way?
// It is just the brutal unavoidable financial reality of an industry trying to survive when games cost $300M+
Why do those games cost $300+ million? Black Myth Wukong costs less than a hundred million. It looks breathtaking. It sounds amazing. It plays amazing. It won all sorts of awards, and it sold 20 million copies. The point isn't that this is reality. The point is that this shouldn't be the reality.
This is a reality that the AAA market chose for themselves. They are the ones that caused their own downfall, and we're the ones who were expected to pay for them. No, thanks. I think the Eastern AAA game industry have way better products that are way more sustainable and are way more interesting to support. Even ATLUS who milks their consumers by squeezing as much content from their cash cow franchise, at least the products are still good.
I'm genuinely trying to think of a western AAA game that managed to excel just as well like the Japanese or eastern developers in general. I can only think of one: IO Interactive. They only have Hitman as their franchise, but they really expand upon it on every installment and every game. They even allow Hitman 3 to explore Hitman 1 and 2 maps as their core gameplay is very similar.
They also develop and publish their own games with First Light being their most expensive at over $100M, which is still somehow comparatively cheap compared to $300-400M live service garbage. The fact that the CEO says that it's about the bang for the buck, you don't see this kind of desire to optimize budget in any other AAA companies in the west. First Light is proof that western AAA companies can thrive with excellent products, reasonable budgets, efficient workloads, and achievable targets. That's not what I'm seeing in the major AAA western players, and that's going to be their downfall.
