Ben-DutkaAssassin's Creed III creative director Alex Hutchinson recently warned everyone that the massive AAA game may go extinct in the new generation.
And Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot echoes that belief, saying he expects his company to produce fewer large-scale games for the upcoming new consoles. As he told The Guardian :
"With next gen consoles, it's going toward bigger games, and yes, we will make less of them. But with free-to-play games, the teams aren't as big so we can try different things and find subjects that are of interest to consumers."
Gigantic production is difficult in terms of resources and we're already reaching a point where only the biggest companies can pull it off. Next generation, when the even more expensive systems are here, such a huge endeavor would logically be even more prohibitive. That being said, such games are typically gigantic sellers, so you've got yourself a bit of a Catch .22…if you want to be hugely popular, you often have to utilize huge resources, but if you don't have those resources…well, you see where this is headed. It's going to be tough.
The bottom line is that it's just plain risky to make video games these days, and it'll likely get even riskier in the new generation.