Microsoft‘s Matt Booty has said that players should now expect lengthy development cycles for big-budget AAA games. Booty claims that long gone are the days of developers churning out quality blockbusters within a few years.
Players are ‘a little behind’ on accepting AAA games’ dev cycles, says Matt Booty
Speaking to Axios, Booty said that the games industry as well as players “were a little behind the curve” when it comes to understanding that it’s no longer feasible to release major games within a few years. He added that going forward, players and investors should expect 4-6 year development cycles, at minimum, for big blockbusters.
Booty made his comments in the context of Xbox famously lacking first-party games since the Xbox One era. However, his statement holds true for the industry as a whole.
“Games continue to get more ambitious as an art form,” Booty continued, adding that games are becoming more complex to make due to advancement in technology and higher technical benchmarks. Players also continue to expect higher quality games.
Microsoft is set to make a comeback with a number of high-profile games releasing between now and the end of 2024. Both Microsoft and Sony have said that they plan to release a few major exclusives each year going forward.