{"id":97,"date":"2020-12-09T06:45:10","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T06:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/wearepixels\/?p=97"},"modified":"2020-12-09T06:45:41","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T06:45:41","slug":"what-the-heck-is-a-aaa-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/wearepixels\/?p=97","title":{"rendered":"What the heck is a AAA Company?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So WeArePixels is pretty dedicated to the Indie Scene. Maybe it\u2019s because I love the freedom that allows Indie Games to get weird with their stories. Maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019m poor. Probably both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Indie titles are small companies or games published without a publisher. Culturally, they\u2019re this aesthetic of funky weirdness that brings some spice to the game table. This is such an established aesthetic that games can be indie passing, and games can be AAA passing depending on how they\u2019re built and what content they contain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Child
from steam.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Child of Light? Not indie\u2014Ubisoft made it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Path
from steam.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Path of Exile? That\u2019s an indie game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if there\u2019s a culture and a textbook definition, then what exactly are AAA Games?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of AAA Companies like the Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks of the gaming industry.  The big guys with all the money that produce pretty looking but usually disappointing games\u2014with a gem here and there in the lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are some of the most popular AAA Companies<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electronic Arts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activision<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capcom<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Microsoft<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sony<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nintendo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bandai Namco<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Square Enix<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ubisoft<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically, these guys put a lot of money into animation to make their games look really pretty, and more recently all of them have delved into \u201cbig open world because bigger = better = more money\u201d along with \u201cmake it all multiplayer because single player is dead.\u201d So as of late, at least to me, most of their games have been disappointments. Even Final Fantasy XV\u2014which I really tried to like\u2014eventually fizzled out into boredom because it\u2019s just too big for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually, these games are gonna be showy\u2014it\u2019s the graphics that sell and sadly it\u2019s the story that takes a toll. And it\u2019s the story that I care about (I\u2019m not bitter. At all.). Dragon Age Inquisition was beautiful but had enough plot holes to be mistaken for a chain link fence. Fallout 76 was literally the worst joke in existence, and don\u2019t get me started with Far Cry 5, also known as: Kidnap Plot Device: The Video Game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the new generation of games comes out in good ole 2021, my hope is that these companies listen to the fanbase and what they ask for. We don\u2019t want one kind of game, we want a diversity of them so we have options. And right now, they\u2019re struggling to deliver where indie is flourishing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So WeArePixels is pretty dedicated to the Indie Scene. Maybe it\u2019s because I love the freedom that allows Indie Games to get weird with their stories. Maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019m poor. Probably both. So Indie titles are small companies or… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8260,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1273401],"tags":[1440109,288,394241,1489],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-current-gaming-scene","tag-aaa","tag-games","tag-indie","tag-video-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/wearepixels\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/wearepixels\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/wearepixels\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/wearepixels\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8260"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/wearepixels\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/wearepixels\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/wearepixels\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/wearepixels\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/wearepixels\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/wearepixels\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}