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- Why Is AAA The Way It Is? Two Perspectives
Read Time: 5 Minutes
Welcome to 2025!
I’ve got two pieces of content for you today, the book “Play Nice” by Jason Schreier, and a video by Laura Fryer about the AAA Game Dev Bubble. These both give explanations of how and why game dev ended up where it did, especially at the “AAA” level.
“Play Nice” by Jason Schreier
This isn’t the first Jason Schreier book I’ve read, but it is the best. It feels like a story about more than just Blizzard. It is about the evolution of games and game dev over the last several decades, told through the lens of one particularly famous studio.
Blizzard started with a dream of making the best games for players, often after playing other somewhat successful games and realizing they had far more potential than was captured. Whether watching Dune inspire StarCraft, or early MMOs and especially Everquest inspire WoW, Blizzard was uncompromising in the dream of crafting experiences players would love to play.
But money matters. It matters a lot, and the bigger your company, the more of it you need to keep working. While Blizzard became a ubiquitous and honored name among gamers, the requirement to keep producing large quantities of money never stopped. As the company scaled with both successes and size, you might have expected all the problems to go away. Instead, they multiplied. Expectations, egos, and economics would not be tamed.
The story of the humble but passionate beginnings all the way to the behemoth that Blizzard has become today reflect so many trends that game devs can relate to.
Every win means the next win has to be bigger.
Every new leader or merger presents a risk to the culture that got a studio where it is today.
Every flawed trait at the senior level is magnified over time throughout the organization.
Prestige may come from the place you work, but pay won’t necessarily follow.
There’s a lot of value to mine out of this book. Jason Schreier may not be a game dev, but he’s told a story that we game devs can relate to. Often (too often!) as I went from chapter to chapter I felt an eerie familiarity come over me reflecting my own journey through a successful and scaling AAA game studio. I connected to the fire and passion of some stories, and relived the nausea and disappointment of others.
Each game company is different, and in some ways perhaps we’re all the same too.
The Games Industry Bubble by Laura Fryer
Link: Games Industry Bubble
Laura Fryer takes us back in time to talk about how game studios and publishers wound up creating a cordoned off area for media and reviews that disconnected them from their customers, the gamers. Every step of the way things made sense, but when you string them all together, you end up in a place no game dev should ever be: surrounded by overly positive and friendly “allies” and separated from real players.
What I loved about this take is that it didn’t mindlessly attack the studios or leadership. It was an empathetic perspective that accepted the self-preservation behind why we ended up where we did. But Laura is also unapologetic in saying that where we are today is not great, and if we don’t figure out how to get out of it, there will be more failed products and studio closures headed our way.
To me, this take reinforces the importance of staying close to your players, whether you’ve got them in your game already or are hoping they will show up later. It’s not claiming they are always right - that’s impossible, different players often have opposite opinions - but it is saying that your failure to interact, understand, and respect your players will come back to haunt you.
Hope you enjoy!
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“The greatest enemy of progress is not stagnation, but false progress.”
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