Video game executives say making cinematic games is getting so expensive and time-consuming that investing in graphics is providing diminished financial returns
The gaming industry spent billions pursuing the idea that customers wanted realistic graphics. Did executives misread the market? Bluesky: @baldsavant , @anolen , @thestrangerous , and @thegamechief . Mastodon: @zeh@mastodon.gamedev.place . Threads: @carnage4life . X: @megaapple18 Forums: r/Games , r/technology , and Slashdot Bluesky: Nathan Savant / @baldsavant : Have they considered just, I dunno, not making games into movies? — Maybe make games that are just really good at being games. — Maybe you don't need to wear someone else's clothes to fit in. Maybe you can find your own style. [embedded post] Andrew Nolen / @anolen : How many gamers can tell if ray tracing is being used? I think the “diminishing returns” are based on our diminishing ability to perceive increased graphical performance. [embedded post] Jason Murphy / @thestrangerous : This makes a pretty obivous argument for indie games. Brian Reynolds / @thegamechief : It's a hell of a lot *cheaper* to make a game “more fun” than to give it hyperrealistic graphics and hours of voice-acted cinematics, that's the good news. — www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/a... Mastodon: Zeh Fernando / @zeh@mastodon.gamedev.place : Nice, if short, article on the doomed industry of AAA games https://www.nytimes.com/... I frankly think AAA makes no sense anymore. Maybe I just have less time, but I am in fact annoyed with games that get stuffed to the brim with checkbox requirements. … Threads: Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : Making a AAA game costs between $50 - $300 million given increasing expectations from users about the content, depth of gameplay and storytelling. However the AAA gaming industry has shrunk post-COVID and has to compete with streaming, TikTok, and perennial games (e.g. Roblox, Fortnite) for people's time. … X: Hemang Chauhan / @megaapple18 : @ZacharyHSmall Would add perspective that lotta folks are missing = word-of-mouth. Magazine/TV era dominated 90s-00s home consoles and that's how teens and YA/adults formed their tastes (along with retail stores). Internet boom and E3 videos/trailers/fan content formed the basis in early 10s.. Forums: r/Games : Video Games Can't Afford to Look This Good r/technology : Video Games Can't Afford to Look This Good. The industry, which was hit with layoffs and studio closures this year, is now wondering whether … Msmash / Slashdot : Video Games Can't Afford To Look This Good
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the latest expression of a long-running AAA production squeeze: static premium-game pricing, slower release schedules and developer burnout were already pressuring the high-budget model. Executives now frame graphics spending itself—not just the cadence of releases—as a weaker source of return.
The argument also sits beside a pixel-art and stylized-game renaissance and the funding and closure pressures facing independent studios. Together, that coverage makes the key issue less about technical capability than whether visual realism is the best use of development budgets.
First-order effects
- AAA publishers face a sharper trade-off between expensive visual fidelity and investments in gameplay, design, and release scope; the latter are presented as cheaper ways to improve a game’s appeal.
- Studios built around long, cinematic productions face greater budget and schedule risk when incremental graphical gains are hard for players to perceive.
Second-order effects
- More room opens for stylized and independent games whose economics do not require cinematic-scale assets, though indie studios still face acute funding and closure pressures.
- AAA teams are pushed to differentiate against perennial games and attention platforms through gameplay and distinctiveness rather than relying primarily on realism.
Third-order effects
- If publishers consistently redirect budgets away from photorealism, AAA development could become less centered on ever-larger asset pipelines and more segmented between premium spectacles and lower-cost, style-led releases.
- The durable shift would be from graphics as a default competitive escalator to graphics as one production choice whose value must be justified against cost, time, and player attention.
The trend: Game development is moving toward stricter return-on-investment tests for blockbuster visual production as attention competition and production costs weaken the old realism-first formula.