When you want to find an answer to such a dubious question as “What is an AAAA game?” the most curious opinions you will get will be on the forums. As with many new words, the quadruple-A game doesn’t have a clear definition, but at least we can learn how people react to it. Commenters on Quora and Reddit often explain it with another abbreviation–BS.
AAAA may not be a real thing for now, but it is even more interesting to find out where it comes from, what it is used for, and guess what the potential is for AAAA to become the next level in the gaming world.
Quadruple-A game meaning
When people refer to the AAAA meaning in video games, they imply that it surpasses the level of traditional AAA games in terms of budget, production value, or scope. However, the real AAAA game meaning is rather cloudy.
How the concept of AAAA games emerged
While the actual “concept” of the AAAA game hasn’t taken shape yet, we can look back at where it all started to get a better picture. To figure out what makes a game AAAA, it’s fun to explore its early mentions.
As game journalist John Scalzo on VGC claims, the first mention of AAAA was in 2012 by Microsoft’s Black Tusk Studios when they were hiring a team. The studio claimed that the project they were working on would be an AAAA game. We don’t know if it was a top-level approved idea or a copywriter’s innovation, and the game was never released as planned.
“Game stuck in development hell” is another definition of an AAAA game coined by Reddit user Asmongold, who noticed that game publishers who promise their next release will be quadruple-A tend to postpone those releases for years.
AAA vs. AAAA game
It would be helpful to start with triple-A to understand quadruple-A games better. Two key elements make a game AAA: big production and marketing budgets.
The most expensive game of recent years is Genshin Impact (2020) by miHoYo, which totaled USD 751 million (adjusted for inflation). This is more than Final Fantasy VII (released in 1997 and named the first AAA game), whose total development and marketing cost was USD 152–275 million (adjusted for inflation).
By making a simple guess, we would expect quadruple-A games to be a lot more expensive than triple-A. On one hand, the industry is tired of the high resources and time required to produce AAA titles, as they can result in massive losses if they don’t sell well. On the other hand, the production price doesn’t show any trend of reduction.
That’s why naming the release AAAA is sometimes used to justify high production or sale costs, as with Skull and Bones.
World’s first AAAA game
Skull and Bones by Ubisoft was in development for ten years and reportedly cost USD 200 million to produce. However, there have been claims that the actual cost was much higher—USD 650-800 million. This could be the reason why they described the game as the first quadruple-A game in a report to investors and then, before the release, to justify the high price tag (the game went on sale for USD 70).
Released in February 2024, Skull and Bones wasn’t very successful in sales. The data on Steam shows that the game has mixed reviews, with 32,9% negative reviews. Even if the development wasn’t as high as rumored, Ubisoft won’t recover money spent on the production.
Challenges in Developing AAAA Games
Ubisoft’s stock has significantly declined in recent years, with the unsuccessful launch of Skull and Bones and some other games that didn’t perform as well as expected.
For big publishing companies, the high production costs of AAA games are already a challenge, as they pose a risk to a company’s financial stability in case of a flop. If AAAA games mean even higher budgets, then for most businesses, it wouldn’t be sustainable.
However, cost is not the only consideration. Tech innovations in recent years haven’t been breakthrough enough to bring video games to a completely new level. The art of game development is perfected every year, but it’s still the same AAA games, polished to shine.
To sum up. The future of quadruple-A games
Ubisoft claimed to have created a AAAA game to justify its price and got busted. Raising people’s expectations is a sure way to get lower reviews. This is not to say that higher expectations were the main cause of low reviews, but it certainly didn’t work wonders, as may have been expected.
We’ve seen publishers and developers name games AAAA and make fun of one another because of this. Karolina Gnaś, investor relations VP of CD Projekt Red, joked that their next title would be AAAAA after Ubisoft’s AAAA announcement.
This story teaches us that simply “naming” a game AAAA doesn’t work. Game developers who want their titles to become the next big thing in the industry should work on creating the best game but expect praise from the audience and not from the CEOs. So, start by finding top game developers, take calculated risks when adopting new ideas, and see what the gamers will say about the result.
Who knows, maybe in 1997, when the term AAA game was used for the first time, it wasn’t perceived seriously either. However, with time, the term took its place in the industry. Will AAAA become a thing, too? We can only wait and see where it goes.And since the AAAA game Skull and Bones hasn’t turned out to be the top title, we suggest you check our list of best AAA games 2023/2024 for inspiration.
