The former Halo head lands at Netflix Games

Former Halo Infinite head of cr?eative Joseph Staten has a new job at Netflix. The industry veteran announced his new role today, confirming he's joined Netflix Games as a c?reative director for a new AAA game and original IP.

Staten confirmed the news today on Twitter. This brand-new game doesn't have a name or official reveal yet??, but it will be multiplatform and apparently be original IP.

"In my work life, there's noth??ing I love more than collaborating with others to build worlds filled with iconic characters, deep mysteries, and endless adventures," Staten said. "So today, I'm thrilled to announce that I'??ve joined Netflix Games as Creative Director for a brand-new AAA multiplatform game and original IP. Let's go!"

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyMlV5_HRWk

Staten previously worked at Bungie on early Halo games, before returning to the Halo series again by joining 343 Industries, leading Halo Infinite as head of creative. His departure was revealed last week. Microsoft laid off a significant number of employees earlier this year, and reports indicated 343 Industries was seeing some internal shifts in the ??wake of it.

The Netflix of Games

Netflix, meanwhile, really seems to be ramping up its gaming division. The streaming service started moving into streaming, though the actual pull of the service was unclear. Still, it's been gradually scooping up talent, even picking up studios like Oxenfree developer Night School.

Staten is a high-profile get for Netflix. It certainly makes it seem like the streaming giant is serious about its move into games. And with a "AAA"-tier game on the way, I'm curious to see how these aspirations play out. We've seen some tech companies try and fail to pierce into games before, but I've been generally intrigued?? by Netflix's acquisitions and the games they elect to add to their mobile service. We'll see how ??this pans out as we learn more about Staten and co.'s project.

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B for big business

Way back in the year 2008, my first ever front-page post for Destructoid asked if ultra-expensive, realistic-looking AAA games were where the industry was going. Flash forward nearly 16 years later, and most of the enduring, popular new intellectual properties since then haven't come AAA at all, and instead hail from what you might call "B budget" developers. Human Fall Flat, Five Nights at Freddy's, Genshin Impact, Among Us, Fall Guys, Fortnite, Vampire Survivors, and Rocket League are just a few of the non-AAA games that went on to find big, sustained audiences since th??en.

The list of games?? like this to both la??unch well and continue to perform well is a lot longer than the list of new, multi-million-dollar, AAA franchises that achieve the same goals in a similar timeframe.

We don't know how much all these "B budget" games cost, but we can guess that if Fortnite originally cost $300K to produce, the likes of Among Us were likely much less. Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, one of the most played games of all time, started off as a fan mod fer cripes sake! And some of the few new AAA IPs that did manage to take off in the last decade largely found their footing thanks to goodwill built up from their developers' work on less-than-AAA budgeted games. Elden Ring would have never taken off without diehard Souls fans, Cyberpunk 2077 wouldn't be anywhere without the loyalty of fans of the original Witcher games, and so on.

From that perspective, the days of single-player, hyper-realistic games with l??ong expensive cutscenes or other barriers to actual gameplay could be over. Some of the most well-known games in the world in 2023 aren't trying to muscle attention away from c?asual shoppers in brick-and-mortar stores like Toys 'R' Us or GameStop. They are games that make for great "Let's Play" videos, are fun to share screenshots or stories about on social media, stream well, and can be picked up and played by a wider audience.

It doesn't always take a lot of money to make them. So why doesn't AAA make more games li?ke? that?

[caption id="attachment_368574" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image credit No Breaks Games[/caption]

The AAA culture bubble

AAA gaming, like most media cultures, exists in its own insular little world. Human Fall Flat sold 40 million copies since its release in 2016, but despite the fact that it's clearly the kind of game that makes a lot of people really happy, you can be sure that it never, ever had a chance of winning one of Geoff Keighley's Game Awards. Those prizes will inevitably go to a game that either attempts to be like a serious Hollywood movie, and/or involve some "auteur" talent from outside of games, like Norman Reedus or George R.R. Martin. When it comes to cute, silly, gleefully game-y games like Human Fall Flat, AAA executives are quick to handwave their success away. They're seen as flukes, and their success is perceived to be ?based entirely on luck.

The fact that they do a better job?? than most AAA games at engaging the average player is largely ignored.

This leads to a weird sort of risk aversion where AAA devs feel like they need to spend a massive amount of money to assure that, regardless of what trends are happening at that moment, that their game will be "objectively superior" to the rest. And I get it. It's much harder to predict which quirky, highly accessible game will be the next one to become a phenomenon. But it's also likely that it won't be a AAA game with realistic graphics and a focus on a big, complicated single-player story, because no game like that has sold more than 30 million copies in a long time. GTAV was probably the last one to do ??that, and it was released a decade ago.

[caption id="attachment_368571" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image credit Krafton Inc.[/caption]

It's not as though the risk of AAA games with a big marketing budget selling absolutely nothing isn't there. The capacity to bomb is still strong. AAA titles like Forspoken and The Callisto Protocol are two recent examples. Their AAA publishing, budget, and marketing efforts failed to make them hits. While they never had the potential to be the next Tetris or Minecraft, they don't even look poised to become "cult hits" like No More Heroes. Moving forward, we can guess that all-new, single-player-focused, big-budget IPs will be more and more of a lose-lose proposition. For AAA, there will always be a ceiling for success, marked by a line where the enthusiast market ends, and the mainstream market begins. But there is no bottom to how hard they can fail.

The irony is, the same factors that limit how big AAA games can get are the same factors that make them appealing to publishers. It's much easier to be a big fish in a relatively small enthusiast market than it is to try to swim in the blue ocean against massive mainstream hits like Roblox or League of Legends. And, for now, AAA still has the power to craft? a niche culture where only they have the resources to make games that will be perceived as "important".

[caption id="attachment_368580" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image credit Rockstar Games[/caption]

Maintaining dominAAAnce

I was laughed off of the internet once for theorizing that home console controllers have become increasingly complica?ted over the years in order to push away players who are more likely to criticize AAA games. I can see how that might sound paranoid, but just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. Just look at the amount of hate people have gotten for suggesting that tough boss fights be skippable, or that games should always have easy modes. The level of venom that the Wii and the DS received for valuing "casuals" was wild to witness. AAA marketing had worked for years to instill a weird pride in people for playing difficult, complicated games, and with that pride came the urge to shame anyone who took a different road.

You'd think that AAA publishers wouldn't want to create an audience that repels potential new customers from getting into gaming, but as many politicians know, winning e??lections isn't about getting everyone to like you. If using divisive, mean-spirited rhetoric pushes 50% of voters away so much that they don't even want to think about politics, but?? also excites 30% of the remaining people, then that only leaves 20% of the population who may vote against you.

And in AAA, every vote costs at least $60 to cast, making the barrier to entry much higher than voting in most of the world's political elections. Expensive to make, expensive to buy games do even more to alienate any reviewer who may consider playing a GTA or CoD game for review and say, "It's too long, divisive, or meanspirited.???"

If the only people playing your games are the ones who are predestined to love them, then yo?u've already ??guaranteed a win.

[caption id="attachment_368584" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image credit InnerSloth LLC[/caption]

But that ?can't last forever, especially with something as awesome as video games. Eventually, people are going to find them and love them, no matter how much you try to alienate them. As a result, the urge from the old guard to fight back can lead to some pretty strange comments. You see something similar happening in the film industry, where directors who love making movies about real people will complain that super??hero blockbusters aren't "real cinema". What they're really trying to say is, they preferred the days when the movies they loved to make were also the movies that the industry valued the most. They want to continue to be the ones to establish what "good" and "bad" movies are, so they can continue to easily get financing for the kinds of movies they like making.

If controlling the standards for quality in your medium is the #1 way to avoid risk in any art industry, you can bet your sweet bippy that AAA will do its darndest to exercise that control. That's why Bethesda's Hi-Fi Rush was such an anomaly. The game was a huge hit, despite not being a typical AAA game. In fact, that's exactly why it did so well. It was a massive breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale market filled with gam??es aiming for the same safe, AAA goals.

But if Bethesda and other AAA publishers continue to make that type of game, they are going to implicitly admit that you don't need a ton of money to make something really popular. The emperor's new high-res, photorealistic clothes will be off, and they'll have to compete with other publishers and developers on a much more eve??n playing field. It's enough to give yo??ur average AAA CEO low-budget nightmares.

[caption id="attachment_368591" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image Credit Sony Santa Monica[/caption]

Delaying the inevitable

Just like fossil fuel companies that desperately want to keep their good thing going until either electric cars, government regulation, (or the planet Earth itself), says that the party's over, AAA publishers really don't have much reason to embrace the truth right?? now. If the vocal minority online, which is still made up of millions, keeps believing that they are number one, it will keep that FOMO feeling a?live in those with enough disposable income to splurge on a $60 or $70 title just because it got a lot of reviews/awards/buzz online. As long as they maintain their stature with the loudest voices in the enthusiast market, then they are going to keep making plenty of money.

That said, I think it's inevitable that their brand of game will eventually lose the capacity to even appear "important" to anybody. AAA games in long-running franchises like God of War, which appeal to both older players like me and the kids who care about AAA gaming history, are going to continue to do well for at least another decade. It's not a coincidence that these games tend to be about aging parents and their up-and-coming, game-loving children, because that's exactly who's still buying them. Eventually, the generation brought up on disc-based home consoles will hit their 60s and 70s, leaving the Minecraft-loving tablet and phone gaming generation to fully inherit ??the medium.

By 2050, the current style of AAA games will lo?ok "retro" at best, like how N64 games look to us now.

And, by then, making realistic-looking games will be as cheap and easy to do as it is to use art-generating apps today. The games that win the popularity contests will be the ones that give people the opportunity to work out their stress and live out their fantasies in the most novel and interesting ways, regardless of how much money was put into them. It could be that The Last of Us may really end up being one of the last of the single-pl??ayer-focused, story-heavy, AAA-budget franchises that will appeal to anyone but the most diehard of video game fans.

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That planet is cracked

Dying Light studio Techland has published a teaser for its next project. Though still ??unnamed, the ?new fantasy title got a slice of concept art today.

On Twitter, Techland sha??red the art of its newest game. It's set to be a narrative-driven fantasy epic, with an "exot??ic open world" to explore.

"We strive to create a compelling story-focused AAA title that combines and refines the best aspects of gameplay? that Techland is known for," ??reads the post.

//twitter.c??om/Te??chlandGames/status/1636378215550976001

What can we see? Well, we've got a man holding onto a tree, observing a far-off city. There's some wildlife about, and some waterfalls, and off in the distance is a big, cracked planet. Not too much to go on for now other than vibes, though vibes seem squarely set in the sci-fi fantasy realm. And given Techland's proclivity for movement in the Dying Light series, probably some free-running at some point.

Sweet, sweet fantasy

It's interesting to see Techland turn to fantasy, after doing so much work in the zombie genre. But I do like the idea of some of that parkour-centric development bleeding over into a more out-there world. It reminds me of the new project from IO Interactive, whe??re the team over th??ere is also working on its own fantasy title.

Techland had teased an open-world fantasy game with RPG elements back in 2016, though it clarified that it has RPG elements, but is not an RPG game. Whatever the case may be, I'm definitely interested in seeing what Tec?hland has been cooking up for its fantasy proj??ect.

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More virtual Keanu

Lionsgate is toying with the idea of another John Wick video game. The entertainment company's CEO said in a recent earnings cal?l that the studio is fielding proposals.

As reported by IndieWire, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said the company has been "fielding proposals" around a John Wick game.

"I don’t want to get ahead of myself here, but we believe there is a big AAA game to be made out of John Wick," said Feltheimer. "We have be??en fielding proposa?ls. We certainly are interested in moving that forward, but I don’t want to say anything more about that at this time."

It's not a major commitment. But it is interest in a franch??ise that's already seen some adaptation?, and could see more.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7XM597XO94

I'm thinkin' I'm back

John Wick has already had his own game, in the form of Bithell Games' John Wick Hex. The studio imagined Wick's action-heavy shootouts in turn-based strategy puzzles, in a way that reminded me a bit of Invisible, Inc.

It sounds like John Wick Hex turned out alright, too. But the CEO's choice of words, in "big" and "AAA," bring to mind a hefty inv??estment.

Considering the only other John Wick adaptation we have in the virtual space aside from Hex is a Fortnite cameo, there's still room. A studio like Sloclap could absolutely tackle something fast-paced and action-heavy in the Wick universe. Though my personal choice would be to give this the Alpha Protocol ??treatment. Either w?ay, I'm all for more digital Keanu.

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Both Gearbox and Embracer keep growing

Though Tiny Tina's Wonderlands just launched, it sounds like even more is in the Gearbox pipeline. Gearbox has nine games currently in development ?that it denotes as AAA.

This news arrives via Embracer Group's latest financial report, covering the?? fourth quarter and full year running April 2021 through March 2022. It's a pretty extensive report, covering a lot of companies due to how ??massive Embracer is at this point.

In the Gearbox section, the report says ??the company plans to keep on growing, with nine AAA games currently in development.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gJgj2ngCyA

Gearbox itself is made up of several different studios at this point. There is Gearbox Software in Texas, but also Gearbox Studio Quebec, Montreal, Cryptic Studios, and the recently acquired Lost Boys Interactive.

Gears are turning

There are a few games being published by Gearbox at the moment, including Homeworld 3 and Hyper Light Breaker. But what these projects might be is a bit nebulous. AAA is a general concept, so it could honestly range all over the place. Gearbox did announce that a new Tales From the Borderlands is on the way, so that's a possibility.

In other Gearbox areas, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is not the only recent launch. Have a Nice Death rolled out not too long ago, and the excellent roguelike survival shooter Risk of Rain 2 also released its Survivors of the Void expansion. With Lost Boys now under the umbrella too, it looks like a lot is in the? works for Gearbox.

Embracer in general has been expanding, too. The massive group recently?? picked up several studios from Square Enix, bringing Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal into the Embracer fold. The report indicates it plans on using the properties obtained through that deal; Embracer says it sees "a great potential" in not just sequels, but remakes, remasters, spinoffs, and transmedia projects. It's not done yet, but Embracer expects the deal to close sometime between July and September.

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It will be a narrative-driven blockbuster set in the Marvel universe

Skydance New Media, the studio formed by Uncharted writer and director Amy Hennig and former EA dev?? Julian Beak, has a game in the works. And as it turns out, it's a Marvel game.

Today, Skydance and Marvel officially announced their partnership to develop a narrative-driven blockbuster action-adventure game with Hennig's studio. It'?s currently still untitled, but the project will be a completely original story set in the Marvel universe.

Skydance ?New Media, which was launched by Hennig and Electronic Arts veteran Beak, will be making its debut with this ??new title.

"I can’t imagine a better partner than Marvel for our first game," said Hennig in today's announcement. "The Marvel Universe epitomizes all the action, mystery and thrills of the pulp adventure genre that I adore and lends itself perfectly to an interactive experience. It’s an honor to be able to tell an original story with all the humanity, complex?ity, and humor that makes Marvel characters so enduring and to enable our players to embody these heroes that they love."

Hennig announced her new studio at Skydance a few years ago, with the goal at the time being to create "story-focused experiences." While Hennig's well-known for her role in the Uncharted series, she also worked on the Jak & Daxter and Soul Reaver series.

Prior to Skydance, she was working on the cancelled single-player Star Wars game at Visceral. Beak worked on the Battlefield and Need for Speed series at Electronic Arts.

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