The huge triumph of French role-playing game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has sold over 8 million copies, proving to players and publishers that mid-range (AA) projects can compete with over-hyped blockbusters. However, big business still sees things from a different perspective. Radek Ratushnik, game director at One More Level Studios (creators of Ghostrunner), which is currently working on Valor Mortis’ Soul Slice, told the outlet that the publisher still considers the mid-budget installment to be too risky a venture.
For investors to finally stop shying away from independent teams and reaching for their checkbooks with trepidation, Ratushnik said the industry will need “more Expedition 33s like this.” The problem is that publishers don’t just expect small studios to deliver strong releases, they expect instant miracles on unrealistically tight deadlines. Many companies naively believe that they can produce high-quality work on a modest budget in just a year, forgetting the need for adequate polishing, testing, and creative freedom. At the same time, it’s easier for publishers to continue pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into their typically large projects than to trust a dozen compact teams. By the way, it’s interesting that publishers don’t see any particular problems in a bunch of failed AAA games with huge budgets and long development times.
