Back during the Xbox 360 and PS3 generation, game franchises like “Uncharted” or “Gears of War” were able to churn out a new entry every 2-3 years.
That meant they could feasibly release up to three games across the span of a console generation (around seven years). Things have changed since then as games have gotten more complicated and generally bigger and release times between entries have extended.
The result, according to Xbox Game Studios chief Matt Booty in a new interview with Axios, is that development cycles on games have effectively doubled with top development teams lucky to put out more than one game a decade these days.
Specifically referring to high-end big-budget games, Booty indicates it’s not something players or the industry, in general, have fully come to terms with:
“That’s been catching people inside and around gaming by surprise. I think that the industry and the fans were a little behind the curve on sort of a reset to understand that games aren’t two or three years anymore… they’re four, five, and six years. There are higher expectations. The level of fidelity that we’re able to deliver just goes up. Games continue to get more ambitious as an art form.”
The same holds true for annualised franchises like “Call of Duty” and “Assassin’s Creed,” where the work involves a cycle of several studios swapping off development duty – so each studio actually gets around 3-4 years of time to spend on each title.
It can also be seen in “Starfield,” the upcoming Xbox title, which will be the first Bethesda Game Studios title since “Fallout 4” in 2015.
Bethesda confirmed it was planning a sixth “The Elder Scrolls” back in 2018. However, with their focus on “Starfield” in recent years it could well be we won’t see the title score a release for a good few years yet.
Source: VGC
