Xbox's Matt Booty: AAA Games Now Take 4 to 6 Years to Develop - News

Tweet

The head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty in an interview with Axios said the gaming industry and fans need to realize big-budget games no longer take two or three years to make and now take four to six years.

"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," said Booty discussing the development cycle on big-budget games. 

"They're four and five and six years," he added.

Booty explained the reason for the longer development times on AAA games is due to the increased complexity and higher technical marks with 4K graphics and advance lighting. 

"There are higher expectations," he said. "The level of fidelity that we're able to deliver just goes up."

Some games will still be made quickly, like those from smaller teams working on indie projects, according to Booty.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.

More Articles

15 Comments

Sort by Highest Rated

• Newest
• Oldest
• Highest Rated
• Lowest Rated

VAMatt (on 13 June 2023)

This has been said many times over the last several years. I wonder if he's trying to indicate that development times are continually increasing, so the type of game that might have taken 4 years to make during the last generation takes 5 years to make today?

• +5

scrapking VAMatt (on 14 June 2023)

I think he's telegraphing/explaining why there are going to be lulls, such as we saw in 2022, despite all of their many development teams.

• +3

Draconidas (on 14 June 2023)

Then make BBB games.

• +3

Chazore (on 14 June 2023)

We heard this song & Dance a decade ago, and yet AAA are still releasing games in busted/buggy states, yet their cash shops work flawlessly lol.

yes they take time to dev, but they seem to have little care for the end-product and it's quality, as made evident by the "we're sorry", apology open letters we keep seeing these days.

Also stop announcing games way too early in advance.

• +2

Radek (on 14 June 2023)

Tell that to GTA 6 :D

• +1

Kakadu18 (on 13 June 2023)

This should have been common knowledge for years now.

• +1

LivncA_Dis3 (on 14 June 2023)

Insomniac: hold my beer
Microsoft: jaw drops**

Sunset Overdrive -2014
Ratchet and Clank - 2016
Spiderman - 2018
Spiderman: Miles Morales - 2020
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart - 2021
Spiderman 2 - 2023? (Delays maybe)
Wolverine - 2026? Beyond

• 0

smroadkill15 LivncA_Dis3 (on 16 June 2023)

Obsidian says hi.
South Park: Stick of Truth - 2014
Pillars of Eternity - 2015
Tyranny- 2016
Pillars of Eternity 2 - 2018
Outer Worlds - 2019
Grounded - 2022
Pentiment - 2022
Avowed - 2024
Outer Worlds 2 - 2025?

• 0

LivncA_Dis3 smroadkill15 (on 17 June 2023)

Quality over quantity

• 0

Vengeance1138 (on 13 June 2023)

Maybe for Xbox, not for Sony. Xbox's pipeline is beyond troubled.

• -14

smroadkill15 Vengeance1138 (on 13 June 2023)

How's that denial working out for ya?

• +7

Qwark Vengeance1138 (on 13 June 2023)

PlayStation is pipeline is so cluttered that we have not seen an actual trailer (as not a CGI one) of a game that comes after Spider-Man 2. Factions also is having a lot of trouble.

• +7

KrspaceT Qwark (on 13 June 2023)

Sony used the frontload strategy, and it's unsure if they can adapt around it.

Like the Switch used that strategy, but it also has a lot more smaller titles that can keep some buzz going. That's not really the strategy Sony is using, or possibly able to, because it focuses so much on big titles. It can't fill in a few months with an equiv of a Fire Emblem release, or have something catch fire like Splatoon 2 or Luigi M 3 if something goes funky with a big title. Plus there is the elephant in the room that Nintendo titles that sell as much as a Sony title surely are not as expensive to make and stay at 60 dollars for longer than Sony's....

• 0

LudicrousSpeed Vengeance1138 (on 13 June 2023)

Not for Sony?

Bend: four years since Days Gone (which itself took six years)

Guerrilla: four years to make Horizon 2, six years to make Horizon)

Insomniac - idk how long SM2 has been in development for, Ratchet apparently three or four years. Given that SM2 is also a sequel, it’s probably also three or four years.

ND - Last of Us II, six years. Part one, four years. Uncharted 4, five years.

Polyphony - Five years for GT7, four for Sport

SSM - Five years for the GoW refresh, four years for the sequel

Sucker Punch - Six years to make Ghosts

So yes, when it comes to big new games, Sony most definitely falls under the 4-6 year window for a vast majority of their games.

• +10

G2ThaUNiT Vengeance1138 (on 14 June 2023)

Don't let your bias get in the way of reality.

• +6