5 ms·

Shadow of Mordor and Tomb Raider are the only AAA game on your list. The rest are indie games tiny budget indie games.

shmerl 9y ago
Everyone's list is different. And it's not about the size of the budget, it's about quality (in different meanings of it).
- Armisael16 9y ago
  AAA is in fact precisely about the size of the budget and amount of promotion.
  - shmerl 9y ago
    Which again isn't equal to quality (enough to mention some "AAA" releases which were complete trash, remember Batman: Arkham Knight fiasco?). So again, AAA or not AAA, quality is what matters, both artistic and technical. Today, good studios are releasing games for Linux. Such as inXile, Obsidian and others.
    - sqeaky 9y ago
      Nothing you said is wrong, but it doesn't change the fact that quality doesn't sell. Once a game is "good enough" it often comes down to marketing, and the studios putting out for Linux do not control a majority of the marketing dollars.
      - shmerl 9y ago
        Quality sells, but it requires more effort naturally.
- cptskippy 9y ago
  That's like calling a small Indie film a Blockbuster and dismissing objections as a matter of opinion. The term AAA is analogous to Blockbuster in the film industry. It's a reference to both budget and expected unit sales. Blockbuster movies have budgets starting in the hundreds of millions where as Indie films budges are usually in the single to double digit millions. Video games are no different in that respect.
  - shmerl 9y ago
    No, it's like saying that good art doesn't equal to whether big publisher funds it or not, and millions in budget can result in trash result. That's why I don't like the term AAA, it's way too confusing, conflating unrelated and often orthogonal issues (budget, publisher funding vs independent development, quality and so on). Anyway, there are big budget games coming out for Linux, so above is really besides the point.
    - cptskippy 9y ago
      It has nothing to do with the quality or content. There are plenty of Hollywood Blockbusters that are awful, most in fact, but they still cost a lot of money to make. Budget is a good indicator of audience numbers regardless of quality.
      - shmerl 9y ago
        I mean artistic quality, as in good art in general. And why should we care about awful games? I buy games which are interesting to me, not based on their budget size.
        cptskippy 9y ago
        I understand what you're saying but the vast majority of people playing games do not share your sentiment and game studios go where the money is. Games like Braid, while beautiful, innovative, and memorable, don't bring in the money of the annually released cookie cutter FPS games like CoD or Battlefield that are shallower than spilled coffee on your desk. You can say that there are plenty of good games on Linux and everyone should switch but the reality is that the games people want to play are either unavailable or lacking in some way that makes Linux on the desktop a non starter. C64 and Amiga probably have a larger base than Linux.
jokr004 9y ago
I'm not a gamer by any stretch, but is Portal really an indie game?
- Insanity 9y ago
  Portal 1 kind of was, but Valve got in on it. So half and half I guess. But portal 2 was not indie by any means :-)
- ethelward 9y ago
  IMHO, no. It's made by Valve, you can't really sort them as an indie studio.
  - sqeaky 9y ago
    It was made by a bunch of college students who were trying to start their own company who got bought by Valve partway through development.
SmirkingRevenge 9y ago
Rocket League started out that way, but I'm not sure its still that way. It started small, but is now one of the most popular online games and competitive e-sports - to the point where actual soccer clubs are supposedly setting up e-sports teams for it. Psyonix is building an empire around it.
- Cpoll 9y ago
  > but is now one of the most popular online games and competitive e-sports Are there any numbers, I'm actually curious. I don't regularly see it on the Twitch.tv front page, so my impression was it was a bit behind the big names in esports (LoL, DotA, CS:GO, SC2, Hearthstone, Overwatch).

Everyone's list is different. And it's not about the size of the budget, it's about quality (in different meanings of it).

Armisael16 9y ago
AAA is in fact precisely about the size of the budget and amount of promotion.
- shmerl 9y ago
  Which again isn't equal to quality (enough to mention some "AAA" releases which were complete trash, remember Batman: Arkham Knight fiasco?). So again, AAA or not AAA, quality is what matters, both artistic and technical. Today, good studios are releasing games for Linux. Such as inXile, Obsidian and others.
  - sqeaky 9y ago
    Nothing you said is wrong, but it doesn't change the fact that quality doesn't sell. Once a game is "good enough" it often comes down to marketing, and the studios putting out for Linux do not control a majority of the marketing dollars.
    - shmerl 9y ago
      Quality sells, but it requires more effort naturally.
cptskippy 9y ago
That's like calling a small Indie film a Blockbuster and dismissing objections as a matter of opinion. The term AAA is analogous to Blockbuster in the film industry. It's a reference to both budget and expected unit sales. Blockbuster movies have budgets starting in the hundreds of millions where as Indie films budges are usually in the single to double digit millions. Video games are no different in that respect.
- shmerl 9y ago
  No, it's like saying that good art doesn't equal to whether big publisher funds it or not, and millions in budget can result in trash result. That's why I don't like the term AAA, it's way too confusing, conflating unrelated and often orthogonal issues (budget, publisher funding vs independent development, quality and so on). Anyway, there are big budget games coming out for Linux, so above is really besides the point.
  - cptskippy 9y ago
    It has nothing to do with the quality or content. There are plenty of Hollywood Blockbusters that are awful, most in fact, but they still cost a lot of money to make. Budget is a good indicator of audience numbers regardless of quality.
    - shmerl 9y ago
      I mean artistic quality, as in good art in general. And why should we care about awful games? I buy games which are interesting to me, not based on their budget size.
      - cptskippy 9y ago
        I understand what you're saying but the vast majority of people playing games do not share your sentiment and game studios go where the money is. Games like Braid, while beautiful, innovative, and memorable, don't bring in the money of the annually released cookie cutter FPS games like CoD or Battlefield that are shallower than spilled coffee on your desk. You can say that there are plenty of good games on Linux and everyone should switch but the reality is that the games people want to play are either unavailable or lacking in some way that makes Linux on the desktop a non starter. C64 and Amiga probably have a larger base than Linux.

jokr004 9y ago

I'm not a gamer by any stretch, but is Portal really an indie game?

Insanity 9y ago
Portal 1 kind of was, but Valve got in on it. So half and half I guess. But portal 2 was not indie by any means :-)
ethelward 9y ago
IMHO, no. It's made by Valve, you can't really sort them as an indie studio.
- sqeaky 9y ago
  It was made by a bunch of college students who were trying to start their own company who got bought by Valve partway through development.

SmirkingRevenge 9y ago

Rocket League started out that way, but I'm not sure its still that way. It started small, but is now one of the most popular online games and competitive e-sports - to the point where actual soccer clubs are supposedly setting up e-sports teams for it. Psyonix is building an empire around it.

Cpoll 9y ago
> but is now one of the most popular online games and competitive e-sports Are there any numbers, I'm actually curious. I don't regularly see it on the Twitch.tv front page, so my impression was it was a bit behind the big names in esports (LoL, DotA, CS:GO, SC2, Hearthstone, Overwatch).