Sweeney: Triple-A games could be the minority in future

Triple-A games could be in the minority on consoles in future, warns Tim Sweeney.

Speaking to Edge, the Epic founder said he felt the number of big budget titles currently in development is about a third of the output during the last generation.

He said that each title also seemed to have much bigger budgets than their predecessors, meaning the number of triple-A titles could continue to decrease in future as costs soar.

“The industry’s changing – this generation it seems like there are about a third of the number of triple-A titles in development across the industry as there was last time around – and each one seems to have about three times the budget of the previous generation," he said.

"I think we’re heading towards a future where triple-A is the minority."

Rising development costs have long been a hot topic debate and there were concerns the PS4 and Xbox One could yet again make budgets rise significantly.

One report suggested that Grand Theft Auto V, which rakes in $1 billion in just three days, had cost £170 to develop and market, though this was never confirmed by Rockstar North.

Last year Ubisoft Toronto head Jade Raymond spoke of her concern that rising costs would stifle innovation and said it could become increasingly difficult to take creative risks when spending $100m on a game.

“That’s for sure one of the things that is going to stifle innovation eventually,” she said.

“Anytime you want to make a big triple-A, you’re spending, let’s say $100 million, you’re not going to want to take a chance. It’s got to be, I’m making the next Call of Duty or the Assassin’s Creed and I know it’s going to make ‘X’ amount, so we’ll make money. I think that’s the tougher thing."