Head of Xbox Game Studios Says Games Now Take 4-6 Years to Make

Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty said gamers and the industry at large need to understand that most AAA games now have roughly half-decade development cycles.

“I think it took the industry and fans a while to understand that games don’t take two or three years anymore,” he told the site. axlesadding that AAA titles now take “four, five and six years” to make.

Although the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation have seen several famous franchises receive up to three games, as was the case for example with Gears of War, Halo and Uncharted, on PS4 and Xbox One we see this frequency decrease due to increases in budgets and the number of people needed to make games like this.

While franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty manage to keep up with frequent releases, there are multiple studios working on them, with companies spending close to three to four years on each game.

To give you an idea of ​​how things have changed, Fallout 3 came out in 2008, received expansions, and just three years later Bethesda released The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

When Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls VI in a teaser in 2018, it’s likely to be approximately ten years before it comes out, if Booty’s estimates are correct.

In the case of Rockstar’s GTA 6, the gap between the predecessor and it is already almost 10 years, taking into account that the game originally came out for PS3 and Xbox 360, having been ported later with improvements to PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series and PC.

The comment made by the executive was to clarify the pace at which new games are being released for Xbox in recent years, considered slow by some players and members of the media.

Although the Xbox Games Showcase has shown several games, including the reboot of Fable and Hellblade II, the absence of Perfect Dark, The Outer Worlds 2, and Machine Games’ Indiana Jones were noted, which should still take a long time. until they are shown.

“There are higher expectations,” Booty said. “The level of loyalty we can offer only increases.”

Finally, the executive believes that Xbox will finally be able to change the regularity with which it delivers games made by its studios, with 2024 being the year of this turning point.

Via VGC