Ubisoft remains a key player in the video game industry today with iconic franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six. But if the French publisher knows how to create blockbusters, the latest games have not all met with the hoped-for success. However, the company does not intend to give up and is currently developing other major games.
Ubisoft aims high with AAA and AAAA games
It is once again on LinkedIn that we find interesting information where a Ubisoft employee mentioned the existence of several projects in progress, ranging from AAA games to even larger ambitions, classified as AAAA. If this last name may make you smile, it underlines Ubisoft’s desire to push the limits of production in video games.
As a reminder, Skull and Bones had already caused a lot of ink to flow when the publisher qualified it as an AAAA game. This term, far from being unanimous, had aroused mockery and skepticism in the community, some considering that it was more of a marketing stunt than a real evolution in terms of quality or gameplay. Sold on its release for €80, Skull & Bones was quickly put away and we can find the game today for less than €15 just ten months later.
Despite everything, Ubisoft seems to want to persist in this direction by talking about AAAA projects. This is what Karthikeyan S says on Linkedin in his experience at Ubisoft as a Junior Sound Designer. He describes himself as “Responsible for creating sound design, sound effects and sound effects for unannounced AAA and AAAA game projects” chez Ubisoft Indian Studios.
What is an AAAA game?
If the term AAA already designates games with colossal budgets, long developments and teams often made up of hundreds of people, the term AAAA aims to go even further. Even if the video game industry does not give any precise definition, these would be productions which transcend the current standards of so-called AAA games, whether by the size of the universe, technical quality, innovation or even supporting interconnected experiences across different media.
Few publishers have risked mentioning this name for their games since it is obviously a threat in the event that these games in question turn out to be much less good than expected. In May 2018, Xbox created a new studio in Santa Monica whose ambition was also to create a so-called “AAAA” game. We would learn a few years later that it was Perfect Dark, a title initially announced for Xbox Series X|S but from which this mention has since been withdrawn by Microsoft.
Regardless, qualifying its productions as AAAA exposes publishers to significant pressure to deliver truly revolutionary experiences. The next episode of this strategy will therefore be crucial for Ubisoft, which will have to prove that the term AAAA is not just a simple label, but truly a major step in terms of production quality.
