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by mikenew 18 days ago
Current top 5 played games on the Steam Deck are: Slay the Spire 2, The Binding of Isaac, Dave the Diver, Stardew Valley, and Baldur's Gate 3. BG3 is the only one you can consider AAA, but Larian is hardly an EA or Blizzard.

The big AAA studios recycle the same formulas and push graphical quality (mostly downstream of Unreal Engine improvements) because they are risk averse. Similar to big comic-book-hero films. It's not what consumers want and it's increasingly starting to show. AAA is struggling badly while indie has been on an absolute tear the past few years.
3 comments
rickstanley 18 days ago
On top of that, the seemingly endless remakes... Some are praise worthy others not so much. I got tired of Resident Evil Remakes, they are just recycling the same formula over, and over, and over again... Innovation has left a long time a go. Other example is the recent Assassin's Creed Black Flag "Resync" (which is a remaster with some things on top of it), I was planing on buying it, but Jesus, Ubisoft couldn't let it pass: their launcher is still there, all DLC's together cost more than the base game (and why have DLC in the first place?), the menu is has an ad for Assassin's Creed Shadows which, etc.

I'm currently doing a course (I think it's equivalent to an "Associate degree" in USA) in Game Development. I feel demotivated to take part in this industry, and I think that, at least for me, it should be just on and off gig to do in my spare time, perhaps with other enthusiasts too, but I don't plan to pursue it.

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pibaker 18 days ago
Well, because most recent AAA titles would be miserable to play on a handheld.
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oliwarner 18 days ago
> Current top 5 played games on the Steam Deck are...

I think this speaks more to the type of games people want in their pocket. Games you can casually pick up, put down.

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spwa4 17 days ago
Top-5 played games off the steam deck are:

Counter-Strike 2 (Valve)

DOTA 2 (Valve)

Palworld (Pocketpair)

PUBG: battlegrounds (PUBG corporation/Krafton Inc)

TBH: Task Bar Hero (obviously not AAA)

I guess Valve would half-qualify as AAA? The top played true AAA game would be, imho "Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced", at the 18th place. Perhaps Ubisoft with a Assasin's creed title in the top sellers probably should be higher in the playing list.

But I think it's fair to say AAA doesn't hold the steam store anywhere near as tightly as it holds the consoles.

https://store.steampowered.com/charts/mostplayed

https://store.steampowered.com/charts/topselling/US

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