Split Fiction's Director Dishes On Clair Obscur, EA, And Gen AI

"Publishing a game means placing a bet that the people making it can actually ship it and that prospective players will actually want to buy it. To limit risk, the people writing the checks look out across the industry for things that feel as close to a sure bet as you can find. The developers pitching them then point to these success stories and explain how their dream project will replicate it."

""You do hear, after the success of things like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, that the double-A games are taking over," Fares told The Game Business. "But I would not be able to live without a triple-A title. I really want to play the blockbuster games. You can't do GTA for ten million [dollars]. We need both." He continued, "It's important not to get stuck in ideas, like double-A is a new thing, or indie is a new thing, or 'blah, blah, blah' is a new thing. We need the diversity. I hope that publishers don't just look at a game like Expedition [ 33], which has been super successful, and think, 'oh, double-A is a new thing. Let's only do that.' I don't believe in that. You had a huge amount of double-A games that came [out] this year, which nobody cared about. Let's remember that.""

"He's right, of course. For every Space Marine 2 there's a Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden or I mmortals of Aveum that doesn't hit regardless of the underlying quality and creativity. The industry has a habit of coalescing around specific hits or new genre breakouts and trying to derive foolproof formulas from them. That's how you end up with waves of copycat MMOs, Mobas, card games, or hero shooters years after the initial success stories."

Publishing a game involves risk that developers can ship it and that players will want to buy it. To reduce risk, publishers seek industry signals that resemble near-sure bets and often favor projects that echo recent hits. High-profile AA successes such as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 can push the industry toward more double-A investments, but AAA blockbusters remain necessary because certain experiences (e.g., GTA-scale games) require vastly larger budgets. Many AA releases still fail to find audiences, and the industry often copies breakout hits, producing waves of similar MMOs, MOBAs, card games, or hero shooters. Maintaining diversity across AAA, AA, and indie is crucial.

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