Avalanche Studios: There's going to be fewer big-budget games

Speaking to Gamasutra today about the state of "AAA" development in the context of the next run of consoles, Avalanche Studio Creative Director Stefan Ljungqvist told the outlet that what he would like more opportunities to be creative and to delve into more experimental projects. Though some big publishers are leery of risk-taking, creativity-driven projects ( with a few exceptions ), Ljungqvist says that they might be more inclined to taking risks now because there is a need to be more unique.

"I don't think big-budget games are going away, says Ljungqvist. "There's going to be less of them. But that's a good thing, because maybe we don't need forty first-person shooters. I don't want to play them all [laughs], but maybe we need one, two or three." Avalanche co-founder Christofer Sundberg underlines that video games aren't just an art, they're also a business. He also commented on the current landscape between PCs and consoles. "Commercially, the market is certainly pointing toward a direction that is not favorable for consoles," Sundberg says. "But for us consoles have always been our platform—it's the entertainment center of your house."

Sundberg also believes that the PS4 is much easier to develop for than its predecessor, and that it's a good place for small developers. Read the rest of their comments on the original Gamasutra post .