AA PC Gaming is Back With a Vengeance: Here’s Why You, Too, Should Be Excited

As some of you are bound to have noticed by now, AA PC gaming in 2022 is, in most ways that matter, stronger than it's ever been before. This might not seem all that noteworthy at face value, but that couldn't be further from the truth, as video games industry was a playground of developmental extremes for a good long while.

Older gamers may recall that the video game industry suffered a very specific issue back during the recession of the late aughts: while it may have seemed resistant to financial recession at a glance, this was only really the case with AAA gaming companies. Think huge, sprawling publishers and first-grade developers - the cutting edge. Tip of the spear. All that good stuff.

For indies and smaller-scale productions, however, the economic downturn of 2008(ish) was a huge issue. Many crucial elements of the industry's middle-tier simply ceased existing, and it took almost a decade for this segment of gaming to properly spring back up. Today, the situation is indeed better than ever before, and this is phenomenal news for gamers and developers alike.

What is AA PC Gaming, Why Is It Important?

First things first, it's important to make the distinction between three major, wide-sweeping categories of game production. It's important to point out, however, that we're talking primarily about the games' production budgeting here. A fair few recent AA games could conceivably be considered AAA in regard to quality, after all. To say nothing of indie smash-hits that sweep the floor with much of the industry.

Production budgets are what we're interested in today, instead. And based on how much money there is to go around for a given game's production, it could end up being one of the following:

• AAA games: huge blockbusters funded with tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars
• AA games: mid-tier productions featuring smaller budgets, less polish, and less marketing pomp
• Indie and indie-tier games: small-scale projects that may or may not be published independently

It's easy to forget that, for a fair bit, indie games were a non-starter, to begin with. Up until titles such as Braid and services like Humble Bundle popularized the concept, it was all about AA and AAA gaming. Then, when indies took over, the AA gaming scene became less interesting and prospective and suffered from derivative projects that didn't hold up.

Today, on the other hand, the industry is facing a new kind of problem: game production has ballooned. The more complex the game, the longer it takes to make. And it goes without saying that modern AAAs are immense projects from start to bottom. AAs, thankfully, are here to fill the gap.

Where Are Modern AA PC Games Coming From?

Modern AAs are here to keep us afloat between one Grand Theft Auto and another, then, but who's making them? Which studios are cranking them out and, besides, who are we supposed to turn to if we're not looking for the latest and greatest gaming blockbuster?

At this time, we've got three major game production studios leading the pack with AA game publishing, and we've already had major featurettes talking about them here at 2Game.

THQ Nordic

THQ Nordic is one of the most interesting non-AAA gaming publishers on the market right now. Having risen up from the ashes of ye olde THQ, the new firm is already established as a veritable gaming powerhouse. They've assembled a surprisingly impressive list of IPs over the past couple of years. More importantly and impressively, they're actually doing something with them!

From the renewed Destroy All Humans! all the way to true novelties such as Darksiders Genesis, THQ Nordic is fully dedicated to its role as an AA game publisher. What's particularly noteworthy about THQ Nordic is that, even though the company has grown quite a bit over the years, it's not actually pivoting towards AAA. This, we feel, would be to its detriment. Instead, the goal seems to be for them to keep a huge array of small-scale development teams and keep them working on medium-sized games, instead.

Some AA PC Games from THQ Nordic:

• Wreckfest
• Biomutant
• Desperados III
• Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed
• ELEX II

Focus Home Interactive

Focus Home Interactive is, in more ways than not, a studio that equals THQ Nordic in regard to niche coverage and product placement. If anything, Focus has a slightly less busy content schedule, although it's equally impressive. Perhaps even more so, depending on your tastes, as titles published by Focus lean more heavily towards the AAA side of things.

Whereas THQ Nordic looks back and aims to revive old IPs of yesteryear for future revitalization, Focus is all-in on exciting new experiences. Aliens: Fireteam Elite, for one, is a veritable game-as-a-service. One that has delivered more content in one year of its existence than some "proper" AAAs ever received. Now that is a hell of a feature pitch, we believe. Focus Home Interactive's publishing list features an immense list of novelties, and the company's repertoire won't leave anyone hanging.

Some AA PC Games from Focus Home Interactive:

• Insurgency: Sandstorm
• Aliens: Fireteam Elite
• Othercide
• The Surge 2
• GreedFall

Paradox Interactive

Paradox Interactive has slowly but certainly built up a portfolio of games that cater to a specific niche: strategy gamers. Once that was all done and settled, the publisher spread out its many wings and began looking at other avenues of production, too. Nowadays, the company has huge, sprawling RPGs, city builders, action adventures, and heaps more - all thanks to focusing on the specific type of game production that it does best.

Whereas both THQ Nordic and Focus Home Interactive target a more widespread audience, Paradox is neatly nestled as the absolute master of grand strategy titles. In fact, the studio's supremacy in this category is so consistent that we're yet to see a proper competitor to the likes of, say, Hearts of Iron or even Crusader Kings, for that matter. It's quite telling, we believe, that not even AAA publishers have been eager to compete with Paradox in this respect.

Some AA PC Games from Paradox Interactive:

• Crusader Kings III
• Surviving: Mars
• Stellaris
• Surviving The Aftermath
• Empire of Sin

Why Do AA Titles Matter So Much?

Now, if you're still wondering why AA PC gaming matters so much to us here at 2Game, the answer is actually delightfully simple! AA productions are far speedier and easier to manage than AAA stuff is. Smaller teams with smaller development scopes lead to shorter turnarounds. At a time when it takes Bethesda 5-6 years to launch an all-new RPG, it's refreshing to see games getting done and pushed out in half the time.

While quality may have been an important point of contention for AA games of yesteryear, we'd be hard-pressed to say that A Plague Tale: Requiem looks any worse than a contemporary AAA title from the likes of Ubisoft or EA. Yet, that is indeed an AA title! Control, too, is an AA game, and it certainly feels, looks, and plays like a veritable blockbuster.

Modern AAs behave like AAAs from a few years back. Since they're smaller and less complex, however, developers can release them at a significantly more brisk pace. This makes AA PC gaming downright invaluable. Both from the gamers' perspective, as we get more stuff to play, and from the developers' perspective, as they get to bolster their portfolios and - indeed - earn their keep!

Finally, it's also worth pointing out that AAs usually don't have complex monetization systems. These are often self-contained, self-sufficient experiences. Perfect for gamers who don't want to play just one game until the end of time. This alone makes AA titles incredibly important in the current gaming landscape.

Closing Thoughts

We hope we've successfully illustrated the importance of the modern AA gaming landscape. For the longest time, what we had was a push-me-pull-you situation where indies vied for all the media attention and AAAs kept earning virtually all the money. Now, in 2022, we've got a whole slew of established AA publishing powerhouses that keep our libraries stocked up and entertain us as much as we want.

Here at 2Game, we're thrilled to be able to host such a varied and exciting list of titles. And, with so many upcoming releases from all three of the featured publishers and a number of others in the AA gamespace, the future is very bright indeed. After all, it was about time AAs returned to their former glory!