"Middle-budget" games

I keep hearing that the video game industry is moving towards the "Hollywood model", where games are either conservative blockbusters aimed at whatever's popular (sequels, zombies), or they're smaller, cheap, downloadable indie games.

In the era of the N64 and Gamecube, games were lower-budget than they are today, but still managed to have decent length, voice acting, and be approachable.

I hear that the "middle" is disappearing from games, but the middle would be a nice balance inbetween the extremes of cheap downloadables that try new ideas but don't have a budget, and big budget blockbusters that are afraid to do anything new, but do what they do with pizazz.

Is that really the case, or is there a place for the $30-$40 games outside of possibly Steam? Sonic Generations was sold at $30 (on Steam; $40 at retail), and I hear it sold over 2 million copies. It's not big budget either. Do you think more games like this will be made?

Yes, although I'm not sure about situation on console, but on PC the middle-budget games is actually growing...though it's gonna be from lower tier publishers like Iceberg, Devolver Digital, Paradox, or basically self-publish on Steam and other digital platforms...

Then again, Scribblenauts Unlimited is $30 on Steam (though $40 and $60 on other plat)...maybe this might be more PC-specific phenomenon...but PS 4 announcement says game can range froom $1 to $60 may give hope to midtier games on consoles...

edited 6th Mar '13 9:35:10 AM by onyhow

Yeah, Middle-Budget games are definitely growing on the PC.

I'm not sure if the $60-$70 point is standard due to the influence of massive American publishing houses but I was under the impression that $30-$40 was considered the AAA point in some other regions.

With larger hard drives and downloadable games more of a reality for many people (even though there are many people who have data-capped internet plans that prevent this), I really hope middle-budget games take off. They offer a good inbetween, allowing for the experimentation that big-budget games wouldn't allow, but without having low production values.

Hmm.... Does Bastion count as middle-budget? Or all-out Indie?

edited 6th Mar '13 2:32:05 PM by Ninety

Demons Souls proved that you don't need tons of marketing or an established franchise name to make a profit. It's spiritual sequel had a larger budget and more marketing, and the next Souls game looks like it's going to be even larger still. It seems that "middle-budget" titles become "big-budget" when they get enough sales.

Also, does triple A refer to games with big budgets? Kingdoms Of Amalur went monstrously over-budget to the point that 2 million sales was still a loss, but it was hardly a big-name title.

edited 7th Mar '13 2:45:25 AM by Scardoll

We need more budget titles. Some of the best games in existence are budget titles.

You want Burnout with cartoony physics on a handheld? Sideswiped, for the DS, you could find it for $10. A game where you control a living tank as you defend your kingdom from war-mongering evil tanks, with a demon tank as a final boss? Seek and Destroy.

There are so many amazing budget titles that may be left behind for downloadable content with somewhat competent programming/voice-acting and such. This really saddens me.