The publisher behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 says the likes of GTA 6 maker Rockstar can weather the ballooning AAA budgets and team sizes we're seeing across the industry, but most can't and "there is a human cost to running things that way."
Speaking to GamesIndustry.Biz, Sandfall COO and Clair Obscur producer François Meurisse says the studio will resist the urge to scale up dramatically in the face of success to churn out its next games quicker, instead looking to keep the core team together and retain the chemistry built making their breakout hit. "We want to keep the organisation that made us successful," he says.
It's the sort of sentiment that publisher Kepler backs, with portfolio director Matthew Handrahan adding: "I think keeping a core team to hold the vision and to build out what the game is, and then expanding as you need to through things like outsourcing, is a very smart and sustainable way to manage game development."
While 32 people worked on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 over at Sandfall, the studio benefited from outsourcing when it needed to move things along at a brisker pace. It's a win-win as not only does it allow the studio to retain that core group, but also avoid the risk of upscaling dramatically to match modern AAA ambition.
"I think that there's been a lot of irresponsible practices in the industry," Handrahan says regarding growing AAA budgets and team sizes. "Some games can make it work. GTA 6 is going to make it work, I think we can all say with great confidence. But there are plenty of games made with very large teams and for huge amounts of money that don't land, and there is a human cost to running things that way. People lose their jobs. God knows how many layoffs there have been in the industry over the last few years."
It's a sentiment we're seeing increasingly elsewhere. Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden has called for the return of AA games on several occasions, as have a few developers we have spoken to. Given the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and increasing challenges facing the industry, we can only imagine those calls getting louder.