Maybe It’s a Good Thing AAA Games Take 13 Years to Make

Who is paying? Chinese and Korean developers, who continue to strive (and increasingly succeed in finding) a foothold in Western markets. Two of the event’s biggest trailer moments were the reveal of NodusFall, the new game from Genshin Impact‘s HoYoverse, and the return of “anime GTA” Ananta.

It would be a fool who bet against either of these games. (I hear very good things about Ananta.) They’re part of a vanguard seeking to redefine AAA games from the outside — which, it must be said, is the only place AAA games have ever been successfully redefined from. Rockstar Games did it once. CD Projekt Red did, too.

Some scoffed at Gamescom Opening Night Live for finishing on a free update and expansion for CD Projekt’s The Witcher 3, a game that recently sailed with great dignity past its 11th birthday. You won’t catch me doing the same, and not just because I love The Witcher 3. I love it when games last — when you can realistically continue to play them for a decade or more, and when their makers continue to support them.

Ford James reports from a Gamescom demo of the new expansion

This is relevant to GTA, too. It’s easy to bemoan the enormously lengthy and costly development cycles that have beset AAA game studios and that leave us waiting so long between installments. But it’s also a good thing for the gaming world not to be so obsessed with novelty that it forgets to maintain and promote what it has already made.

Because GTA 6 has taken 13 years to arrive, GTA 5 has been released on three generations of consoles, and GTA Online has thrived. Because CD Projekt got waylaid by Cyberpunk 2077 and is taking its time with The Witcher 4, its 2015 classic now gets its second remaster — a free update to all owners — and an unheralded third expansion to wrap up the story of its beloved hero Geralt. These games deserve long life-spans, and younger generations of gamers deserve to be able to find them and play them with ease.

I’d bite your hand off for a look at The Witcher 4, of course. But the pride and generosity with which CD Projekt is caring for its predecessor warms my heart. It might not make for the most thrilling One More Thing at a games showcase. But it speaks of a true love for the medium.

Plus this: