In the
video-game industry,
AAA (pronounced and sometimes written
Triple-A) is an informal classification used to categorise games produced and distributed by a
mid-sized or
major publisher, which typically have higher development and marketing budgets than other tiers of game.
[1]
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During the seventh generation, AAA (or "blockbuster") games had marketing at a similar level to high-profile films, with television, billboard and newspaper advertising; a corresponding increasing reliance on sequels, reboots, and similarly franchised IP was also seen, in order to minimize risk. Costs at the end of the generation had risen as high as the hundreds of millions of dollars – the estimated cost of Grand Theft Auto V was approximately $265m. The same conditions also drove the growth of the indie game scene at the other end of the development spectrum, where lower costs enabled innovation and risk-taking.[14]