3A games are too expensive, and there are too many indie titles—could 2A games be the answer?

In recent years, as the number of new games has exploded, more and more titles have been left to languish in obscurity.

According to SteamDB data, nearly 17,000 new games have been released on Steam this year, with over 8,000 of them receiving fewer than 10 reviews and only slightly more than 3,000 surpassing the 50-review mark.

A while back, Artur Smiarowski, the developer of the *Soulash* series, stated on social media that of the 13,000 new games released so far this year, 40% had generated less than $100 in revenue—not even enough to cover the $100 listing fee on Steam.

Most of the games that “fail miserably” are small- to medium-sized titles. Data from HushCrasher also shows that the number of games classified as “below AA” has surged in recent years, making competition increasingly fierce.

In contrast, while the number of AAA and AA games has not increased significantly, they have consistently maintained a stable share of reviews. This suggests that games of a certain scale currently hold a natural advantage when competing for players' attention.

However, AAA games have also encountered some challenges. As game development costs continue to rise, leading AAA developers have become increasingly conservative and reluctant to innovate, relying instead on established IPs and gameplay mechanics while focusing their resources solely on improving quality. With players’ expectations growing ever higher, these high-budget AAA titles are now walking on thin ice.

Between AAA titles and indie games, there seems to be a niche for 2A games, and the success of *Expedition 33* this year serves as a case in point:

With the emergence of commercial engines like UE5 and the maturation of the outsourcing industry, the barriers to creating high-quality games have dropped significantly; the outflow of talent from major game studios has also provided mid-sized game development teams with valuable design, production, and management expertise; and the relative flexibility of mid-sized teams offers greater scope for creative expression……

In this episode of "Game & Tea Roundtable," we spoke with industry professionals about whether 2A games could be a promising opportunity, given that 3A titles are too expensive and there are too many indie games.

▍Shen Li, Founder of Rhenium-3 Lab

Personally, I’m very optimistic about the growth potential of areas like 2A and 3i.

It’s actually quite difficult to provide a completely precise definition of “2A”—after all, even the concept of “3A” hasn’t yet achieved full consensus within the industry, let alone 2A.Therefore, for the purposes of this discussion, I will tentatively define "2A" as follows: typically developed by small to medium-sized studios, these titles approach "3A" standards in certain aspects and overall presentation, but feature significantly less content than "3A" games; or, alternatively, they may have a reasonable amount of content but fall slightly short of "3A" standards in terms of polish and overall quality. The budgets for such projects are generally kept within the range of $10 million to $20 million.

The reason I enjoy and am optimistic about AAA games is that they occupy a very interesting middle ground. With this level of investment, development teams are still able to experiment with innovation and take on a certain amount of risk, while at the same time delivering audiovisual quality and overall polish that are clearly superior to those of many low-budget indie games.

In contrast, due to the massive investment required, 3A games tend to take a conservative approach during the planning phase, often focusing on just a few popular genres.Everyone strives to create titles with incredibly rich content that are as perfect as possible in every aspect. However, the budget constraints of 2A games force teams to make clear trade-offs during development. This process of trade-offs actually helps them focus on core gameplay and develop a distinct identity. Personally, I’ve never been particularly interested in titles that appear “perfect in every way”; instead, I prefer products that may have their flaws but possess a distinct character and a sharp edge.

Currently, Steam sees as many as 10,000 to 20,000 new games released each year, the vast majority of which are low-budget indie titles. While there are certainly some cleverly conceived games among them that I greatly admire, the reality is that the overwhelming majority—even if they have standout features—are easily lost in the crowd. In contrast, the supply of AAA games remains limited, making it easier for them to stand out in the market and catch players’ attention.

▍Pikachi, Producer of *Human Charm*

To cut to the chase: I don’t think the scale of a game is a good measure of whether there are new opportunities.

As a developer, I think there are far more factors to consider when assessing whether the 2A market represents a new opportunity than the question itself.

The following is a problem that every developer will inevitably face:

What kind of game should we make? Who is the target audience? What is the development timeline? What is the budget?How many people will be on the development team? What is the competitive landscape? What are the team’s capabilities? Where will the funding come from? What is the value of the community and product iteration? And so on. The combination of answers to each of these sub-questions will yield various outcomes, and these outcomes will determine the project’s scale and future direction. However, once these questions are thoroughly addressed, it becomes clear whether the project will be a small-scale game, a 2A title, or even a 3A title.

The next question isn’t what market size constitutes an opportunity, but how I can “stand out” among products in that market segment.

I came across some statistics earlier: in 2024, small-scale games accounted for 75% of new releases on Steam, but over the past decade, the share of reviews for small-scale games has never exceeded 25%. Among the games released in 2024, four out of every ten had fewer than 10 player reviews. Does this mean that, despite the surge in the number of so-called small-scale games, they haven’t actually taken market share away from mid-sized, large-scale, or AAA games?Does that mean there’s definitely an opportunity in making AAA games? Clearly not.

While 2A games have a price advantage over 3A titles and offer more content than indie games, they seem to have ended up falling short on both fronts. Therefore, as long as this segment continues to produce games that achieve both strong sales and critical acclaim, it will remain an opportunity for developers.

Having an opportunity doesn’t mean rushing in blindly; the prudent allocation of available resources is the prerequisite for success in your chosen field. Of course, the core of any game is that it must be fun, regardless of its scale. Identifying a clear target audience and deeply cultivating a genre that suits both you and your team is far more practical than simply focusing on whether the game is large, medium, or small in scale.

▍Wang Wandou, Producer at Liangwu Games

This is just my rough take on the issue—it’s not really an answer: Investors, creators, and players are all trying their best to find a common reference point to align their perspectives, but the three parties have never managed to do so. As a result, the various categories that were originally intended to serve as reference points have instead become battlegrounds for debate.

However, as a developer who has built my career entirely on indie games, I probably don’t have the credentials to discuss grand concepts like team composition. After all, many developers—myself included—simply can’t assemble a team exactly as they’d like. So all we can do is make the best use of the resources we have.

Now for a moment of fantasy: if I had a whole team of elite developers at my disposal, I’d definitely go all out to show off my artistic skills—I’d want those insanely cool cutscenes, too. It would be even better if I had a big studio’s production pipeline, churning out high-quality assets nonstop—but based on my experience so far, more often than not, I can only rely on wild ideas and clever tricks to improve the game’s quality.

▍Wandering Pioneer: Raven

The terms "indie," "A-tier," "2A," and "3A" in gaming are merely concepts; there is currently no established standard for how these categories are actually defined.Gamers only care about whether a game is fun; developers only care about whether a game can make money; and only those who neither play nor develop games worry about whether the concept holds water. Personally, I think it might be more meaningful to consider cost gradients. The "A" concept is flawed and misleading. Games can only be evaluated based on development scale and cost; to determine whether a game at a certain cost level has a viable market, one must also consider the size of the audience for that game’s genre.

Well, based on the industry’s definition of a “2A” game (teams of dozens or even hundreds of people, with development budgets in the millions of dollars), there are plenty of mid-sized games like this already on the market. People are already working on them—it’s mainly a matter of who can do it better. So where’s the opportunity in that?

▍Zhihu Answerer: Squirrel Sister

2A is even less suitable for speculators.

To succeed in the AA segment, you need to focus deeply on a specific niche.

▍Han Zhiyu, Founder of Chaos Galaxy

The market is dominated by AAA titles and indie games, with a lack of mid-sized games; this is the result of natural selection, not a missed opportunity.

Most developers of mid-sized games have gone out of business in recent years. Even true "2A" titles are sure to market themselves as "3A" or indie games.

▍Concept Design for a Certain Transparent Human Form

When it comes to distinguishing between AAA and AA titles, if we’re judging by project budgets, aside from *Black Myth: Wukong*, there’s probably not a single other single-player game in China that could truly be called AAA. If we compare that to the current norm in Western studios, where credits lists routinely run into the thousands, then China doesn’t have a single one. In the past, I had no choice; now… well, I still have no choice.That said, players don’t really care as much as they used to about how many “A”s a game has. With Western studios forced to pad content due to skyrocketing development costs, the “AAA” quality halo has long since faded. With engines as advanced as they are today, a “pseudo-AAA” game made by a team of dozens—or even just a few people—won’t be that far behind top-tier blockbusters in terms of quality. Of course, as long as they don’t price it at 298 yuan in the Chinese market…

▍Zhihu Answerer: Ping Sheng Official

In 2017, Hellblade had a core team of 48 people.

In 2019, the core team behind *A Tale of Plague: Innocent* consisted of 40 members.

The Exorcists of 2024, a team of over a hundred people.

Most of them have been around for 3–4 years; these are generally considered 2A or indie 3A titles. What do you think of them?

It really comes down to how much money you have and what brand of underwear you can afford. 3A teams are essentially well-funded, with a high (apparent) margin for error, and they can ride the momentum when it’s there; independent teams, on the other hand, are small-scale, with low (or no) communication costs and few constraints. 2A teams may combine the strengths of both, but they also face the challenges of both. That’s because what 2A teams need to do now is take on 3A teams while not acting like a 3A team.

Strictly speaking, the market leaves no room for 2A titles; the only space is for "3A titles that aren't quite 3A" and indie games.Fortunately, engine advancements and hardware/realism bottlenecks offer opportunities to break through the AAA barrier. However, if you’re making a 2A title and resort to locked camera angles, top-down perspectives, cartoonish visuals, or a small development team—making it immediately obvious to players that it’s not AAA—you might as well ditch the “A” label altogether. Switching to the indie track for marketing and promotion would actually be a better strategy.

In fact, over the past few years, most domestic single-player games developed using UE5 have ultimately ended up being produced on a "2A" scale, with teams of around 40 to 50 people. The best-case scenario they envision is riding the wave of the success of *Deadly Rhythm* and *Sinful Pleasure*, then ramping up production to "A-tier" a year before launch—and even that assumes the original framework is solid enough to support it.

If you’ve ever actually worked on a game, you know that—whether it’s a one-time purchase or a live service title—a game is never truly finished. When it comes to a game, you can never spend too much on development.Sometimes the reason a game is classified as a "2A" title is simply that the resources available are only sufficient for a 2A project. You can always spot traces of their limitations in certain 2A games—or even play them firsthand (and the same goes for 3A titles, actually). If a 2A game can’t be turned into a 3A title by throwing money at it, then it’s highly unlikely to be a 2A game that stands the test of time.

▍Game Sushi by He Beihang

First, it’s important to clarify that there is no universally accepted industry standard for what constitutes a “2A game.” Should the classification be based on development costs, team size, or marketing and promotion budgets? Or should it be determined by graphics quality, gameplay duration, content volume, or even file size? Opinions within the industry remain divided, and the boundaries of this concept are inherently vague.

Taking FromSoftware’s catalog as an example, *Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice* and *Bloodborne* are often regarded as quintessential “2A” titles: their development cycles, budgets, and content scope are more modest compared to true “3A” projects like *Elden Ring*, yet they clearly surpass typical “1A” or indie games in terms of system depth, artistic expression, and user reception.

This also highlights the fact that, for developers who eventually go on to create AAA titles, 2A games are often a necessary step in the evolutionary process.

A gameplay concept or direction is typically validated in the early stages through indie or small-scale "Tier 1A" projects; only after the business model proves viable and user feedback is positive does the team allocate more budget, expand its pipeline, and move into the mid-scale "Tier 2A" phase. FromSoftware’s "Souls" series, for example, underwent thorough gameplay validation through *Demon’s Souls* and *Dark Souls*, resulting in a significant improvement in quality for subsequent titles.

During Stage 2A, three typical changes occur:

First, a leap forward in graphics and production technology. From model precision and lighting effects to gameplay feel and smoothness, 2A titles make extensive use of mature development technologies to ensure the game looks visually appealing, making it accessible even to non-hardcore players who place a high value on graphics. This is evident in the evolution from *Dark Souls* to *Bloodborne*.

Second, the scope of content and depth of gameplay have expanded significantly. On the one hand, the number of levels, the scale of environments, and the volume of text have increased, along with more cutscenes and CG sequences; on the other hand, developers have begun experimenting with more complex systems and incorporating more diverse gameplay loops to make the product stand out in the market. For example, *Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice* introduced “jumping” to the *Souls* series for the first time and featured more cutscenes and CG sequences.

Third, the team began establishing a more standardized production pipeline. This included refining the division of labor, modularizing code, bringing in dedicated level and system designers, and standardizing project management processes. These steps all constitute the “infrastructure” required for the transition to AAA-tier development. It is said that FromSoftware introduced a development editor during the creation of 2A titles like *Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice*, requiring designers to use the editor directly to create content on their own—a move that can be seen as part of building and standardizing the production pipeline.

Other game companies have experienced similar trends. For example, CD Projekt Red’s *The Witcher* series began with the top-down perspective of the original *The Witcher*, gradually building on that experience and establishing a mature development pipeline, ultimately leading to the creation of a masterpiece like *The Witcher 3*.

As for the failure of *Cyberpunk 2077*, you’ll notice that the game didn’t go through the same validation process as the *The Witcher* series, moving from a AAA title to a 2A title. As the saying goes: bite off more than you can chew.

In fact, 2A projects often serve as a critical phase for companies seeking to strike a balance between business and creativity. They do not carry the massive risks associated with 3A projects, yet they allow companies to demonstrate their brand’s potential in the market; they are a litmus test for determining whether a team possesses “3A capabilities.”

Can a team that has never developed a 2A or even a 1A game succeed by jumping straight into a 3A project? You need to demonstrate through a 2A project that your team has what it takes to tackle a 3A game; only then will investors feel confident entrusting their funds to you.

Therefore, for manufacturers, the strategic value of 2A lies in three areas:

1. Establishing a flagship title. A 2A game often serves as the "first true breakthrough title" for a franchise. For example, *Underground 2* became the breakthrough title that established Arrowhead Game Studios' reputation in the industry.

2. Evolution of development capabilities. Through the 2A project, the team has gradually mastered the technical stack required for large-scale R&D, cross-departmental collaboration methods, and the pace of content production—all of which are prerequisites for 3A development.

3. Building investor and market confidence. The success of a 2A project often paves the way for future 3A funding rounds, allows the market to recognize the team’s potential early on, and reduces the risk associated with subsequent large-scale investments.