Is Days Gone a AAA Game? No – It‘s a AA PlayStation Exclusive
While featuring top-notch visuals and fun open-world gameplay, Days Gone falls just short of meeting the criteria for a true AAA classification mainly due to development constraints. Analyzing key factors, I would categorize it as a high-quality AA PlayStation exclusive.
Defining AAA Games
As a passionate gaming fan, I categorize AAA games not just based on enjoyment but their overall scope, resources and impact. In my view, AAA titles typically have:
- Big Budgets: $80 million+
- Large Teams: Hundreds of developers
- Long Dev Cycles: 4+ years
- Top Publishers: The major players like Sony, EA
- State of the Art Graphics/Tech
- Multi-Million Unit Sellers
- Heavy Marketing: Big hype machines
- Benchmark Setting – Pushes boundaries on some axis
While subjective, this frames expectations for the investment and quality of a AAA release.
Is Days Gone AAA? How it Stacks Up
Days Gone excels in some AAA dimensions but ultimately falls short as a whole package. Let‘s analyze how it compares to the gold standards of Sony‘s PlayStation exclusives across these factors:
| Days Gone | God of War | Spider-Man | The Last of Us 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budget | $30-40 million (est.) | $100 million (est.) | $150 million (est.) | $100 million (est.) |
| Team Size | 70 developers | 340 developers | Over 200 developers | 300+ developers |
| Development Time | 4 years | 5 years | 6 years | 6 years |
| Publisher | Sony Interactive | Sony Interactive | Sony Interactive | Sony Interactive |
| Visuals | Very good | Cutting edge | Amazing | Groundbreaking |
| Critical Reception | Mixed-Good | Wide Acclaim | Rave Reviews | Very Positive |
| Sales | Over 8 million | Over 19 million | Over 20 million | Over 10 million |
Analyzing across these key axes, Days Gone delivers AAA-quality graphics, gameplay systems, and robust sales for a Sony exclusive – however, limitations emerge on budget, development team size, duration, overall critical reception and system-seller buzz.
God of War, Spider-Man and Last of Us 2 set high bars as PlayStation flagships – constructed over 5-6 years by army-sized teams on gargantuan budgets to drive platform adoption and unanimous praise as "must play" system showpieces.
While definitely belonging in the conversation of impressive PS4 exclusives, Days Gone wasn‘t built to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with these behemoths. Let‘s explore exactly why it falls just outside the AAA tier.
Development Factors – Budget, Scope & Time
A key differentiator is seeing just how out-gunned little Bend Studio was taking on AAA Goliaths within Sony‘s portfolio.
On Budget: Days Gone likely cost $30-40 million – impressive for Bend‘s scale, but dwarfed by the confirmed nine-figure investments in Sony‘s leading titles and IP.
On Team Size: Bend Studio capped work on Days Gone at around 70 developers – a skeleton crew compared to over 300 on God of War and Last of Us 2.
On Duration: Releasing after 4 years of development, Days Gone also lagged behind the 5-6 year timeframes defining Sony‘s generation-defining AAA efforts mentioned.
Production bandwidth challenges likely contributed to some distracting bugs and technical issues early on. Overall, while polished and fun, Days Gone just doesn‘t reach the soaring heights Sony‘s army of AAA developers can achieve given seemingly unlimited resources.
Critical Reception – Reviews Reflected Execution Issues
In my experience reading reviews over 20+ years of gaming, critics reserve AAA praise exclusively for the cr??me de la cr??me raising the bar to new heights.
Days Gone received mixed-good reviews averaging a 71 Metacritic score – decent but not matching acclaim for juggernauts like God of War (94) and The Last of Us 2 (93).
Reviewers widely cited distracting technical hiccups, repetitive missions, clich?? themes, and some derivative open-world elements as shortcomings – likely stemming from restricted budget and time to refine and polish.
Summing up consensus views, Destructoid critiqued "Days Gone has its exciting moments but is wildly inconsistent…the game lacks identity with a cavalcade of undercooked ideas blended together."
My Take – A Fun But Flawed PS4 Exclusive
As both a gamer and aspiring game writer myself, I agree Days Gone never fully delivers on its potential concept. But drilling deeper, I believe execution issues stem from the vast gap in resources between Bend Studio and Sony‘s AAA big guns.
The lack of multiplayer or substantive DLC content also limited its staying power in players‘ minds. Ultimately, while Days Gone offers 40 hours of solid open-world action not reaching consistent AAA quality bars keeps it a second-tier PlayStation exclusive in my book.
Verdict – A AA Title With Some AAA Elements
In closing, I don‘t label Days Gone as a AAA game, but rather a high-quality AA PlayStation exclusive. It excels in some areas like visual presentation but falls short as a benchmark-setting technical showcase or masterpiece.
Hampered by budget and time limitations, strong but not groundbreaking critical reception, and no long tail of multiplayer or DLC content, Days Gone topped out as a one-and-done single player experience.
It sat firmly outside the upper echelon occupied by Sony‘s very best first-party super-productions. However, Bend Studio deserves credit for maximizing resources available to ship an enjoyable open-world IP measuring up well against higher-pedigree competition.
