r/horror • u/lewisdwhite • 5d ago
Horror Gaming Hellraiser Revival has been “performing extremely well” as Saber CEO says AA games need more focus than “AAA behemoths”
https://frvr.com/blog/news/hellraiser-revival-has-been-performing-extremely-well-as-saber-ceo-says-aa-games-need-more-focus-than-aaa-behemoths/207
u/ihopethisworksfornow 5d ago
Dudes 100% right. There used to be a plethora of mid-budget games coming out every year, and it’s why we had so much choice in the
Of course the modern era has seen the rise of indie games, but
Proved that you don’t need to be a previously established IP, a sleeper micro budget indie, or a massive tens of million dollar investment that you charge $70 for, to be a successful game in the 2020s
37
u/ModernistGames 5d ago edited 5d ago
The breath and variety of quality PS2 games will never be recreated. The AA space was incredible.
35
u/ningdon 5d ago
I have no idea why people make the claim that AA games aren't a thing anymore. Its one of those things that's become popular to say even though there's very little actually supporting it in reality. Here are a bunch from the few years alone.
2026:
Hellraiser Revival
Cairn
Resonance a Plague Tale Legacy
Enshrouded
Romeo is a Dead Man
Nioh 3
Mortal Shell 2
Directive 8020
Gothic Remake
Code Vein 2
Pathologic 3
Sinking City 2
Valor Mortis
Endless Legend 2
Castlevania: Belmont's Curse
Cairn
Life is Strange Reunion
Crisol Theater of Souls
Paranormasight the Mermaid's Curse
Reanimal
Trails in the Sky 2nd
Ace Combat 8
2025:
Clair Obscur Expedition 33
Dispatch
Cronos the New Dawn
Mafia the Old Country
South of Midnight
First Berserker Khazan
The Alters
Trails in the Sky 1st
Digimon Story: Time Stranger
The Hundred Line Last Defense Academy
Fantasy Life I
Shinobi Art of Vengeance
Atomfall
Hell is Us
Tainted Grail Fall of Avalon
Rogue Prince of Persia
AI Limit
Eternal Strands
Keeper
Fatal Fury: City of Wolves
Wuchang Fallen Feathers
I could probably double or triple this list if I dug deeper but you get the idea.
4
4
3
2
u/Frosty-Sea149 5d ago
AAA is in a death spiral of high costs causing needing to win BIG causing higher costs chasing needing to win even bigger
It’s like gambling where everyone is taking out larger and larger loans to pay off their debt hoping to land a jackpot
94
u/Additional-Proof556 5d ago
Originally bought it just to support an actual faithful adaptation. But after playing it, I’ve actually enjoying the gameplay.
40
u/ihopethisworksfornow 5d ago
It’s totally solid game and I could see them banging out a few solid DLC expansions in the $20-$30 range.
15
u/theonewhoknack 5d ago
I'm down for either remakes of Hellraiser 3-4 in expansion pack form or something more faithful to hellraiser, take an L.A. Noire game and slap Pinhead into it.
9
u/ihopethisworksfornow 5d ago edited 5d ago
Personally I don’t want to see them directly adapt any movie. Keep it faithful in tone but don’t literally just re-do a movie plot.
That would be especially tough with Hellraiser because the plot completely falls apart after 2.
Hell, even 2’s plot kind of fucks up the plot of 1. It’s just still a good movie so no one hates on it for that lmao.
2
35
u/aZombieDictator 5d ago
Indies and AA have been consistently better than AAA titles. Like seriously Well Dweller was made by 1 person and the art direction and gameplay is better than a aaa that took 5+ years with hundreds of people, silver pines was made with 5 people, hellraiser probably had a small team too. Games are so much better when they're not corporate products with huge teams and production.
23
u/ningdon 5d ago edited 5d ago
I think there's a lot of survival bias here. The vast majority of indie and AA games don't really make a huge splash and you never hear about them. The ones that make it into the mainstream are great but that's a very skewed view of all AA/Indie games.
5
u/Frosty-Sea149 5d ago
Yeah there’s hundreds to thousands of indies every year that nobody will ever hear about.
AA/AAA has the budget to spend millions for marketing so you’ll know if it ends up failing
11
11
10
u/IAmThePonch 5d ago
Crazy, it’s easier to make a focused game with a modest budget, insane how that works it’s not like games operated that way for decades before the modern era
9
23
u/alkatori 5d ago
Difference between AA and AAA in terms of the game industry?
19
u/-The-Bloody-Nine 5d ago
AA is a medium sized budget, scale of game, and price of the final product. Also many of them are independent as opposed to having a corporate owner which gives them more flexibility (no upper management meddling, no overly ambitious sales targets).
19
u/no_one_lies 5d ago edited 5d ago
Typically narrower scope in game play, worse graphical fidelity, and no celebrity cameos voice acting or motrack acting as the game’s characters, and a lot lower marketing budget.
Not a bad thing. It also comes with benefits other comments made such as not having to deal with corporate bloat and a c-suite pushing decision making. Also AA can make the game they want versus “what tests well in the market” because they can’t afford all the consumer testing and dating analytics that ‘enhance’ the game’s mass appeal.
Usually they have an idea and just have to run with it.
19
u/Rosebunse 5d ago
While Doug Bradley is a firmly C-list actor who really only has Pinhead as a notable role, this game is pretty notable for getting him as an actor and appearantly applying his own notes and idea in how Pinhead should be portrayed.
2
7
u/IndustrialSlicer 5d ago
you are 100% correct, and I will say this particular game has some -very- high graphical fidelity. The limited scope was spent well on quality. The game is very well made, fascinating, disgusting and I can't play it
3
u/mindgamehagi 4d ago
Not really, it all come down to budget. AA is more unforgiving production wise since you need to have everything lock down before having a single pixel on screen because your budget do not have room to experiment or expend on some idea during production. its the main reason AA title are more focus and usually linear with a single idea in mind gameplaywise. Sometime is a good thing but other time the game end up feeling stiff.
6
u/BigB0iBuster 5d ago
Smaller budget, smaller scope.
AA games nowadays are pretty much what a lot of AAA games used to feel like in the PS3/360 era if that makes sense.
0
5
4
u/Cowboywizard12 5d ago
Its the equivalent difference betweena Mid Budget movie and a Large Budget movie
2
u/ningdon 5d ago
A24 movie vs Major studio movie
1
u/SpaceCases__ 2d ago
I wouldn't even say that's accurate now with the movie version of Elden Ring coming out.
1
u/Emergency-Mammoth-88 1d ago
That’s more like arthouse vs blockbuster.
A more reasonable one is b movies vs Hollywood movies
1
1
1
u/Broken_Moon_Studios 5d ago
Lower budgets mean lower target sales.
It's a much more sustainable model compared to "going for broke" and literally going broke.
1
u/Wolf-Smasher-1349 4d ago
For a aaa game to be successful it needs to generate a lot of income, because it cost alot of income. Not only is there more leeway with aa games but if its successful thats more money in the pocket.
7
5
u/hamboneworldchamp 5d ago
I really hope this game's success and positive reception leads to more horror franchises getting actual games. I'm so tired of seeing an IP I love get a game announcement only for it to be more faux-Dead by Daylight slop.
5
u/Ok_Improvement_7738 5d ago
Robocop Rogue City was one of my favorite games of 2023. If the game had better voice actors for the characters outside of Peter Weller, it would've been top 5. AA games are doing things really well these days due to lack of investor scrutiny. They can go all out with their vision of what the game should be with little censorship.
1
u/DuelaDent52 1d ago
They’ve done the Robocop game, they’ve done Terminator games, think there’s any hope they make a new Robocop vs. The Terminator?
4
u/nonexistent-soul 5d ago
This is great news; I'm looking forward to eventually checking out this game. AA and indie games, and games from smaller studios in general, deserve a lot more focus.
4
u/pizzacrys 5d ago
A focused horror game can hit way harder than a massive AAA release. Sometimes a strong vision is all you need.
4
u/cobrastrikes-2x 5d ago
My wife got this for my birthday and it was an amazing gift. Truly it hits a lot of notes that made me happy with the original Hellraiser movies as well as what I enjoyed in games like resident evil and condemned. This was a game developed as a vulgar love note to movie lovers and gamers alike. They earned my extra fifteen dollars for that dlc.
12
u/PerformerHopeful87 5d ago
I mean it’s fun and I’m
Enjoying it .
It’s 100% got whole sections lifted from Resident Evil 4 , but hey , imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and whatnot
6
3
3
u/ltcuetf 5d ago
I completely agree. I’d much rather have a steady stream of quality AA games at a lower price point, with tighter scopes and shorter development cycles, than wait 6–8 years for every AAA behemoth to come out. Not every game needs a $200 million budget, 100 hours of content, and a decade of development. Give me a focused, polished 15–20 hour game for $40 any day. It’s obvious there’s an audience for these kinds of games and it’s exactly the sort of thing the industry needs to pay attention to.
3
3
u/maschine02 5d ago
I think this is the single most fucked up game I have ever played. I gotta start goin to church again.
3
u/Brigadierz- 5d ago
Terminator Resistance, Robocop Rouge City, the occasional Alien game, and now Hellraiser and great examples of competently made, respective adaptations of established franchises that give you exactly what you’d expect and nothing more. And really that’s all you need.
They used to be everywhere on PS2 so it’s nice they’re making a comeback.
2
2
u/TehRiddles 5d ago
AA budget games are among some of the best. We get fantastic quality not that far off from AAA budget games but the creativity that they don't dare touch.
You can make several AA games for the price of a typical AAA game and the audience is more likely to get something new and interesting as well to boot rather than what's safe and done before.
2
2
u/FaceTimePolice 5d ago
This is a very good sign. More single player horror games that expand upon the canon lore, please. 😌
7
u/CasualVox 5d ago
But it is a hell of a game to explain to your spouse when she comes in and you're rummaging around in the game looking for a spreader bar and a giant dildo...
2
u/jus_browsin_ignoreme 4d ago
It was anything special. But it’s hellraiser so I hope they make more and make a great one some day.
2
u/Sans-Mot 5d ago
I'm glad to hear that, but what is performing extremely not well at all is their preorders management. I'm still waiting for my collector edition, paid $300, more than one year ago... and I'm far from the only one in this situation.
1
1
1
u/BothRequirement2826 5d ago
Honestly I'm so glad they managed to pull off a proper single player adaptation. I hope it sets an example others will try to follow.
Also the fact that it reignited Clive Barker's love for the franchise is a nice bonus.
1
u/worstcourtjester 5d ago
Hoping to pick it up on my next payday, I’ve heard really interesting things about it.
1
1
1
u/Serdones 5d ago
It's been a pretty good year for mid-budget or double-A games. With publishers like Xbox and EA restructuring, selling off or closing studios that make more mid-budget games, or even triple-A studios like BioWare that don't reach the upper echelon of sales and whose games aren't perennial money printers (e.g. sports games), maybe the upside is we see more groundswell for up-and-coming studios that are smaller, leaner and more passionate.
1
u/Chickenshit_outfit 4d ago
Brilliant game and loving it. The Field of Souls level i wish was longer as when song kicks in as you trying to find Sunny was great. One little nitpick is that cabin level which im currently stuck on. Please help i need more ammo
1
u/emiliue 5d ago
i'm so conflicted rn. love the game itself... the atmospheric direction is badass and really captures that classic Clive Barker vibe i missed. but good lord the logistics?? been checking my order status daily since pre-order opened and it's just stuck in limbo. it ruins the hype cycle a bit when they can't even ship the physical stuff on time. hope they fix this for future releases because the digital experience is genuinely great.
0
u/SaltySeahorses 5d ago
Honestly, they might call it AA, but it has the quality of AAA games to me.
2
0
u/CipherDaBanana 5d ago
I would buy it but is this the same CEO that acted like a child when a writer was replaced with AI?
I don't want to give that man any of my money
0
0
u/Sooowasthinking 5d ago
Wouldn’t know if was a AA or AAA or AAAA or what ever you want to make up to make it valuable.
You know what’s not performing well?? Getting the CE editions to the customers that preordered the game.Going on 14 days now with no game at all just a few emails.No shipping numbers no expected delivery whatsoever.
Maybe make sure the actual game gets to the fans before bragging about how Saber had done such a great job.
Kind of a key part ya know??
-2
u/ToonMasterRace 5d ago
What happens when you respect the source material. People are tired of "subverting expectations" or "a fresh spin on the concept"
If only Bioware listened.
-28
u/Resident-Forever1340 5d ago
Funny thing to say when we’re a few weeks away from a AAA behemoth that is almost guaranteed to not only be the best open world game ever created but the highest selling game of all-time. It’s cool that Hellraiser is performing above it’s initial small expectations but let’s not get delusional please.
1
671
u/biophazer242 5d ago
I imagine the price point really helped as well. Being a full on 15+ hour campaign single player game that launches at $39.99 is nice these days.