Retail and AAA Games

As the prevailing format of video games in the United States and worldwide, AAA titles (pronounced “triple A”) are designed by major studios with substantial budgets. These games, such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, built for gaming platforms like the XBox and PlayStation consoles and often PC computers, require significant investment. Like big budget films, their number of annual releases are limited. AAA games traditionally required dedicated hardware, namely a console, which the manufacturer sells below cost and then profits through the sale of content. However, even this model is in decline with the advent of digital services like Steam, which sells both AAA and independent (or “indie”) computer games. Similarly, Microsoft and Playstation have digital stores which distribute independent and mainstream content, providing console players a wider spectrum of games to play.