Live Magazine September 2014 Volume 9/2014 | Page 18

AAA G
feature article

We often see stories in the media discussing “AAA
games”, AAA being universally considered the top
tier of video games in terms of overall quality. But
what is a AAA game, exactly? Well the short answer
is “a high-quality title with high budget”, but people
often argue the criteria of what makes a AAA game
a AAA game.
According to Wikipedia “AAA is not an acronym, but
a grading scale, but some like to see it as an acronym to more simply show what attributes a game
uses. One common way of perceived AAA as an acronym is like so, each “A” has a meaning regarding
an overall quality. One “A” is given to games that
are considered to be successful (critics or reviewers give it a perfect, or almost perfect score), another “A” is used when a game brings “innovative
Gameplay” (a gaming characteristic so unique that
differentiate the game from all the rest), and finally,
the last “A” defines “Financial Success” (game sales
that generate a huge profit). A title consider to be
AAA is therefore a high quality game and is expected to be among the year’s bestsellers.”
With that in mind, Sticky Trigger has dusted off
some old cartridges, cleaned the fingerprints off
some game discs to analyse what allows some of
gaming’s most prolific titles wear the proud banner
of “AAA”.

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